Date:	Friday 6 February 1942
Time:	15:05
Type:	Bristol Blenheim Mk I
Owner/operator:	13 OTU RAF
Registration:	L6809
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 1 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Brackley, Northamptonshire -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Initial climb
Nature:	Training
Departure airport:	RAF Hinton-in-the-Hedges, Northamptonshire
Destination airport:

Narrative:
On 6 February 1942, Sgt William Everard Smith of 13 OTU RAF took off at 1504 hrs from Hinton-in-the-Hedges for a solo flying training flight with the Blenheim I L6809 but collided with a tree and crashed a minute later, some 2 miles northeast of the airfield, near Brackley. Smith, who likely wished to be known as Everard-Smith (documents showing his name use this form of spelling which links his second Christian name to his surname) was killed and is buried in Chorley (St. Gregory) Roman Catholic Churchyard.

The Blenheim I L6809 had initially served with 18 Sqn but had been held on unit charge since 28 November 1940. At the time of the accident, it had amassed 593.15 flying hours.

"The Bristol Blenheim: A Complete History", by Graham Warner. ISBN 0-85979-101-7
"Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses, volume 7: Operational Training Units 1940-1947", by W R Chorley, ISBN 1-85780-132-6
https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2698370/SMITH,%20WILLIAM%20EVERARD
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hinton-in-the-Hedges_Airfield
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brackley
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=52.041300&lon=-1.173820&z=13&m=b

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
25-May-2008 13:51	JINX	Added
13-Aug-2013 15:36	Nepa	Updated [Operator]
23-Aug-2013 20:28	JINX	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Source]
14-Sep-2014 09:26	Jixon	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator, Location, Departure airport]
08-Feb-2016 10:06	Laurent Rizzotti	Updated [Time, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Nature, Source, Narrative]