Date:	Thursday 16 January 1947
Time:	night
Type:	North American Harvard T Mk 2B
Owner/operator:	6 SFTS RAF
Registration:	KF570
MSN:	14A-2271
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Postern Hill Farm, Over Lane, Hazelwood, Belper, Derbyshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Tern Hill, Market Drayton, Shropshire
Destination airport:

Narrative:
North American Harvard KF570 [MSN 14A-2271], 6 FTS, RAF coded 'FB-JO': Written off (destroyed) when crashed at Postern Hill Farm, Over Lane, Hazelwood, Belper, Derbyshire. 16/01/1947
The aircraft took off from RAF Tern Hill, Market Drayton, Shropshire for a night air test. During the sortie, the crew became lost in the darkness. A forced landing was made into a field at Postern Hill Farm, Over Lane, Hazelwood, Belper, Amber Valley, Derbyshire when the crew could not locate their position, nor find a suitable airfield in which to land. The aircraft's fuel sate had also become critical, when possibly hastened their decision to make an immediate landing.

The front page of the "Derby Evening Telegraph" of January 17th 1947 carried a report, including a photograph, on the crash landing of Harvard T.2B KF570, of 6 S.F.T.S., which ran out of fuel after becoming lost, and came down at Postern Hill Farm, Over Lane, Hazelwood, Belper, Derbyshire. The crew are listed as Flight-Sgt. George King and Flight-Sgt. Robert William Baird.

One of the crew was possibly 1591473 Robert William Baird, D.F.M., a Flight Engineer on Lancasters with 9 Squadron with whom he flew 43 Ops between April 1944 and February 1945. The photo shows the Harvard in one piece, if a little bent, and it carries the codes 'FB-JO'.

The Harvard was written off as "damaged beyond repair", but the two crew seem to have survived unscathed.

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. Last Take Off; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1950 to 1953 by Colin Cummings p.262
3. The Harvard File (John F Hamlin, Air Britain, 1988)
4. Derby Evening Telegraph 17 January 1947
5. ORB 6 FTS RAF for the period 1-12-1945 to 31-12-1950: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR29/1816: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4101526
6. https://www.rafcommands.com/database/serials/details.php?uniq=KF570
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._6_Flying_Training_School_RAF
8. https://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?22386-Harvard-T-2B-KF570-crash-landed-January-16th-1947-Derbyshire&p=130681#post130681
9. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Tern_Hill#Postwar

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
22-May-2023 08:46	Nepa	Updated