BERLIN AIR COLLISION BRITISH LINER

Grey River Argus, 7 April 1948, Page 5

BERLIN AIR COLLISION BRITISH LINER

CRASHES WITH SOVIET FIGHTER PLANE INQUIRY TO BE HELD—NO SURVIVORS LONDON, April 5. A British European Airways Viking aircraft collided with a Russian fighter plane in mid-air over the Saaken airfield this afternoon and crashed near the Gatow airfield in the British sector. It crashed just 500 yards inside the Soviet zone, five miles outside Berlin. All of the 14 passengers and crew were killed. The occupant of the fighter was also killed. (Received April 6, at 7.15 p.m.) LONDON,' April 6. “Any suggestion that the Russian fighter plane deliberately rammed the British machine is discounted, but that does not make the matter any less serious,” says “The Times” correspondent at Berlin. “Just before crashing the Viking was in touch with the control tower at the Gatow Airport, which is in the British sector, and the British view is that the Russian fighter had no right to be at the spor where the collision occurred. A Russian airfield lies near the scene, and no notice was given to Gatow that the fighter would be in the air.” “Such a happening as this,” the correspondent adds, “was always likely to occur in the delicate circumstances that are now obtaining in and around Berlin, where the mood of the Russian armed forces, particularly where the young troops are concerned, is not reassuring.”

The Viking was flying from London to Berlin, via Hamburg, and over the Hamburg-Berlin air corridor. Soldiers at Gatow said that the aircraft was coming in for landing when the collision happened. A small single-seater Russian fighter appeared to fly close to the passenger aircraft. Then their wings brushed and both planes crashed in flames. VICTIMS NOT RECOGNISABLE R.A.F. ambulances and doctors crossed the Soviet zonal border to the Viking. A R.A.F. squad reached the Viking before the Russian cordon formed, and had laid 10 of the bodies peacefully beside a small pond. The first arrivals, however, had been German youths, who began to loot the bodies for money and cigarettes. German police arrested several youths. The bodies of the majority of the occupants were so broken and charred as to be unrecognisable. A British spokesman stated that the Russians would not permit the removal of the bodies from the wreckage of the Viking. Russian soldiers stood guard round the British plane almost as soon as it fell. The British bodies wilt be taken to the British hospital in Berlin, when the Russians allow removal. RUSSIAN FIGHTER FALLS IN BRITISH SECTOR British officials, five and a-half hours after the crash, were allowed to examine the remnants of the Yak lighter. Russian tommy-gunners had tried .to take possession of the Yak. although it is in the British sector, but a British general ordered them off, and allowed only one Russian guard to stay. German police pried the Russian pilot’s broken body out of the fighter, but it is understood the Russians will not be allowed to remove the fighter's wreckage from British territory. THE RUSSIAN ACCOUNT The Russian administration issued the following communique in Berlin: “The Russian military administration in Germany announces with deep regret the unfortunate collision of a British passenger aeroplane on its way to Berlin with a Soviet fighter plane, which was about to land at the Russian airport of Dah’of in, the Russian zone. Both planes were destroyed and the occupants killed”. Dahlof is five miles north-west of the British airport at Gatow, which is just over the border from the British sector of Berlin. Started With 20 Passengers (Rec. 11.0) LONDON, April 6 The Viking plane which crashed took off from Northolt on Tuesday on a regular flight to Berlin with twenty passengers.