Steelers' Plane Forced to Make Early Morning Emergency Landing During Trip Back to Pittsburgh
A hard-fought victory over the Las Vegas Raiders turned out to be the easiest part of the Pittsburgh Steelers’ trip to Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
The Steelers defeated the Raiders 23-18 on “Sunday Night Football” — and things promptly went sideways for Pittsburgh.
The team’s plane made an early-morning emergency landing in Kansas City, Missouri, after a cockpit indicator showed there was an oil pressure problem with one of the plane’s engines, according to KDKA-TV.
STEELERS UPDATE: A replacement plane is expected to land in Kansas City around 9 a.m. local time and then bring the team back to Pittsburgh. https://t.co/f2zn3VJBjr
— KDKA (@KDKA) September 25, 2023
The Airbus A330-900 landed safely just after 5 a.m. Eastern time. It had taken off at midnight Eastern time (9 p.m. local time) from Las Vegas.
Fire trucks were on standby as the plane landed, but they were not employed. No one on the plane was injured.
Pittsburgh senior director of communications Burt Lauten said the team will be back in Pittsburgh on Monday.
Our team charter plane was unexpectedly diverted to Kansas City early this morning on our way back to Pittsburgh following our game in Las Vegas. Everyone on the plane is safe, and we are making necessary plans to arrive back in Pittsburgh later today.
— Burt Lauten (@SteelersPRBurt) September 25, 2023
Pittsburgh defensive end Cam Heyward made a joke of the landing, saying it was due to a roughing the passer call against star safety Minkah Fitzpatrick.
Dang emergency landing in KC.I think it’s due to @minkfitz_21 “roughing the passer call” but seriously landing KC……….
— Cam Heyward (@CamHeyward) September 25, 2023
Heyward was making a joke about one of the more controversial penalty calls from Sunday’s game against the Raiders, when Fitzpatrick was assessed a penalty for a hit on Raiders quarterback Jimmy Garoppolo:
This definitely wasn’t roughing the passer on this play. This was a clean hit by Minkah Fitzpatrick. pic.twitter.com/HZUn0Dwu1W
— Billy Hartford (@BudDupreeFan) September 25, 2023
The long delay getting home came after Pittsburgh improved its record to 2-1.
Quarterback Kenny Pickett passed for 235 yards and two touchdowns, according to ESPN.
“I think we’re on track to getting (the offensive mojo) back,” Pickett said.
“There’s never a perfect game. There are things we wished we had back, and that’s always going to be the case, but I think we’re definitely heading towards that stuff we need to have back,” he said.
For Las Vegas, Garoppolo was intercepted three times and was evaluated for a concussion after the game.
“Those are plays obviously we don’t want to make,” coach Josh McDaniels said.
“Jimmy makes a lot of good plays, but obviously when the quarterback holds the ball, he holds the fortune of our team also in his hands when he’s doing those things. … A big key obviously was for us to take care of the ball. We didn’t do a good enough job of that tonight.”
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