Soccer Fans Won’t Get Fueled Again

LIMA, Peru — Pilots of a chartered jet carrying 289 Gambian soccer fans faked the need for an emergency landing in Peru so passengers could watch their nation’s team play a key match, officials said Wednesday.

The plane, claiming to be low on fuel, landed Tuesday in Peru’s northern coast city of Piura, where Gambia played Qatar in the FIFA Under-17 World Championships later that night.

Emergency crews were scrambled ahead of the plane’s unscheduled landing. The fans were allowed to watch the soccer game in Piura, which Gambia won, 3-1. The fans apparently would have been late or missed the game if the flight had first gone to its scheduled destination of Lima, 550 miles to the south.

“It truly was a scam,” said Betty Maldonado, a spokeswoman for Peru’s aviation authority, CORPAC. “They tricked the control tower, saying they were low on fuel.”