{"id":3792,"date":"2023-05-14T20:17:09","date_gmt":"2023-05-14T19:17:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/?p=3792"},"modified":"2023-05-17T14:48:49","modified_gmt":"2023-05-17T13:48:49","slug":"30-years-of-pain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2023\/05\/14\/30-years-of-pain\/","title":{"rendered":"30 Years Of Pain<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (April 30th<\/sup> 2023)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Missed Opportunities<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Monument at National Heroes Acre<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the early hours of April 28th<\/sup> 1993 the world awoke to news of the worst air disaster to affect an international football team. Zambia\u2019s promising team were on their way to S\u00e9n\u00e9gal for a World Cup qualifier, but the DHC-5 Buffalo (De Havilland Canada) owned by the Zambian Air Force plunged into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after take-off from Gabon\u2019s capital Libreville killing all 30 on board.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That included 18 of Zambia\u2019s national team players, fresh from a victory over Mauritius just two days earlier \u2013 the Golden Generation \u2013 the team\u2019s doctor, a journalist, five members of the flight crew, three officials of the Football Association of Zambia and two of Zambia\u2019s greatest ever former players who were embarking on their journey into coaching, Alex Chola and Africa\u2019s Goal King, Godfrey Chitalu.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pilot, Fenton Mhone, was unfairly blamed by some for the crash as he switched off the wrong engine, but that ignores the fact that the other engine, the left one, was so faulty that a disaster was likely anyway. The plane had required repairs in both Brazzaville and Libreville. Official reports \u2013 both Gabon\u2019s and Zambia\u2019s have not been released fully in the three decades since the tragedy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The conclusions of the Gabonese report indicated pilot error caused by fatigue, but the plane had not flown since December 21st<\/sup> 1992. It had test flights within a week of its fatal last flight. The tests conducted on April 21st<\/sup>, 22nd<\/sup> and 26th<\/sup> indicated serious issues with the engines: \u201ccertain defects such as carbon particles in the engine and in speed decreased gearbox oil filters, disconnected or unbridled cables and trace of heating<\/em>.\u201d This was quoted by the Aviation Safety Network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simply put, why was this plane allowed to fly at all? <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

25th<\/sup> Anniversary Commemoration<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Former CAF President Ahmad Ahmad<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We covered the 25th<\/sup> anniversary of the disaster (see https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/2023\/05\/02\/zambia-remembers-football-remembers\/<\/a>). Then President of the Conf\u00e9d\u00e9ration Africaine de Football, Ahmad Ahmad and FIFA President Gianni Infantino shared their thoughts supporting Zambia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTill this day, Tuesday, 27 April 1993 remains the darkest moment in the history of Zambian football and one that shocked the entire football world,\u201d a message from Ahmad Ahmad said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSuch a painful memory when the plane carrying the Zambian team for a World Cup qualifier against Senegal crashed off the coast of Libreville, Gabon, killing all 30 persons on board, can never be forgotten so easily especially as the 18 players who died constituted probably the best team in the history of Zambian football.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs we mark the 25th anniversary of the painful incident. On behalf of CAF Executive Committee, African football family and my own behalf, I would like express sincerest sympathies to the families who lost relatives, Football Association of Zambia and the entire Zambian population. Our thoughts are with you in this difficult period.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Never to be Forgotten<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
FAZ President Andrew Kamanga<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

FAZ President, Andrew Kamanga read out a statement from Infantino as well. A Ghana shirt signed by Ghanaian legends was presented to Joyce Chabala, widow of legendary KK11 and Mulfira Wanderers goalkeeper, David Efford Chabala, by one of Zambia\u2019s greatest coaches the recently deceased Colonel Brightwell Banda, and Zambian icon Ackim Musenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She presented it to FAZ to be publically displayed later.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Satish Sekar \u00a9 Satish Sekar (April 30th 2023) Missed Opportunities In the early hours of April 28th 1993 the world awoke to news of the [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3749,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[18,16,14,4],"tags":[450,376,120,385,239,449,35,25,405,374],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3792"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3792"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3793,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3792\/revisions\/3793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/empowersmag.com\/empowersmagwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}