Date:	Monday 2 July 1951
Time:	day
Type:	North American AT-6 Harvard II
Owner/operator:	1 FTS RAF
Registration:	FE756
MSN:	14-490
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Yelling, 1 mile south of Graveley, Cambridgeshire, England -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Landing
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Oakington, Cambridgeshire
Destination airport:	RAF Oakington, Cambridgeshire
Confidence Rating:	Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources

Narrative:
North American AT-6 Harvard II 42-00953 (MSN 14-490) to RAF as Harvard IIb FE756. Delivered to Canada January 1943; no RAF service in Canada. Shipped to UK March 1944. To No 9 (Pilot) Advanced Flying Unit, Errol, Perthshire, Scotland September 1944 as "T-44", To No 5 (Pilot) Advanced Flying Unit, Ternhill, Shropshire June 1945; to St Mawgan October 1946. No 1 Ferry Unit, Pershore, Worcestershire November 1946; Pershore January 1948; Manston May 1948. No 2 Flying Training School January 1949. Central Flying School, Little Rissington, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire (Examining Wing), Brize Norton, Oxfordshire July 1949. No 3 Flying Training School, Feltwell, Norfolk June 1950. To No 2 Flying Training School August 1950 as "FAK-N". No 1 Flying Training School, RAF Oakington, April 1951 as "FCA-N".

Written off (destroyed) 2 July 1951: Pilot was killed while solo flying in Harvard FE756 after a collision in flight over Yelling, one mile south of Graveley, Cambridgeshire, with Harvard FS815 (coded FCA-R) of 1 FTS which was on a dual flying sortie.

Crew of Harvard FE756
Pilot Officer John Steven SANDS (Pilot) RAFVR - killed on active service 2/7/1951

Crew of Harvard FS815 - Pilot Flight Sergeant Buttle and Student Pilot Flight Lieutenant Galbraith - both abandoned their aircraft after collision with Harvard FE756. 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 coordinates 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 84)
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/1942_1.html
7. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelling,_Cambridgeshire

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
07-Sep-2017 12:07	Nepa	Added
10-Sep-2017 06:26	Nepa	Updated [Date, Aircraft type, Cn, Operator, Total occupants, Source, Narrative]
10-Jun-2018 14:48	A.J. Scholten	Updated [Source]
19-Oct-2019 21:45	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Registration, Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Location, Destination airport, Source, Damage, Narrative]
19-Oct-2019 21:45	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator]
19-Oct-2019 21:49	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
05-Nov-2019 10:23	Anon.	Updated [Operator, Operator]
25-Jan-2021 18:34	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Source, Narrative]
01-Feb-2021 04:24	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative]
01-Feb-2021 09:32	Roy	Updated [Operator, Location, Operator]
01-Feb-2021 21:20	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Operator, Location, Source, Narrative]
01-Feb-2021 21:34	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
01-Feb-2021 21:49	Roy	Updated [Operator, Nature, Narrative, Operator]