An Ottawa Fury FC player is safe after allegedly being attacked by a fellow passenger sitting in a Air Canada Jazz flight Friday.
“Somebody tried to choke one of our players, out of the blue, and it wasn't a fun moment … and I think some of our guys are in shock, but now everything's back to order,” explained Fury coach Marc Dos Santos in a Skype interview with CBC news.
The Fury were aboard the plane headed to Atlanta for a North American Soccer League (NASL) game against the Atlanta Silverbacks scheduled for Saturday.
Before boarding the flight, the coach claims that the same man was questioned by security officials at the gate. It so happened that the man sat behind Fury forward Oliver Minatel.
The incident occurred just before the plane began it’s landing procedure as Dos Santos and witnesses aboard saw the man reach over and attempt to strangle Minatel with the cord of his headphones.
“He's good now. We went through everything we had to go through with him with the local police and even the FBI. It was like a movie, you know? We don't expect that when we're just coming to train and play a soccer game. It's maybe a once-in-a-lifetime thing that happens and we just have to deal with it,” the coach stated.
“It was a little bit of a scary moment. We'll eat well tonight, we'll try to sleep well and tomorrow we have a game to play and hopefully everything's going to go well.”
The cause of the incident remains to be seen, however, as the FBI continue their investigation. The 22-year-old Minatel was reported to be ‘ok’ and sustained no injuries, just ‘shaken up’ by the incident, according to his coach.
