Meteor F. Mk.8 WE904 of No.211 Flying Training School dived into the ground in the village of Millthorpe near Chesterfield on the 12th May 1955 while the pilot was on a solo training flight from Worksop
| Robert A Tritton | Pilot Officer | Pilot | Killed |
On the 12th May 2005 a memorial was unveiled by the sister of the pilot in the village of Millthorpe commemorating his death.
The pilot had taken off to carry out a controlled descent through cloud from 10,500ft, a few minutes after take off the pilot was heard to call “oxygen checked” a call made at 20,000ft. Shortly after this the aircraft was seen emerging from cloud in a steep dive, the pilot appeared to recover the aircraft before commencing a sharp turn to starboard still travelling downwards at high speed passed through the top of a tree before plunging into what was then a small field behind a mere 7 minutes after take off as well as hitting in a field the aircraft also demolished an adjacent barn.
The AIB report concluded that the pilot had lost control of the aircraft in cloud, which could be explained by his lack of experience, having only 12 hours experience on Meteors and only 9 hours of total instrument flying of which less than an hour was on Meteors.
