{"id":16456,"date":"2024-01-19T01:05:54","date_gmt":"2024-01-19T06:05:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/sport\/remembering-the-zambia-air-disaster-the-boys-would-say-this-plane-will-kill-us\/19\/01\/2024\/"},"modified":"2024-01-19T01:05:54","modified_gmt":"2024-01-19T06:05:54","slug":"remembering-the-zambia-air-disaster-the-boys-would-say-this-plane-will-kill-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/sport\/remembering-the-zambia-air-disaster-the-boys-would-say-this-plane-will-kill-us\/19\/01\/2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering the Zambia air disaster \u2013 \u2018The boys would say: \u2018This plane will kill us\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cThe spirit of the 1993 team will always be there for Zambia.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kalusha Bwalya, Zambia\u2019s former football captain, is reflecting on the day that changed his life forever.<\/p>\n

On April 27, 1993, a military aircraft taking 18 of his team-mates and their coach to a World Cup qualifier against Senegal<\/a> crashed shortly after refuelling in Gabon. All 30 people aboard died.<\/p>\n

Bwalya would have been on the plane, too, but for the fact that he was playing for PSV Eindhoven at the time. Being based in the Netherlands meant he made his own way to the match from Europe and ultimately saved his life \u2014 although it did not spare him from crushing, numbing grief.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou couldn\u2019t imagine the whole team you play with are not there anymore,\u201d Bwalya tells The Athletic<\/em>. \u201cIt didn\u2019t feel real.\u201d<\/p>\n

Zambian football could have been broken by the dreadful events of that day nearly 31 years ago. Instead, in the year that followed, a new national team \u2014 captained by Bwalya \u2014 came within one match of reaching the 1994 World Cup and also made the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final.<\/p>\n

Against all the odds, an unfancied Zambia team went one better and won the 2012 AFCON final in Libreville \u2014 the city in Gabon where the doomed flight carrying the 1993 team had crashed minutes after taking off. A tragic story had come full circle.<\/p>\n

Now, as the team known as The Copper Bullets prepare for their first game at an AFCON since 2015 tomorrow (Wednesday), this is the story of that plane crash and the team\u2019s enduring legacy in their homeland and beyond.<\/p>\n