New aircraft dispatched to airlift Super Eagles back home

Nigeria’s Super Eagles are finally on their way home after hours of uncertainty in Angola, following a mid-air emergency that forced their ValueJet chartered flight to make an unscheduled return to Luanda on Saturday.

According to the Super Eagles’ Media Officer, Promise Efoghe, all players and officials are safe and in good condition despite the incident.

The team was en route from Polokwane, South Africa, to Uyo, ahead of Tuesday’s crucial FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Benin Republic, when the aircraft developed a fault mid-air shortly after takeoff from a refueling stop in Luanda.

“We are all fine and all is well with the team,” Efoghe confirmed on Saturday night. “We expect another aircraft at 3 a.m. Nigerian time on Sunday, and we should be in Uyo in the early hours of the day. Luanda is about four hours from Nigeria.”

A reliable source disclosed that ValueJet Airlines immediately dispatched another aircraft from Lagos to Luanda after coordinating with the Federal Ministry of Aviation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to secure emergency flight clearances.

Meanwhile, our correspondent exclusively gathered that the NFF might consider a slight adjustment to the team’s training schedule or a shift in match preparation plans if the squad does not arrive in Uyo on time to recover properly before Tuesday’s fixture.

Despite the disruption, reports from inside the camp suggest that the players remain calm and focused, eager to put the travel setback behind them and shift full attention to the task ahead — securing a vital victory against Benin Republic to keep Nigeria’s World Cup qualification hopes alive.