Superga air disaster

The Superga air disaster took place on Wednesday, May 4, 1949, when a plane carrying almost the entire Torino A.C. football squad, popularly known as Il Grande Torino, crashed into the hill of Superga near Turin killing all 31 aboard including 18 players, club officials, journalists accompanying the team, and the plane's crew. The team was returning from a farewell match for José Ferreira against Benfica in Lisbon.

Crash

The Italian Airlines Fiat G212CP carrying the team flew into a thunderstorm on the approach to Turin and encountered conditions of low cloud and poor visibility. After descending to be able to fly visually the plane clipped a wall close to the Basilica of Superga and crashed. Italian authorities cited low cloud, poor radio aids and an error in navigation as factors contributing to the accident. [http://aviation-safety.net/database/record.php?id=19490504-1&lang=en Aviation Safety Network - accident summary report] [http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A17090697 BBC - Famous Air Crash Victims - Part 3: Sportsmen]

The emotional impact the crash made on Italian sports fans was profound, as it claimed the lives of the players of a legendary team which had won the last Serie A title before the league play was interrupted in 1944 by World War II and had then returned after the conflict to win four consecutive titles (1946–1949).

At the time of the crash Torino A.C. was leading Serie A with four games left to play in the season. The club carried on by fielding its youth team (Primavera) and in a sign of respect their opponents in each of these matches (Genoa, Palermo, Sampdoria, and Fiorentina) also fielded their youth sides. Primavera won each of their matches. The disaster seriously weakened the country's national side which had included up to 10 Torino players. Torino itself would not claim another title until 1976.

Of the entire squad only one player remained: Sauro Tomà missed the trip to Portugal due to injury. The Hungarian star Ladislao Kubala, who was to give a guest performance in Lisbon, had just been re-united with his wife and son. The boy was ill and Kubala stayed back to help care for him, missing the fatal trip.

The son of captain Valentino Mazzola, Sandro, became a player of international fame in his own right in the 1960s playing with Inter Milan. Both father and son wore the number 10.

Victims

; Players
* Valerio Bacigalupo
* Aldo Ballarin
* Dino Ballarin
* Milo Bongiorni
* Eusebio Castigliano
* Rubens Fadini
* Guglielmo Gabetto
* Ruggero Grava
* Giuseppe Grezar
* Ezio Loik
* Virgilio Maroso
* Danilo Martelli
* Valentino Mazzola
* Romeo Menti
* Piero Operto
* Franco Ossola
* Mario Rigamonti
* Julius Schubert

; Club officials
* Arnaldo Agnisetta, manager
* Ippolito Civalleri, manager
* Egri Erbstein, trainer
* Leslie Lievesley, coach
* Ottavio Corina, masseur

; Journalists

* Renato Casalbore, (founder of "Tuttosport")
* Luigi Cavallero, ("La Stampa")
* Renato Tosatti, ("Gazzetta del Popolo")

; Crew

* Pierluigi Meroni, captain
* Antonio Pangrazi
* Celestino D'Inca
* Cesare Biancardi

; Others

* Andrea Bonaiuti, organiser

See also

* The Munich air disaster killed several members of English side Manchester United F.C. in 1958.
*The entire 1961 United States figure skating team died in the crash of Sabena Flight 548 on their way to the World Championships.
* The 1970 crash of Southern Airways Flight 932 killed nearly all of the Marshall University football team, almost wiping out the university's football program.
* The 1989 crash of Surinam Airways Flight PY764 killed a group of Surinamese players known as "The Colorful 11", whose members played professional football in the Netherlands.
* Nearly the entire Zambia national football team was killed in a 1993 crash.

External links

* [http://www.ilgrandetorino.net/index.htm Memorial museum page] (in Italian)

Notes and references