TURIN, May 4 (AFP): Turin is preparing to mourn Tuesday's 50th anniversary ■———— of the Superga aircrash here, which wiped out one of the greatest football teams Italy has ever produced.

Torino are now a Second Division club hoping for promotion to the Serie A. But in the 1940s. the awesome side known as the "Grande Torino" won five consecutive championships before tragedy struck on May 4, 1949.

The disaster, similar to the one which devastated Matt Busby's Manchester United at Munich in 1958, claimed the lives of all 31 people aboard a flight back from Portugal.

Torino had unexpectedly agreed to play a friendly in Lisbon against Benfica the day before. to honour the impending retirement of the Portugese national team captain. Francisco Ferreira.

Late afternoon, as he prepared to land, the pilot of their three-engined Fiat 212 plane was warned of driving rain, thick cloud and zero visibility over Turin. At 17.05, all radio contact was lost.

The plane had ploughed into the Superga hillside overlooking the city, finishing in pieces against the side wall of a basilica. Eighteen players (10 of them internationals), five'dub officials, five crew members and three reporters were killed.

A minute of applause broke out before the kick-off of Sunday's league match here against Napoli, and after a few moments. a photograph of the Grande Torino team appeared on the stadium's luminous scoreboard.

The week-long homage includes a conference, an exhibition and a youth-level football tournament.

On Tuesday, two Masses will be held, one private in the Superga Basilica and one public in Turin Cathedral. The services will be followed in the evening by a match at the Delle Alpi stadium here between Torino's present team and a Football League XI of top Serie A players.