Superga air disaster

The remains of the Grande Torino aircraft after the disaster.

The Superga air disaster happened on Wednesday, May 4, 1949, when a plane carrying almost the entire Grande Torino squad (18 players), plus management, journalists and crew, crashed into the Superga hills near Turin, killing everyone on board. In all, 31 people died.

The team was returning from José Ferreira's farewell match in Lisbon at the time of the crash. The crash was the biggest tragedy in Italian sports history since it claimed the lives of a legendary team that had won the Serie A title for the previous four years in a row (plus the last title before the outbreak of war). After the crash Torino F.C. did not win the title again until the 1975/76 season. Of the entire squad, only one player survived, Sauro Tomà who did not make the trip because he was injured. Also Barcelona player Ladislao Kubala was due to fly out to play in the match, but at the last minute didn't do it because of his son's ill health.

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
* Giulio Schubert

Club Officials

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

Journalists

* Renato Casalbore, (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

* Munich air disaster, 1958, which killed many in the then Manchester United F.C. team.
* The Zambia national football team was also killed in an airline crash in 1993