Kansas men's basketball team's plane makes emergency landing after engine blows
The Kansas Jayhawks men’s basketball team survived a scary moment on Sunday when their plane leaving San Jose, Calif., had to make an emergy landing due to engine failure.
The No. 5 Jayhawks had just completed a 72-46 win at Stanford earlier in the day and were on a flight back back to Lawrence, Kansas when the right engine of their charter blew out and forced them to turn around to land back in San Jose.
There are truly few things scarier than seeing your 80-ton vehicle flying thousands of feet in the air start to fail. KU senior associate athletics director Ryan White captured the footage on his phone.
@KUHoops plane blows engine on flight back to Lawrence. We just landed safely back in San Jose. 🙏🏻 pic.twitter.com/aAKPcavCUK
— Ryan White (@ryanwhite_01) December 30, 2019
The school released a statement after landing safely:
“Upon our return flight home from San Jose, CA, roughly 20 minutes into the flight, one of the engines failed. The pilot immediately contacted the San Jose Airport where we returned and made a safe landing. We are grateful to the pilots and the entire flight crew of Swift Air. We will stay the night in San Jose and return to Lawrence once the plans have been finalized.”
The Swift Air charter plane landed back in San Jose around 5:30 p.m. and was met by the San Jose Fire Department as a precaution, although their services were not needed.
According to NBC Bay Area, Swift Air is operated by iAero and doesn't fly for the general public, so all the passengers on board were likely players, coaches and other people related to the team.
The Jayhawks do not have another game until Saturday when they will host the No. 22 West Virginia Mountaineers. Additionally, their spring semester of classes do not begin until Jan. 21.
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