Superga Air Disaster 64th Anniversary

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

The Avio Linee Italiane (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. They were forced to descend to be able to fly visually. While descending for Turin, the aircraft crashed against the base of the rear wall of the Basilica complex at the top of the hill of Superga.[1] Italian authorities cited low cloud, poor radio aids and an error in navigation as factors contributing to the accident.[2][3]

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 Series 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 the matches and the scudetto. 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 three players remained: Sauro Tomà missed the trip to Portugal due to injury. As well, the Hungarian star László 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. Another youth team player, Luigi Giuliano, who played several games and scored 4 goals earlier in the season for the main squad, did not obtain the passport in time and also survived.

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.

On 26 May 1949 there was a charity game for the victim's families between the "Torino Simbolo" (symbolic Torino) made up of the remaining best of the Serie A against South American giants River Plate. "La Maquina" had such immortal players like Norberto Yacono, Alfredo di Stefano and Angel Labruna. The game ended in a 2-2 draw.

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

R.I.P

They will never be forgotten.

Rest in peace.

R.I.P

A sad day for the whole of Football.
RIP

RIP

R.I.P

rip

R.I.P.

Its sad such events are not given as much importance as a less popular team suffered it.

RIP
Ill do my bit and make my friends aware of this.

RIP

Nishank wrote:Its sad such events are not given as much importance as a less popular team suffered it.

RIP
Ill do my bit and make my friends aware of this.

Nishy that Torino team was the the most dominant Italian side of that period. One of the greatest Italian sides of all time. They would be power house right now had that accident never happened.

R.I.P

We hear about Munich every day, but we only rarely hear about this.

RIP.

Messiah "Aggerswagger" wrote:

Nishank wrote:Its sad such events are not given as much importance as a less popular team suffered it.

RIP
Ill do my bit and make my friends aware of this.

Nishy that Torino team was the the most dominant Italian side of that period. One of the greatest Italian sides of all time. They would be power house right now had that accident never happened.

R.I.P

AltoZ wrote:We hear about Munich every day, but we only rarely hear about this.

RIP.

This, Also Hillsborough, Heysel..

Yep, english teams, english teams...

Hillsborough didn't involve an english team ?

RealGunner wrote:Hillsborough didn't involve an english team ?

He didn't mean that. I think he just listed the tragic footballing related catastrophes

It took 20 years for the Italian National team to recover. Torino never recovered.

Valentino Mazzola was actually one of the first greats of the game.

10 Torino players in italian national team??? thats stunning.

So sorry for the tragedy... my prayers and thoughts

Here are some records that Grande Torino still has so people can understand for what a great team we are talking about.





Joint holder of most consecutive Italian Serie A league titles (5), from 1943 to 1949 (1942/43, 1945/46, 1946/47, 1947/48, 1948/49; in 1944 and 1945 no league matches were played because of World War II). This tied Juventus' record from 1931–35, and Inter equalled it from 2006–10.

Most consecutive seasons undefeated at home: 4 straight seasons (1945/46, 1946/47, 1947/48, 1948/49)

Most consecutive league matches undefeated at home: 93 straight matches, with 83 wins and 10 draws (from 24 January 1943 to 30 April 1949) and just two visiting teams that didn't allow any goal.

Most points in one season (before the 3 points per win rules): 65 points (1947/48)

Biggest ever advantage on the English average: 6 points above (1946/47)

Greatest ever home win: 10–0 to Alessandria (1947/48)

Greatest ever away win: 0–7 to AS Roma (1945/46 Serie A Finals)

Most wins in one season (16 teams league): 20 wins in 30 matches
(1942/43)

Most wins in one season (21 teams league): 29 wins in 40 matches (1947/48)

Most home wins in one season: 19 wins on 20 matches (1947/48)

Most away wins in one season (16 teams league): 10 wins in 15 matches (1942/43)

Most home points in one season: 39 points on 40 available (1947/48)

Most away points in one season (16 teams league): 22 points on 30 available (1942/43)

Fewest home points lost in one season: 1 point on 40 available (1947/48 and 1948/49)

Fewest away defeats in one season: 3 defeats on 19 matches (1946/47 and 1948/49)

Most goals scored in one season: 125 goals (1947/48)

Most home goals scored in one season: 89 goals (1947/48)

Most away goals scored in one season (16 teams league): 31 goals (1942/43)

Most goals scored in the 5 championship seasons: 408 goals scored (1942/43, 1945/46, 1946/47, 1947/48, 1948/49)

Fewest goals suffered in one season (21 teams league): 33 goals (1947/48)

Fewest away goals suffered in one season (16 teams league): 9 goals (1942/43)

Best ever average of goals scored in one season: 3.125 goals per match (1947/48)

Most points in the second half of the season: 36 points on 40 available (1947/48)

Andrew_p wrote:Here are some records that Grande Torino still has so people can understand for what a great team we are talking about.





Joint holder of most consecutive Italian Serie A league titles (5), from 1943 to 1949 (1942/43, 1945/46, 1946/47, 1947/48, 1948/49; in 1944 and 1945 no league matches were played because of World War II). This tied Juventus' record from 1931–35, and Inter equalled it from 2006–10.

Most consecutive seasons undefeated at home: 4 straight seasons (1945/46, 1946/47, 1947/48, 1948/49)

Most consecutive league matches undefeated at home: 93 straight matches, with 83 wins and 10 draws (from 24 January 1943 to 30 April 1949) and just two visiting teams that didn't allow any goal.

Most points in one season (before the 3 points per win rules): 65 points (1947/48)

Biggest ever advantage on the English average: 6 points above (1946/47)

Greatest ever home win: 10–0 to Alessandria (1947/48)

Greatest ever away win: 0–7 to AS Roma (1945/46 Serie A Finals)

Most wins in one season (16 teams league): 20 wins in 30 matches
(1942/43)

Most wins in one season (21 teams league): 29 wins in 40 matches (1947/48)

Most home wins in one season: 19 wins on 20 matches (1947/48)

Most away wins in one season (16 teams league): 10 wins in 15 matches (1942/43)

Most home points in one season: 39 points on 40 available (1947/48)

Most away points in one season (16 teams league): 22 points on 30 available (1942/43)

Fewest home points lost in one season: 1 point on 40 available (1947/48 and 1948/49)

Fewest away defeats in one season: 3 defeats on 19 matches (1946/47 and 1948/49)

Most goals scored in one season: 125 goals (1947/48)

Most home goals scored in one season: 89 goals (1947/48)

Most away goals scored in one season (16 teams league): 31 goals (1942/43)

Most goals scored in the 5 championship seasons: 408 goals scored (1942/43, 1945/46, 1946/47, 1947/48, 1948/49)

Fewest goals suffered in one season (21 teams league): 33 goals (1947/48)

Fewest away goals suffered in one season (16 teams league): 9 goals (1942/43)

Best ever average of goals scored in one season: 3.125 goals per match (1947/48)

Most points in the second half of the season: 36 points on 40 available (1947/48)

thats amazing... by that kind of record, they are one of the all time top club!!

Torino were far, far better than Juventus back then. I think they won 5 titles straight.

R.I.P. Grande Torino

If it was not for this, Torino would one of the European elite. That was one of the greatest teams ever. This crash set back Italian national team badly too. Some people consider Valentino Mazzola the greatest Italian footballer of all time, such cruel fate befell them.

Grande Torino