'So much hope, so much excitement...all just shattered'

Thirty years ago, Zambian football was devastated by tragedy

- Mark Gleeson

It was a matter of minutes after take-off that the plane lost power and plummeted into the sea, exploding on impact and instantly killing everyone on board. A Zambian air force DHC-Buffalo transporter had stopped at Libreville in Gabon to refuel. It was carrying the country’s national team to Dakar for a key World Cup qualifier against Senegal. Eighteen players, two coaches, three support staff and five air force crew all died on April 27, 1993, and three decades on it remains a jarring tragedy with key questions still to be answered.

Why did Zambian authorities allow their team to fly on a plane that had been out of service for months and found to have several defects when tested just days before being used to transport the team? Was the pilot suffering from fatigue, having flown the team the previous day from another qualifier in Mauritius? Why did the engine catch fire on take-off and was the wrong engine turned off as a result, cutting all power and causing the plane to drop out of the sky?

It took ten years for civil aviation authorities in Gabon to conclude their investigation and produce a report, allowing time to fuel rumours, conjecture and conspiracy theories, and prolonging the suffering of the families of the dead.

Thirty years on Zambia have yet to issue any formal report of their own, with exhausted families still wanting answers but having long given up hope of receiving them.

This was a team of enormous potential, credible contenders for a World Cup berth in the United States in 1994 and seen as potentially future African champions too.