The Unsung Hero of Manchester United
February 6th, 1958. Just before three in the afternoon, the pilot of flight 609 informs the passengers to return to the airplane. The announcement pleases no one in the waiting area of Munich's airport. Their aircraft has already attempted twice to take off unsuccessfully and now the situation seems worse, as the snow continues to fall relentlessly.
Some of the more anxious football players of Manchester United decide to change seats and sit at the back, as someone has read that it is safer there. Their coach, Matt Busby, ignores this theory and returns to his seat in the center of the plane. On all previous trips, the seat beside him was occupied by his assistant, Jimmy Murphy. This time, however, another member of the technical team, Bert Whalley, was sitting there. Murphy was absent............
............A few minutes later, Whalley was dead. The aircraft never managed to lift off from the ground. Out of the 44 people onboard, 21 survived. Among the victims were eight football players and three members of the technical team. Busby emerged alive from the wreckage but with multiple injuries, and no one could say for sure if he would make it. Except for three, all the football players were so badly injured that it was certain they would return to the pitch only after a long time. In just a few seconds, England's best team of those years had been destroyed.