On the 6th February 1958 one of the greatest tragedies in world sport occurred. The Munich Air Disaster. 23 passengers and crew who were on board the plane, including 8 Manchester United footballers, were killed when the plane crashed in West Germany. The team were triumphant following a victory in a European cup tie against Red Star Belgrade of Serbia when their plane crashed in appalling weather conditions following its third attempt at a takeoff. What followed were some of the darkest, most distressing scenes the footballing world had ever seen. This is the story of the whole event.
We felt nothing was beyond us as we talked so animatedly and laughed on the return journey from Belgrade. In two days me, and my Manchester United team mates, were to face Arsenal which would have been another game of utter importance to us. The sky was at a very low level and filled with white snow as we came in to land at Munich to refuel. The sky looked dim with no light to be seen anywhere. The slush kept falling, minute by minute, which would make the take-off even more difficult. The sky was telling me what was yet to come.
I was less optimistic of the flight because of my specific dislike for the aircraft that we were travelling on. I had travelled on an aircraft like this before. I had never enjoyed flying, infact; I had been to see a psychiatrist about the problem just weeks before the journey to and from Serbia. Flying was one of my worst nightmares. The first time I had travelled in one it felt like it took an age to get airborne and begin the flight. I was alright after you had begun the ascent as you were assured by the loud roar of the humungous sized engines on either side. Although, I was still tentative about the flight we had sti...
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...nk from then on. I could not see anything. I recall hearing the screams and shouts from my teammates and friends. Then I thought to myself. How, against all odds, am I still here? It’s a miracle.
Now, in hospital I found out the true velocity of what had occurred. 22 of my friends, teammates and fellow passengers were dead and yet there was still one man fighting for his life in the bed beside me. This man was one of my closest friends, Duncan. I turned to look at him. He was a state. I didn’t know how he was going to pull through it. I knew I shouldn’t be thinking this negatively but his injuries were horrific. I didn’t know what to say to him or if to saying nothing at all. Two of my teammates were so severely injured that they were never to play again and others carried huge psychological scars that would affect their life forever. Why had this happened?
The Failure of the Munich Putsch The Munich-Putsch failed in 1932 for many reasons but all together poor planning was to blame because if the planning was perfect many of the things I would list wouldn't have happened. The MunichPutsch failed for these main reasons. Hitler and Ludendorff thought that it would be an easy task to take it over. Too many people knew about the attempt to take over the putsch.
by the US Air Force in October of 1944. It was a city that was also known
When I entered the airplane I was as excited as a 6-year-old could be about losing the people she loved the most. The greatest aspect of my fear was the idea of losing my mother. As a child, I always
When the day came to leave I was woken at the crack of dawn. I was keen to get to Blackpool as swiftly as possible, not only for the football that was ahead of us but also for the famous Pleasure Beach. The coach picked us up at around 8 am and in we crammed into an already full coach. The journey down was full of laughter and friendly joking from the parents. That day, it was particularly hot and inside the coach a number of people were becoming uncomfortable. I was unaffected by the warmth inside the coach, with my earphones in I relaxed and paid more attention to the vast countryside we were passing through. The vivid scenery blew me away, with colossal hills to calm rivers that we met on the journey.
The Olympic Games of Munich started like any other, the parade of nations, proud representatives filled with dreams of gold medals and strong finishes. A moment of glory and hopefully standing tall on the podium as their flag is raised. This is a time when nations come together in peace to show the power of human achievement through sport. It did not happen that way.
The 1972 Olympics were held in the summer in city of Munich, Germany. Munich is a city in the Southern region of what was then West Germany. They were “The Games of Peace and Joy” and they were going to be the biggest and most expensive Olympic Games ever. The Olympic Games in Munich were supposed to have more athletes representing more countries than at any previous sporting event. During the 1972 Munich Olympics, 10,490 athletes were present. Bavarian officials hoped that the 1972 Munich Olympics would confirm Germany’s rehabilitation as a civilized society. Germany was trying to expunge memories of the Second World War and the infamous 1936 Olympics in Berlin, Germany. At the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, the German dictator Adolf Hitler had recently risen to power. Hitler tried to use the Olympics to showcase his belief that German whites were a superior people. There was no greater confirmation of Germany’s rehabilitation than the presence at the games of a delegation from Israel. Many of the families of the Israeli Olympic Athletes had been victims of German Dictator Adolf Hitler. The organizers of the 1972 Munich Olympics worked hard in order to not remind the world of what the Nazis had done. The organizers even refused to let security guards carry weapons, because they were worried that they would invoke memories of the heavily armed Nazi soldiers. They invited massed ranks of the media, a greater concentration than ever before to witness the festival of sport and the redevelopment of West Germany. At least four thousand newspaper, magazine, and radio journalists travelled to the Bavarian capital along with another two thousand television journalists, announcers, and crews. They had a television audience of nearly one billio...
The 1972 Munich Games was shocking for many reasons. The Munich Massacre was a devastating blow to the Olympic reputation. The world watched in horror as eleven Israeli men were slaughtered for a radical cause. Soon afterwards, the United States played Russia for the gold in basketball and the enmity was evident on the court. Team USA was favoured to win as they had won the gold in all past Summer Olympics since 1936. The Soviets ended up winning in what was to become one of the most controversial games in Olympic history.
This report is on the Crossair flight 3597 crash which happens at Zurich airport on 24th November 2001. Analysis of Crossair flight 3597 will be covered, which includes details such as facts of Crossair flight 3597 crash, and the three contributing factors involved in the air accident. The three contributing factors are mainly Crossair, pilot error and communications with air traffic controllers.
The Munich Massacre was executed by a group of Palestinian terrorists, who were able to infiltrate the Olympic village and take nine hostages. Several counter-terrorism organizations and operations were a result of the attack on the 1972 Munich Summer Olympic Games. The group responsible for the Munich massacre was a team of eight individuals, part of a terrorist group known as the Black September Organization, a.k.a. BSO. The BSO began as a small group of Fatah members enraged by the king of Jordan, King Hussein. King Hussein was responsible for killing thousands of Palestinians and the forced removal of countless others from their homes in Ikrit and Biram, Palestinian villages in Jordan. Rapid growth of the BSO was a result of members being recruited from other organizations, such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the As-Sa’iqa, a Palestinian military group directed by Syria.
The 11th day of September, 2001 was not just any ordinary day. It was an annihilating day for both me and my country. That day symbolized the burial of my grandfather, who died the week prior. My grandfather, played a fundamental role in my life. He encouraged me both spiritually and educationally. This is also the day that the Islamic terrorist group Al-Qaeda decided to attack the United States. They achieved the attack, though the hijacking of four planes; this caused the complete destruction of the Twin Towers (North and South) of the World Trade Center located in New York City. The terrorist group was also responsible for the partial collapse of the Pentagon. They did, however fail in their attempt on attacking the United States
Not a soul responded, they continued to roll in a bunch of machinery and equipment gear. One of them had already put on a pair of gloves and turned on the bright lights above me. I cringed and closed my eyes at the bright light. There was nowhere to escape to, I was completely tied down and it didn 't look like they were going to untie me anytime soon. I had no control of my own body, nor did I have control of what they were going to do to me, and for that I started to weep.
Travelling at a speed twice that of sound might seem to be something futuristic; however, this feat has already been achieved almost 40 years ago by the world’s only supersonic passenger aircraft-The Concorde. Concorde brought a revolution in the aviation industry by operating transatlantic flights in less than four hours. The slick and elegant aircraft with one of the most sophisticated engineering was one of the most coveted aircrafts of its time. However, this was all destined to end when Air France Flight 4590 was involved in a tragic disaster just outside the city of Paris on July 25, 2000. The crash killed 113 people, but more disastrous was its impact. The belief and confidence people had with Concorde gradually started to fade, and finally Concorde was grounded after two and a half years of the crash. Official reports state that the main cause of the crash was a piece of metal dropped by a Continental aircraft that flew moments before Concorde, but, over the last decade, the report has met a lot of criticism, and many alternative hypotheses have thus been proposed.
Throughout the course of my sixteen-year old life, I have experienced the unfortunate incident of taking a trip to the emergency room several times. The majority of them however were only for the typical injuries of an individual who shares in my liking for an adrenaline rush, and a lack of common sense. I never actually considered being seriously injured as a possible consequence of my actions. Of course, I have never tried to attempt any incredibly dangerous act without thinking it completely through. Nonetheless, previously I thought being alive could consistently be taken for granted, and as a result I never felt as thankful for living as I should have been. It was not until January 2009 that I truly was in a situation where I was in danger of losing my life, and ironically I had no responsibility in causing the incident.
Football as we know it today was born out of the Hillsborough disaster as this event came to change the face and experience of watching football in England, as well as in Europe. Although much controversy has evolved about the true cause of the catastrophe, the blame for the disaster has since fallen on Chief Superintendent David Duckenfield, who was in
Walking, there is no end in sight: stranded on a narrow country road for all eternity. It is almost dark now. The clouds having moved in secretively. When did that happen? I am so far away from all that is familiar. The trees are groaning against the wind’s fury: when did the wind start blowing? Have I been walking for so long that time hysterically slipped away! The leaves are rustling about swirling through the air like discarded post-it notes smashing, slapping against the trees and blacktop, “splat-snap”. Where did the sun go? It gave the impression only an instant ago, or had it been longer; that it was going to be a still and peaceful sunny day; has panic from hunger and walking so long finally crept in? Waking up this morning, had I been warned of the impending day, the highs and lows that I would soon face, and the unexpected twist of fate that awaited me, I would have stayed in bed.