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Zambia remember its football heroes 15 years after

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Last Updated on Monday, 28 April 2008 21:17 Monday, 28 April 2008 21:17

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APA-Lusaka (Zambia) Scores of Zambians gathered Monday in the capital Lusaka to pay homage to their national football team’s heroes who died in an air crash 15 years ago in Gabon on their way to Senegal to fulfil an international football fixture.

The offical Radio Zambia played solemn music in remembrance of the team, with Deputy Sports Minister Richard Taima leading close family members of the footballers at the commemoration service that included prayers at the team’s gravesite, located next to the Independence Stadium in the capital.

Thirty people, includikng 18 players, football and government officials, a journalist and military air Crew, perished soon after their chartered military aircraft took off from Libreville on 28 April 1993 and dropped into the sea.

The football team was on its way to Dakar, Senegal, to play in a World Cup qualifying match. However, the plane burst into flames, exploded and plunged into the Atlantic Ocean soon after take off from the Gabonese capital, where the military crew had stopped to refuel the military Buffalo plane.

Fifteen years after that traumatic event, it is still unclear what caused the crash, as the government has to date not disclosed the findings of a special investigation that was carried out soon after the tragedy.

The closest government has come to admitting that the plane was faulty was an official statement made to parliament three years ago, in which the vice president said the initial findings of the investigations seemed to suggest overheating in one of the plane’s engines.

The deputy minister on Monday assured the family members of the fallen footballers, considered by many to be the country’s best football players ever, that the government would continue to offer support to them.

Each of the 30 families received a payout of more than 140,000 US dollars as compensation from the government.

All 30 victims of the plane crash are buried at a site just outside the Independence Stadium, the country’s biggest football arena.
 

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written by MWILAKAWANDAMI , May 10, 2008
GO ZAMBIA GO
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Denis Liwewe Last tribute to the KK 11in 2003 April
written by MWILAKAWANDAMI , May 10, 2008
Can some one post that video to the you tube pliz, i really miss the boys. GO ZAMBIA GO AND GOD BLESS.
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