As the world is trying to come to terms with the Colombia plane crash, which went down near Medellin late Monday killing 71people on board and leaving only six survivors.
History is full of sport teams catastrophes, you would think we would be used to them by now
As the world is trying to come to terms with the Colombia plane crash, killing 71people on board History is full of such Catastrophes
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Among the dead, were the players and staff of Chapecoense Real team, a Brazilian football club which was on verge of making history by emerging as the South American champions in the Copa Sudamericana final Cup.
Calamities of such proportion can literally shake the very core of a country and it can take years for the wounds to heal. History however is strewn with such horrifying cases where entire teams have been wiped out from the face of earth in seconds.
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Torino soccer club plane crash in 1949
On May 1949, an airplane carrying 31 passengers slammed into a mountain peak, outside Turin, Italy. On board were 22 members of Torino soccer club. The plane crash shook Italy to the core, the psychological effects haunted the Italian soccer team for decades that a book detailing the crash was even written and titled “The day Italian football died”
Manchester United crash, 1958
The English football club will forever remember the events of Feb, 6 when the plane carrying Manchester United team crashed as it was taking off from Munich airport killing 23 passengers including eight players and eight journalists.
To commemorate the loss, a clock at Old Trafford stadium in Manchester was kept frozen at 3:04 p.m. the time of the crash.
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United States Figure Skating team crash
USA lost one of its most glittering talent, and it took years for it to recover following the plane crash.The 18-member team was on its way to the World Figure Skating Championships in Prague on 15th Feb 1961 after their plane plunged into a field in Belgium killing the entire team.
Zambian National Team plane crash, 1993
Zambia’s national team ‘chipolopolo’ were traveling to Dakar on April 27 to play against Senegal in a match to qualify for the World Cup.
The eagerly anticipated match however never took off, the plane Chipolopolo team were on board crashed over the Atlantic Ocean after refueling in Libreville, the capital of Gabon. Eighteen players and five officials from the team were killed.
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In 2012 in a highly emotional match many believed had already been predetermined by the gods, Zambia national team won the African Cup of Nations in Libreville, Gabon, the same country their teammates had perished in 19 years earlier. The victory was dedicated to those who had lost their lives.
1972, Old Christians Rugby Union Club disaster.
This is one of one of the most harrowing stories of survival, the story is so compelling that a book “Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors,” by Piers Paul Read and a 1993 Hollywood film “Alive.” Was inspired by the heroic deeds based on the story.
An Uruguayan Air Force charter plane carrying 45 people, most of them members of the Old Christians rugby club and their supporters, crashed on 13th Oct 1972, high in the Andes Mountains of Argentina.
Stranded at an altitude of more than 11,000 feet in freezing conditions with no food, 16 passengers were rescued 72 days after the crash.
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The survivors had reportedly survived by cannibalizing the frozen bodies of their fellow dead passengers.
Twenty-seven people survived the crash and their injuries in the first several days. Of the initial survivors, eight were killed by an avalanche while sleeping in the plane’s fuselage more than two weeks after the crash. The last 16 people were rescued after two of the team’s players trekked for 10 days looking for help.
(archives, americas-plane-crashes-sports-teams)
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