APA-Banjul (The Gambia) The buildup to Gambia’s second Africa Cup of Nations football tournament seems to have been tainted by double-header controversies.
First it was a player revolt over pay which was settled in the eleventh hour by President Adama Barrow, then a row over the airworthiness of the apparently dodgy flight which was aborted just minutes after the team and its delegation were airborne and bound for Africa’s premier football bonanza.
Players making up the Scorpions and their delegation are still in shock after what was apparently a close shave with death while journeying to Ivory Coast where the Africa Cup of Nations begins on January 13th.
Nine minutes into the Air Cote d’Ivoire flight which was supposed to fly them to Abidjan, it became clear to the pilot and his crew that something was dangerously amiss.
Deciding against continuing with the flight and risking the lives of over 50 people on board including 27 squad members, the pilot turned the plane’s nose and headed back to the Banjul International Airport from where it had taken off minutes before.
What ensued was an emergency landing that took people following the progress of the national team by surprise.
The Gambia Football Federation later put out a statement on Wednesday evening assuring Gambians that the squad and those accompanying them had touched down safely and without incident.
A lack of oxygen in the aircraft was being blamed for the aborted flight which means that the Scorpions, surprise quarterfinalists in their maiden AfCON in Cameroon two years ago are still stranded in their own country with a row over flying to Ivory Coast still simmering.
With just two days to go before the tournament kicks off, participating teams including Gambia’s Group C opponents Senegal, Cameroon and Guinea have been arriving in the host country Ivory Coast.
”What could have happened if the pilot had pressed on with the flight could be anybody’s guess” says an anonymous official close to the team, still in shock over a tragedy that was averted in the nick of time.
The Scorpions’ Belgian coach Tom Saintfait claimed the squad and the delegation around it had cheated death by a whisker and turned down a chance to board the same plane to Ivory Coast given the risk the flight could be fraught with.
His team captain Omar Colley agrees, saying refusing to board the same flight was the right thing to do under the circumstances because the safety of all was far more important than football.
”It is a matter of life and death and it is better to be safe than sorry” another member of the delegation adds in support of Captain Colley.
Reports say President Barrow has intervened again to address the problem with a flight for the Scorpions by telephoning Alassane Ouattara for his intervention and his Ivorian counterpart has obliged.
An Airbus similar to the one used for the aborted flight was being arranged to ferry the Scorpions to the Ivorian political capital Yamoussoukro the city hosting their group games instead of Abidjan where Wednesday’s flight would have landed.
Graphic details of the situation in the plane before and during the aborted flight conjured up unsual scenes of players slumping in their seats apparently in deep slumber while others suffered headaches and shock over the experience.
It was reportedly unusually hot inside the plane as its airconditioning system developed a problem which was detected by the pilot and his crew who chose to take off anyway with the expectation that it would kick into life once they were airborne.
That never happened, prompting the pilot to turn back and head for safety on the ground instead of risking the lives on board his aircraft by continuing with the journey.
To shake off the shock, some members of the Gambian team held a practice session at the Independence stadium under the floodlights on Wednesday evening.
Mr Saintfait and his crew who praised the crew for the realising the danger and acting accordingly to avert it, are no stranger to adversities, having survived last September’s devastating earthquake in Marrakesh, Morocco in which close to 3000 people were killed.
After overcoming their shock at being so close to the quake and cheating death, a visibly shaken Scorpions played a home qualifier in the Moroccan city while it was still reeling from the enormity of the tragedy.
WN/as/APA