1950s: Radar failure caused mid-air Meteor collision

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THE story of the mid-air collision of two Meteor jets over Sudbury in September 1955 (October 11) has produced responses from several readers.

George Hunt, of Littleover, was doing his National Service at the time and was based in the REME workshops at Sudbury.

“I remember the collision,” he said. “We were woken up by the guard commander, shouting: ‘Get dressed and report on the parade ground’.

“We thought the IRA was the reason and so we rushed out.

“The camp lorries were lined up with the engines running. The duty officer told us two RAF jets had collided and we were going to search for the crews.

“We got into the lorries, which then drove through Sudbury and dropped us near Sudbury open prison. It was a damp, misty night and we were given orders to start searching the fields.

“There were about 20 of us, with a sergeant, stretched out in a line across the field. We had just started searching the third field when we were told to go back to the lorries.

“The duty officer told us the four crew had been found. It was about 3.30am when we got back into our beds. We still had to get up at the normal time and we had to give our boots a good clean because they were covered in mud etc.

“The camp parade was told the RAF crew only had minor injuries and the planes had come down in the fields and been destroyed.”

Pat Cunningham, whose book entitled Peakland Air Crashes, gives details of more than 200 air crashes in the Peak District and and adjacent areas in Staffordshire, Yorkshire and Cheshire, has provided a definite resumé of the collision.

He writes that the Meteors Mk 12s were from RAF North Luffenham and were being flown by student crews, engaged in night interceptions.

“At about 0020 hours, having been exercising for an hour and a quarter, and flying at about 20,000 feet, Pilot Officer Tony Gladwell and his navigator (radar), in the attacking aircraft, WS683, turned in for another interception of target aircraft WS621, crewed by Pilot Officer Michael Longman and his navigator.

“On this occasion, however, and at a radar range of just 330 yards, PO Gladwell’s navigator tersely advised that his airborne-interception radar had stopped working and called an overshoot.

“PO Gladwell, diving onto his target at high speed, immediately tried to break away by pushing under, but, five seconds after the warning, his canopy struck the belly of WS621.

“Realising, on the instant, that his aircraft was badly damaged, he immediately ordered his navigator to abandon, both of them making high-level and successful, if not entirely uneventful, parachute descents to Alkmonton.

“Their aircraft, meanwhile, had crashed and then burnt out at Sudbury Park Farm, three mile to the south.

“The crew of the target Meteor, caught unawares by the collision, took some considerable time to ascertain that their aircraft, sent into a dive, had also been rendered uncontrollable.

“They eventually baled out, but at high speed, and at relatively low level. The navigator abandoned successfully, landing between HM Prison and Sudbury Park Farm – quite close to the other aircraft. PO Longman, on the other hand, struck the high tailplane of their Meteor, his parachute becoming entangled with it.

“Shortly before impact, the material tore and his body plummeted free, falling into trees at Dell Hole, 400 yards from his aircraft which crashed and burned at West Broughton Hollow.”

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