Posted: 2012-01-01 14:34
When the Chipolopolo leave South Africa after playing Bafana Bafana at the weekend, they will be on a mission to honour their fallen heroes of yesteryear.
Maybe Golden Arrows' Joseph Musonda, who was 15 years old at the time, can recall the soul-destroying sight of 30 coffins lined up side by side 19 years ago.
Other South Africa-based members of the current Chipolopolo squad are Bidvest Wits Kampamba Chintu, who was two years younger, and former Jomo Cosmos striker Christopher Katongo, who was only 10 when the Zambian Airforce Buffalo aircraft plunged into the sea 500 metres off the coast of Gabon on April 27, 1993, killing the entire 18 members of the national squad that was making its way to Senegal to play in a 1994 Afcon qualifier.
The plane's crew and all the members of the Zambian technical staff, including coach Godfrey Chitalu, also died in the crash, which took place late at night.
Zambia has always had a reputation of producing hot strikers, but Chitalu was the greatest of them all. Zambia's Player of the Year four times, he rewrote the country's football history in 1972 by scoring 107 goals in all competitions in a single season.
By a strange twist of fate, the Zambians will be up against Senegal again in their opening Afcon match on January 21.
Others in Group A are co-hosts Equatorial Guinea and Libya.
Libreville, where the Afcon takes place this year, will also be burned into the minds of Herve Renards' players because this where the engine crippled plane refuelled before taking off again and crashing as it was gaining altitude from the Gabon aiport.
An after-crash investigation found that pilot fatigue and an instrument error had contributed to the accident. The pilot, who had also flown the Chipolopolo from a match in Mauritius the previous day, shut down the right engine, causing the plane to lose all power during the climb out of Libreville Airport.
The Chipolopolo's captain at the time of the tragedy was Kalusha Bwalya, the current president of FAZ. He was not aboard the ill-fated flight as he was in the Netherlands playing for PSV at that time and had made separate arrangements to make his own way to Senegal.
The Chipolopolo had been among the favourites to win the 1994 CAF showpiece, having finished fourth and third in the two previous editions, and Bwalya almost achieved the impossible with a hastily assembled second squad to reach the final against Nigeria.
They took the lead in the first half, but the Super Eagles quickly equalised and followed up with the winner in the second half.
Jabulani Mhlope
Source: http://www.kickoff.com/news/26251/
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