Gambia’s squad narrowly avoided disaster when their flight to the Ivory Coast for the Africa Cup of Nations ran out of oxygen.
The flight from Gambia was diverted after 20 minutes when players began falling asleep against their will, their manager has said.
Tom Saintfiet told Nieuwsblad: “We could all have been dead.
“We all fell asleep quickly. Me, too. I had short dreams about how my life was done. Really and truly.
“After nine minutes the pilot decided to return because there was no oxygen supply. Some players did not wake up immediately after landing.
“We almost got carbon monoxide poisoning. Another half hour of flying and we would all have been dead.”
Former Manchester United and Nottingham Forest defender Saidy Janko added: “As soon as we entered the small plane that was hired, we noticed the enormous heat, which made us sweat.
“The crew assured us that the air conditioning would start as soon as we were in the air. But the inhuman heat, combined with the increasing lack of oxygen, left many with severe headaches and extreme dizziness. In addition, others fell deeply asleep a few minutes after boarding the plane or taking off.”
“Once in the air, the situation became worse, leaving the pilot with no choice but to make an emergency landing at Banjul airport nine minutes after takeoff.
“Otherwise the consequences could have been much worse! If we had been exposed to the situation any longer in an aeroplane without oxygen….”
Belgian Saintfiet added: “It is now a quarter to ten in the evening here.
“Players who can do so will now train lightly. We haven’t been able to do that in the past three days.
“We were at a training camp in Saudi Arabia and had to fly almost thirty hours to see the president here in Gambia.
“Everything ran late, so we couldn’t train. But six players have too many headaches and that could last a week.
“We are now in Gambia and no longer want to fly with such an aircraft. That was about the smallest they could find, perhaps, with propellers, for fifty people.
“When you see the plane Ghana uses and we… As if the only thing that mattered was that it flew. But we fly on Thursday. We have to. That’s our deadline, otherwise we’ll be kicked out of the tournament.
“So now they are trying to arrange a plane. But: there are limits. I am willing to die on the football field, I am not willing to die for my job off the field.”
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