The moon of the unexpected and involuntary protagonist of the Allsvenskan camps? Rolf Gustafsson, Materials Manager at IFK Gothenburg, 55.
Now he details what was behind the drama of the trip.
Today’s balls look swollen even without air.
We passengers, including IFK Göteborg’s A-team, on the Norwegian flight from Gothenburg to Alicante on Saturday couldn’t believe our ears when the flight conductor told us we’d have to make intermediate landings because of some 30 inflated balls that risked exploding in the cargo area.
Dramatic stop
I don’t know how the crew or the airline came up with this idea. Someone probably just saw the balls and thought they were all inflated, says material manager Rolf Gustafsson, throwing up his arms and wryly grinning with two days of respite from the drama of the trip.
The plane stopped at Kastrup in Copenhagen.
Gustafsson and Blavett’s player manager Hannes Stiller had to come out to the plate as baggage and flight security personnel unloaded the balls from the cargo area to search them.
– We measured the pressure in all the balls. It didn’t take several minutes. There was no air pressure in all of them. I knew, Gustafsson says, I deflated them a couple of days ago. It was just a matter of flying…
– The balls used at the elite level have been this way since I started working as a materials manager in 2014. They’re so dumb and made of material that they seem to be pumping even without air, he says and demonstrates by shooting two balls, one with air and one without, towards the ground.
Nobody checked
They both look like a soccer ball, but only one bounces.
– This was a mistake by the airline, we followed all the rules. No one in Landvetter asked about the balls. They went with our other large luggage.
– I once received questions about whether there was air in the balls. It was a few years ago when we were returning home from camping in Dubai. Since then, I always have a pressure gauge with me to make sure there is no air in the balls.
– Now someone at Landvetter might have replied to the balls late. It’s easy to be fooled by the appearance of the balls, says Gustafsson aka Rove in blue and white circles.
How much have you been told after this drama?
– I have to thank you for the headlines!
Reporters directly reported the news event on the landing at Kastrup when no one knew what was behind it.
There were headlines like “Angels Make an Emergency Landing.”
Bagen – supported “Peton”
– The players on the team are what they are. They love to scream. I’ve been told this many times, and it will be a long time coming…but since it turns out I was right, it’s easy to live with. Now everyone thinks it was mostly a funny thing.
– Physical “Peton” (Anders Peten) contacted Hammarby quickly. We are good friends. He understood right away. Rolf Gustafsson says: We talked about how we should pack to avoid something like this happening again.