Date:	Tuesday 17 March 1953
Time:	night
Type:	North American AT-16 Harvard T.2B
Owner/operator:	RAF College Cranwell
Registration:	FT209
MSN:	14A-1249
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	near RAF Cranwell, Cranwell, Sleaford, Lincolnshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Take off
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Cranwell, Lincolnshire
Destination airport:
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
Noorduyn AT-16-ND Harvard ex-USAAF 43-12950 (MSN 14A-1249): Delivered to RAF as Harvard IIb FT209. To No 5 (Pilot) Advanced Flying Unit, Ternhill, Shropshire February 1945. To 19 Flying Training School, Cranwell, Lincolnshire June 1945 coded "FAD-C". To RAF College, Cranwell, Lincolnshire April 1947. coded "FAB-U" later "B-U".

Written off (damaged beyond repair) 17 March 1953 when lost height after take-off and crash landed at night near Cranwell, Lincolnshire. Although the aircraft was wrecked (written off as "damaged beyond economic repair") the pilot (flying solo on a night navigation exercise) seems to have escaped uninjured.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.139 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Last Take-off: A Record of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p 318
3. The Harvard File (John F Hamlin, Air Britain, 1988 p 99)
4. http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1943_2.html
5. http://www.bcar.org.uk/1950s-incident-logs#1953

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
17-Apr-2021 23:23	Dr. John Smith	Added
13-Jul-2023 21:56	Nepa	Updated