He remembers what was "yesterday": Now Copenhagen will remember the forgotten airplane tragedy that cost the lives of eight national team players.

The 83-year-old Copenhagen politician Finn Rudaizky never forgets that summer day nearly 65 years ago.

A plane crashed shortly after takeoff from Kastrup Airport on July 16, 1960, into the Øresund with two of his clubmates from Boldklubben FREM in Valby on board. They died, and the same fate met six other football players on their way to a training camp in Herning in one of the major tragedies in Danish national team history.

Perhaps it is also a somewhat forgotten tragedy now many years later.

Therefore, Finn Rudaizky has been working at City Hall to have a memorial (https://www.kk.dk/sites/default/files/2025-03/Aftaletekst%20OFS%202024-2025.pdf) erected for the eight players, and it appears, after all appearances, that something will be done at Valby Sports Park, where, among others, FREM has a home ground.

Therefore, funds have been set aside to allow three yet unnamed artists to submit their proposals for how such a memorial could look.

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Yesterday

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Finn Rudaizky remembers the accident, which "was yesterday."

"One of them was my football teammate, with whom I played youth football in FREM," he says about the 19-year-old Ib Eskildsen:

"I knew him as a young man from Sydhavnen."

So it's also personal for you?

"Absolutely, absolutely," he says and adds that he also knew Søren Andersen, who was the other of the two deceased players from FREM.

In addition to FREM players, the following also died:

* 19-year-old Erling Spalk from Ikast FS, who was doing military service on Zealand.

* 21-year-old Per Funch Jensen from KB.

* 20-year-old Arne Karlsen from KB.

* 21-year-old Kurt Krahmer from KB.

* 29-year-old Erik Pondal Jensen from AB.

* 29-year-old Børge Bastholm Larsen from Køge.

The only survivor from the crash was the pilot, who was disabled and had his leg amputated.

Why should Copenhageners spend money on a project like this?

"It is a tragedy that happened in Copenhagen, and many of the dead have roots in Copenhagen clubs," Finn Rudaizky explains:

"It is part of the Copenhagen sports history, and it is important to know it as well."

Funds have been set aside for the purpose of finding the right artist and the right project.

The money has been set aside in connection with the so-called transfer case, where politicians at City Hall have recently distributed the last funds on the municipal budget for 2025.

FREM, KB and the Danish Football Union will be involved in choosing the right project along with, among others, the municipal Council for Visual Art and the football historical association Gandil-Society.

Finn Rudaizky feels convinced that politicians will probably find perhaps 1.6 million kroner for the monument itself when they negotiate the budget for 2026 in the fall.

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Wreck in three parts

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The eight players were on their way to a training camp in Herning before the Olympics in Rome later in the summer, where the national team ended up with a silver medal.

Several of them were already selected for the Olympic team, and with the exception of a few, they all had, according to Wikipedia (https://da.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flyulykken_ved_Kastrup_16._juli_1960#:~:text=Sprog-,Flyulykken%20ved%20Kastrup%2016.,otte%20danske%20fodboldspillere%20til%20Jylland. ), national team experience.

The plane had the Danish Football Union chartered from the Zone Rescue Corps, and problems with the passenger plane - a de Havilland D.H.89 Dragon Rapide - arose shortly after takeoff.

Problems culminated when the plane began to spin and crashed into the Øresund just half a hundred meters from land.

From the wreckage, it was possible to rescue KB's Per Funch Jensen on land, who was taken to Sundby Hospital, but he died shortly after due to his injuries.

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