New Delhi: Manchester United have changed their profile photo across their social media to a sign of a clock stuck in 3:04. It is a tribute to the Munich Disaster that claimed 23 lives, including eight players and three of the officials on February 6th, 1958. It has been 67 years since the horrific disaster which changed many definitions in modern aviation.
“Busby Babes” a term coined for Matt Busby’s Manchester United, were a team recruited and trained by the club’s chief scout Joe Armstrong and assistant manager Jimmy Murphy. The players would progress from the youth team to the senior club, playing under Matt Busby who came to the club in 1945 and led them until 1969. The team that is most synonymous with the term happens to be the side of 1957-58.
We loved them then. We love them now.
Today, and every day, we remember the Busby Babes: the #FlowersOfManchester 🌹 pic.twitter.com/eYz2DlV0hd
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) February 6, 2025
The team had started a dominating display winning the first division in English football in the 1955-56 season and the 1956-57 season, with the side on average, having a very young age. Bobby Charlton of the club had already played for the national side. The team in the unfateful year was thought to be one of the best sides in Europe.
In 1955 when UEFA set up the European Cup which FA denied its teams to take part in the best interest of English football. While Chelsea weren’t allowed to take part in the 1955-56 edition. However, in the 1956-57 season, United’s Busby and chairman Harold Hardman decided to defy the organization and made the Red Devils the first English to take part in the European competition and they reached the semi-finals only to lose to Real Madrid.
This along with winning the domestic cup allowed them to participate in the next edition of the European tournament. With games in Europe in midweek, and domestic games taking place on Saturdays, United had to opt for air travel, which was risky back in the day.
Munich Air disaster
On the fateful day of February, the Manchester United team boarded the BEA flight, an Airspeed Ambassador 2 from Belgrade where they had knocked Red Star Belgrade out of the European Championship. With travel arrangements from Prague in the previous round having proven hectic, United had decided to charter the flight where team officials and journalists were also travelling with the side.
The flight had stopped over in Munich for a refill. Two prior take-off attempts in the snow-filled condition had to be called off due to technical issues in the aircraft, with the players heading to the lounge after the second attempt. Prior to their departure, Billy Whelan, an underconfident flier had expressed his hesitation while many players including Tommy Talyor, Mark Jone and journalists had shifted to the back of the plane.
The pilots Kenneth Rayment and James Thain got the aircraft to resume its journey once everyone had boarded and before 3 ‘0’ clock in the afternoon had reached the runway threshold from where they were given the clearance to take off. They were given a two-minute window for clearance which the pilots accepted, agreeing to watch for the engine rise.
The plane started throwing slush as the aircraft rolled down the runway, with a minor surge in the left engine which was corrected by the pilot. After reaching 117 knots of decision speed, from where a take-off can’t be aborted, the plane speed started falling rapidly. The plane skidded off at the end of the runway struck a wooden hut and exploded after the tail struck a truck full of fuel.
The crew immediately ordered evacuation after noticing flames around the cockpit. Goalkeeper Harry Gregg having regained consciousness after the crash escaped the wreckage while managing to save both Charlton and Dennis Viollet, who strapped in their seat a little away from the wreckage, along with many other survivors. Gregg later would note that he wasn’t in his complete sense while escaping and even claimed that most knew in the final moments that the flight was doomed. In the United staff, only Busby had survived the crash.
At the time, United were aiming to become the third club that had won three consecutive League titles and had reached the semi-final of the European Championship for the second time while having retained the FA Charity Shield. However, it had all come to an end. Captain Rayment would die a few weeks later from his injuries in the crash while Thain was put the blame on for not de-icing though the conditions didn’t require him to. He would later be exonerated, but it was the last flight he ever flew in his life. Germany continued to blame Thain and BEA dismissed him from his job.
Tributes for Busby Babes
Never.#FlowersOfManchester 🌹 pic.twitter.com/mEA9QNvkrl
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) February 2, 2025
At Old Trafford, both Ruben Amorim and Marc Skinner, coaches for men’s and women’s teams respectively, led the tributes for disaster on the previous matchdays. At Old Trafford and Munich, there are remembrance services to be held to mark the anniversary. During the game against Crystal Palace, the flags flew at half-mast.
Fans had in fact taken their seats early for the Flowers of Manchester, played 15 minutes before the game kicked off. A ‘We’ll never die’ surfer banner was also displayed at the Old Trafford. A matchday memorial service took place even in Munich where poems and songs were read by the academy and United Foundation.
Just ten years later, Busby managed to take the team to European glory, making United the first English team to achieve the feat. He would lead the team to many domestic glories, with five league titles coming in his 25 years of leading the side. Charlton was the final survivor living and died in 2023 at the age of 86.
Today, the side has won the top flight of English football 20 times and has taken the highest title in Europe, thrice overall. However, the legacy of the Busby Babes continues, which had every potential to dominate European football but tragedy struck their life short and took years of work to rebuild.
It has been 67 years since Munich air disaster stopped Manchester United’s dreams on track with the crash claiming lives of eight of its players. Here’s a look into the events that led to the crash and how the team rebuilt itself from the tragedy. Football Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
