Gambia national team plane forced to make emergency landing
The Gambian national team had a tremendous scare. The African team left their country full of hope for the Africa Cup of Nations. However, everything went unexpectedly wrong.
Just 10 minutes into the flight, all the players began to feel dizzy due to the excessive heat inside the plane's cabin. So much so that many began to lack oxygen and some even came close to fainting.
One member of the squad, defender Saidy Janko, posted a video of what happened on his Instagram account, as well as a complaint about the poor conditions of the trip. Fortunately, the aircraft was able to make an emergency landing and there were no major problems.
"Unacceptable. After traveling 32 hours in total from Saudi Arabia(Training Camp) to The Gambia with long layovers in Istanbul and Casablanca, we were supposed to fly from Gambia to Ivory Coast for the AFCON today. As soon as we entered the small plane that was hired to fly us, we noticed the immense heat that left us dripping in sweat. It was assured to us by the Crew that the air condition would start once we are in the sky," he wrote.
"The inhumane heat mixed with the occurring lack of oxygen left many people with strong headaches and extreme dizziness. Furthermore, people started falling deeply asleep minutes after entering the aircraft/takeoff. Whilst in the Air, the situation got worse, leaving the pilot with no other option, than initiating an emergency landing back in Banjul airport nine minutes after takeoff. Which happened successfully," he added.
"If it wasn’t for this, the consequences could have been a lot worse!!!.. Knowing what could have happened, if we would have been exposed to the situation for any longer - in an airplane, running out of oxygen. We are grateful that everyone is feeling well but this is a situation that has to be addressed going into the AFCON, as being only one of our obstacles on international duty. This is unacceptable and such has to cease with immediate effect," the defender concluded.
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