who will accept this bad news when it is happen to their love club and player?
the busby babes was returning from a European Cup match with Red Star Belgrade at Belgrade, Yugoslavia but have to stop at Munich for refueling. After the refueling, the pilot, Captains James Thain and Kenneth Rayment, tried to take off but fail it twice because due to the boost surging in the port engine. but, when the 3rd attempted, it had begun to snow, make the runway gone thicker and hard to past through.
When the aircraft tried tried to speed it s velocity, the aircraft hit the slush, lost velocity, ploughed through a fence past the end of the runway, before the port wing hit a nearby house and was torn off. 21 of the44 passengers in the aircraft were killed instantly and several knocked unconscious. Captain Thain fear the aircraft would explode, he set about getting the remaining passengers as far away as possible. Man utd goalkeeper, Harry Greg remained behind to pull survivors from the wreckage.
Crash
Captain James Thain, the pilot, had flown the "Elizabethan" class Airspeed Ambassador (registration G-ALZU) out to Belgrade, but handed the controls to his co-pilot, Captain Kenneth Rayment, for the return journey. At 14:19 GMT, the control tower at Munich airport was told that the plane was ready to take off, and they were given clearance to attempt take-off due to expire at 14:31. However, Captain Rayment abandoned the take off after Captain Thain had noticed the port boost pressure gauge fluctuating as the plane reached full power and the engine sounded odd while accelerating. A second attempt was made three minutes later, but, 40 seconds into the procedure, this too was called off before the plane got off the ground. The reason given for the failed attempts was that the plane had been filled with a very rich mixture of fuel, causing the engines to over-accelerate, a common problem for the Elizabethan-class plane. After the second failure, all the passengers were told to disembark from the plane and they retreated to the airport lounge. By then, it had started to snow heavily, and it looked unlikely that the plane would be making the return journey that day. Manchester United's Duncan Edwards took the opportunity to send a telegram ahead to his landlad
y in Manchester. It read: "All flights cancelled, flying tomorrow. Duncan."Captain Thain informed the station engineer, Bill Black, about the problem with the boost surging in the port engine, and Black suggested that since the immediate solution of opening the engine throttle more slowly had not worked, the only remaining option would be to hold the plane in Munich overnight for engine retuning. However, Thain was anxious to stay on schedule and suggested that opening the throttle even more slowly would suffice. This would mean that the plane would not achieve take-off velocity until further down the runway, but with the runway being almost 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) long, Thain believed that this should not pose a problem. Therefore, despite the snow, the passengers were called back out to the plane just 15 minutes after leaving it.
A few of the players were not confident fliers, particularly Liam Whelan, who was heard to say "This may be death, but I'm ready" shortly before take off. Others, including Duncan Edwards, Tommy Taylor, Mark Jones, Eddie Colman and Frank Swift moved to the back of the plane, believing it to be safer. Once everyone was back on board, Captains Thain and Rayment got the plane moving again for a third take off attempt at 14:56. At 14:59, they reached the runway holding point, where they received clearance to line up ready for take-off. On the runway, the final cockpit checks were carried out and at 15:02, they were contacted to tell them that their take-off clearance would expire at 15:04. After discussion, the pilots agreed that they would attempt take-off, but they would keep a close watch on the instruments in case of any more surging in the engines. At 15:03, they contacted the control tower to inform them of their decision.
Captain Rayment slowly moved the throttle forward, as agreed, and released the brakes; the plane began to accelerate, and radio officer Bill Rodgers radioed the control tower with the message "Zulu Uniform rolling". As the plane gathered speed, throwing up slush as it went, Captain Thain called out the velocities in ten-knot increments. At 85 knots, the port engine began to surge again, and he pulled back marginally on the port throttle before gingerly pushing it forward again. Once the plane reached 117 knots (217 km/h), he announced "V1", indicating that they had reached the velocity at which it was no longer safe to abort the take off, and Captain Rayment listened out for the call of "V2" (119 knots (220 km/h)), the minimum speed required to get the plane off the ground. However, when Thain glanced back down to the airspeed indicator, expecting the needle to continue to rise, it fluctuated at around 117 knots before suddenly dropping back down to 112 knots (207 km/h), and then 105 knots (194 km/h). Rayment shouted "Christ, we won't make it!", as Thain looked up to see what lay ahead of them.
The plane skidded off the end of the runway and, out of control, crashed into the fence surrounding the airport and then across a road before its port wing was torn off as it caught a house, home to a family of six. The father and eldest daughter were away at the time, and the mother and the other three children narrowly escaped with their lives as the house caught on fire. Part of the plane's tail was torn off too, before the left side of the cockpit hit a tree. The right side of the fuselage hit a wooden hut, inside which was a truck filled with tyres and fuel, which exploded. Twenty-one people were killed instantly.
Upon seeing the flames licking up around the cockpit, Captain Thain feared that the burning fuel might cause the aircraft itself to explode and instructed his crew to evacuate the area. The stewardesses, Rosemary Cheverton and Margaret Bellis, were the first to leave through a blown-out emergency window in the galley, and they were followed by radio officer Bill Rodgers. Thain shouted to Rayment to get out of his seat, but the co-pilot was trapped in his seat by the crumpled fuselage. Rayment told his superior officer to go on without him and Thain, too, clambered out of the galley window. Upon reaching the ground, he saw that flames were growing under the starboard wing, which still had an intact fuel tank containing 500 imperial gallons (2,300 L) of fuel. He shouted to his crew to get as far away as possible and climbed back into the aircraft to retrieve two handheld fire extinguishers, stopping momentarily to tell Rayment that he would be back for him when the fires had been dealt with.
Meanwhile, inside the passenger cabin, Manchester United goalkeeper Harry Gregg was regaining consciousness, thinking that he was dead. He felt blood running down his face and he "didn't dare put [his] hand up. [He] thought the top of [his] head had been taken off, like a hard boiled egg." Just above him, a shaft of light was pouring into the cabin, so Gregg made his way towards it and kicked the hole wide enough for him to escape through.
Fatalities
Crew members
Captain Kenneth "Ken" Rayment, co-pilot (survived the crash but suffered multiple injuries and died in hospital three weeks later as a result of brain damage)
Tom Cable, cabin steward Passengers
Manchester United players
Geoff Bent
Roger Byrne
Eddie Colman
Duncan Edwards (survived the crash, but died in hospital 15 days later)
Mark Jones
David Pegg
Tommy Taylor
Liam "Billy" Whelan
Manchester United staff
Walter Crickmer, club secretary
Tom Curry, trainer
Bert Whalley, chief coach
Journalists
Alf Clarke, Manchester Evening Chronicle
Donny Davies, Manchester Guardian
George Follows, Daily Herald
Tom Jackson, Manchester Evening News
Archie Ledbrooke, Daily Mirror
Henry Rose, Daily Express
Frank Swift, News of the World (also former England and Manchester City goalkeeper; died on his way to hospital)
Eric Thompson, Daily Mail
Other passengers
Bela Miklos, travel agent
Willie Satinoff, supporter, racecourse owner and close friend of Matt Busby
Survivors
Crew
Margaret Bellis, stewardess (died 1998)
Rosemary Cheverton, stewardess
George William "Bill" Rodgers, radio officer (died 1997)
Captain James Thain, pilot (died 1975)
Passengers
Manchester United players
Johnny Berry (never played again, died 1994)
Jackie Blanchflower (never played again, died 1998)
Bobby Charlton
Bill Foulkes
Harry Gregg
Kenny Morgans
Albert Scanlon
Dennis Viollet (died 1999)
Ray Wood (died 2002)
Manchester United staff
Matt Busby, manager (died 1994)
Journalists and photographers
Ted Ellyard, Daily Mail telegraphist (died 1964)
Peter Howard, Daily Mail photographer (died 1996)
Frank Taylor, News Chronicle reporter (died 2002)
Other passengers
Vera Lukić and baby daughter Venona, passengers saved by Manchester United player Harry Gregg. At the time of the accident, she was pregnant with her son Zoran, who also survived.
Mrs Eleanor Miklos, wife of Bela Miklos
Nebosja Bato Tomašević, Yugoslavian diplomat
Investigation
Although the crash was originally blamed on pilot error, it was subsequently found to have been caused by the build-up of slush towards the end of the runway, causing deceleration of the aircraft and preventing safe flying speed from being attained. During the take off, the aircraft had attained a speed of 117 knots (217 km/h), but, on entering the slush, speed dropped to 105 knots (194 km/h), too slow for the plane to leave the ground, with not enough runway remaining to abort the take off. Aircraft with tail-wheel undercarriages had not been greatly affected by slush, due to the geometry of these undercarriages in relation to the aircraft's centr of gravity, but newer types, such as the Ambassador, with nose wheel landing-gear and the main wheels 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.
Despite this conclusion, the German airport authorities (who were legally responsible for the state of the airport's runways, but generally unaware of the danger of slush on runways for aircraft like the Ambassador) took legal action against Captain Thain, as the one pilot who had survived the crash. They claimed that he had taken off without deicing the wings and that responsibility for the accident was his alone, despite several witnesses stating that this was not so. The basis of the German authorities' case relied on a photograph of the aircraft (published in several newspapers) taken shortly before takeoff, that appeared to show snow on the upper wing surfaces. When the original negative was examined, however, no snow or ice could be seen, the "snow" having been due to the published pictures being produced from a copy negative. The witnesses were not called to the German inquiry and proceedings against Thain dragged on until 1968, when he was finally cleared of any responsibility for the crash. As the official cause, British authorities recorded a build-up of melting snow on the runway which prevented the Elizabethan from reaching the required take-off speed. Thain, having been dismissed by BEA shortly after the accident and never re-engaged, retired and returned to run his poultry farm in Berkshire. He died of a heart attack at the age of 53, in 1975.
Aftermath
Seven of Manchester United's players died immediately, and Duncan Edwards died from his injuries on 21 February at the Rechts der Isar Hospital in Munich. Johnny Berry and Jackie Blanchflower were both injured so severely that they never played again. Matt Busby was seriously injured and had to stay in hospital for more than two months after the crash, and was read his Last Rites twice. After being discharged from hospital, he went to Switzerland to recuperate in Interlaken. At times, he felt like giving up on football entirely, until he was told by his wife, Jean, "You know Matt, the lads would have wanted you to carry on." That statement lifted Busby from his depression, and he returned by land to Manchester, before watching his team play in the 1958 FA Cup Final.
Meanwhile, there was speculation that the club would fold, but a threadbare United team completed the 1957–58 season, with Busby's assistant Jimmy Murphy standing in as manager; he had not travelled to Belgrade as he was in Cardiff managing the Welsh national team at the time. A team largely made up of reserve and youth team players beat Sheffield Wednesday 3–0 in the first match after the disaster. The programme for that match showed simply a blank space where each United player's name should have been. Following the loss of so many players in the crash, United were desperate to find replacements with experience, so Murphy turned to players like Ernie Taylor (signed for £8,000 from Blackpool) and Stan Crowther, the Aston Villa wing half who had played against United in the 1957 FA Cup Final.
There were changes amongst the backroom staff at the club too, following the deaths of secretary Walter Crickmer and coaches Tom Curry and Bert Whalley. United goalkeeper Les Olive, still registered as a player at the time of the disaster, retired from playing and took over from Crickmer as club secretary, while another former United goalkeeper, Jack Crompton, took over coaching duties after United chairman Harold Hardman had negotiated with Crompton's then-employers Luton Town for his release.
United only won one league game after the crash, causing their title challenge to collapse and they fell to ninth place in the league. They did manage to reach the final of the FA Cup, however, losing 2–0 to Bolton Wanderers, and even managed to beat Milan at Old Trafford in the semi-finals of the European Cup, only to lose 4–0 at the San Siro. Busby resumed managerial duties the next season (1958–59), and eventually built a second generation of Busby Babes, including George Best and Denis Law, that ten years later won the European Cup, beating Benfica. Bobby Charlton and Bill Foulkes were the only two crash survivors who lined up in that team.
No comments:
Post a Comment