Pius Ayinor
18 April 2008
Lagos — Twenty four hours after being involved in an air mishap, players of the national women's U-20 football team, Falconets arrived safely in the Cameroonian city of Douala.
The team had had to go through the trauma of an emergency landing in Port Harcourt on Wednesday which truncated their trip to Cameroon.
A team of 25 players, seven technical officials and four administrative persons then went from Douala to Yaounde, the Cameroonian capital by road, and delegation leader Amanze Uchegbulam said: "I can assure you that every one of us has put the incident behind and we're focusing on the World Cup qualifying match."
There had been fears that the girls might be too shaken up by the incident to be able to take part in this weekend's crunch second leg of the FIFA U-20 World Cup qualifier. Had this been the case the FA was ready to try to push for an extend postponement till when the girls had recovered sufficiently.
But as things panned out the girls said they had put the incident behind them and were ready to face their Cameroon counterparts carrying a narrow 1-0 win from the first leg with them.
As a precaution the FA had notified CAF of the incident and secured a 24-hour grace, so that the match will now be played on Sunday afternoon instead of tomorrow.
Virgin Nigeria, which owned the plane that made the emergency landing, said in a statement that the airline had conveyed the football team and other passengers to Cameroon.
A statement by the airline yesterday and made available to THISDAYSports reads: "Virgin Nigeria wishes to inform all that the Falconets and other Douala-bound passengers have arrived Douala aboard a Virgin Nigeria flight at 1330 today (yesterday). The flight conveyed 107 passengers to Douala, Cameroon.
"The Flight VK 823 conveying the Nigerian contingent to a World Cup weekend qualifier engagement had yesterday (Wednesday) made a precautionary landing at Port Harcourt International Airport."
The airline's Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Conrad Clifford said he was thankful to the passengers and their relatives for their understanding while re-emphasising the airline commitment to safety. He, however, apologised to the passengers for any inconvenience this may have caused.
"Virgin Nigeria is committed to the safety and security of passengers and crew at all times. The decision to make the precautionary landing at the Port Harcourt International Airport was a professional decision that followed to the letter the Boeing flight crew operating manual of the B737 aircraft," he said.
The airline affirmed that it lived up to its responsibility by providing hotel accommodation and medical for the affected passengers prior the onward journey yesterday.
Those who continued the trip with the team is NFA Executive Committee members Stephen Gyebgon and Bola Ngozi Jegede and accompanying Secretary Bola Oyeyode.
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