50 years since Munich disaster
It is 50 years today since the Munich air disaster of 6 February 1958, when British European Airways Flight 609 crashed on its third attempt to takeoff from a slush-covered runway at the Munich-Riem airport. On board the plane was the Manchester United football team, nicknamed the Busby Babes, along with a number of supporters and journalists. Twenty-three of the 44 passengers on board the aircraft died in the disaster – including eight of the Busby Babes.
Except for the first 18 months of my life, I lived in Manchester until I was 22. At the time of the air disaster, I was nine years old. I remember a palpable sense of gloom descending over the whole city. I noted that one of the dead players – 28 year old Roger Byrne – had the same first name as me. However, I probably felt the loss most of 21 year old Duncan Edwards, the star of the United team who survived for two weeks before dying of his injuries. He was born in Dudley in the Midlands, just down the road from my own birth place in Sedgley.
Many, many years years later, I wrote a biography of my wife’s father, a wartime night fighter ace. He died in 1959. At the time of his death, he was a pilot with BEA and one of those who attended his funeral was James Thain, the pilot at the controls in Munich.
February 6th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Looking at the timings of this and the last post, you couldn’t have slept much last night Roger! Maybe “Nighthawk” should be renamed “Nightowl”!