European Cup, LFCs final rounds in 1978

[viscount]

LFC, EUROPEAN CUP:
SEMI-FINALS AND THE WEMBLEY FINAL
1978

While LFC fans travelling to the 1977 European Cup final in Rome set records for an outbound airlift from Liverpool, indeed still occupies 4th position in terms of number of flights departing Liverpool for a European Final; 1978s European Cup Final set the record for the least fans flying to a final. The clue is in the title as to why that situation occurred. However the semi-finals of the European Cup did bring in travelling fans on two wide-body aircraft, not a common event as it had happened only once before two years previously. Airport Management brought in a professional photographer from the City Engineers department and gave him the ‘freedom’ of the apron to record the aircraft that had brought in the team and supporters of Borussia Moenchengladbach on 12th April 1977. Quite a few of these photos were later collected together, along with many others, eventually rescued and collectively survive as the ‘NWAN Collection’. Before interest in football dies down for the summer though, mainly because of the number of quality photos to be shared, LFC’s European exploits are worth another thread before I move on to other topics.

EUROPEAN CUP SEMI-FINAL, March/April 1978

For the first, the away, leg of the Semi-Final against Borussia Moenchengladbach, Liverpool FC and staff had flown out from Manchester on a British Airways BAC-111-510, played on 29th March in the Bokelbergstadion. The team and staff arrived back at Liverpool from Cologne in the early hours of 30th March on BAC-111-510 G-AVMN, which then positioned across to Manchester. No fan’s charter operated from Liverpool, despite the importance of the match and the rivalry between the Clubs, whose previous meeting at been in the Rome final the previous year. The away leg score 2-1 for the home team set up an interesting second leg at Anfield on 12th April 1977.

A number of German fans arrived at Liverpool for the Anfield leg aboard two Tristar aircraft. These were only the 3rd and 4th Tristar aircraft to be seen at Liverpool and only the 2nd time wide-body aircraft had visited together, so were a noteable event (for more on L.1011 Tristar visits to Liverpool see: derbosoft.proboards.com/thread/166/tri-star-liverpool ). First in on the morning of Wednesday 12th April was Hapag-Lloyd Boeing 727-100 D-AHLL as HF 969 in from Cologne, likely with team and staff. Next in was LTU Tristar D-AERI as LT 096, followed by D-AERE as LT 098, both arriving from Dusseldorf. At Anfield that evening it was LFC that scored first with a Ray Kennedy goal in the 6th minute, this lead was added to by Kenny Dalglish and in the second half by Jimmy Case. So 3-0 on the night, 4-2 on aggregate and LFC into the European Cup Final, good result! The two Tristars left Liverpool Airport before midnight, which says much for the ability of the ground staff processing both departing wide-body loads of supporters very quickly. The Tristars both departed for Cologne, presumably due to night closure at Dusseldorf. The Boeing 727 departed for Cologne later on the Thursday morning.

EUROPEAN CUP FINAL, WEMBLEY 1978

So LFC progressed to the European Cup Final, which on Wednesday 10th May 1978 was held at Wembley Stadium. LFC fans made their way to London by train, coach or car – but not by air. Club Brugge had previously met LFC in a UEFA Cup Final two years previously, which they lost over two legs. The final was not a particularly exciting one with Brugge being defensive and frustrating Liverpool’s attacks. At the final whistle it was LFC who came out victors by a single Kenny Dalglish goal. It would appear that the LFC team and staff had flown down from Liverpool to Wembley using British Airways. During the early afternoon of Tuesday 9th May Trident 2 G-AVFB as BE 5426/5427 operated from and to London/Heathrow as a scheduled flight to collect the team. They returned from Heathrow, again as a scheduled flight on Thursday morning, 11th on Trident 2 G-AVFA on BE 5422/5423.

So for LFC fans, 1978 was the year their team had won the European Cup in successive years; for the aviation enthusiast it was a disappointment compared to 1977s invasions by St Etienne and then the airlift to Rome, however 1978 was ‘rescued’ by the two German Tristars on a single day.







Despite the angle, this shot shows the size difference between the visiting German and everyday scheduled services with British Airways.







The Airport’s ‘Jumbo Jet’ steps deployed to accommodate the height of the Tristar’s cabin doors



In the 1970s the Rolls Royce logo showed off the height of British engineering expertise, rather than being a member of a consortium.











The rear-end is never exactly photogenic of a tri-engined jet airliner, but the Tristar had far better curves than the DC-10 did!



Note the ATL-98 Carvair G-ASHZ of BAF tucked in beside the corner of No.1 hangar loading with Ford components on their way to Saarbrucken.



Charming shot of airliner tails all lined up at Liverpool Airport on a busy day in April 1978.