The 1948 Gatow air disaster was a mid-air collision in the airspace above Berlin, Germany that occurred on 5 April 1948, sparking an international incident. A British European Airways (BEA) Vickers VC.1B Viking airliner crashed near RAF Gatow air base, after it collided with a Soviet Air Force Yakovlev Yak-3 fighter aircraft. All ten passengers and four crew on board the Viking were killed, as was the Soviet pilot. The disaster resulted in a diplomatic standoff between the United Kingdom and United States on one hand; and the Soviet Union on the other; and intensified distrust leading up to the Berlin Blockade in the early years of the Cold War.