Although the Pittsburgh Steelers played the Raiders in Las Vegas on Sunday night, they were stuck in Kansas City on Monday morning. It took few hours for them to get home to the Steel City.
Engine failure on their flight home forced them to make an emergency landing. Fortunately, everybody was okay.
The Steelers’ win over the Raiders concluded at about 10:30 p.m. CT. Players had to wrap things up on the field, shower up, change, and speak to the media. They likely didn’t get on the road to the airport until closer to 11:00 p.m CT. Their plane probably didn’t take off until well after midnight and was expected to arrive back home around 5:30 a.m. ET.
However, shortly after Pittsburgh got up in the air, they were right back down.
Its plane landed at Kansas City International Airport at 3:55 a.m. CT after the oil pressure failed in one of the engines. Firetrucks were on the scene to inspect the Airbus A330-990 upon arrival.
Fortunately, the Steelers were coming off of a victory, so spirits might have been higher than they would have been after a loss. That was a crucial piece to the exhausting, morning day, but high spirits can only last so long.
182 Pittsburgh players, coaches and staffers were all forced to stay onboard their original plane for nearly five and a half hours while waiting for a replacement flight to arrive in Kansas City from Atlanta. They were not allowed to deplane. They just had to sit at the gate and wait for their first opportunity to get off the flight, board a different flight, and then fly back home. Brutal travel day.
Defensive end Cam Heyward joked that he thought the emergency landing was because of his teammate Minkah Fitzpatrick’s controversial roughing the passer call. And then he tagged Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce to ask for a ride home.
The Steelers were hopeful to depart around 11:30 a.m. CT. That would put them home closer to 4:30 p.m. ET— almost 12 hours later than their initial expected arrival time.
Monday will be a full day off for Pittsburgh! If you can really call it that…