Date:	Wednesday 23 March 1955
Time:	02:04 LT
Type:	Gloster Meteor NF Mk 11
Owner/operator:	228 OCU RAF
Registration:	WD650
MSN:	AWA.
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Healey, 3 miles west of Masham, North Yorkshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Leeming, North Yorkshire
Destination airport:	RAF Leeming, North Yorkshire
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor NF.Mk.111 WD650: Delivered 28th November 1951. RAF service career was with 264 Squadron and 228 OCU, RAF Leeming, North Yorkshire

On 23rd March 1955 seventy five minutes into a night time cross-country training flight this aircraft was making its way back to base and was to make a GCA (ground controlled approach) to land at Leeming airfield. Four miles from the airfield the pilot was instructed to break off from his landing run because another aircraft was having to make an emergency landing at base. The pilot then reported he suspected his compass to be faulty. The crew were radioed a course to steer but nothing more was heard from the crew. At 02.04hrs the aircraft crashed into high ground at Healey, three miles to the west of Masham killing the two crew members. At the time of the crash thick fog was reported by local people to be covering the area and it was likely that the crew did not realise they were flying towards the rising ground before the crash. Trees were planted over the crash site in the years after it occured, small fragments are known it exist in the woods today.

Crew of Meteor WD650:
Pilot - Pilot Officer Peter Frederick Barrow-Bentley RAF (1812385), aged 29. Born Crouch End, London. Buried St Swithuns Cemetery, Lincoln (grave 113).
Navigator - Flying Officer Anthony Arthur Burrows RAF (4110353), aged 21. Born Kettering, Northamptonshire. Buried London Road Cemetery, Kettering, Northamptonshire (grave 5315).

Peter Barrow-Bentley received his commission to the rank of P/O on probation on 16th September 1953 (with his period of service to count from 20th May 1953), he was confirmed in the rank of P/O on 16th September 1954.

Anthony Burrows received his commission to the rank of P/O on probation on 4th February 1953 (with his period of service to count from 24th September 1952), he was confirmed in the rank of P/O on 16th December 1953 and rose to F/O on 24th December 1954.

The reported crash site of Healey is a small village and civil parish in the Harrogate district of North Yorkshire, England. It is situated in the valley of the River Burn, to the immediate west of Fearby. It is about three miles west of Masham in the Nidderdale Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, at approximate co ordinates 54.220960°N 1.722957°W

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.169 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1985 p.29)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.124
4. http://web.archive.org/web/20160310233713/http://ejection-history.org.uk/squadron_228_ocu/squadron_228ocu.htm
5. http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/planes/dales/wd650.html
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Healey,_North_Yorkshire

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
03-Jun-2008 01:42	JINX	Added
05-Mar-2014 08:22	Nepa	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
09-May-2020 23:29	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Cn, Operator, Location, Nature, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
09-May-2020 23:36	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location]
09-May-2020 23:37	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
10-May-2020 09:36	AlLach	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Operator]