Tunisian pilot who flew Super Eagles l, the Nigeria’s national team to Libya has revealed how he was directed by the Libyan authority to divert plane.
The pilot of the chartered ValueJet flight to Libya alleged that he was directed by Libyan authority to divert the plane to Mitiga instead of Benghazi, where it was originally supposed to land.
According to the pilot, the original flight plan was to land the aircraft in Benghazi, Libya, as approved by the aviation authorities. But that later the Libyan Authority suddenly directed by that the aircraft be diverted to another airport just as the flight was getting closer to its l destination.
“The flight plan was to land in Benghazi. We got the approval from the Libyan civil aviation authority that we were approved to land.
“But unfortunately, when we started the descent, they asked us to divert to Mitiga, which is almost 150 miles (300 km) away. This was not even our alternate airport,” the pilot narrated.
The pilot said he warned the officials that the diversion would have severely impacted on the aircraft’s aviation fuel reserves, and could compromise the safety of the flight.
“I asked them several times, at least eight times, and I warned them that I would be in trouble for the fuel situation,” the pilot recounted.
“They said it was from the highest authority and that we had to divert to Mitiga immediately,” he said.
The pilot pointed out that he later complied with the directive but that . thankfully, the aircraft landed safely in Mitiga with no challenges.
According to him,
“Even the airport in Mitiga was not well-equipped. There was no Instrument Landing System(ILS) no other approach aids, so we had to land visually,” the pilot said. “It was our first and last chance with this changing company, and I know the area very well, but it was not an easy matter at all.”
“This is our flight plan. We cannot hide anything. There is a lot of cross-checking and redundancy in aviation, so they cannot hide this information or say anything other than the truth,” the pilot stated.
The pilot’s revelation came on the heels of the aborted trip to Libya by the Super Eagles players and reports that the team was mistreated by Libyan authorities ahead of their Tuesday match, which they later boycotted after the team was stranded at the airport for over 15 hours.
Recall that in a series of tweets, the Super Eagles Captain, William Troost-Ekong had described the situation as, “disgraceful,” accusing the hosts of playing “mind games.”
He revealed that the team was kept in an abandoned airport with no access to food, drink, or phone connections.
Nigeria defeated Libya 1-0 at the Godswill Akpabio International Stadium in Uyo on Friday, October 11, 2024.
The two countries were scheduled to play the return leg in Libya on October 15 ,2024 which was later boycotted by the Super Eagles.
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