Meteor aircraft explosion

Fast Facts

Type of event	Accident
Date occurred or began	1955/09/16

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The following coordinate was not recognized: div><span class="errorbox">Fatal error: Failed to parse or geocode</span></div><br /><br />.

Mrs H. L. Jury, of Mallala, and five-year-old Wendy Cox narrowly escaped serious injury when a Meteor NF-11 crashed shortly after take off and exploded a quarter of a mile from where they were standing.

Mrs Jury was standing beside a fence post in her garden with Wendy Cox, who was spending the afternoon with her. There was a crash and a wheel came through the wire netting of the fence of the other side of the post.

Mrs Jury said, "it flew past me and flattened some of the plants, squeezed under a trellis grapevine and hit the wall of the house."

Part of the stone wall was chipped by the wheel. It was about 18 in. in diameter.

The turbine from the jet engine weighs about a hundred weight. It was collected from Mrs Drury's garden later in the afternoon by officers from the airfield.

Mrs Jury said she could feel the heat from the impeller.

The wreckage of the aircraft fell in wheat fields owned by Mrs jury's husband and Mr O. N. Pitt over a radius of about 150 yards.