Iwuanyanwu Nationale 1994 Plane Crash Untold story

                            

Iwuanyanwu Nationale were unarguably one of the best football teams in Nigeria in the late 1980s and early 90s shortly after the change of  their nomenclature from Spartans in 1985 at the instance of sports philanthropist cum politician Chief Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu who took over the ownership of the self-styled Naze Millionaires.

They lived up to their billing by winning five domestic league titles between 1987 and 1993 (including the maiden Nigeria Professional League title in 1990) and were also winners of the FA Cup in 1988.

The Naze Millionaires won their last league title in 1993 and were in high hope that they could win the African Cup of Champions Club competition in 1994 having gone so close on three previous occasions. They were beaten finalist in 1988 (losing to Entente Setif of Algeria) and also got to the semi-final in 1990 and 1991 respectively before losing to Nkana Red Devils (Zambia) and SC Villa (Uganda) on both occasions.

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Under the tutelage of Alphonsus Dike, Iwuanyanwu Nationale had approached the 1994 edition with poise and they evidently ran over their first round foes, Zumunta AC (Niger) 6-1 on aggregate. They had it tough in the second round against Cameroon’s Racing Club Bafoussam but they still overcame them on the away goals rule with the aggregate scores at 4-4 after both games.

They were paired with Esperance Sportive of Tunisia in the quarter-final and they proceeded to Tunis in a chartered Oriental Airline flight BAC 1-11 to honour the first leg. They were outplayed by the Tunisian side and subsequently lost 3-0 on September 17, 1994. They proceeded to the Airport in Tunis to begin their onward return to Nigeria aboard the same flight that took them to Tunisia.

But instead of returning to Nigeria with the hope of cancelling out the goals deficit they conceded in Tunis, they were involved in a plane crash that changed the course of their history. The Owerri side are yet to recover from that debilitating experience till date.

The current Imo FA Chairman, Mazi Amanze Uchegbulam, was on the team’s entourage to Tunis recalled with vivid account on the fateful day in Tamanrasset where five people on board including two players lost their lives.

“The trip was through a chartered flight, Oriental Airline and the team was to go there and play and return immediately. I didn’t plan to go with them. I handed the team over to the NFF head of delegation, Alhaji Matori,” Uchegbulam told NationSport. “Somehow at the airport I was told that the players refused to board the plane saying that they needed to see the Imo FA Chairman.

“The players and officials of the team insisted that I must go with them even though I had no such plan. My wife objected, but somehow I didn’t want to create any problem so I went back home to pack my things to join them and we made that trip.

“We got to Tunis; we played the match and lost 3-0. We then got back to the hotel prepared and moved to the airport. We got to the airport and had even boarded the plane but somehow, we were delayed at the airport for almost three hours.

“We got to the airport around midnight but as at 3am we were still in the aircraft. We began asking them what the problem was and it was then the flight captain, Amaechi, told us that they were told to offset extra landing/ parking charges which they didn’t make provision for.

“The airport officials insisted that the team and other officials won’t leave until the charges are paid. They even put off the runway light. We met among ourselves and contributed money to defray the additional cost and the flight captain went ahead to pay.

“We were now set to leave by 4am but the flight captain had a premonition. He informed us that we were going to refuel in Tamanrasset, Algeria and that the weather was very bad in the morning, adding that was the reason why he had wanted to leave on time so that they could beat that obstacle. It was our first bad omen.

“We finally took off and took an hour and twenty minutes flight from Tunis to Tamanrasset to refuel. I wonder why they didn’t take the fuel in Tunis because if we had taken the fuel there, we would have gone directly.

“It was later we got to know that it was because of the exchange rates and the cost of aviation fuel in Tunis. Tunisian rate then for fuel was one dinar to one dollar while in Tamanrasset, Algeria it was 20 dinar to one dollar. It was cheaper to buy it there and it was the reason we went there to refuel. A little refuelling in Tunis would have taken us to Kano.

“We got to Tamanrasset but the weather was bad and the aircraft hovered for over an hour and forty minutes and it was getting worse. He had no fuel again to continue and had to do the emergency landing.

“Captain Chinedu Ogbonna was in charge of the flight but I heard that along the line Captain Amaechi who was the most senior took over the aircraft and landed the aircraft. However, instead of landing on the runway he landed across the runway because the weather was foggy.

“He headed for the terminal building but the wheel hit a mast on the terminal building and the aircraft lost control and cut into three. It was shown by CNN.