Sporting air crashes: The survivors and the victims

Dinamo Bucharest's team were lucky when they escaped death when their plane was forced into an emergency landing. Sadly isn't the first sportsman be involved in an air crash as these stories show.

1. Munich Air Crash
In February 1958 the Manchester United team was flying home from a European Cup tie against Red Star Belgrade when the plane landed in Munich for refuelling. When it came to continue the journey a snowstorm had set in and on the third take off attempt the plane crashed into the airport perimeter fence. 23 of the 44 on board were killed, including eight Manchester United players, the club secretary, chief coach, trainer, and eight journalists. Those who survived the crash included manager Sir Matt Busby and Bobby Charlton.

2. David Coulthard
F1 driver David Coulthard escaped death in 2000 after being involved in a plane crash which killed both pilots. The British driver suffered minor injuries when the private plane came down in flames in France after the pilot requested an emergency landing because of engine trouble.

3. Frankie Dettori and Ray Cochrane
One month after Coulthard's crash top jockeys Frankie Dettori and Ray Cochrane were involved in an air crash at Newmarket racecourse. The light airplane in which they were travelling crashed during take-off, catching fire. The pilot died in the burning plane, while Frankie Dettori broke his ankle and Ray Cochrane suffered extensive bruising to his chest and face.

4. Hansie Cronje
In 2002, two years after been found guilty of match fixing and banned from cricket for life, the former South African cricket captain died when the postal plane he was flying in crashed into the Outeniqua mountains, near George, South Africa. Had Cronje not missed his scheduled South African Airlines flight he would not have taken the lift in the stricken cargo plane.

5. Payne Stewart
The three time Major winner - famed for is outrageous on-course dress sense - died in a tragic air accident in 1991. The golfer was travelling by Lear Jet from Florida to Texas when the aircraft suffered a pressurisation failure which asphyxiated all six people on board. Because the plane was set to autopilot at the time it continued to fly for 1,500 miles before crashing in a field in South Dakota.

6. 'Alive' rugby team
The 'Old Christians' Uruguayan Rugby team famously crashed in the Andes in 1972 while en-route to a fixture in Santiago, Chile. Of the 45 on board, 16 survived for 72 days after a decision was taken to eat the bodies of the dead. The amazing story was made into a 1993 film Alive, narrated by John Malkovich.

7. Graham Hill
The motor racing great died in November, 1975 only four months after his retirement. Hill was flying his private plane from France to London when he crashed into trees on a Hertfordshire golf course after encountering thick fog. He and his five passengers all lost their lives.

8. Rocky Marciano
The heavyweight boxer was a passenger in a private plane which crashed after an attempted landing in 1969. The inexperienced pilot hit a tree after bad weather set in during a flight to Iowa. Marciano was killed on impact.

9. Cory Lidle
American baseball star Lidle died after his small aircraft hit a building in New York in 2006. The New York Yankees pitcher was learning to fly when his plane crashed into an apartment block. The incident caused jet fighters to be scrambled above a handful of major American cities.

10. Len Koenecke
The Brooklyn Dodgers baseball player died in 1935 following a bizarre air rage incident. After being kicked off the team's American Airlines flight for being too drunk, Koenecke chartered a private plane to take him to Buffalo. On the flight got into a fight with the pilot and drunkenly tried to wrestle the controls from him. The pilot and flight crew turned on him and he was beaten him to death with a fire extinguisher.