The circumstances that resulted in the Nigerian team’s flight being unexpectedly diverted from their original destination of Benghazi to a distant airport, Al-Abraq, have been clarified by the Tunisian pilot who flew them to Libya.
Since Sunday, when the Nigerian delegation traveling to Benghazi for the pivotal 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Libya was left stranded for more than 16 hours after their flight was diverted mid-flight to Al Abraq, a small airport usually used for hajj operations, the diversion has been a source of controversy.
The pilot emphasized that the decision was taken by Libyan officials and not by him in a video interview that our correspondent saw and that sports journalist Pooja Media uploaded on X on Tuesday.
The pilot stated, “We had permission from the Libyan Civil Aviation Authority to land at Benghazi, Benina, as per the flight plan.”
But when we started to descend, they told us to turn around and head for Al-Abraq, which is around 300 kilometers to the east and nearly 150 miles away. It’s not good that it wasn’t even (mentioned as) our alternate airport,” he continued.
Citing the fuel calculations for the original route, the pilot assessed the diversion as possibly dangerous.
He added that he had frequently questioned the directive. “In aviation, we have our flight plan, we calculate the fuel to our destination, so we have to avoid this kind of thing because it may make a breach of safety,” he said.
“They said no, it’s from the highest authority, you have to land in Al-Abraq,” when I requested to land in Benghazi in accordance with my flight plan and my authorization.
“Everything is registered in aviation, we cannot hide anything,” he said, refuting media claims that he made the decision to divert. “I asked them several times, at least eight times, and I warned them, probably I will be in trouble for fuel; they said it’s from highest authority, you cannot land in Benghazi, you have to divert immediately to Al-Abraq,” he added.
The pilot pointed out that all pertinent authorizations and communications are recorded and available as proof upon request.
“The truth is that we were traveling to Benghazi, and I have the proof of approval, which I can show you,” he stated. However, they decided to switch the airport at the last minute.
As he described the situation at Al-Abraq, the pilot emphasized the difficulties of landing at what he called a domestic airport with inadequate equipment.
“There is no air navigation approach, no instrument landing system, and no VHF omnidirectional range.” He said that the airport’s lack of amenities left him with “no second chances” if the landing had gone wrong. “We had to make a visual landing, which is particularly difficult by night with marginal weather,” he said.
Having spent two years working in the area for a Tunisian company, the pilot’s knowledge of the area was essential to handling the challenging landing.
It was by no means a simple matter. A pilot who hears this will realize that landing in such conditions was not an easy task. We made it safely, thank God,” he remarked.
The Nigeria Football Federation, meanwhile, has chosen to disqualify the Super Eagles from their qualification match against Libya.
According to the statement, “NFF officials are planning to fly the team back home after players decided they would no longer play the match.”
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