Monday Milestone: Busby Babes
“This may be death, but I’m ready”
– Manchester United forward Liam “Billy” Whelan, a nervous flyer prior to hopping on the ill-fated flight
This Week in History:
1958, February 6
British European Airways Flight 609 crashes in Munich, killing 23 people on board including eight Manchester United players.
During the 1950s, Manchester United enjoyed many successes much like today. Recently two-time league champions, and in 1958, had just won through to the European Cup semi-finals (forerunner to the Champions League) following a 3-3 draw with Red Star Belgrade in Yugoslavia.
On their way home, their plane required refueling in Munich, West Germany. It was a cold February afternoon and the weather was closing in, leading to two failed attempts to take off to fly back to England. Snow had just begun falling and slush and ice coated the runway.
Pressed for time, the pilots tried a third time, in what would be a fatal mistake. Unable to accelerate to the appropriate take off speed, the aircraft with the champion team aboard, hit the slush, skidded, and with the reported final words from Captain Ken Rayment, ‘Christ, we won’t make it!’ ploughed through the airport fence. The port wing was torn off as it crossed the road outside the airport. The right side of the fuselage exploded.
Some twenty-three people were killed, including eight Manchester United players. Roger Byrne, the Man U captain, who had 245 matches for the club died, as did Geoff Bent, his understudy. Wing/half Eddie Coleman was also lost, at just 21 years old. Centre half Mark Jones never met his unborn son. David Pegg would never play for England, and Billy Whelan, would never play for Ireland again, his fear of flying tragically prophetic. Duncan Edwards succumbed to his injuries with renal failure two weeks later, after 151 matches for Manchester United and 18 for England, and of course the acrobatic Tommy Taylor, who with sixteen goals in nineteen caps for his country already, could have gone on to be one of the all time greats…
Instead he died that day at Munich airport.
Captain Rayment also didn’t make it. Nor did three Manchester United staff, a number of journalists or a couple of others aboard that ill-fated flight.
Of those who survived, Manager Matt Busby despite being read his last rites twice would take years to build another generation of players. Goalkeeper Harry Gregg was deemed a hero, after returning to the wreckage at great personal risk to pull out survivors including a pregnant mother. The media coined it ‘Gregg’s Greatest Save’. Players such as Johnny Berry, and Jackie Blanchflower could not overcome injuries and never played again.
It’s worth trying to imagine what it would be like if a tragedy like this happened today. Wayne Rooney and Michael Owen killed in a single accident. Sir Alex Ferguson fighting for his life. It gives perspective. Such horror in 1958 shocked the football world and galvanised a city. The Busby Babes were gone.
Today memorials adorn the stadium and the Old Trafford faithful still chant about that fateful day. Their songs remember a sobering chapter in football history. And that their club will remain in essence, Manchester, United.
The Milestone Five: Worst tragedies in world football
5. Rangers v Celtic
January 1971, 66 people were killed at the Ibrox Park stadium in Glasgow, after crush barriers collapsed whilst fans were exiting the stadium.
4. Bradford City fire
May 1985, an inferno erupted at Valley Parade football stadium in Bradford, engulfing half the stadium during a match between Bradford City and Lincoln City. 56 people were killed, and more than 265 were injured.
3. Peruvian national stadium tragedy
May 1964, during the final qualifier for the Tokyo Olympics, between Peru and Argentina, when a Peruvian goal was disallowed, and the people erupted. The stadium gates were locked, and as people rioted 318 were killed, many by asphyxia.
2. Hillsborough
In April 1989, after the league had placed high steel fencing to combat hooliganism, 96 people were crushed to death after thousands too many fans streamed into the ground from a rear tunnel, crushing those on the fence.
1. Zambian national team air disaster
The deaths of the Busby Babes were remembered when in April 1993, when the flight carrying most of the Zambian national football side to a World Cup qualifier in Senegal ditched into the Atlantic Ocean killing all 25 passengers and five crew on board. The grief of losing any sporting hero is crushing but for a national sporting team to be wiped out in an instant, is more than any sports fan can imagine.
With thanks to Getty Images Europe for the photo
