Over all safety on the Berlin Airlift was generally good. Measured in lives, the airlift was expensive; in the number of accidents, less so. The Royal Air Force lost eighteen airmen killed. Fifteen RAF personnel, one army sergeant, one Royal Australian Air Force pilot, and one South African Air Force flying officer. The British civil airlift lost a further twenty-one men. U.S. losses totaled thirty-one men: Twenty two U.S. Air Force pilots, six U.S. Air Force airmen, one U.S. navy petty officer, one U.S. Army private, and one civilian. Thirteen German civilians perished: Five