Date:	Friday 3 September 1954
Time:	day
Type:	North American Harvard T Mk 2B
Owner/operator:	1 FTS RAF
Registration:	FX256
MSN:	14A-1559
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	RAF Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Gloucestershire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Take off
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Gloucestershire
Destination airport:	RAF Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Gloucestershire
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
North American Harvard T.2B FX256: Ex-USAAF 43-34671. Believed delivered August 1944. However earliest known RAF service was with 1 FTS, RAF Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Gloucestershire (coded "P-S") from January 1951.

Written off (damaged beyond repair) 3/9/54: force landed when engine failed on take off from RAF Moreton-in-the-Marsh, Gloucestershire. Pilot - Acting Pilot Officer D N Chambers (Service Number 4138139) - was unhurt. He survived to be promoted to Pilot Officer with effect from 12/2/55. He retired from the RAF on 4/11/61 with the same rank.

It should be noted that the crash of Harvard FX256 was the fourth Harvard of 1 FTS RAF Moreton-in-the-Marsh to be written off in an accident in nine days (between 25/8/54 and 3/9/54, Harvards FX202, KF472, KF590 and FX256 - in that order - were all written off (damaged beyond repair) in flying accidents)

According to one source (see link #4) the wreckage was sold for scrap to a breaker's yard in Sandhurst, Berkshire, and was there until as late as 1972. ("The yard was in Florence Road [Sandhurst] opposite Dalley Court, now a car park. I visited it in about 1970-72 and there was at least 1 Harvard still there then along with Vampires and Venom pods/parts").

1. Halley, James (1999) Broken Wings – Post-War Royal Air Force Accidents Tunbridge Wells: Air-Britain (Historians) Ltd. p.162 ISBN 0-85130-290-4.
2. The Harvard File (John F Hamlin, Air Britain, 1988 p.105)
3. Category Five; A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009 by Colin Cummings p.86
4. https://www.key.aero/forum/historic-aviation/121611-ex-raf-sandhurst-yard-harvards
5. http://www.aviationarchaeology.org.uk/marg/crashes1950-88.htm
6. http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1943_2.html
7. https://www.aviation-links.co.uk/Gloucestershire%20Aircraft%20Accidents.pdf
8. https://www.thegazette.co.uk/London/issue/40429/supplement/1532/data.pdf
.

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
20-Apr-2020 21:41	Dr. John Smith	Added
20-Apr-2020 21:57	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
21-Apr-2020 15:20	Allach	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Operator]