A plane carrying the Saudi Arabian football team has caught fire en route to the World Cup in Rostov-on-Don.
The team were on their way to a game against Uraguay when the incident occurred.
According to Gulf News, the team landed safely in the Russian city after a minor technical fault in one of the engines.
The Guardian Football posted this footage of the plane on Youtube:
As per The Guardian, the Saudi Arabian Football Federation posted a statement on Twitter reassuring the public that the team was safe.
“[The Saudi Arabian Football Federation] would like to reassure everyone that all the Saudi national team players are safe, after a technical failure in one of the aeroplane engines that has just landed in Rostov-on-Don airport, and now they’re heading to their residence safely,” the team said via Twitter.
The airline, Rossiya, said in a statement that the preliminary cause of the malfunction was a bird flying into the engine.
No news for an emergency landing? This is the Saudi team plane which they use to travel in Russia for their next match against Uruguay.@flightradar24 pic.twitter.com/qe8uBQmywK
— 𝐀. (@AxM200) June 18, 2018
Featured image source: Saudi Arabian Football Federation’s Twitter.
