Summary
- The Gambian football team’s charter flight experienced pressurization issues and extreme heat during their flight to the Ivory Coast for the AFCON.
- The aircraft had to turn back due to the pressurization problem, causing further delays for the team.
- Air Cote d’Ivoire sent a replacement aircraft, an Airbus A319, to transport the team to their destination for the tournament.
The Gambian Football Team experienced delays and aircraft issues when the team traveled between Saudi Arabia and the Ivory Coast, which is set to host the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) between January 13 and February 11, 2024. The incident happened on January 10.
Pressurization issues
Saidy Janko, a defender who represents Gambia and plays for the Swiss football club BSC Young Boys, said in a post on Instagram that the national team suffered a problem on the flight from Gambia to the Ivory Coast after the representatives of the country already had traveled between Saudi Arabia and the former country for 32 hours. Their arduous trip had included long layovers in Istanbul, Turkey, and Casablanca, Morocco. He said,
“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 were in the sky,” adding that the“ inhumane heat mixed with the occurring lack of oxygen left many people with strong headaches and extreme dizziness.”
The player also added that some of the representatives “started falling deeply asleep minutes after entering the aircraft/takeoff,” with the situation worsening once the aircraft took off. As a result, the aircraft turned back to Banjul International Airport (BJL), Gambia.
“If it wasn’t for this, the consequences could have been a lot worse,” he warned, continuing that he and his colleagues could have run out of oxygen on the aircraft. “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,” Janko concluded.
Photo: Bombardier
In a statement, Air Cote d’Ivoire, the airline operating the charter flight, said that the flight was scheduled to take off at 12:20 local time, yet the Gambian national football team arrived at around 16:00. The carrier and The Gambia Football Federation (GFF) agreed that the aircraft, a De Havilland Canada Dash-8-Q400, would eventually take off at 16:54, more than four and a half hours later than initially planned.
“Following the aircraft’s actual takeoff, the crew decided themselves to turning back after 10 minutes of flight, due to a pressurization problem,” the airline added, noting that the problem could have been solved quickly by a mechanic who was present at the airport. However, the crew reached its flight time limitations, resulting in further delays.
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Sending out a spare aircraft
Eventually, Air Cote d’Ivoire sent out a spare aircraft due to its commitment as an official transport partner of AFCON, which announced the carrier as the partner airline of the tournament on January 5. According to the Confederation of African Football (Confédération Africaine de Football, CAF), Air Cote d’Ivoire was set to “play a vital role in facilitating the transportation of teams, officials, and fans to and from the tournament venues across the West African country.”
Photo: Air Cote d’Ivoire
The spare aircraft, an Airbus A319, registered as TU-TSY, landed at Abidjan Port Bouet Airport (ABJ) at 20:04 on January 11, according to Flightradar24. Ch-aviation data showed that Airbus delivered the A319 to Colombia’s avianca in 2008, before it was eventually transferred to the African airline in July 2021.
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