Jack O. Bennett, a retired American pilot, died on Aug. 26 in Berlin, his adopted hometown, where he was celebrated as a hero of the Berlin Airlift of 1948-49. He was 86.
The Berlin government credited him with making the first flight, on June 23, 1948, of the effort that broke the 11-month Soviet siege of the divided city. Captain Bennett flew a Douglas DC-8 loaded with potatoes, the first of 2.3 million tons of food, fuel and other supplies delivered by the time the Soviet Union decided to back down 11 months later