UNITED KINGDOM: Manchester United hold memorial service for victimes of 1958 Munich air crash

Manchester United paid tribute at a memorial service to the victims of the 1958 Munich air crash which decimated a young team of awesome potential before it had the chance to flower fully. Twenty three candles were lit on Friday (February 6), one for each victim of the Munich air crash, at a moving memorial service at Manchester Cathedral on the 40th anniversary of the disaster. More than 1,000 specially invited guests, including Sir Bobby Charlton and other survivors of the crash, packed the cathedral to remember the eight Manchester United players and the 15 other victims who lost their lives on February 6, 1958, when their plane crashed on take-off after a re-fuelling stop at Munich. The United team were on their way home after drawing 3-3 with Red Star Belgrade in Yugoslavia and qualifying on aggregate for the semi-finals of the European Cup. Charlton, one of the few "Busby Babes" who survived the crash, led the tributes to his former team mates. There were other emotional addresses by current Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson, former Busby Babe Wilf McGuinness and reporter Frank Taylor, who survived the crash which claimed the lives of eight journalists. Relatives of the victims, Manchester United players past and present, club officials and fans prayed for the dead while Charlton led the homage to their memory. "...Everyone in the game of football has the greatest respect and gratitude for what these players did," said Charlton. "I remember coming to Manchester as a 15-year-old and it was a dark and gruesome looking city.But Matt Busby, Manchester United and those players who were later my team mates and friends illuminated the darkness." Busby, who hovered between life and death for several weeks, later recovered and built a team that went on to win the European Cup in 1968, a lasting legacy to those who died in the snow of Munich 10 years earlier. Earlier in the day, people went to Old Trafford to lay flowers by the Munich memorial.At first there were just a few, but, as the day wore on, the number of bouquets grew to form a colourful carpet. One of the tributes was from Sarah-Anne Edwards, mother of the hugely-talented 21-year-old England star Duncan Edwards, who was one of the victims. Some bore messages and the feeling was summed up by one card which read simply: "The Babes will live forever.

ITN Source | February 7, 1998

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