Date:	Friday 15 August 1947
Time:	night
Type:	North American Harvard T.2B
Owner/operator:	1 FTS RAF
Registration:	FX253
MSN:	14A-1556
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	RAF Spitalgate, Grantham, Lincolnshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Approach
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Spitalgate, Lincolnshire
Destination airport:	RAF Spitalgate, Lincolnshire

Narrative:
Ex-USAAF 43-34670 (MSN 14A-1556) Delivered to RAF as Harvard IIb FX253. To 5 (Pilot) Advanced Flying Unit, Tern hill, Shropshire December 1944. To 2 Flying Training School June 1945. To 20 Flying Training School, Church Lawford, Warwickshire March 1946. To 17 Service Flying Training School, Wellingore, Lincolnshire January 1947. To No 1 Flying Training School 18-6-47.

Written off (damaged beyond repair) 15-8-47: Hit a tree during a night approach in bad visibility and crashed at Spitalgate, Lincolnshire. The pilot had lost sight of the flare path during the approach to RAF Spitalgate in poor visibility, but continued with the landing approach regardless, eventually colliding with a tree when flying at low altitude.

The subsequent Board of Inquiry concluded that the pilot should have initiated an overshoot when he lost sight of the flare path, and then either sought directions from ATC (Air Traffic Control) at RAF Spitalgate or diverted to another airfield where the weather conditions were better. The Board of Inquiry was, in addition, critical of the facilities at RAF Spitalgate for conducting flying operations in poor weather.

After the Second World War, 1 FTS was briefly reconstituted by the renaming of No. 17 Service Flying Training School RAF (17 SFTS) on 18-6-47 at RAF Spitalgate. The school had RLGs (Relief Landing Ground) at RAF Folkingham between 28-7-47 and 31-8-47, and at RAF Bottesford after that; it was disbanded again on 25-2-48.

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.329
3. The Harvard File (John F Hamlin, Air Britain, 1988).
4. ORB 1 FTS RAF for the period 1-6-47 to 31-12-1950: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR29/1810: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C4101520
5. http://www.joebaugher.com/usaf_serials/1943_2.html
6. http://www.bcar.org.uk/1945-49-incident-logs#1947
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._1_Flying_Training_School_RAF#Third_formation_(1947_%E2%80%93_1948)
8. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAF_Spitalgate#History

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
10-May-2023 21:35	Dr. John Smith	Added
10-May-2023 21:36	Dr. John Smith	Updated
10-May-2023 21:36	Nepa	Updated
11-May-2023 14:48	Dr. John Smith	Updated