## The Pilots Who Flew the Airlift
Halvorsen was one of approximately 32,900 American military personnel involved in the Berlin Airlift at its peak. The pilots who flew the actual transport missions numbered in the thousands. Many of them were veterans of World War II, men who had flown similar aircraft over similar terrain in a very different context three years earlier.
The flying conditions over northern Germany and Berlin were demanding. The weather in that part of Europe in autumn and winter featured frequent low cloud, fog, and rain. The air corridors were narrow: each corridor was twenty miles wide, and aircraft flying in formation had to maintain separation in conditions that reduced visibility. The approach to Tempelhof was complicated by the airport’s urban location. The runway was surrounded on three sides by apartment buildings and a brewery. Pilots had to descend sharply to clear the buildings and then level off for the landing roll. In poor visibility, the approach required precise flying.
The instrument landing system at Tempelhof was improved and extended during the airlift. By its later phase, crews were completing instrument approaches in weather conditions that would have shut down the operation in its early weeks. Ground-controlled approach radar, in which controllers on the ground talked pilots down through the final phase of the approach, was used extensively. Over eight months of operations, American aircraft completed more than 36,000 ground-controlled approach landings.
The 126 aircraft accidents recorded during the airlift were the result of this combination: high flight density, poor weather, demanding approaches, and the pressure to maintain the schedule. Some accidents were fatal; at least 31 Americans died in airlift-related accidents, along with British personnel and German civilian workers on the ground. The names of 78 people who died during the airlift, from all nationalities involved, are inscribed on the Berlin Airlift Memorial at Tempelhof.