The air crash and the underdogs – a triumph for a lost generation

This article deals with sudden death, bereavement and grief. BBC Action Line can direct you to help with these issues.

For those watching on the beach on the morning of Wednesday, 28 April 1993, the first bodies were revealed by the rising sun.

Fishermen searched in and out of creeks, divers went out in boats and a helicopter hovered overhead.

By lunchtime, black kit bags, wreckage and the remains of 24 of the 30 people aboard the plane had been reclaimed from the Atlantic Ocean and brought ashore in Gabon.

No more bodies would be found.

So begins a story that touched generations across two decades, laid bare a nation’s soul, and delivered triumph, just as unexpectedly as disaster. – BBC Sport.