Date:	Friday 12 March 1954
Time:	morning
Type:	Gloster Meteor T Mk 7
Owner/operator:	209 AFS RAF
Registration:	WL423
MSN:	G5/423776
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Bristol Channel, north-east of Minehead, Somerset -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Weston Zoyland, Bridgwater, Somerset.
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor T.Mk.7 WL423, 209 AFS, RAF: Delivered 15/8/52. RAF service was with 209 AFS (Advanced Flying School) only.

Written off (presumed destroyed) 12 March 1954 when went missing on a sortie from RAF Weston Zoyland, Bridgwater, Somerset. and failed to return. Presumed to have crashed into the Bristol Channel, and both crew posted as "missing presumed killed". Some sources indicate that the Meteor became lost in fog and low cloud, and ditched into the Bristol Channel off the coast of Somerset, north-east of Minehead, due to running out of fuel

Meteor WL423 took off from RAF Weston Zoyland, Bridgwater, Somerset at 08:28 am. At no time during the flight was any radio message received from the crew to indicate problems. All shipping in the Bristol Channel was put on alert to look out for any sign of the two crew or any wreckage, and a BBC broadcast was made for any sightings, just in case the Meteor had come down on land in a remote area of Somerset or Devon (such as Exmoor or Dartmoor).

The body of one of the crew - Flt Lt R.W. Pinder - was later recovered when it was washed ashore. At the inquest into the death of Flt Lt Pinder, Police Constable King of Burnham-on-Sea Police stated that he had seen the body of Flt Lt Pinder washed up on the foreshore at Berrow Beach, Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, at a point opposite Heron House. The cause of death for Flt Lt Pinder was never established by the Coroner. The body of the other crew member was never found

Crew of Meteor WL423
Flight Lt Robin Walter Pinder (Instructor Pilot, aged 29)
Pilot Officer Michael Neal Huggins (Pupil Pilot under instruction, aged 26)

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.156 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983 p 74)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.43
4. Wings Over Somerset: Aircraft Crashes since the End of World War II By Peter Forrester
5. Western Gazette - 16 July 1954
6. https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/70987-meteor-accident-statistics.html
7. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WL
8. https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/532785-night-rained-meteors.html
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berrow,_Somerset

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
08-Jan-2018 19:23	TB	Added
27-Jan-2020 22:27	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Registration, Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Phase, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
27-Jan-2020 22:28	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Date]
28-Jan-2020 10:39	stehlik49	Updated [Operator, Nature, Operator]
06-Apr-2020 20:16	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Source, Narrative]
07-Apr-2020 09:41	INV	Updated [Operator, Operator]