Date:	Monday 2 July 1951
Time:	day
Type:	North American AT-6 Harvard II
Owner/operator:	1 FTS RAF
Registration:	FS815
MSN:	14A-955
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2
Other fatalities:	1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Yelling, one mile south of Graveley, Cambridgeshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Manoeuvring (airshow, firefighting, ag.ops.)
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Oakington, Cambridgeshire
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
North American AT-6 Harvard II 43-12656 (MSN 14A-955) Delivered to RAF as Harvard IIb FS815. No 2 Flying Training School April 1945. No 19 Flying Training School, Cranwell, Lincolnshire February 1946 as "FAC-Z". RAF College, Cranwell, Lincolnshire April 1947. No 1 Flying Training School, Oakington, December 1950 as "FCA-R".

Written off (destroyed) 2 July 1951: Collided with Harvard T.Mk.2b FE756 ("FCA-N", also of 1 FTS RAF) in flight during aerobatics over Yelling, one mile south of Graveley, Cambridgeshire. The pilot of Harvard FE756 was killed, the Crew of Harvard FS815 - Pilot Flight Sergeant Buttle and Student Pilot Flight Lieutenant Galbraith - both abandoned their aircraft after collision with Harvard FE756. Both parachuted to earth, although Flight Lieutenant Galbraith suffered a broken ankle. Flight Sergeant Buttle survived uninjured.

According to a contemporary newspaper report (Huntingdonshire Post 4 July 1951)

"A partly-open parachute was found in the wreckage of a training plane that crashed in a field at Yelling, Hunts. It belonged to the pilot of one of two planes which collided in mid-air. The occupant of the other machine descended by parachute. Arthur Larkin, agricultural labourer of Staploe, Beds., said: “I heard a noise in the sky. I looked up and saw one plane diving to earth with a wing missing; the other one was coming in my direction but turned and dived”. Parts of both machines were strewn over a fairly large area and the engine of one of them was buried in the ground".

The reported crash location of Yelling is a linear village and civil parish in the Huntingdonshire administrative district of Cambridgeshire, England. The village is about 5 miles (8 km) east of St Neots and 6 miles (10 km) south of Huntingdon, at approximate co-ordinates 52.25°N 0.16°W

1. Broken Wings - Post War RAF Accidents (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1999 p 116)
2. The Harvard File (John F Hamlin, Air Britain, 1988 p 92)
3. Huntingdonshire Post 4 July 1951/Cambridgeshire Aviation Scrapbook 1897 to 1990 by Mike Petty: https://www.mikevettv.ore.itk bit.ly/CambsColIection
4. https://www.scribd.com/document/188146049/RAF-Oakington-Vol-1
5. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graveley,_Cambridgeshire
6. http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1943_2.html
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelling,_Cambridgeshire

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
09-Sep-2017 19:00	Nepa	Added
10-Jun-2018 14:49	A.J. Scholten	Updated [Cn, Source]
19-Oct-2019 21:15	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Other fatalities, Location, Source, Narrative]
01-Feb-2021 04:02	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Other fatalities]
01-Feb-2021 09:33	Slizack	Updated [Operator, Location, Operator]
01-Feb-2021 21:33	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Location, Phase, Source, Narrative]
01-Feb-2021 21:50	Slizack	Updated [Operator, Location, Operator]