WATCH: Gambia National Team AFCON Flight Breaks Down

Gambia national team players and officials narrowly escaped death as their airplane ran out of oxygen while en route to Ivory Coast for AFCON, LCSoccerHub Reports.

All members of the squad were reportedly onboard the booked airplane from Gambia FA and were traveling from the country’s capital Banjul to Ivory Coast.

According to Daily Mail, the oxygen cabin suddenly failed when the airplane took off, cutting off the supply of breathable air to the passengers.

The players and coaching staff suffocated due to the incident and had to alight from the flight immediately. Sources close to the incident said the players and staff came ‘within half-an-hour-of-dying,’ before being ejected off the airplane.

The incident is said to have occurred nine minutes after the plane took off. The pilot had to return from the journey and go for an emergency landing in Gambia’s capital Banjul.

Graphic details of the incident, shared by one of the players, Janko, on his social media handle showed players and officials disembarking from the airplane. Janko, a former Manchester United player, blasted Gambia FA for the shoddy arrangement that led to the incident.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Saidy Janko (@saidyjanko22)

Narrating how the players and all other passengers were nearly choked to death with strong headaches and dizziness, Janko described the incident as ‘unacceptable’

Reacting after the incident, Gambia head coach Tom Saintfiet said all members of the team would have been dead due to the incident.

“We could all have been dead. We all fell asleep quickly. Me, too. I had short dreams about how my life was done. Really and truly.

”After nine minutes, the pilot decided to return because there was no oxygen supply. Some players did not wake up [until] immediately after landing,” Saintfiet said.

Gambia were expected to kick off their AFCON campaign against defending champions Senegal on Monday before taking on tournament hosts Ivory Coast and Guinea in Group C.

According to Saintfiet, the team risked being frozen out of the tournament by CAF should they fail to arrive at Cote d’Ivoire on Thursday, January 11.