munich tragedy- busby babes

The 50th anniversary of the tragedy coincides
with England's friendly match against Switzerland,
at Wembley in 2008. Images of players where
shown on screensbefore the game and players
wore black armbands as a mark of respect.

The accident
The Munich air disaster took place 5o years ago
today, on 6 February 1958, when British European
Airways Flight 609 crashed on its third attempt to
take off from a slush-covered runway at the
Munich-Riem airport in Munich, West Germany.
On board the plane was the Manchester United
football team, nicknamed the BusbyBabes, along
with a number of supporters and journalists.
Twenty-three of the 44 passengers on board the
aircraft died in the disaster.

From onemanutd.com:
"United had taken their first steps into European
football in defiance of the Football authorities and
it was on foreign soil that the final chapter in the
story of the Babes was to be written. The aircraft
carrying the United party back from a victorious visit
to Yugoslavia crashed in the snow of Munich
airport and the Babes were no more.

The young Champions flew out of Manchester to
face Red Star Belgrade remembering the cheers
of 63,000 intoxicated football fans. Five days before
Munich, United had played Arsenal at Highbury and
thrilled all those who witnessed that game with a
display of the attacking football that they had made
their trademark. Nine goals were scored ... four by
Arsenal, five by United.

The Manchester United team; Busby babes:

back row (left to right) Duncan Edwards, Bill Foulkes,
Mark Jones, Ray Wood, Eddie Colman, and
David Pegg front row (left to right) John Berry,
Billy Whelan, Roger Byrne,Tommy Taylor, and
Dennis Viollet

The eight players who died were:
England's Roger Byrne, 28,
the left-back and captain; Eddie Colman, 21;
England centre-forward Tommy Taylor, 25;
Mark Jones, 24; David Pegg, 22;
Ireland's Billy Whelan, 22; Geoff Bent, 25;
and England's half-back Duncan Edwards, 21.

Manchester United, after the tragedy
(from Europsport.com)

The team had drawn 3-3 with Red Star Belgrade
in Yugoslavia and qualified for the European Cup
semi-finals in their last match before the disaster.
United did not play again for 13 days until they met
Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup fifth round in
front of almost 60,000 fans. Bill Foulkes led out a
makeshift team that included fellow Munich survivor
Harry Gregg in goal as United won 3-0.

Busby, badly injured and twice given the last rites,
recovered and went on to rebuild the team. In 1968
United became the first English club to win the
European Cup. They also won the FA Cup five years
after the crash and the league title in 1965 and 1967.

Forward Bobby Charlton, who survived the crash,
went on to become arguably England's most famous
footballer and was later knighted. Two of the survivors,
Johnny Berry and Jackie Blanchflower, never played
again.

This is what BBC wrote after the disaster:
BBC 1958: United players
killed in air disaster

7 Manchester United footballers
are among 21 dead after an air
crash in Munich. The British
European Airways (BEA) plane
caught fire shortly after take off
this afternoon with 38 passengers
and six crew on board. The footballing
world is reeling from the loss of some
of its most talented young players -
known as the Busby Babes.

Their average age was 24 and they
included Roger Byrne - the captain -
Mark Jones, Eddie Colman,
Tommy Taylor, Liam Whelan,
David Pegg and Geoff Bent.

Queen 'deeply shocked'
Eight British sports journalists and several club
officials have also been killed. The Queen has
said she is "deeply shocked" and has sent a
message of condolence to the Lord Mayor of
Manchester and Minister of Transport and Civil
Aviation. The chartered aircraft was bringing
the Manchester United entourage back from
a European Cup match against Red Star
Belgrade in Yugoslavia and had stopped at
Munich's Riem Airport to refuel.
On the third attempt to take off the plane over-shot
the runway, hit a house with its port wing, veered to
the right, hit another building and burst into flames.
The fuselage did not catch fire and several crew
and passengers went back into the wreckage to
rescue the injured. Team manager Matt Busby was
described as being the most seriously hurt and is
being given blood transfusions in hospital.

Star striker Bobby Charlton has been treated for
slight head injuries. According to the Chief Executive
of BEA, A. H. Milward, there was a heavy snowstorm
in Munich and the pilot delayed departure because
he was dissatisfied with one of the plane's engines.

This was the first fatal accident for this type of BEA
aeroplane, which has carried 2,340,000 passengers
on 86,000 flights since it began service in 1952.

The same plane - called Lord Burghley - took the
Manchester United entourage out to Belgrade on
Monday.

Bobby Charlton (From afp.news google)

"When we landed in Munich the weather was as
bad as I had ever seen it," Charlton wrote in his
autobiography My Manchester United Years.
By the third attempt at take-off, I was suddenly
conscious of the silence inside the plane.
Outside, the snowy field flew by, but not quickly
enough it seemed. There was an awful noise,
the grind of metal on metal. Then there was the void.
When I came to, I was on the ground, outside the
wrecked plane, but still strapped into my seat.
I saw the bodies in the snow, though one small
and passing mercy was that I didn? The recognise
among the dead one of my closest friends,
Eddie Colman. I woke the next morning in a hospital
ward and in a nearby bed was a young German,
looking at a newspaper. He was reading about the
crash and read out the names and then, after a
short pause, said, 'Dead' . It was as though my life
was being taken away, piece by piece.."

Video: Munich 1958 Remembered and Never Forgotten (5.41)


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