\n<\/p>\n
For Zambia’s population, its football team was a beacon of hope.<\/p>\n
The price of copper, the country’s primary export, had almost halved in the past four years, tanking the economy. Income had dropped sharply. <\/p>\n
President Frederick Chiluba had declared a national state of emergency, alleging that a coup plot against him had been uncovered.<\/p>\n
The football team though were a source of pride.<\/p>\n
They were known as Chipolo-polo, the Copper Bullets.<\/p>\n
It was a nickname derived from Zambia\u2019s main industry and the team’s attacking, aggressive style.<\/p>\n
The team had just returned from a 3-0 win over Mauritius in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier.<\/p>\n
They had an eight-year unbeaten home record and were a band of brothers at the peak of their powers.<\/p>\n
As far as Zambians were concerned, USA \u201994 was beckoning. <\/p>\n
To get there they would have to top a qualification pool of three, trumping Morocco and Senegal in home-and-away ties.<\/p>\n
First up, Senegal away.<\/p>\n
As usual it was a DHC-5 Buffalo military plane that would take them there.<\/p>\n
With the recession eating into its funding, the football association couldn\u2019t afford commercial flights.<\/p>\n
Instead the DHC-5 Buffalo, an 18-year-old twin-propeller aircraft, early models of which had been used in the Vietnam War, would lumber across the vastness of Africa.<\/p>\n
It was not built for long-haul trips so it would have to make regular refuelling stops.<\/p>\n
And it was showing its age. Six months earlier, while flying over the Indian Ocean en route to play Madagascar, the pilot had actually told the players to wear their life jackets.<\/p>\n
When Zambia’s domestic-based players turned up to the airfield outside the capital city Lusaka to board, Patrick Kangwa, a member of the national team selection committee, met them.<\/p>\n
He told 21-year-old midfielder Andrew Tembo and third-choice goalkeeper Martin Mumba that they wouldn’t need to travel. They were dropped from the squad.<\/p>\n
Pride was hurt and hot words exchanged on the tarmac.<\/p>\n
It was a standard selection decision, but, on this day, it decided who would live and who would die.<\/p>\n
Those who did get onboard faced a daunting itinerary. The Buffalo planned to touch down and refuel in the Republic of Congo, Gabon and Ivory Coast before finally arriving in Dakar, Senegal’s capital.<\/p>\n
In reality, it never made it beyond Gabon.<\/p>\n
The Zambian government has never released the report into what happened to the flight.<\/p>\n
But in 2003, the Gabonese authorities said that almost immediately after take-off from the capital Libreville, the plane\u2019s left-hand engine stopped working.<\/p>\n
The pilot, tired from flying the team back from Mauritius the day before, shut down the right-hand engine by mistake.<\/p>\n
The heavy plane, suddenly without power or lift, plunged into the ocean a few hundred metres from the Gabon coast, killing all 30 people on board.<\/p>\n
Back in the Netherlands, Bwalya, his run forgotten, saw the news he already knew break on television.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a lady reading the news and the Zambian flag was behind her,” he remembers.<\/p>\n
“She said, \u2018the Zambian national soccer team traveling to Dakar, Senegal, for a World Cup qualifier has crashed. There are no survivors\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cAmbition – as a young person, brothers, team-mates, the spirit of the group \u2013 was lost in one day. But it seems like yesterday, it\u2019s so clear in my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kangwa \u2013 the official who had sent the selected players on their way in Lusaka \u2013 flew to Gabon.<\/p>\n
At a stroke, his role had changed from picking players to identifying their remains.<\/p>\n