Last year marked the 60th anniversary since the Munich air disaster, which robbed Manchester United of eight players.This event changed the history of the club for the rest of the club’s existence.
United were travelling back from a European Cup match in Belgrade against Red Star Belgrade in February 1958 when the plane they were travelling in veered off the runway during take off at Munich airport after a refuelling stop.
The flight stopped to refuel in Munich because a non-stop flight from Belgrade to Manchester was beyond the plane’s fuel range.The plane could not facilitate the fuel capacity needed to fly back to Manchester.After refuelling, pilots James Thain and Kenneth Rayment twice abandoned take-off because of boost surging in the left engine. Fearing they would get too far behind schedule, Captain Thain rejected an overnight stay in Munich in favour of a third take-off attempt. By then, snow was falling.At 3.04pm, a third take-off was attempted. The plane failed to gain height and crashed into the fence surrounding the airport and then into a house. The port wing and part of the tail were torn off and the house caught fire. A tree shattered the port side of the cockpit, while the starboard side of the fuselage hit a wooden hut, causing a truck filled with tyres and fuel parked inside to explode.
Upon seeing the flames licking up around the cockpit,Captain Thain feared that the burning fuel might make the aircraft explode and instructed his crew to evacuate.The stewardesses,Rosemary Cheverton and Margaret Bellis,were the first to leave through a blown-out emergency window in the galley,and they were followed by radio officer Bill Rodgers. Thain shouted to Rayment to get out of his seat,but Rayment was trapped in his seat by the crumpled fuselage.Rayment told Thain to go on without him.Thain clambered out of the galley window.Upon reaching the ground, he saw that flames were growing under the starboard wing,which still had an intact fuel tank containing 500 imperial gallons (2,300 L) of fuel.He shouted to his crew to get as far away as possible and climbed back into the aircraft to retrieve two handheld fire extinguishers,stopping momentarily to tell Rayment that he would be back for him when the fires had been dealt with.
Meanwhile, inside the passenger cabin, Manchester United goalkeeper Harry Gregg was regaining consciousness.He felt blood running down his face and he “didn’t dare put his hand up.He thought the top of his head had been taken off, like a hard boiled egg.”Just above him, a shaft of light was pouring into the cabin,so Gregg made his way towards it and kicked the hole wide enough for him to escape through.
Stephen Morrin says: “If it wasn’t for Thain’s single-mindedness, fighting so hard to clear his name for so many years, the true cause would never have been established. Without doubt he prevented another Munich. But after the war there were political reasons for not damaging relations with Germany so he stood almost alone in his fight. He was a convenient scapegoat.”
Eight players lost their lives including 21-year-old Duncan Edwards, who had finished third in the Ballon d’Or standings the previous year.
The crash was originally blamed on pilot error, but it was later found to have been caused by slush towards the end of the runway, slowing the plane and preventing safe flying speed.During take-off, the aircraft had reached 117 knots (217 km/h), but on colliding with the slush, dropped to 105 knots (194 km/h), too slow to leave the ground, with not enough runway to abort the take-off. The accident resulted in the imposition of operating limits for the amount of slush build-up permitted on runways.
Thain was aided by his wife Ruby, who happened to be a scientist and used her expertise to help show that ice was not the reason. Some of her tests were carried out on a biscuit tin lid in the back garden, as well as in the freezer room of a butcher’s.
But a second inquiry in Germany in 1965 also blamed pilot error after refusing to accept any evidence from new witnesses. It wasn’t until 1969 that prime minister Harold Wilson intervened, ordering an investigation by British officials. It concluded that slush, not ice, almost certainly doomed BEA Flight 609 in Munich on a refuelling stop while carrying the team back from a successful European Cup game in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. “Blame is not to be imputed to Captain Thain,” the report stated.
Twenty of the 44 on the aircraft died at the scene.The injured,some unconscious, were taken to the Rechts der Isar Hospital in Munich where three more died,resulting in 23 fatalities with 21 survivors.
The revival of this amazing club was such an amazing achievement, this interesting me greatly. Sir Matt Busby, who was the manager at the time of the crash,resumed managerial duties the next season (1958–59) and eventually built a second generation of Busby Babes, including George Best and Denis Law, that ten years later won the European Cup,beating Benfica. Bobby Charlton and Bill Foulkes were the only two crash survivors who lined up in that team.
The Beautiful Game 