UMass Men's Basketball Team Makes Unexpected Stop In Albany

According to ESPN.com, the UMass Men's basketball team was forced into an emergency landing in Albany on Tuesday evening when the their flight to Western NY was interrupted by smoke in the cockpit.  UMass was headed to Olean, NY to take on St. Bonaventure Wednesday night.

According to Andy Katz with ESPN.com:

 "I was sitting in the first row seat and I smelled something strange," said UMass coach Derek Kellogg by phone from Albany's airport. "The pilot came on about 10 minutes into the flight and said they were having problems and we had to make an emergency landing in Albany and that there was smoke in the cockpit. There was a strange odor. I tried to make sure the guys were calm and the crew did a good job of keeping everyone calm." Kellogg said the descent was normal, but there was definitely concern from the people on the plane. He said there was nervousness, but "Thank God, we landed safely." "When we landed and saw 10-15 fire trucks your first thought is that this was much more serious than you thought," Kellogg said.

Almost 10 years ago to the day (January 27, 2001) a plane carrying players and media from Oklahoma State went down killing all 10 passengers. Luckily this flight was able to land without incident, just a little inconvenience, as UMass did not wind up getting to Olean until well after midnight.