1993 Zambia national football team plane crash
Zambian Air Force de Havilland Canada DHC-5D Buffalo · Crashed after shut down of operational engine
From Lusaka, Zambia to Dakar, Senegal
Event
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- Event fatalities
- 30 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- Unknown
- Occupants
- 30
- Survivors
- 0
- InjuriesFatal: death within 30 days. Serious: over 48 hours in hospital within a week, most broken bones, severe bleeding, nerve or organ damage, or serious burns. Minor: anything less. Glossary
- Unknown
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- Military
de Havilland Canada DHC-5D Buffalo
- Aircraft type
- de Havilland DHC-5
- Category
- Airplane · from aircraft type
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- AF-319
- Operator
- Zambian Air Force
- Onboard fatalities
- 30
- Route
- From Lusaka, ZambiaTo Dakar, Senegal
Cause areas
- Personnel issues › Task performance
- Aircraft › Aircraft power plant
- Personnel issues › Physical
- Aircraft › Aircraft systems
From the investigation findings the Wikipedia article reports, sorted into the NTSB's cause areas with AI assistance.
Approximate · Coordinates from the Wikipedia article; not checked against an investigation report.
From the Wikipedia article
On the evening of 27 April 1993, a de Havilland Canada DHC-5 Buffalo transport aircraft of the Zambian Air Force crashed into the Atlantic Ocean shortly after taking off from Libreville, Gabon. The flight was carrying most of the Zambia national football team to a 1994 FIFA World Cup Qualifier against Senegal in Dakar. All 25 passengers and five crew members were killed. The official investigation concluded that the pilot had shut down the wrong engine following an engine fire. It also found that pilot fatigue and a faulty instrument had contributed to the accident.
Accident
The flight had been specially arranged by the Zambian Air Force for the football team. The journey was scheduled to make three refuelling stops; the first at Brazzaville, Congo, the second at Libreville, Gabon, and the third at Abidjan, Ivory Coast.
At the first stop in Brazzaville engine problems were noted. Despite this, the flight continued and a few minutes after taking off from the second stop in Libreville the left engine caught fire and failed. The pilot, who had also flown the team from a match in Mauritius the previous day, then mistakenly shut down the right engine, causing the plane to lose all power during the climb out of Libreville Airport and fall into the water 500 m offshore. A Gabonese report released in 2003 attributed the pilot's actions to a faulty warning light and fatigue.
Investigation and cause
Investigation
A campaign to have the Gabonese crash investigation publicly released continued into the 2000s. In November 2003 a preliminary crash investigation report was released by the Gabonese government, which claimed that the left engine had caught on fire, and in an attempt to control the fire the pilot thought he had shut down that engine, when in reality he shut down the right engine due to a faulty light. Despite this relatives of the victims continue to lobby the Zambian government to produce a report on how the aircraft was allowed to leave Zambia, and why the players were transported on a military plane.
In May 2002, $4 million was given to families of the deceased players in compensation.
Text from the Wikipedia article “1993 Zambia national football team plane crash” (revision 1373238550, retrieved 2026-09-18) by its authors, under CC BY-SA 4.0. Extracted as plain text: references, tables, images and some sections are left out. Read the article
Sources
Wikipedia article: 1993 Zambia national football team plane crash
- Revision
- 1373238550 · 2026-09-04 · retrieved 2026-09-18
- Wikidata
- Q1366606
- Licence
- Text CC BY-SA 4.0, by the article's authors; Wikidata CC0; town positions GeoNames (CC BY 4.0)
Where each value comes from
- Record
- Wikipedia article "1993 Zambia national football team plane crash" (page 30076906, revision 1373238550)
- Date
- Wikipedia infobox: date
- Place and country
- Wikipedia infobox: site
- Map position
- Wikipedia article coordinates
- Aircraft, operator and route
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft type, registration, operator, origin and destination; route airports from the linked airport articles' Wikidata codes (OurAirports)
- Operation
- operator named as an armed force or military unit in the infobox
- Fatalities
- Wikipedia infobox: aircraft fatalities
- Ground fatalities
- not stated in the Wikipedia infobox
- Summary
- Wikipedia infobox: summary
Source notes (1)
- Wikipedia · Facts from the Wikipedia article's infobox and coordinates, not checked against an investigation report. Independent review pending.