2024-01-11T14:16:53+00:00
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/ The Mirror newspaper confirmed that there was a great anger that swept the Gambian national team players participating in the African Cup of Nations, after experiencing a “near-death” experience on board the flight to Côte d’Ivoire to participate in the tournament.
The team was travelling from Gambia to Ivory Coast for the tournament, which starts on Saturday, when they ran into trouble, just nine minutes into 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 sweltering conditions with low oxygen supplies on board the Air Côte d’Ivoire plane, the newspaper reported.
Former Manchester United player Saidi Janko shared a video of the players coming down, saying they were suffering from “severe headaches and severe dizziness”, with several falling unconscious.
“We could have all died,” Gambia coach Tom Saintfiet told Nieuwsblad. “We all fainted very 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 players did not wake up.” [إلا] “Right 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, Ivory Coast, takes about two and a half hours. The team must now find an alternative route on Thursday or risk being thrown out of the Africa Cup of Nations. They are scheduled to face Senegal in their first Group C match on Monday.
Alongside the video, Janko, who began his career at Manchester United and is currently a player at Swiss club Young Boys, wrote: “Unacceptable. After travelling for a total of 32 hours 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 Ivory Coast to participate in the Africa Cup of Nations today. As soon as we boarded the small plane that was hired to transport us, we noticed the extreme heat that made us sweat.”
It is noteworthy that Janko, a former player in the youth categories of the Swiss national team, decided to represent his home country, Gambia, in 2021, despite holding Swiss citizenship.