The Price of Freedom

The Berlin Airlift, a massive humanitarian effort, was accompanied by numerous accidents in which the Royal Air Force played a central role. There were a total of 126 incidents, of which 37 occurred during takeoff or landing. 78 people lost their lives, including 31 Americans, 39 Britons, and eight Germans. Despite the approximately 300,000 flights of the airlift, the accident rate remained surprisingly low thanks to the experienced and well-trained staff, adherence to strict flight rules, and the use of modern radar technology.

The events in Gatow, one of the main bases of the airlift, were particularly tragic. A fatal accident occurred when a German guard was struck by the rotating propeller of a York aircraft. Another disaster occurred on March 15, 1949, when a York aircraft belonging to the charter company "Skyways Ltd." crashed during its landing approach. A total of eight German auxiliary personnel died during the airlift. The press in the Soviet zone blamed the "greed for profit" of private airlines for the many crashes. They accused these companies of overloading aircraft, employing over-tired pilots, and even sending defective machines to Berlin. The newspaper "Berliner Illustrierte" commented cynically on a plane crash near Lübeck, in which seven people died, with the words: "One Dakota less – one lesson more".