Nearly 300 fans of Gambia's U-17 team made it on time to the West African team's world championship game against Qatar in Piura, Peru, because the pilots faked an emergency landing.
The jet, chartered by President Yahya Jammeh, was headed to Lima, 550 miles to the south of Piura. The connection in Lima would have been too late for the fans to get to the game punctually. So the pilots flew straight to Piura and claimed they were low on fuel.
The Lockhead L1011 Tri-Star was greeted by an emergency crew, which discovered the ruse.
''It truly was a scam. They tricked the control tower,'' Betty Maldonado, a spokeswoman for Peru's aviation authority, CORPAC, told the Associated Press, adding that the plane entered Peruvian airspace without permission.
The passengers were allowed to attend the game while authorities contemplated whether to penalize the airline.
Gambia won, 3-1.