Steelers Again Dealing with Flight Problems

HOUSTON — For the second consecutive week, the Pittsburgh Steelers are dealing with travel problems.

The team’s flight home from Houston’s Bush International Airport on Sunday was delayed several hours for mechanical reasons. The flight had been scheduled to take off at about 5 p.m. on Sunday. Instead, the team ended up taking off at about 7:45 p.m. The team is now expected to land at Pittsburgh International Airport just after 11 p.m.

So far, this week’s issue is only a minor inconvenience compared to last week’s escapade. The Steelers took off from Las Vegas last week on their way home after playing the Raiders on Sunday Night Football. Due to an issue with one of the plane’s engines, the flight was forced to make an emergency landing in Kansas City.

The players and staff were fine, though exhausted and likely bored. After spending all night and most of the morning on the plane, they boarded a different jet and left Kansas City at 11:29 a.m. on Monday morning, landing in Pittsburgh just after 1 p.m. — nearly 14 hours after their game ended.

The Steelers fly on a charter jet operated by Delta. The plane that had mechanical difficulties last week was an Airbus A330-900, according to Flight Aware. The replacement jet that got the team home was a Boeing 767-400.

This week, they were flying on a Boeing 767-300 that ran into issues before eventually being cleared to fly to Pittsburgh.

The Steelers have not yet released their anticipated schedule for this week. Head coach Mike Tomlin said last week that he did not think the lengthy delay would impact his team’s ability to prepare for its next game.

“It’s a non-factor,” he said. “We’ve got so many days and hours to prepare. We have not lost any physical preparation opportuniy with our football team or classroom opportunity with our football team. It created a few hours (last week) that our staff has to absorb from a preparation standpoint, though as I mentioned, technology was a component of that. My desire is that as we move away from it, we talk less about it, because we don’t want it to be an excuse in any way or some galvanizing thing in any way.”