The Butler men’s basketball team had a scary in-flight situation on Thursday night after their plane lost cabin pressure about 25 minutes into a flight from New York to Indianapolis.
Butler coach Chris Holtmann told ESPN’s Jeff Goodman that the lights went out and the oxygen masks dropped as a flight attendant repeatedly told the team to put them on.
Holtmann said the plane descended rapidly, going from 35,000 feet to 10,000 feet in “the span of 10 or 12 minutes.”
According to Holtmann, staff members were texting their wives, afraid they might not see them again.
“As a coach, you are obviously thinking of your family,” Holtmann said. “But you are also thinking about all the young men on the plane. I was shook. It was scary. We had guys crying.”
Several players complained about ear pain after the flight, Holtmann told Goodman.
According to Goodman, the team landed in Pittsburgh and stayed overnight. Butler announced on Friday that because of travel logistics, the team would take a bus from Pittsburgh to Indianapolis.
