6 February 1958

In Manchester, of course, the world has come to a stop. As the news comes through on this Thursday evening, factories close early. Tears are running down the red-brick walls of the great crucible of the industrial revolution. British European Airways Flight 609, scheduled to arrive at the city's Ringway airport at 5pm, has failed to leave the slush-carpeted runway at Munich airport, its refuelling stop on the way back from Belgrade.

We here at Abu Muqawama, you may have noticed, are pretty ridiculous sports fans in addition to all caring way too much about counterinsurgency strategy and tactics. It is hard, as a fan of sport, to read this without a tear welling up in the eye.