By Michael Kennedy
The University of Louisville Men’s Basketball team’s charter airplane was forced to make an emergency landing at the Louisville International Airport today.
Kristy Nicholas, a spokeswoman for ExpressJet the charter company providing the flight, said that a warning light came on in the cockpit, indicating that there may have been an engine fire. The light came on out about 5,000 feet of altitude, within the first two to five minutes of flight. The plane turned around and landed at the airport. It was determined upon landing that there was no fire.
“Essentially what happened is the check engine light on the airplane came on, and since there’s no shoulder to pull over to when you’re flying, the routine response to that non-routine situation is to turn around and return to the airport so that we can call out maintenance and have them check out what is going on,” Nicholas said.
The team was flying to Tampa for their Wednesday evening game against the University of South Florida, and were due to depart at about 4:15 p.m.
The planes undergo routine maintenance every one to three days, and each plane’s engines are inspected before the pilots before each flight, Nicholas said.
Nicholas said that there are a number of reasons that this light may come on, such as the engine becoming too hot, or a fuse in the cockpit not being connected properly.
The team was flying on an Embraer 145, a 50-seat airplane powered by two turbofan engines.
According to Nicholas, ExpressJet flew in another charter plane from Kansas City for the team, and they departed for their Tampa about five hours later than planned.
