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| Man. Utd. web page, with the clock at Old Trafford |
Last Wednesday, February the 6th, was the 55th aniversary of one of the biggest disasters in international football history in general, and England football history in particular. It was in 1958, and 23 people, among them Manchester Utd players and staff, died in a plane accident when the plane took off at Munich-Riem Airport.
The team was coming back from an European Cup (former Champions League) game in Belgrade (Yugoslavia), against Red Star Belgrade. The final score, 3-3, was enough to send the 'Busby Babes' to the semifinals.
The 'Busby Babes' were born when Matt Busby, former Manchester City star player was asked to rebuild a team that had just been relegated. Matt Busby was the father of a new football never seen before in England: short passes, rotations, constant move and avoidinng long passes... that was the philosophy. The first years were hard, and they lost a title against Aston Villa, but it didn't take too long to the silverware to arrive. That philosophy was implemented in the youth team as well. And there, the 'Busby Babes' were born. Roger Byrne, Geoff Bent, Eddie Colman, and of course Duncan Edwards, the star of that generation of young players. They were called to king in Europe and break the hegemony of Real Madrid.
For that trip to Belgrade, the club decided to charter a British European Airways plane. Previuos bad experiences with the weather and comercial flights were the reasons for that decission.
The flight from Belgrade to Manchester had a scheduled stop at Munich for refuel. The take-off from Belgrade was delayed as one of the players, Johnny Berry, forgot his passport. That delay could have been tragically decesive.
The weather conditions in Munich weren´t the best for flying. After refuel, there were two take-off attemps, but they weren't succesful. The slush made the plane impossible to take off. All the passengers were told to desenbark the airplane and were moved to the airport lounge. After the second attempt, the snow was heavier and the flight was about to get cancelled. At last minute, the captain, James Thain, decided to make one last attempt, even though it would mean that the plane will not achieve take-off velocity until the end of the lane. On this third attempt, the plane finally took off, but it crashed against an empty house and fell broken in two parts. The left wing was torn off as it touched the house. The tail was torn off as well before the cockpit hit a tree. Finally, the right side of the fuselage hit a wooden hut fulled of tyres and fuel. 20 passengers died inmidiatly and other 3 as a consequence of the wounds.
Among the 8 players that died, one didn't die in the crash. Duncan Edwards was taken to the hospital with multiple leg fractures, fractured ribs and severely damaged kidneys. He died after 15 days. About him, Bobby Charlton said that he was the best player he has ever seen, the only player that made him feel inferior
But, as in all tragedies, there was an sparkle of light. Two personal histories make this plane crash a bit less tragic. The first character, Sir Bobby Charlton. His history can be held as a Divine Providence. When he first went up the plane, he sat on the back and put his coat on the seat. After coming back from the lounge for the last and tragic take-off attempt, he saw that his coat was moved from his seat. He was a young player, and the older ones decided to sit on the back of the plane, so they could have a nap. The tail of the plane was torn off.
The second character was the goalkeeper, Harry Gregg. When he regainged consciousness, he thought he was the only one that survive and went off from the plane. There he heard someone shouting: "Run !, it is about to explode!". He also heard a kid crying from the inside of the cabine and came in to rescue her and her mother. She was the daughter of a Serbian dimplomat. He came in a few more timse and rescued other passengers as Bobby Charlton or Bill Foulkes. Bobby Charlton was still in shock and with his coat on and the seat belt fastened.
13 days after the crash, Matt Busby talked from the hospital to the fans at highly charged Old Trafford crowd of 59,848. In a sepulchral silence, the voice of Busby was heard:
“Although we mourn our dead and grieve for our wounded, we believe that great days are not done for us… Manchester United will rise again.”Ten years after, May 1968, Manchester Utd won the European Cup against Benfica.
