Carolina Panthers Team Plane Gets Stuck In Mud After Sliding Off Taxiway Following Preseason Game

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The Carolina Panthers took a red-eye flight back home after kicking off their preseason play with the Patriots on Thursday, and players aboard the plane got a bit of a scare after their plane ended up stuck in the mud off the taxiway after landing.

Air travel is statistically the safest form of transportation, but based on how frequently professional sports teams take to the skies to get from place to place, some of them are inevitably going to end up facing some aviation-related setbacks at some point in time.

The Carolina Panthers didn’t encounter any issues when they boarded a plane to head up to Gillette Stadium on Thursday night for their first preseason game of the summer against the New England Patriots, although the same can’t be said with what transpired on the field during the team’s 17-3 loss (a contest where Joe Milton made the defense look silly with an impressive scramble).

The Panthers didn’t waste any time heading back to North Carolina in the wake of the defeat, as the team headed to T.F. Green Airport in Providence to board Delta Flight 8860, a charter that took off at 12:45 A.M. before landing in Charlotte a couple of hours later.

Unfortunately, things took a turn when the Boeing 767 touched down at Charlotte Douglas International Airport, as WCNC reports the aircraft made a successful landing and was taxiing to the gate when a part of the landing gear veered off of the asphalt before the plane came to a stop after getting stuck in some mud formed by the remnants of Hurricane Debby.

While a number of emergency vehicles were dispatched to the scene, none of the 188 passengers aboard the plane were harmed, and all of them successfully deplaned before boarding buses that transported them back to the terminal.