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2024-01-11T14:16:53+00:00
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/ The Mirror newspaper confirmed that there was overwhelming anger that swept through the players of the Gambia national team participating in the African Cup of Nations, after they experienced “imminent death” on the flight to Côte d’Ivoire to participate in the tournament.
The team was traveling from Gambia to Côte d’Ivoire to participate in the tournament, which begins on Saturday, when they encountered problems, and only 9 minutes after the start of their flight from the Gambian capital, Banjul, when the pilot of their chartered plane was forced to turn around and make an emergency landing.
Passengers were forced to sit in extremely hot conditions with low oxygen supplies on board the Air Côte d’Ivoire plane, according to the newspaper.
Former Manchester United player, Saidi Yanko, shared a video clip of the players going down, and said that they were suffering from “severe headaches and severe dizziness,” with many of them falling unconscious.
Belgian Tom Saintveit, coach of the Gambia national team, told the Nieuwsblad newspaper: “We could have all died… We all fainted quickly. I had fantasies about the end of my life.”
He added: “After 9 minutes, the pilot decided to return because there was no oxygen supply. Some of the players did not wake up [إلا] Immediately after landing. We almost got carbon monoxide poisoning. Another half hour of flying and we were all dead.”
The flight from Banjul, Gambia, to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, takes about two and a half hours. The team must now find an alternative route on Thursday, or risk expulsion from the Africa Cup of Nations. He is scheduled to face Senegal in his first match in Group C on Monday.
Next to the video, Yanko, who started his career at Manchester United and is a current player at the Swiss Young Boys, wrote: “Unacceptable. After traveling for 32 hours in total from Saudi Arabia (where the training camp is) to Gambia, with long stops in Istanbul and Casablanca, “We were supposed to fly from Gambia to Côte d’Ivoire to participate in the African Cup of Nations today. As soon as we boarded the small plane that had been rented to transport us, we noticed the tremendous heat that made us sweat.”
It is noteworthy that Yanko, a former player in the youth categories of the Swiss national team, decided to represent the national team of his home country, Gambia, in 2021, despite his holding Swiss citizenship.