Jet Fakes Fuel Emergency So They Can Watch Soccer Game!

[User546]

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/americas/09/21/fake.emergency.ap/index.html

Airliner fakes emergency so passengers can watch soccer game

LIMA, Peru (AP) -- A chartered jet carrying 289 Gambian soccer fans pretended it needed to make an emergency landing so they could watch their team compete in the FIFA Under 17 World Championships, officials said Wednesday. The plane, claiming to be low on fuel, landed Tuesday near the stadium in Peru's northern coast city of Piura.

"It truly was a scam," said Betty Maldonado, a spokeswoman for Peru's aviation authority, CORPAC. "They tricked the control tower, saying they were low on fuel."

Emergency crews were scrambled ahead of the unscheduled landing by the Lockhead L1011 Tri-Star, owned by Air Rum Ltd., Maldonado said.

The Air Rum plane, which she said was chartered by Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, should have made its approach to the capital, Lima, but instead flew directly to Piura, entering Peruvian air space "without permission."

The passengers were permitted to attend African team's 3-1 victory over Qatar on Tuesday night, she added, but the plane remained in Piura on Wednesday while authorities determined what penalty, if any, to levy against the airline.

Gambian newspaper Daily Observer reported on its Web page Wednesday that the group of fans had been delayed for a week in a hotel in the small West African nation and were forced Friday to watch their country's victory over Brazil on television.

 

[Metro752]

LMAO, awesome

 

[FN FAL]

I can see ICAO defining a new rule so that pilots can declare, "soccer critical".

 

[TrafficInSight]

Air Rum?

 

[NYCPilot]

In most of the world people take soccer pretty seriously. Ive seen al sorts of riots breakout on TV over someones team losing.

Not sure if it was Columbia or not, but a player on a Columbian team accidentally kicked the ball into their own goal and they ended up losing the game. Afterwards, the Columbian mafia exectued him.

 

[User546]

Air Rum?

That's what I was thinking!

 

[learflyer]

another reason to hate that gay sport.

 

[Icelandair]

That was during the World Cup in the USA in 1994 when the USA beat Columbia because of that. USA was a huge underdog so the gamblers lost big when we won.

 

[TurboS7]

Please spell COLOMBIA right, I think it is the gringo's curse on such a beloved country.

 

[JoeMhama]

No more for you

another reason to hate that gay sport.

Learflyer,

Guinness does not want you drinking their beer anymore for that line!!

 

[CaravanMan]

I think this should be filed under Maxim's "Those Wacky Foreigners."

 

[avbug]

Yet another circumstance where formally declaring an emergency saves the day.

Here, folks just thought it was for evil engine fires and passengers running down the isle spewing blood from their eye sockets. Not so. It also includes soccer games, but only when the Gambian President is on board. And there is an "R" in the month.

Of course, overflying Peru, the government just assumes all landings are an emergency...because so many of them are.

At least we didn't shoot them down this time and then strafe them in the river...

 

[learflyer]

Learflyer,

Guinness does not want you drinking their beer anymore for that line!!

Oops! I meant I like soccer!