Munich air disaster

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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 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.

Contents

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