The Auburn men’s basketball team plane had to return to Auburn University Regional Airport Friday after two players scuffled midflight.
The plane left the airport at 2:50 p.m. and turned around for a 3:30 landing local time, according to FlightAware. The Tigers were scheduled to fly to Houston ahead of their game Saturday night.
The incident involved reserve players Ja’Heim Hudson and Jahki Howard, unnamed sources told ESPN, and the flight crew opted to turn around.
The plane first asked for an emergency landing at Montgomery Regional Airport in Alabama. When asked by air traffic control what was going on, the pilot explained that players were fighting, according to air traffic audio accessed by Birmingham Fox affiliate WBRC.
“The threat level is contained for the moment. We just had — we’ll have police on the ground, and we had two players that got into a physical altercation, clothes were ripped. It’s kind of crazy,” the pilot added.
The team flew to Houston later Friday without Hudson and Howard, sources told ESPN.
• Brad Matthews can be reached at bmatthews@washingtontimes.com.
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