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"All flights cancelled. Flying home tomorrow. Duncan."

What Duncan Edwards' telegram to his landlady said.

"The silence on the aircraft was punctuated by a nervous cough, then a snigger."

Harry Gregg

"I don't know what you are laughing at, we're all going to get killed here."

Johnny Berry

"We are going to die."

Ray Wood

"Well, if this is the time, then I’m ready."

Liam Whelan, ahead of take-off at Munich, prepares for death

"As we accelerated down the runway, something told me we were not going to make it. My last memory is of pushing a pack of cards into my pocket."

Bill Foulkes, 2008

"I didn’t know where I was. I was still sitting in my seat - which had somehow been ripped from underneath the plane. I thought I’d just closed my eyes. Afterwards, Harry Gregg and Bill Foulkes said I’d been unconscious for quarter of an hour."

Sir Bobby Charlton

"There was no screaming, no sounds, only the terrible shearing of metal. Something cracked my skull like a hard-boiled egg. I was hit again at the front. The salty taste of blood was in my mouth. I was afraid to put my hands to my head."

Gregg

"My strangest souvenir was the pack of playing cards. I had not the slightest bruise on me, and my pocket was not ripped, yet the top quarter-inch of those cards had been sliced off and had disappeared. The cut was so clean. How they came to be like that was a total mystery."

Foulkes

"Let's have some bloody attention!"

Duncan Edwards, when teammates visited him in hospital

"Get stuck in."

What Duncan Edwards told United assistant Jimmy Murphy from his hospital bed

"Keep the red flag flying."

Busby instructs Jimmy Murphy from his hospital bed

"United will go on."

The United Review programme's cover for the first post-Munich match against Sheffield Wednesday.

"Ladies and gentlemen, I am speaking to you from my hospital bed in Munich, where I have been for a month since the tragic accident. You will be glad, I'm sure, that the remaining players here and myself, are now considered out of danger and this can be attributed to the wonderful treatment given us by Professor Maurer and his staff, who are with you today as guests of the club.

It is only in the past two or three days that I have been able to be told about football and I am delighted to heard of the success and united effort made by all at Old Trafford. Again it is wonderful to hear that the club has reached the semi-final of the FA Cup and I extend my best wishes to everyone."

A Busby recording is played at Old Trafford ahead of the game with West Brom on March 8

"There is no doubt that but for that failed take-off, Manchester United were destined for great things."

David Meek, Manchester Evening News reporter

"I've never got over it."

Jackie Blanchflower

"The notoriety has come at a price, for Munich has cast a shadow over my life which I found difficult to dispel."

Gregg in his autobiography

"I've been affected since a young boy. It was a sad time. For many it's probably long forgotten but for someone like me who remembers the day, you won't forget it."

Sir Alex Ferguson, 2013

See our Munich interactive timeline - click 'Open' below (not compatible with iPhone/Safari)