From a huge hockey fan, God bless Yaroslavl Lokomotiv.
The airplane carrying the Russian pro hockey team was headed for Minsk for the team's first game of the season when it crashed almost as soon as it took off. Forty-three of the 45 people were immediately killed when the plane slammed into a beacon tower and into the banks some 500 meters from where it took off.
When I saw this on the news, I recalled the plane crash that took the lives of seven Manchester United players (I think they call this the Munich Air Disaster) in 1958, and the Marshall University Thundering Herd tragedy 12 years later in 1970 when a Southern Airways flight carrying almost the entire team crashed right before it was supposed to land.
The Lokomotiv tragedy ironically comes right before the team is supposed to play it's first game of the new KHL season. Feel sad for the family of Lokomotiv head coach Brad McCrimmon who was in his first head coaching job after leaving the Detroit Red Wings last season (he believed that his path to being an NHL head coach was to go to the high-level KHL, considered second best in the world after the NHL). The game against Minsk was to be his first game as boss.
Yeah pretty sad, Rick. Brad McCrimmon and Ruslan Salei were with the Detroit Redwings organization last year and Stefan Lviv was a one time prospect who was in their minor league organization for awhile. They were all good people who were well liked by fans and staff alike.
ReplyDeleteMy sincerest condolences to the families they have left behind, some of whom are still living in the Michigan area.