{"id":239122,"date":"2023-10-21T22:07:32","date_gmt":"2023-10-21T22:07:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/?p=239122"},"modified":"2023-10-21T22:07:32","modified_gmt":"2023-10-21T22:07:32","slug":"sir-bobby-charlton-remembers-the-munich-air-disaster-in-his-own-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lovemainstream.com\/lifestyle\/sir-bobby-charlton-remembers-the-munich-air-disaster-in-his-own-words\/","title":{"rendered":"Sir Bobby Charlton remembers the Munich Air Disaster in his own words"},"content":{"rendered":"
Bobby Charlton always said a day did not go by when his mind didn’t go back to the Munich air disaster in 1958, a tragedy which claimed the life of eight of the then 20-year-old’s Manchester United team-mates.<\/span><\/p>\n In his own words, spoken just before his 80th birthday, are a few of Charlton’s memories of that fateful day which changed his life.<\/span><\/p>\n Yes, it still touches me every day. Sometimes it fills me with a terrible regret and sadness – and guilt that I survived, walked away and found so much. Sometimes the moment passes very quickly, a fleeting thought, a pang of sadness and I get on with my day.<\/p>\n Other times it takes a greater hold. I think of the miracle of my life, the things I went on to see and do after the lads I loved so much had been taken away, and I have to believe that even miracles have a price.<\/p>\n For a little while, you see, football, all of life, had seemed to lose meaning. You think to yourself ‘why should it be me?’. There again, I was just lucky I happened to sit in the right place. When we got to the hospital I started ranting and raving.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In his own words, Sir Bobby Charlton reflected back on the Munich Air Disaster in 1958<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Charlton recalled being in a state of shock after the crash, with football losing its meaning<\/p>\n I just didn’t understand. The medical people came around and gave me an injection in the back of my neck and I just collapsed.\u00a0<\/p>\n I didn’t wake up until the following morning.<\/p>\n This German lad was there and he had a paper. He had a list of all the players and he read them out and if they were alive he would say ‘yes’ and if they were dead he said ‘no’.<\/p>\n I had to wait for a couple of days before I could get on the train to go home and when I was on my own I thought about it. I thought about it a lot and my personal friends were dead.<\/p>\n I’ve never stopped asking myself why I was able to run my hands over my body and find that I was still whole when Roger Byrne, Eddie Colman, Billy Whelan, David Pegg, Tommy Taylor, Mark Jones and Geoff Bent lay dead and Duncan Edwards, who I loved and admired, faced an unavailing battle for his life.<\/p>\n