Cherishing the memory of Manchester United s Busby Babes Friday 5 February 2021
Article summary
Exactly 63 years have passed since the tragic plane crash in Munich in which eight Manchester United footballers and three club officials were among the 23 victims – and the Manchester Munich Memorial Foundation is firmly committed to preserving the memory and legacy of those who lost their lives.
Article top media content The Old Trafford mural: Manchester United s team lining up before the match in Belgrade on 5 February 1958. Bottom right: The statue of Sir Matt Busby. Getty Images
Article body
On the afternoon of Thursday 6 February 1958, the Elizabethan charter airliner carrying Manchester United’s party home from their successful European Champion Clubs’ Cup quarter-final second leg against FK Crvena zvezda in Yugoslavia crashed on take-off in wintery conditions at Munich-Riem Airport in Germany after a refuelling
The Busby Babes & Munich Air Disaster: European pioneers who were denied their chance at glory
Manchester United players lined up for the final time in Belgrade | Aleksandra Grujic/Getty Images Oh, England’s finest football team its record truly great,
its proud successes mocked by a cruel turn of fate.
Eight men will never play again, who met destruction there,
the flowers of English football, the flowers of Manchester
- The Flowers of the Manchester
The story of the Munich Air Disaster in 1958 is well known around the world, a tragedy that resulted in the deaths of 23 of the 44 people on board a flight from Belgrade to Manchester that had stopped in southern Germany for a scheduled refuelling.