Libyan authorities forced me to divert Super Eagles plane – Pilot

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Libyan authorities forced me to divert Super Eagles plane – Pilot

The pilot of the chartered aircraft in which the Super Eagles flew to Libya, has revealed that Libyan authorities coerced him to divert the flight to the sub-standard airport at Al-Abraq.

Waploaded reports that the unexpected diversion of the flight to a remote airport, Al-Abraq, instead of their intended destination, Benghazi has been a source of controversy between Nigeria and Libya.

While the Nigerian Football Federation, NFF, alleged that the move was intentional, the Libyan Football Federation, LFF, denied maltreating the Super Eagles, attributing the crisis to a hitch in logistics.

However, the Tunisian pilot, in a video interview shared on the X handle of Pooja Media, said the risky diversion was unexpected, adding that his pleas to the Libyans on the risks of doing so fell on deaf ears.

According to him, the flight plan was to land at Benghazi, Benina, and they had the approval from the Libyan Civil Aviation Authority to do so, but later got an instruction on their descent to divert to Al-Abraq, which is almost 150 miles away, around 300 kilometres east, which was not even their alternate airport.

He added that such is not good, pointing out the potential risks of the diversion.

“In aviation, we have our flight plan, we calculate the fuel to our destination, so we have to avoid this kind of thing because it may make a breach to safety.

“When I asked to land in Benghazi according to my flight plan and according to my authorisation, they said no, it’s from the highest authority; you have to land in Al-Abraq.

“Everything is registered in aviation, we cannot hide anything, so I asked them several times, at least eight times, and I warned them, probably I will be in trouble for fuel; they said it’s from the highest authority, you cannot land in Benghazi, you have to divert immediately to Al-Abraq,” he added.