Anniversary of the air disaster

[Deleted member 77198]

I remember that time so clearly. Duncan Edwards was my favourite player at that time. Yes I know he played for them but the rivalries were not bitter in those days. I've mentioned before about going one week to them and one week to Maine Road because as a teenager I couldn't afford away days.

So young Duncan, who definitely would have been an England legend, was my favourite player and I cried quite a lot when I heard he had died.

City and United were fairly amicable in their relationship back then.

We’d been accommodating and happy enough to allow United to play at Maine Road a decade earlier. This created a group of Mancunians who’d go and watch City one week and United the next. This carried on after United moved back to Old Trafford (in the 60s, my Grandad would take my Dad and Uncle to Maine Road one week and Old Trafford the next when City were away).

 

[yerwot?]

I went to O.T. for the first post-Munich match, the atmosphere, travelling and even more so in the ground was almost indescribable, like nothing before or since. No animosity, even the usual hurly-burly crossing the bridge and the turn-stiles less boisterous , a form of collective shock i imagine, like the funeral crowds when an icon passes.
In the after-math, the pilots were blamed by the investigators, and it took three years and a great deal of cash by the air-line pilots union to clear their name. This article brilliantly exposes all the factors that, added together caused the crash. Take a bow Mr James

 

[hammocity]

What a sad story. The Tenerife air disaster of 1980 is very underreported and not many actually know about it.

It happened on the same day Jimmy Carter sent troops in helicopters to rescue American hostages in Iran, failed attempt. That was obviously the headline news

Mr mate’s mum and dad were Marion and Harold Ingley (Sunderland fan) they are on a plaque at the Southern Cemetery in Manchester, lovely people.

 

[Gary James]

I went to O.T. for the first post-Munich match, the atmosphere, travelling and even more so in the ground was almost indescribable, like nothing before or since. No animosity, even the usual hurly-burly crossing the bridge and the turn-stiles less boisterous , a form of collective shock i imagine, like the funeral crowds when an icon passes.
In the after-math, the pilots were blamed by the investigators, and it took three years and a great deal of cash by the air-line pilots union to clear their name. This article brilliantly exposes all the factors that, added together caused the crash. Take a bow Mr James

Thanks. Appreciated.

 

[cookster]

Great read @Gary James , thanks for sharing.

 

[jimharri]

Good to see that, apart from a couple of individuals, the response on here has been respectful.

 

[Bonzo Nododo]

I went to O.T. for the first post-Munich match, the atmosphere, travelling and even more so in the ground was almost indescribable, like nothing before or since. No animosity, even the usual hurly-burly crossing the bridge and the turn-stiles less boisterous , a form of collective shock i imagine, like the funeral crowds when an icon passes.
In the after-math, the pilots were blamed by the investigators, and it took three years and a great deal of cash by the air-line pilots union to clear their name. This article brilliantly exposes all the factors that, added together caused the crash. Take a bow Mr James

Yes the shock was all over the city not just near the ground. I remember the queues to get in, people just shuffling forward with hardly.a word.
I think that the back page of the programme which both teams were listed, usually a guess at the best of times, had the United team team in the usual 5- 3 - 2 1 layout with just the numbers 2-11(goalie didn't have a number then) and underneath each number was row of dots for the players name, blank because they had no idea who would be able to play.

 

[hammocity]

Yes the shock was all over the city not just near the ground. I remember the queues to get in, people just shuffling forward with hardly.a word.
I think that the back page of the programme which both teams were listed, usually a guess at the best of times, had the United team team in the usual 5- 3 - 2 1 layout with just the numbers 2-11(goalie didn't have a number then) and underneath each number was row of dots for the players name, blank because they had no idea who would be able to play.

My Dad has an old programme from the 50’s that lists the “shirts” red and “knickers” white.

 

[manclad]

My mate lost his parents in the Tenerife air disaster on the 25th April 1980, I was with him when he was informed his parents had died in the crash. Devastating would be an understatement, he was a 21 year old happy go lucky brilliant friend to many, just started a new career, had a lovely girlfriend and had his whole life in front of him.

He started drinking heavily, gave up his job, lost his gf and most of his mates, he became a recluse.

He was left a small fortune, his Dad was a Company Director, but he lost everything, only child, house, death benefit, investments and savings, he blew the lot. He’s 63 now, on his own, no family and will not make contact with anyone.

I know it’s the younger generation who used to think it was ok to call those who lost their lives “Munichs” and make physical gestures but thankfully its a thing of the past and I for one will raise a glass to those mostly young men who perished in that disaster.

I never knew about this air disaster.
I thought you had it mixed up with the one in 1977 when 2 jumbos collided on the runway at Tenerife, which resulted in over 500 deaths.
You learn something new every day.

 

[hammocity]

I never knew about this air disaster.
I thought you had it mixed up with the one in 1977 when 2 jumbos collided on the runway at Tenerife, which resulted in over 500 deaths.
You learn something new every day.

Tenerife North, I don’t think they had radar, just beacons at the time. It was Pilot error, my mate eventually got compensation, 10k each for his parents, has had a colossal impact on his life. There’s three weird things attached to this and I’m no way superstitious:

Evening before (Thursday) we were having a pint and one of the topics of discussion was, wouldn’t it be terrible if you had fallen out with family or friends and they had died.

Marion (friend’s mum) had taken some fruit and veg to his girlfriend’s mum as it was going out of date and said she had a “funny feeling” about the holiday.

Mate’s parents had booked a parking spot at the airport but the car was parked at the house, his mum had left a note saying the car wouldn’t start. We later found out it was a cracked distributor head so they got a taxi. Pity they weren’t on the last minute and missed the flight.