Manchester United had just competed in Belgrade, Yugoslavia in the European cup Quarter finals and had fought out a 3-3 draw which sent them through to the Semi's on aggregate.
The flight from back from Belgrade had to make a refuelling stop over in Munich, where it had been snowing quite heavily.
The Ambassador plane struggled to reach take off speed on it's first two attempts at take off which were aborted, on the third attempt take off speed was reached but the plane ran into slush on the runway which caused it to bog down by which time the aircraft was going too fast to stop before the end of the runway.
20 of the 44 people on board the flight died in the crash, and another 3 died in hospital later.
Eight of the dead were Manchester United players (Tommy Taylor, Roger Byrne, David Pegg, Eddie Colman, Geoff Bent, Liam Whelan, Mark Jones and Duncan Edwards who died in hospital 15 days after the crash), Three Man Utd staff, Two crew members and ten others including eight journalists.
The pilot Captain Thain was blamed at the time and accused of not de-icing the wings of the aircraft, and the German authorities denied all responsibility.
Many years later proof was put forward that the slush on the runway was the reason for the crash, and a photographer who had taken a picture of the plane showing no ice on the wings had not been called to give evidence at the original trial, proving it had been a cover up by the German airport authorities.
Here I post a collection of newspaper cuttings from the time, you will notice that Duncan Edwards death was unexpected and that Matt Busby was given very little chance of survival.
(Click Pics to Enlarge).
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