David Kohl, AP
Severe weather made for a terrifying airplane ride for the Cleveland Browns Sunday.
Following their 41-20 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, the Browns were prepared to take a bus home due to gusty winds and heavy rain. But the team, United Airlines and Cleveland Hopkins Airport determined it was safe to make the short, 45-minute flight home instead.
But according to Mary Kay Cabot of Cleveland.com, the players had quite the bumpy ride.
“It was terrifying,” guard Jason Pinkston told Cleveland.com. “It was the real thing. The weather was so bad. We were coming in to land and (the pilot) had to go kind of fast to balance it out and we came down and we hit on two wheels. The (left) wing was literally three feet from hitting the ground.
“We’re actually pretty lucky to be alive right now, to be honest. We really escaped one. We got away with one last night.”
Around 6:25 p.m., while the team was in the air, the airport stopped all commercial flights. The Browns landed around 6:30 p.m.
“Before landing, the plane dipped from side to side,” Cabot writes. “And just as it was about to touch down, a wind gust forced the left wing sharply toward the ground, according to several players.”
Players were pretty shaken up.
“There were a bunch of screams,” said Pinkston. “You could hear everyone screaming on the plane. It was pretty real. I screamed, because I was sitting right over (left) wing. My window was open and I saw the whole thing.”
Defensive lineman Billy Winn was as scared as Pinkston.
“Billy was shaking like a little girl,” kidded Paul Kruger.
Explained Winn: “Holy cow — I swear the wing was a couple feet from the ground. At the last second it was dead quiet right before the landing. We’re going to land and it got real quiet and I heard this big gust of wind and it went like that (a tilting motion with his hand) and came back and we recovered. We had a great pilot. A fantastic pilot. Bless his heart for getting here safely.”
Pinkston told Cabot that when the plane landed, he rushed home and held his baby daughter for 30 minutes.
“The people around the team and the coaches, we really realize how fortunate we are that it didn’t take a turn for the worse,” he said. “I tweeted some things, but I don’t think people really understand how close it was. You can ask any player that was on the plane, coach, anybody.
“It’s not one of those stories that ‘oh someone’s exaggerating.’ There’s no exaggeration there. What I said is 100 percent true.”
Team spokesman Zak Gilbert made it clear that the team would not have flown if United Airlines and the airport had not given them clearance to depart. They never would have jeopardized their safety.
