HOME | FUNNY ARTICLES | TOP NEWS REPORTS | SUBMIT
|
Nov. 12, 2009 In the late 1970s the Cold War did not show many signs of abating. West Berlin was surrounded by The Wall. This barrier was a complex obstacle. Behind the wall there was a cleared space and then barbed wire. Anyone entering the cleared area was shot from watch towers. Dogs reinforced the East German guards. It was easy to view the guys on the other side as one hundred percent Evil Ones. One of my favorite pastimes was to ride a horse in the Tegel Forest, climb a little hill from where I could see over the wall and stand there watching. This drove the dogs wild. The vegetation hid me from the guards who probably wondered that was going on. I would ride away singing loudly Katiusha, in Russian. When not busy having a good time, I was a pilot taking Berliners over the wall to various destinations in Western Europe and Africa. We did this by using the then called Berlin Air Corridors. These were ten miles wide. We were not allowed to get bellow three thousand feet or above ten thousand. If we wandered outside these limits, we would get shot down, or at least that was what we were told. This would create a dramatic test for me and a Boeing 707 with 180 passengers in 1979. The big beef with the corridors was the thirty minutes we had to stay at low altitudes burning large amounts of fuel. If the weather soured enough to prevent a landing in Berlin, we would burn the equivalent of three hours normal flight just to reach Hanover. On many occasions, the Soviets had suggested re-opening talks and to raise the ceiling of the corridors. Americans always turned them down. This made me wonder about the percentages of evil. The Soviets were not the 100% owners of evil intentions. Occasionally, the Soviets held military exercises, which could endanger our flights. Then, they would simply order civil aircraft to fly above ten thousand feet. This forced the American Occupation forces to accede and we would be fat on fuel. All this messing about originated with the infamous Soviet Berlin Blockade of the fifties and the famous Berlin Airlift staged by the Americans. The Berlin Airlift was a great American propaganda success, which lingered. Americans were not interested in hearing any suggestions that would make the Soviets look cooperative. As far as the Soviets were concerned, there never was a Berlin Blockade. What they wanted was recognition of East Germany (DDR) as a sovereign state. To pressure West Germany to recognize this, the DDR prohibited West German goods to be shipped across DDR territory into Berlin. West Berlin could buy anything they wanted from the DDR (There was no wall then yet). American response was the Airlift and Soviets ended up with egg on their face. In June 1979, returning from the Canaries Islands there were thunderstorms all over Germany but the weather at Berlin’s Tegel Airport was fine. As we usually did, we descended from 30,000 feet and entered the Central Corridor just past Wolfsburg at 7,000 feet. I was not happy with our fuel situation, but we still had legal reserves. Ahead, lightnigh flashes illuminated the eastern horizon. Tegel continued reporting clear sky, good visibility and no wind. Our radar showed a thunderstorm ahead. Hanover reported thunderstorms, heavy rain, high winds. We were only 25 miles from Tegel. I requested to deviate to the south to avoid the thunderstorm, which looked ugly. “Negative, negative, negative,” was the American controller’s response. I called the Soviet control asking permission to enter their control zone. “Permission granted, descend to two thousand to avoid traffic.” At this low altitude, we flew right over a Soviet airbase while the American controller kept giving us static. Once we cleared the thunderstorm, the Soviet controller gave us a new heading for for the outer marker and wished us a good night. I changed frequency to Tegel, which was controlled by the French and landed safely. Playing Cold War politics, the American military controller would have endangered 180 nice Germans plus crew.
I doubt that during today’s celebrations in Berlin they will mention that the Cold War could have ended sooner.
|
||||||
|
|
|||||||
|
