Charlton recalls Munich disaster every day

By Mike Collett

MANCHESTER (Reuters) - For Bobby Charlton not a day goes by without his thoughts drifting back to the Munich air disaster that wiped out so many of the Busby Babes.

Those who died were not just team mates but friends.

In his recent autobiography "My Manchester United Years", Charlton wrote: "Even now...it still reaches down and touches me every day. Sometimes I feel it quite lightly, a mere brush stroke against an otherwise happy mood.

"Sometimes it engulfs me with a terrible regret and sadness -- and guilt that I walked away and found so much. The Munich air crash is always there, always a factor that can never be discounted. Never put down like time-exhausted baggage."

Now aged 70, and with the 50th anniversary of the crash approaching, Charlton does not find it hard to talk about the moment his life changed forever.

While eight of his team mates died as a result of the crash at Munich on February 6 1958, he escaped with minor injuries.

He survived after being thrown from the plane and, despite being knocked unconscious, soon woke up on the runway strapped in his seat.

Remarkably, he was playing football again less than a month later and played 759 matches for United until he retired in 1973 -- more than any other player in the club's history.