Gabon disaster heroes remembered

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FILE PIC-ZAMBIA NATIONAL TEAM WHICH PERISHED IN AIRCRASH

They were a very promising young team.

After thrashing Italy 4-nil at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, the Zambia national soccer team had their eyes set on the 1994 AfCON trophy and a world Cup appearance. But that was not to be.

On April 28 1993, a Zambia Air Force buffalo plane carrying the entire national soccer team, five crew members, FAZ officials and a journalist, crashed into the Atlantic ocean about 500 meters off the coast of Libreville.

Kalusha Bwalya now Football Association President was at the time traveling from Europe to join the team in Senegal.

The entire country was in shock, as news of the air crash came through.

Zambia’s most celebrated soccer commentator Dennis Liwewe who passed on April 22, 2014, was scheduled to travel with the team but missed the flight, gave the most moving tribute ever seen on Zambian television.

A check by a ZNBC Sports crew at the burial site for the departed heroes revealed that a memorial by the family members is set to take place Tuesday.

But only a few hundred meters from the crash site, a rejuvenated Zambia national soccer team defied all odds and won the AfCON in 2012.

The victory was dedicated to the fallen heroes of the Gabon air disaster.

Source-ZNBC

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