Date:	Wednesday 10 December 1952
Time:	10:50
Type:	North American Harvard IIb
Owner/operator:	6 FTS RAF
Registration:	FX306
MSN:	14A-1609
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Foolow, near Tideswell, Derbyshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Ternhill, Shropshire
Destination airport:	RAF Ternhill, Shropshire
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Noorduyn AT-16-ND Harvard ex-USAAF 43-34723 (MSN 14A-1609) Delivered to RAF as Harvard IIb FX306. To No 17 Service Flying Training School, Wellingore, Lincolnshire October 1944. Damaged when it overshot the airfield boundary at Wellingore after landing too fast in light snow on return from a navigation exercise on 11 February 1945.

Damaged when the pilot crash landed the aircraft downwind on the airfield at Metheringham 19 February 1945 at 13:45 hours, after the engine cut out in flight. The pilot was dazzled by the airfield "Drem lights" - he had done most of his flying in Canada and had only encountered this type of lighting a week before. The pilot - Lieutenant Yalcin (a Turkish National) - was unhurt

To No 11 (Pilot) Advanced Flying Unit, Calveley, Cheshire August 1945 as ground instructional airframe 5568M; returned to active service with No 3 Service Flying Training School, South Cerney, Gloucestershire February 1946. To No 3 Flying Training School, Feltwell, Norfolk April 1947 as "FBR-N". To RAF College, Cranwell, Lincolnshire November 1949 as "FAA-E". To No 6 Flying Training School, Ternhill, Shropshire July 1952.

Written off (destroyed) 10 December 1952 at Foolow, near Tideswell, Derbyshire. The pilot was on a “Circuits, Landings and Local Map Reading” exercise from RAF Ternhill. He had taken off at 09:40 and remained out of contact until 10:45 when he radioed Ternhill to request a bearing to return and stated that the engines was running abnormally. Control was unable to make contact with the pilot (Pilot Officer Robert Windle) and asked another pilot who was out on an exercise to attempt to make contact, he to was unable to get a response.

At about this time the aircraft had been seen circling the Tideswell, its engine cut out shortly after and the pilot glided the aircraft down into a nearby field. The field he landed in was one of the few large fields in the area. Due to having no power he was forced to land downwind which prevented the aircraft coming safely to a halt within the field and it struck a dry stone wall near to its south-eastern corner. This brought the aircraft to a sudden stop with the engine protruding through the wall and the pilot’s seat and harness broke free from their mountings injuring him.

The cause of the engine failure was determined to be fuel starvation, the lack of response to radio calls was found to be due the headset plug being unserviceable.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.138 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Last Take-off: A Record of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p 315
3. The Harvard File (John F Hamlin, Air Britain, 1988 p 107)
4. https://www.peakdistrictaircrashes.co.uk/crash_sites/peak-district/north-american-harvard-fx306-foolow/
5. http://aircrashsites.co.uk/air-crash-sites-5/harvard-fx306/
6. http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1943_2.html
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foolow
8. https://www.bcar.org.uk/new1945-incident-logs

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
26-Feb-2017 22:59	Dr.John Smith	Added
24-Jun-2018 09:01	A.J. Scholten	Updated [Cn, Source]
19-Nov-2018 21:56	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Operator]
01-Apr-2021 02:50	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative]
01-Apr-2021 10:04	Xindel	Updated [Operator, Location, Nature, Operator]
01-Apr-2021 16:53	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
01-Apr-2021 19:27	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]