Date:	Sunday 1 January 1956
Time:	day
Type:	Gloster Meteor F Mk 8
Owner/operator:	504 (County of Nottingham) Sqn RAF
Registration:	WE873
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	3 miles NW of Mildenhall, Suffolk, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Initial climb
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Wymeswold, Leicestershire
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Gloster Meteor F.Mk.8 WE873: Delivered 17/5/51. RAF service career was with 247 Squadron and 504 (County of Nottingham) Squadron RAF

Written off (destroyed) 1/1/56: Control lost during practice interception, aircraft abandoned as unable to recover from inverted spin. Crashed three miles North West of Mildenhall, Suffolk after the pilot abandoned the aircraft following loss of control. According to one unofficial source "a wing broke off, which damaged the tail and control surfaces"

Crew: Pilot Officer C. H. SMITH, RAFVR (pilot, Service Number 5190027) - ejected OK.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.177 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft WA100-WZ999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1983 p 35)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.171
4. 504 (County of Nottingham) Squadron ORB (Operations Record Book)(Air Ministry Form AM/F.540) for the period 1/1/51 to 31/3/57: File AIR 27/2710 at https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2505348
5. http://www.ukserials.com/results.php?serial=WE
6. http://www.ukserials.com/losses-1956.htm
7. http://www.planetrace.co.uk/1950-1959_26.html
8. http://web.archive.org/web/20170723045955/http://www.ejection-history.org.uk:80/PROJECT/YEAR_Pages/1956.htm

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
05-Jun-2008 15:22	JINX	Added
22-Mar-2010 11:10	504Historian	Updated [Source, Narrative]
08-Sep-2012 19:57	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Phase, Source, Narrative]
11-May-2013 08:17	Nepa	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Narrative]
26-May-2013 18:04	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Narrative]
26-May-2017 16:39	Dr.John Smith	Updated [Aircraft type, Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
26-Oct-2017 18:50	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
08-Jun-2020 18:59	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Source, Narrative]
08-Jun-2020 19:08	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source]
08-Jun-2020 21:22	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
20-Jul-2023 21:39	Nepa	Updated [[Narrative]]