The Gambia coach Tom Saintfiet said the entire would have been dead if they had stayed in the air for more than 30 minutes.
The Gambia team flight to Abidjan returned to Banjul nine minutes into the air after the cabinet crew found out there was no Oxygen on board.
The flight was nine minutes airborne when the crew realized and immediately requested to return to Banjul.
Upon landing, preliminary investigations indicated that there was loss of cabin pressure and oxygen. However, the technical team of the operating company of the flight, Air Cote d’Ivoire is further assessing the situation to establish what caused the lack of oxygen and cabin pressure.
“We could all have died. We all fell asleep quickly. Me too. I had short dreams about what my life was like. Really. After nine minutes, the pilot decided to return because there was no oxygen.
Some players did not wake up immediately after landing. We almost got carbon monoxide poisoning. Another half hour of flight and we were all dead”
The Gambia team has now boarded another plane directly to Yamoussoukro where they will face Cameroon, Guinea, and defending champions Senegal in Group C.
