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Munich Air Disaster: Captain Thain's Ordeal
 
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Munich Air Disaster: Captain Thain's Ordeal (Unknown Binding)
by Stanley Williamson (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars  (1 customer review)

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4 used & new available from £40.00
Product details
  • Unknown Binding: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Cassirer (26 Feb 1973)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0851810055
  • ISBN-13: 978-0851810058
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 404,503 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
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5.0 out of 5 stars An injustice that must give back what it wrongly took, 7 Feb 2008
I had always rememered the incident as a young boy because my father (a Polish refugee) had worked in the Ashington coal mines in Northumberland rubbing shoulders so to say with members of the Charltons and the Milburn family who worked at the pit.

I later became an aircraft engineer who had left home in Manchester during the late 1960's to work at London's Heathrow Airport for BOAC. I will always remember reading this book in the early '70s on the Munich Air Disaster by Stanley Williamsom which unfolded the a little known sad and tragic part of the whole story

So if you can spare a thought and a prayer on the tragic story of the co pilot who survived, Captain James Thain - who was the pilot wrongly accused of causing the crash.

The German aviation authorities at that time had insisted ice on the wings caused the crash and an inquiry concluded this was a clear case of pilot error. Ken Rayment the pilot was dead so the finger of blame pointed firmly to just one man.

Captain James Thain was suspended from British European Airways and made a scapegoat. He spent the next 11 years trying to clear his name. It cost him his job and because BEA had sacked him he lost his all his pension rights, they even fined him for the loss of his airline pilots cap! Rough justice indeed for a man who was an injured survivior and victim. Two German inquiries had been held into the crash and on both occasions it blamed him.

It was not until 1969 that the results of a British investigation revealed it was slush on the runway, the responsibility of Munich airport, and not ice on the wings which was the responsibility of the pilot - that caused the crash.
The British findings concluded: "Blame for the accident is not to be imputed to Captain Thain." But the Germans never accepted this, even to this day 50 years later the German authorities still refuse to accept the British findings on the accident. No apology or restiution was ever made to him or his family for this terrible injustice

James Thain never flew as a pilot again. The trauma continued for him and his family until he sadly died of a heart attack aged just 54 believing that he was the victim of a great injustice. He was an honest man and a fine pilot, and the crash was not his fault.

Indeed, I have read an article (The Times on line) recently that declassified British files show that, while the authorities privately took Capt Thain's side all along, they did not exert more pressure in order to avoid embarrassing the Germans in the fraught postwar atmosphere.
Also an investigation just last year by aviation historian Stephen Morrin for his new book of the same title on the tragedy pointed out that James Thain was a hero and had tried to rescue passengers from the wreckage.

As a footnote I read online in the UK press that Sebuda Thain (daugther of James Thain) will finally lay to rest the cruel slur that destroyed her father and blighted the past 50 years of her life.
Despite the painful memories, she will take her place alongside Manchester United fans and the families of the 23 passengers and crew killed in the crash at todays service to mark the Munich air disaster.
She says her beloved father Captain James Thain - the pilot wrongly accused of causing the crash - would want her to be there and she is determined to pay his respects to the dead and we all can remember a forgotten part of this sad story,

God bless all the lost souls. May they all Rest In Peace - Amen
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