The Superga air disaster (Italian: Tragedia di Superga, "Tragedy of Superga") occurred on 4 May 1949, when a Fiat G.212 airliner of Avio Linee Italiane, carrying the entire Torino football team (popularly known as the Grande Torino), crashed into the retaining wall at the back of the Basilica of Superga, which stands on a hilltop near Turin, Italy. All thirty-one people on board were killed.
Superga (Piedmontese: Soperga or Superga) is a hill situated on the south bank of the river Po to the east of Turin in north-west Italy. At 672 metres (2,205 ft) above sea level, it is one of the most prominent of the hills that ring the city.
Superga is known for the Basilica of Superga and its royal crypt, which is the traditional burial place of members of the House of Savoy; for the Superga Rack Railway that connects it to the Turin suburb of Sassi; and for the Superga air disaster of 1949, in which the entire Torino football team, the Grande Torino, perished.
The Grande Torino (Italian for 'Great Torino') was the historic Italian football team of Torino Football Club in the 1940s, five-time champions of Italy, whose players were the backbone of the Italy national team and died on 4 May 1949 in the plane crash known as the Superga air disaster.
With this name, although it is commonly used to identify the team that died in the disaster, it defines the entire sports cycle which lasted eight years and led to the conquest of five consecutive championships, equaling the record previously set by Juventus of the Quinquennio d'oro; Grande Torino also won a Coppa Italia.