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Miami Heat team plane skids at Milwaukee airport, everyone OK

Ben Rohrbach
Senior NBA writer
Emergency personnel respond to the Miami Heat's charter plane in Milwaukee. (@abcWNN screenshot)
Emergency personnel respond to the Miami Heat’s charter plane in Milwaukee. (@abcWNN screenshot)

The Miami Heat’s charter plane skidded on a buildup of ice while taxiing at Milwaukee’s General Mitchell International Airport, requiring an emergency personnel response and a tow before reaching the gate, but everyone on board is fine following what the team described as a minor incident.

The Heat’s chartered Miami Air Boeing 737 arrived in Milwaukee from Oakland at 9:07 p.m. on Wednesday, roughly 90 minutes after the airport lifted a suspension on arrivals and departures due to the icy conditions on the taxiway, according to reports. Four Mitchell Airport arrivals and three departures were canceled and two more flights diverted, Milwaukee’s local Fox affiliate reported.

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“I don’t think any of the players even noticed,” a Heat spokesperson told The Miami Herald. “It was really more of an inconvenience than anything. We had to wait an extra hour and a half to get towed over and deplane. Everyone was fine.”

Team officials also described the incident as “annoying” and said people on board only realized there was an issue when emergency vehicles arrived on scene, following protocol, according to reports. The plane “never left the pavement,” the team said, and everyone de-boarded following a tow to the gate.

As Heat guard Wayne Ellington said, “Could have been worse. Thank God it wasn’t.”

The incident occurred less than three weeks after the Minnesota Vikings’ team plane slid off the runway amid snowy conditions at Wisconsin’s nearby Appleton International Airport.

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Earlier in December, the Boston Celtics received a hoax bomb threat while flying to Oklahoma City for a game against the Thunder, so consider this latest drama involving the Heat your regular reminder that professional sports teams experience the dangers of flying on an almost daily basis.

The Heat cap a six-game road trip against the Bucks on Friday night. Get home safe.

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Ben Rohrbach is a contributor for Ball Don’t Lie and Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at rohrbach_ben@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!