Suffolk resident remembers Whitton plane crash from 1953

For one of those children, he can still recall what he witnessed, from the “enormous bang” to seeing bits of aircraft scattered all over the place - including a wheel on the roof of a house.

Now seven decades on Stephen Collins recalls where he was on October 26, 1953, the day when an RAF Meteor jet smashed into houses on Moore Road. 

Mr Collins, then aged nine, was playing with his two friends at a place called ‘Farm Lane’, which is a narrow dirt track that ran from Beechcroft Road towards the then-abandoned Castle Hill Farm. 

Stephen Collins was nine years old when the crash happened, Supplied (Image: Supplied)

The now Rattlesden resident said: “The sound of jet aircraft made us look up to watch three Meteor jets flying fairly high, in close arrowhead formation. 

“As we watched, the middle one went up steeply for a while, then seemed to descend rapidly and eventually spin.  

“It went out of sight behind the high hedge on the north side of the lane, then we saw a huge column of smoke rising, followed by an enormous bang. 

“We cried: ’Gosh – it’s crashed!’. Then we set off towards it as fast as we could run.” 

Mr Collins said they could not find the jet as there was an “awful column of smoke”.  

He added: "Finally, we emerged through the last hedge and could see ahead of us the houses of the Whitton estate, into which, it was at last clear, that the plane had crashed. 

“The scene was in hindsight pretty awful. There were bits of aircraft scattered all over the place in the roads and among the houses, some of them burning – I particularly remember a wheel sitting blazing merrily on the roof of a house. The smell of jet fuel and burning was all-pervading.” 

Brian and Marina Scarlett could have been in the shattered back bedroom of their home in Moore Road, Ipswich, if their mother had not sent them out in the fine weather of the school half-term holiday. Brian all these years later spares a thought for the pilot who was killed and who had a distinguished career in the RAF (Image: Newsquest archives)

The man also remembers seeing body remains scattered on the ground, as the jet’s pilot and a dog lost their lives in the crash. 

Mr Collins added: “Such is the detachment and resilience of youth that I don’t recall feeling anything other than excitement at this incident.  

“I certainly remember no nightmares or any ill effects at all. Our subsequent lurid descriptions of the gruesome remains we had seen made several grown-up neighbours go rather pale, though, as we recounted with relish what we had seen.” 

A 2002 article about the crash, as others recalled their memories of the fateful day. (Image: Newsquest)

The crash was caused by the hood detaching from the aircraft. The pilot, flight lieutenant Gerald William Hill, was only in his late 20s.