Date:	Wednesday 28 July 1954
Time:	day
Type:	Gloster Meteor T Mk 7
Owner/operator:	CFS RAF
Registration:	WL374
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2
Other fatalities:	2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Lower Heyford, 2 miles S of RAF Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Little Rissington, Gloucestershire
Destination airport:	RAF Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor T.Mk.7 WL374: Notified as awaiting collection 4/6/52, delivered 10/6/52. Operational service was with the CFS (Central Flying School), RAF only.

Written off (destroyed) 28/7/54: WL374 was one of two Meteors of the CFS flying in close formation at an altitude of approximately 1,000 feet (the other Meteor was WL457) when the two aircraft were involved in a mid air collision during a formation change. Neither crew was able to escape, and both crews (two in each aircraft) were killed when the Meteors crashed two miles south of RAF Upper Heyford, Oxfordshire

Crew of Meteor WL374:
F/Lt (66589) Charles Harris Lazenby (QFI Instructor Pilot) RAF - killed
F/Lt (163439) Ronald Bennett (Pilot) RAF - killed

Both crew members were buried at St Peter Churchyard, Little Rissington, Gloucestershire.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.161 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1985 p.73)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.77
4. RAF Little Rissington: The Central Flying School 1946 - 76 p.313 By R. Deacon, A. Pollock, M. Thomas, R. Bagshaw
5. https://www.militaryimages.net/media/charles-harris-lazenby.140274/
6. https://www.militaryimages.net/media/ronald-bennett.140277/
7. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WL
.

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
20-Jun-2008 09:26	JINX	Added
12-May-2015 17:33	BlB	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location]
17-Apr-2020 00:03	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Operator, Location, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
17-Apr-2020 10:21	BlB	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Departure airport, Operator]
18-Apr-2020 18:00	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Location, Source]
09-Jul-2023 21:59	Nepa	Updated [[Location, Source]]