The pilot who flew the Super Eagles aircraft to Libya has narrated the ‘dangerous’ incident that ensued as he and the passengers were about to land at Benghazi Benina airport in Libya on Sunday.
The Nigerian contingents, including Ademola Lookman, Victor Boniface, and others, made the trip to Benghazi, where their African Cup of Nations encounter against Libya was meant to hold, but were redirected to Al Abraq airport in Bayda, 300 km away from their intended destination.
Their arrival at Bayda was nothing short of traumatic, as the team, spent over 20 hours at the airport, without proper hospitality.
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The team eventually pulled out of the game and are back in Nigeria, with the victims narrating their ordeal in Libya.
Super Eagles pilot narrates landing incident in Benghazi
A video shared by Nigerian stories on X also featured the aircraft pilot, who gave detailed information on how their plane was unexpectedly diverted to the unplanned destination.
“The flight plan was to land in Benghazi as our destination and we got the approval from the Libyan authorities to land there, but unfortunately when we were at a close distance, we were told to divert to another airport which is about 300km away from our destination, the Tunisian pilot said.
He also explained how this impromptu development endangered the lives of the people on board
”It was far and towards the east and not a part of our coordinates.
”It is something that’s not good because in aviation, we have our flight plan and calculate the amount of fuel that’ll take us through so we have to avoid issues like this because it could hamper with our safety.
”When we were about to land in Benghazi, they told us no, citing it was an order from the highest authority
”In aviation, we cannot hide anything. I asked them at least eight times but they repeated the same thing, saying we cannot land there. Thank God we made it safely and we landed safely.
”We have all the evidences and they’re well documented.”
With the Super Eagles back in Nigeria after boycotting the game, reports claim that CAF has now launched an investigation into the situation.
Tunisian pilot who flew Nigeria to Libya explained what really happened.
That bad of Libya 🇱🇾
pic.twitter.com/fY2pdER72V
— Nigeria Stories (@NigeriaStories) October 15, 2024
Nigeria will now look to present their evidence and hope to get favourable verdict from the African football federation.