Science Fair Project Encyclopedia
Munich air disaster
The Munich air disaster happened on February 6, 1958, when British European Flight 609, a British European Airways "Elizabethan" class Airspeed Ambassador charter aircraft (G-ALZU 'Lord Burghley'), carrying players and backroom staff of Manchester United F.C., plus a number of journalists and supporters, crashed in a blizzard on its third attempt to take off from Munich-Riem airport.
United were returning from Belgrade where they had just beaten Red Star Belgrade in the European Cup and had stopped off at Munich for re-fuelling.
Twenty-three of the forty-three passengers on board the aircraft lost their lives in the disaster.
Although originally blamed on pilot error, the crash was subsequently found to have been caused by the build-up of slush towards the ends of the runway, causing a deceleration of the aircraft and preventing safe-flying-speed from being attained. Previous aircraft types fitted with tail-wheel undercarriages had not been greatly affected by slush, (due to the geometry of these undercarriages in relation to the aircraft's centre-of-gravity) but newer types incorporating nosewheel landing-gear (such as the Ambassador) with the mainwheels behind the centre-of-gravity were found to be vulnerable. The accident resulted in the instigation of operating limits for the amount of slush build-up permitted on runways.
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Victims
Manchester United players
Other victims
- Walter Crickmer - Club secretary
- Bert Whalley - Chief Coach
- Tom Curry - Trainer
- Alf Clarke - Journalist, Manchester Evening Chronicle
- Don Davies - Journalist, Manchester Guardian
- George Follows - Journalist, Daily Herald
- Tom Jackson - Journalist, Manchester Evening News
- Archie Ledbrooke - Journalist, Daily Mirror
- Henry Rose - Journalist, Daily Express
- Eric Thompson - Journalist, Daily Mail
- Frank Swift - Journalist, News of the World (also former England and Manchester City goalkeeper)
- Capt Kenneth Rayment - Co-Pilot
- Bela Miklos - Travel Agent
- Willie Satinoff - Supporter
- Tom Cable - Steward
Survivors
Manchester United players
- Johnny Berry
- Jackie Blanchflower
- Bobby Charlton
- Bill Foulkes
- Harry Gregg
- Ken Morgans
- Albert Scanlon
- Dennis Viollet
- Ray Wood
Other survivors
- Matt Busby - Team manager
- Frank Taylor - Journalist
- Peter Howard - Photographer
- Ted Ellyard - Photographer
- Mrs Vera Lukic and baby daughter - Passengers (Saved by Manchester United player Harry Gregg)
- Mrs Miklos - Wife of Bela Miklos, the travel agent who arranged trip and died in the crash
- Mr N Tomasevic - Passenger
- James Thain - Captain
- Rosemary Cheverton - Stewardess
- Margaret Bellis - Stewardess
See Also
- List of accidents and incidents on commercial airliners
- History of Manchester United
- Superga air disaster, 1949, which killed almost the entire Torino squad (18 players), plus management, journalists and crew
- The Zambia national football team was also killed in an airline crash in 1993
External links
Ref: 'Air Disasters' by Stanley Stewart - Arrow Books (UK) 1986/89 - ISBN 0-09-956200-6
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