Five members of the Super Falcons team have gracefully escaped what could have resulted in an air mishap at the on-going African Women Nations Cup in Cameroon.
The affected Nigerian players were forced to travel by road from Douala to Yaoundé on Wednesday as the aircraft in which they were supposed to fly developed electrical fault shortly before takeoff.
This comes barely 48 hours after 77 people including members of Brazilian football club, Chapecoense, were involved in a horrible plane crash in Colombia.
Having defeated the Banyana Banyana of South Africa 1-0 to qualify for the final of the championship, the Falcons were to relocate to Yaoundé for the final game.
The team were scheduled to depart Douala at 9.00 am for the state capital, a journey of about 45 minutes by air and about four hours by road.
It was gathered that CAF officials could not secure enough seats for the entire Nigerian team to continue their journey inside one plane; hence five could not travel with their teammates.
“The team experienced some delay at the airport, but at the end, all the players and officials could not travel together in one plane because it was a small aircraft which could not accommodate both Nigeria and the South African team at the same time. As a result, five members of the team were left behind,” Guardian quotes a member of the team as saying.
“Those five people were later checked into another plane, but just as they were preparing to commence the journey to Yaoundé, smoke started coming out from the plane due to electrical problem and everybody was evacuated. The five people had to embark on their journey by road to Yaoundé.”
Now safely in Yaoundé, the Falcons are stepping up preparations for Saturday’s final with the host.
