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This is a list of accidents where all or part of a major sports team had been killed or seriously injured.
(Click on date for associated article)
Date | Team | Sport | Airline | Aircraft | Location | Fatalities | Description | Ref | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total | Team | ||||||||
31 March 1931 | Notre Dame | American football | Transcontinental & Western Air | Fokker F.10 | Bazaar, Kansas, United States | 8 | 1 | Famed football coach Knute Rockne killed. | |
31 March 1933 | Winnipeg Toilers | Basketball | Private | Ford Tri-Motor | Neodesha, Kansas | 7 | ? | Crashed into a field attempting a forced landing on a flight from Tulsa. | [1] |
13 January 1946 | Army swimming team | Swimming | USAAF | Curtiss Commando | Pacific Ocean near Majuro, Marshall Islands | 12 | ? | Crashed on a flight to Johnston Island; 17 occupants swam to shore, other 12 missing. | [2] |
6 August 1947 | Army-Navy softball team | Softball | United States Navy | Consolidated PBY Catalina | within Alaska, United States | 20 | ? | Disappeared flying from Kodiak to Dutch Harbor ( Unalaska). | [3] |
11 January 1948 | BBC Santiago | Baseball | Dominicana de Aviacion | Douglas C-47 | Yamasa, Dominican Republic | 32 | ? | Team was returning from matches in Barahona and encountered severe weather, crashing into a mountain trying to divert to Ciudad Trujillo. | [4] |
8 November 1948 | Czechoslovak national ice hockey team | Ice hockey | Escadrille Mercure Taxis Aeriens | Beechcraft C18S | English Channel | 8 | 6 | Six players of Czechoslovak national ice hockey team including Ladislav Troják were killed on their way to Great Britain. | [5] |
4 May 1949 | Torino F.C. | Association football | Avio Linee Italiane | Fiat G212CP | Superga, Turin, Italy | 31 | 23 | Eighteen players of the Grande Torino and five club officials were killed when the plane crashed on its landing approach to the Turin airport. | |
5 January 1950 | VVS Moscow | Ice hockey | Soviet Air Force | Lisunov Li-2 | Sverdlovsk, Soviet Union | 19 | 13 | Almost the entire team was killed in a crash during a fifth attempt to land at Koltsovo Airport at Sverdlovsk (modern day Yekaterinburg) in extremely adverse weather conditions involving a heavy snowstorm with strong winds. | |
2 April 1952 | IFK Norrköping | Association football | Fred Olsen Flyveselskap | Douglas C-47 | Mimizan, France | 0 | 0 | Belly landed on a beach after engine failure on a flight from Madrid to Bordeaux. | [6] |
24 November 1956 | TJ Baník Chomutov | Ice hockey | Czechoslovak Airlines | Ilyushin Il-12B | Eglisau, Switzerland | 23 | 5 | Three players, two top club officials and a reporter were among others on board the scheduled flight from Zurich to Prague, which crashed in fields after an engine failure. All on board perished. | [7] [8] |
9 December 1956 |
Saskatchewan Roughriders Winnipeg Blue Bombers |
Canadian football | Trans-Canada Air Lines | Canadair North Star | Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada | 62 | 5 | Five players were killed returning home from that year's all-star game held in Vancouver, BC. The plane crashed into Mount Slesse near Chilliwack after encountering severe icing and turbulence over the mountains. | |
6 February 1958 | Manchester United | Association football | British European Airways | Airspeed AS-57 Ambassador | Munich, West Germany | 23 | 11 | Eight players and three club staff members killed when their plane failed to take off on its third attempt. Of the remaining team, two players received career-ending injuries. | [9] |
14 August 1958 | Egypt national fencing team | Fencing | KLM | Lockheed L-1049H-01-06-162 Super Constellation | Atlantic Ocean off Ireland | 99 | 6 | Six players killed. | |
16 July 1960 | Danish Olympic football triallists | Association football | Zone-Redningskorpset | De Havilland Dragon Rapide | Copenhagen, Denmark | 8 | 8 | Eight players killed. | |
29 October 1960 | California Polytechnic State University | American football | Arctic Pacific | Curtiss C-46F-1-CU Commando | Toledo, Ohio, United States | 22 | 17 | Sixteen players killed. | |
15 February 1961 | US figure skating team | Figure skating | Sabena | Boeing 707 | Brussels, Belgium | 73 | 25 | Entire team killed while en route to the World Figure Skating Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia. | |
3 April 1961 | C.D. Green Cross | Association football | LAN Chile | Douglas C-47A-35-DL | Llico, Chile | 24 | 8 | Eight members of the team killed. | [10] |
6 February 1965 | Santiago's Antonio Varas football team | Association football | LAN Chile | Douglas DC-6B-404 | Andes Mountains, Chile | 87 | 22 | Twenty-two players and staff of team killed. | |
28 January 1966 | Italy national swimming team | Swimming | Lufthansa | Convair CV-440 | Bremen, West Germany | 46 | 8 | Eight members of team were killed. | |
26 September 1969 | The Strongest | Association football | Lloyd Aéreo Boliviano | Douglas DC-6 | Viloco, Bolivia | 74 | 20 | Seventeen players and three team staff members were killed. | |
15 February 1970 | Puerto Rico women's national volleyball team | Volleyball | Dominicana de Aviación | McDonnell Douglas DC-9 | Caribbean Sea near Las Américas Int'l Airport | 102 | 12 | The head coach and eleven players were killed. | [11] |
1 April 1970 | Youth ice hockey team from Novosibirsk | Ice Hockey | Aeroflot | Antonov An-24B | 20 km southeast of Toguchin | 45 | ? | Caused by a collision with a weather balloon. The team was on its way to participate in the Golden Puck tournament. There were no survivors. | [12] |
2 October 1970 | Wichita State University | American football | Golden Eagle Aviation | Martin 4-0-4 | Clear Creek County, Colorado, United States | 31 | 15 | 14 players and coach Ben Wilson killed. One of two planes en route to game vs. Utah State University. Other plane with reserve players and assistant coaches landed safely at Logan, Utah. | |
14 November 1970 | Marshall University | American football | Southern Airways | McDonnell Douglas DC-9 | Wayne County, West Virginia, United States | 75 | 46 | Most of the team killed as plane hit tree line and exploded upon impact as it made final approach to Tri-State Airport in Ceredo, West Virginia. Plane was flying team back to campus after game at East Carolina University. Among those killed were 37 players and 9 coaching staff members. | |
13 October 1972 | Old Christians Club | Rugby union | Uruguayan Air Force | Fairchild FH-227 | Argentina | 29 | 12 | Eleven players were killed. Survivors resorted to cannibalism until their rescue on December 23. | |
13 February 1975 | Västra Frölunda IF | Ice hockey | Baron Air | Cessna 402 | Gävle, Sweden | 0 | 0 [note] | Seven players injured when Baron Air SE-GGN crashed. | [13] [14] |
29 November 1975 | Embassy Racing With Graham Hill | Auto racing | N/A | Piper PA-23 | North London, England | 6 | 6 | Six team members killed while returning from a test session at Circuit Paul Ricard in France. The dead included recently-retired double Formula One champion Graham Hill (who piloted the plane) and driver Tony Brise. | |
6 October 1976 | Cuban National Fencing Team | Fencing | Cubana de Aviación | Douglas DC-8 | Seawell Airport, Bridgetown, Barbados | 73 | 24 | 24 members of the 1975 national Cuban fencing team were all killed as a result of a bomb on board. | |
13 December 1977 | University of Evansville | Men's basketball | Air Indiana | DC-3 | Evansville, Indiana, United States | 29 | 19 | Entire team (save one player) and coaching staff, along with members of the press, boosters, and plane crew, are all killed in crash shortly after take-off from Evansville en route to a game against Middle Tennessee State University. The sole team member who did not board the plane died in a car crash two weeks later. | |
11 August 1979 | FC Pakhtakor Tashkent | Association football | Aeroflot | Tupolev Tu-134 | Dniprodzerzhynsk, Soviet Union | 178 | 17 | Entire team killed in mid-air collision | |
10 January 1980 | Louisiana State University | American football | Private | Cessna 441 Conquest II | Atlantic Ocean off Virginia | 2 | 1 | Coach Bo Rein and pilot killed when plane flew well off course and crashed after running out of fuel | |
14 March 1980 | US amateur boxing team | Boxing | LOT Polish Airlines | Ilyushin Il-62 | Warsaw, Poland | 87 | 14 | Killed a 14-man American boxing team | |
25 November 1985 | Iowa State Cyclones women's cross country team | Cross country running | Private | Aero Commander twin-engine | Des Moines, Iowa, United States | 7 | 6 | All killed on the return trip from the 1985 Championships. 15 other members of the men's team and coaching staff were aboard 2 other planes which successfully made the trip the same night. | [15] |
8 December 1987 | Alianza Lima | Association football | Peruvian Navy | Fokker F27 | Lima, Peru | 43 | 23 | Entire team killed | |
7 June 1989 | Colourful 11 | Association football | Surinam Airways | Douglas DC-8 | Paramaribo, Suriname | 176 | 15 | 15 players died, 3 survived with career-ending injuries | |
1 April 1993 | Alan Kulwicki Racing | Auto racing | Private plane | Swearingen Merlin III | near Blountville, Tennessee, United States | 4 | 1 | NASCAR driver Alan Kulwicki, two executives of the Hooters restaurant chain, and the pilot were killed while on approach to the nearby Tri-Cities Regional Airport. | |
27 April 1993 | Zambia national football team | Association football | Zambian Air Force | De Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo | Atlantic Ocean off Gabon | 30 | 22 | All killed. Their captain and star player Kalusha Bwalya was slated to travel separately from his European club and so was the only player left of the entire squad | |
27 January 2001 | Oklahoma State University | Men's basketball | Charter flight | Beechcraft Super King Air | Strasburg, Colorado, United States | 10 | 8 | Two players killed, as well as some team staff and media | [16] |
24 October 2004 | Hendrick Motorsports | Auto racing | Charter flight | Beechcraft Super King Air | Martinsville, Virginia, United States | 10 | 3 | Flight featured race team president John Hendrick, chief engine builder Randy Dorton, and former driver Ricky Hendrick among the victims. All aboard were killed. | |
30 March 2008 | Apex Motorsports | Auto racing | Charter flight | Cessna Citation 501 | Farnborough, London, England | 5 | 3 | All killed including team manager ( Richard Lloyd), driver ( David Leslie) and a data engineer. | |
7 September 2011 | Lokomotiv Yaroslavl | Ice hockey | Yak-Service | Yakovlev Yak-42 | Yaroslavl, Russia | 44 | 37 | All killed, one player survived impact but died in hospital | [17] |
17 November 2011 | Oklahoma State University | Women's basketball | Charter flight | Piper PA-28 Cherokee | Perryville, Arkansas, United States | 4 | 2 | Head coach, assistant coach, and others | [18] |
28 November 2016 | Chapecoense | Association football | LaMia Bolivia, CA Charter Flight | Avro RJ85 (BAe 146) | La Unión, Antioquia, Colombia | 71 | 42 | Crashed at Medellín, Colombia en route to attend the 2016 Copa Sudamericana Finals against Atletico Nacional. Among those killed were: 19 players, 14 club staff members, 9 club board members and 4 Fox Sports Brazil journalists. Three players survived the crash, with one player received career-ending injury. | [19] |
24 January 2021 | Palmas | Association football | Charter flight | Beechcraft Baron | Porto Nacional, Tocantins, Brazil | 6 | 5 | Crashed at Luzimangues, a district of Porto Nacional, Tocantins, Brazil. Four players and the president of Brazilian club Palmas were killed. They were traveling to Goiania in a light aircraft for an away game against Vila Nova in the Copa Verde, an annual competition played between 24 teams from the north and central-west regions of Brazil. | [20] |
1. ^ Frölunda chartered three planes to carry the entire team's roster, one of which carried seven team members and crashed.
(Click on date for associated article where present)
Date | Team | Sport | Transportation | Location | Fatalities | Description | Ref |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
31 October 1903 | Purdue University | American football | Train | Indiana, United States | 17 | 14 members of team killed | |
22 January 1927 | Baylor University | Basketball | Bus | Texas, United States | 10 | 10 members of team killed | |
3 October 1936 | L'Aquila Calcio | Association football | Train | Lazio, Italy | 15 | Coach dead and all players forced to quit professional football due to injuries in a train crash in Contigliano, on the Terni–Sulmona railway. Team was relegated never managed to recover the second-tier Serie B league. 15 or more were killed. | [21] |
11 March 1949 | St. Edwards High School | Basketball | 1949 Ford | Elgin, Illinois, United States | 0 | 7 people (4 high school students and 3 workers from defunct radio station WILA-FM licensed in Woodstock) were injured after their 1949 Ford Station Wagon collided with a Buick while returning back from an Elgin Vs. Carpentersville high school basketball game. | [22] |
5 July 1951 | Þór Akureyri | Association football & Athletics | Bus | Óshlíð, Iceland | 2 | 2 members of club killed, one was part of the football team the other was part of the Athletic team | [23] |
3 January 1973 | Vestal High School | Swimming | Bus | New York, United States | 3 | 3 members of the boys' swimming team killed, and 15 others were injured when their bus skidded on ice and overturned on the Southern Tier Expressway. | [24] |
24 November 1974 | Sherbrooke Castors | Ice hockey | Bus | Quebec, Canada | 1 | 1 member of team killed, 29 injured | |
21 January 1984 | Whitefish High School | Wrestling | Bus | Montana, United States | 9 | 9 members of the boys' wrestling team killed, and 18 others injured when their bus skidded on ice and collided with a gas tanker truck that was jackknifed in the middle of the road off of US Highway 2. | [25] |
30 December 1986 | Swift Current Broncos | Ice hockey | Bus | Saskatchewan, Canada | 4 | 4 members of team killed | [23] |
10 May 1987 | Querétaro F.C. | Association football | Bus | San Luis Potosí, Mexico | 3 | 3 members of team killed | [26] |
20 January 1989 | Samsunspor | Association football | Bus | Samsun, Turkey | 5 | 3 players and coach Nuri Asan killed. 2 players have career ending injuries. | [27] |
24 January 1992 | University of Notre Dame | Swimming | Bus | Indiana, United States | 2 | 2 members of the women's swim team killed | [28] |
21 May 1992 | California Angels | Baseball | Bus | New Jersey, United States | 0 | Angels manager Buck Rodgers, three coaches, four players, and four others were injured when their bus ran off the New Jersey Turnpike near Woodbury, New Jersey. | [29] |
5 November 1997 | HC CourmAosta | Ice hockey | Car | Aosta Valley, Italy | 1 | 1 player killed, 2 injured | [30] |
29 January 2005 | Windsor Wildcats U-21 Female Hockey | Ice hockey | Bus | New York, United States | 4 | Team coach, 2 passengers, and truck driver killed, 19 others injured when the team bus veered off the road and hit an illegally parked semi-trailer truck. | [31] [32] [33] |
2 March 2007 | Bluffton University | Baseball | Bus | Georgia, United States | 7 | 5 members of team killed, 2 bus drivers | |
12 January 2008 | Bathurst High School | Basketball | Van | New Brunswick, Canada | 8 | 7 members of team killed, 1 teacher | |
15 January 2009 | Brasil de Pelotas | Association football | Bus | Canguçu, Brazil | 3 | 2 players and one member of staff killed | [34] |
18 July 2009 | FC Dynamo Khmelnytskyi | Association football | Bus | Letychiv, Ukraine | 1 | 1 player killed ( Ihor Sholin), 2 other severely injured (including one career-ending injury) and multiple lighter injuries when their bus was hit by a truck. | [35] |
16 March 2013 | Seton Hill University | Lacrosse | Bus | Pennsylvania, United States | 2 | 1 coach and 1 bus driver killed | [36] |
18 February 2014 | Mes Kerman | Association football | Bus | Kerman-Tehran Road, Yazd province, Iran | 15 [37] | 15 member of team killed, several injured | [38] [39] |
28 February 2014 | Carleton Ultimate Team | Ultimate | Car | Minnesota, United States | 3 | 3 members of team killed, 2 seriously injured | [40] |
26 September 2014 | North Central Texas College | Softball | Bus | Oklahoma, United States | 4 | 4 members of team killed | |
6 April 2018 | Humboldt Broncos | Ice hockey | Bus | Saskatchewan, Canada | 16 | 10 players, 2 coaches, statistician, radio announcer, athletic trainer, and bus driver killed; 13 injured | [41] |
15 January 2020 | College of the Holy Cross | Rowing | Van | Vero Beach, Florida, United States | 1 | 1 member of the women’s rowing team killed, 7 others injured including 1 coach when the van made a left turn into the path of a truck. | [42] |
15 March 2022 | Southwest Mustangs | Golf | Van | Andrews County, Texas, United States | 9 | 6 members of the men's and women's golf teams killed (who were heading back from New Mexico), along with the head coach and two others, when a pickup truck crossed the centerline of the road and struck the team van in Western Texas. | [43] |
21 August 2022 | Indiana State University | American football | Car | Indiana SR 46, Riley, Indiana | 2 | The driver of the vehicle, an Indiana State University student was killed; 2 ISU football players were killed, 2 additional ISU football players were injured but survived the crash. | [44] [45] |
29 January 2023 | Vila Maria Helena FC | Association football | Bus | Além Paraíba, Brazil | 4 | The U16, U18 and U20 teams were returning to Duque de Caxias, Rio de Janeiro after a youth tournament in Ubaporanga. The bus fell off a bridge, 3 players and 1 adult died, 24 injured were taken to hospitals in Além Paraíba and the nearby city of Leopoldina, Minas Gerais. | [46] |
12 August 2023 | Hoang Anh Gia Lai FC | Association football | Car | Chư Pưh, Pleiku, Gia Lai, Vietnam | 3 | Kiatisuk Senamuang's personal car. Carrying 3 members of club by a private driver of the club, he collided with a truck from behind and then crashed into a truck in front, causing assistant coach Dương Minh Ninh, Doctor Đào Trọng Trí and Portuguese player Paollo Madeira died. | [47] |
24 December 2023 | Bam Khatoon F.C. | Association football | Car | Kerman-Bam Road, Kerman province, Iran | 1 |
Three players of Bam Khatoon and the Iran national team were involved in this accident. Melika Mohammadi was killed and Behnaz Taherkhani and Zahra Khajavi were injured. |
[48] |