Plane carrying Macedonian football team to Armenia forced back mid-air

Agence France Presse — English
June 4, 2005 Saturday 4:28 PM GMT

SKOPJE June 4 — A plane carrying the Macedonian football team was
forced to turn back mid-air after being denied permission to land
in Armenia by Turkish authorities, who threatened to shoot it down,
media here reported Saturday.

The plane carrying the players to their World Cup qualifying match
with Armenia was surrounded by two military jets and denied permission
to land in neighbouring Armenia as it prepared for its descent just
20 kilometres from its destination, the Macedonian daily Utrinski
Vesnik reported.

Instead the pilot decided to return to Skopje. After their five-hour
return flight Thursday the players were stranded at Skopje airport
for five hours more as discussions continued about what to do.

Tired and angry at their ordeal, the Macedonian team asked UEFA,
European football’s governing body, to cancel their match but the
officials ruled the match on Sunday had to go ahead.

“When we arrived back in Skopje we didn’t want to fly back again and
asked for the match to be cancelled,” said Goce Sedloski, captain of
the Macedonian team, and Dinamo Zagreb player.

“If UEFA and FIFA (the world football governing body) organise the
matches it’s better if the Macedonian team don’t play in them if we
have these kinds of problems,” added player Goran Pandev, who plays
for Italian side Lazio.

Macedonian officials have complained to Turkish authorities and
Brussels about the incident, the paper reported.

In Ankara, the foreign ministry confirmed that Turkish authorities
had asked a Macedonian aircraft to leave Turkish airspace, but did
not confirm that it had been threatened with shooting.

“The relevant authorities confirmed that the plane entered Turkish
airspace without authorisation. They asked it for an authorisation
number but the pilot gave them a false number and was then asked to
turn back,” an official at the ministry said.

“The pilot did not give the reason for his flight to Armenia — the
authorities can exceptionally allow an unauthorised flight through
Turkish airspace if there is a serious reason, but this was not the
case,” he said.