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Voyagers - Munich

Bravery is one thing but what Harry did was about more than bravery. It was about goodness - George Best - who used to clean Harry Gregg's boots

Index

The Munich air disaster's background

What makes the Munich air disaster such a good example?

Munich's background

The Munich air disaster happened on the 6 February 1958, when the Manchester United football team were returning from beating Red Star Belgrade in the European Cup, in Yugoslavia, and were taking off after refueling in Munich. Of the Busby Babes, 8 died, and 23 people died overall, 21 survived, many due to the heroic actions of goalkeeper Harry Gregg, who pulled to safety from the burning plane, fellow players Bobby Charlton, Jackie Blanchflower, Dennis Viollet, his manager, Matt Busby, and pregnant diplomat's wife Vera Lukic and her 22 month old daughter Vesna Lukic.

The flight had been delayed by an hour due to Billy Whelan misplacing his passport, and there had been two attempts to take off abandoned due engine trouble. The actual cause of the crash was a failure to achieve take-off speed, likely due to excessive drag from slush on the runway.

The players who died were Duncan Edwards, Geoff Bent, Roger Byrne, Eddie Colman, Mark Jones, David Pegg, Tommy Taylor, and Billy Whelan.

Of the two pilots, Kenneth Rayment died, and James Thain survived, but his career as a pilot was effectively ended.

What makes the Munich air disaster such a good example?

The Munich Air Disaster

Given how many separate individuals were involved, from the eight players who died to the many who survived against the odds, the crash offers an unusually large sample of birthcharts to test against a single, precisely-timed event.

The aspects at the time of the Munich air disaster were