On February 3, 1959, musicians Buddy Holly , Ritchie Valens , and JP “The Big Bopper” Richardson died in a plane crash in Iowa, often referred to in the music community as “The Day The Music Died.” This week’s quiz is on the slightly morbid subject of plane crashes.

Fatal flights

1 A certain Charles was the first Briton to be killed in a plane crash in July 1910 when his Wright Flyer broke up during a flying display. His surname is immortalised in automobile history thanks to a firm set up by him and his friend Henry. What was Charles’s surname?

2 The youngest to hold this post, the second secretary-general of the United Nations was killed in an air crash when on his way to a ceasefire negotiation in Africa. Name this great diplomat who posthumously received a Nobel Peace prize in 1961?

3 In 2016, the Colombian football team AtléticoNacional requested the South American Football Confederation, CONMEBOL, to award the Copa Sudamericana trophy to which specific team?

4 At which sporting venue would you find a clock permanently showing the time 3:04 pm?

5 Which 2006 Hindi film centres around a plane crash involving MiG 21 pilot Ajay Singh Rathore?

6 Which film, released in 2003 and attracting an Oscar nomination for its director Paul Greengrass, described the flight that was meant to crash on the Capitol building in Washington DC on September 11, 2001?

7 In March 2015, which celebrity survived narrowly, when his Ryan ST3KKR Recruit open seat trainer aircraft lost power and crash-landed in a gold course near Santa Monica?

8 Which doyen of Indian science passed away when his flight Air India 101 crashed near Mont Blanc in Switzerland in January 1966?

9 The co-winner of the Nobel Prize in medicine for isolating insulin, this Canadian scientist was on his way to the UK to test a new flying suit for Allied pilots when he died in a plane crash in 1941. Name this scientist, still the youngest winner of the Nobel Prize for medicine.

10 Which bestselling country music artist, with almost 33 million records sold worldwide died when his experimental personal aircraft crashed into Monterey Bay, off the coast of California in 1997?

Answers

1. Rolls. Charles Rolls and Henry Royce started the legendary Rolls-Royce company in 1904

2. Dag Hammarskjöld of Sweden. There are many who believe that his plane was shot down

3. Chapecoense, the Brazilian side that lost all but three members of its squad in an air crash on November 28, 2016. CONMEBOL duly awarded Chapecoense the trophy and also presented the Centennial Fairplay award to Atlético Nacional

4. The clock at Old Trafford, the home of Manchester United. The clock commemorates the United players who lost their lives in the Munich air crash on February 6, 1958

5.Rang De Basanti, starring Aamir Khan, and R Madhavan in the role of flight lieutenant Rathore

6.United 93 . The passengers managed to make sure it crashed in Stony Creek in Pennsylvania instead

7. Harrison Ford, who has played a pilot in at least three films and survived three crashes

8. Homi Bhabha. A former CIA operative named Robert Crowley later claimed that the agency had a hand in the crash as they were worried about India’s nuclear programme headed by Bhabha

9. Frederick Banting, who shared the Nobel with John James MacLeod in 1923

10. John Denver, most remembered for hits like ‘Country Roads’ and ‘Rocky Mountain High’

 

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Joy Bhattacharjya

Joy Bhattacharjya is a quizmaster and Project Director, FIFA U-17 World Cup

@joybhattacharj

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