The Pittsburgh Steelers’ offense was smoother in Las Vegas than their plane ride was back home. After a big 23-18 win over the Raiders Sunday night, the Steelers were expected to land in Pittsburgh early Monday morning. Instead, they spent overnight stuck in Kansas City after the team plane made an emergency landing due to an oil-pressure issue. Stuck on the plane for hours until another one could pick them up, QB Kenny Pickett hopes this upcoming road trip to Houston is a lot less dramatic.
Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Pickett recalled the experience.
“Slept on the floor,” Pickett told reporters via ESPN’s Brooke Pryor about how he spent his time on the tarmac. “That was awful. Watch tape. Try to relax a little bit, unwind. Crazy, crazy experience. Definitely grateful that we landed and were safe.”
Early Monday morning, the Steelers announced their flight had been diverted to Kansas City and that they were trying to get home as soon as they could.
But they were delayed by roughly eight hours, unable to deplane, and had no choice to wait it out. Pickett said things were a little tense when he found out there was a problem with the plane.
“The flight attendant woke me up. She said, ‘We’re having a Code Yellow alert.’ I was kind of out of it. What does that mean? We’re one step away from Code Red so that’s obviously not good…I turned around and me and Mitch [Trubisky] and Mason [Rudolph] had a little chat about what we thought was going on. Some guys were panicking. It was a crazy situation.”
I’m no aviation expert but a Code Yellow seems to be referencing an aircraft over 12,500 pounds declaring an emergency. According to this forum post from years ago, it informs the nearby airport:
“A Yellow Alert is used when an air carrier type aircraft is coming in for a landing with some sort of problem. You must have heard Alameda FD being dispatched this afternoon. They roll to assist the OFD to stand by in case the plane crashes.”
But the pilot safely got the team on the ground. Then came the wait. Mike Tomlin was adamant during his Tuesday press conference that the disruption to the team’s plans won’t be an excuse for the Steelers’ Sunday tilt on the road against Houston. Perhaps there will be some nervous flyers but the team’s mentality won’t change, and, as Tomlin said, the team didn’t lose any practice time because of it. They just came off a shorter week by playing a Monday night game against the Cleveland Browns before beating the Raiders on the road Sunday night so there’s no excuses here.
As a separate point, morbid and unthinkable as it is, this is about the only time to share that the NFL does have a contingency plan should a team plane crash creating a similar situation as the University of Marshall experienced in 1970. As outlined in this old ESPN article, the NFL has two courses it can take.
“In a “near disaster,” in which fewer than 15 players are killed or lost for the season, teams would be required to play out the season but would receive priority on all waiver claims.
In a “disaster,” in which 15 or more players are killed or lost for the season, the commissioner decides whether the team will continue its season. If it does, the “near disaster” plan would kick in. If not, a restocking draft would take place in the offseason and the team would get the No. 1 pick in that year’s NFL draft.”
Fortunately, that has never happened to an NFL or professional sports team. And there’s no indication the Steelers were ever in serious danger. The pilot made the right decision to land as soon as possible and if the worst part of the experience was a delayed return, the team will certainly take it.
