The Gambia’s national football team suffered a traumatic experience en route to the 2024 Africa Cup of Nations. The team’s flight was forced to make an emergency landing due to a lack of oxygen supply on board, which caused several playing squad and coaching staff to suffer from intense headaches and bouts of dizziness.
Despite being assured that the aeroplane was safe to fly, the pilots were forced to make a U-turn less than 10 minutes after takeoff. The team was heading from Gambia’s capital, Banjul, to the Ivory Coast, the host nation of this year’s tournament.
The Gambia’s opening game is against Senegal, one of the tournament favourites, at the Charles Konan Banny Stadium in Yamoussoukro next Monday in Group C, which contains Cameroon and Guinea. The team’s head coach, Tom Saintfiet, believes that everyone on board would have died if the pilots had not decided to return to Banjul for an emergency landing. Saintfiet stated that they could have been dead, as everyone fell asleep quickly, and he had short dreams about his life being done.
Saintfiet believes those on board the flight narrowly avoided disaster (Picture: Getty)
According to M10News. The team was travelling for 32 hours in total from Saudi Arabia (training camp) to The Gambia, with long layovers in Istanbul and Casablanca. It was supposed to fly from Gambia to Ivory Coast for the AFCON. Defender Saidy Janko, a former youth player at Manchester United, confirmed that they were ‘feeling well’ but condemned the ‘unacceptable’ situation they found themselves in before their opening game.
The Gambia Football Federation released a statement revealing that the flight was nine minutes airborne when the crew realized there was a lack of cabin pressure and oxygen. The technical team of the flight operating company, Air Cote d’Ivoire, is further assessing the situation to establish what caused the lack of oxygen and cabin pressure. The team, including the players and staff, is now on its way to base at the Ocean Bay Hotel as they await further instructions. It is important to note that every delegation member is safe and sound.
The Gambia face Senegal, Cameroon and Guinea in Group C (Picture: Getty)
Air Cote d’Ivoire has launched an investigation into the incident. The Gambia Football Federation apologized for any inconvenience this may have caused and sought a quick solution for the team to travel to Ivory Coast as soon as possible. The team is now facing a difficult situation where they will have to overcome the mental and physical stress of the incident to perform well in the tournament.
