Pittsburgh Steelers' charter plane flying from Las Vegas had to make an emergency landing in Kansas City, Missouri, early on Monday morning after the team defeated the Las Vegas Raiders on Sunday night.
A Steelers spokesperson posted on social media that everyone on the plane is safe and that the team is "making necessary plans to arrive back in Pittsburgh later today."
According to several Pittsburgh media reports, an engine's loss of oil pressure caused the plane to land at KCI Airport at 3:55 am CT. As per Pittsburgh CBS station KDKA, which had a TV crew on board the aircraft, fire vehicles were on the site examining the Airbus A330-900.
Following their 23-18 victory over the Raiders on Sunday night, the Steelers were headed back to their home city. Veteran defensive tackle for the Steelers Cam Heyward joked on social media platform X that teammate Minkah Fitzpatrick's "roughing the passer call" was the reason for the emergency landing.
Heyward also quipped that Travis Kelce and pop icon Taylor Swift, who attended Sunday's game in Kansas City under invitation from the team, could need to arrange the Steelers' transportation home.
According to some accounts, a replacement plane is anticipated to land in Kansas City at 9 am CT to pick up the 182 passengers and fly them back to Pittsburgh.
The Steelers defeated the Raiders 23-18 on Sunday night in front of a largely pro-Steelers crowd at Allegiant Stadium thanks to two touchdown passes from Kenny Pickett.
"I was really proud of the efforts and the playmaking," said Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. "We did what we needed to do to secure a victory. It's still very early stages of the year. We have a lot to learn and a lot to teach, but it's good to do so with the victory."
In his first multi-touchdown pass game of his young career, Pickett, who had only thrown two touchdown passes and three interceptions to start the season, threw scores to Pat Freiermuth and Calvin Austin III while passing for 235 yards.
"It's never going to be perfect," said Pickett. "There are always things that I'm going to want to improve on and get back to the drawing board. But I think it's a great step for us as a team to come on the road, back-to-back primetime wins."
Early on in this game, as both teams searched for a gap, it was punch and counterpunch.
On their opening two possessions, the Raiders (1-2) forced the Steelers (2-1) to go three-and-out. After the second, they increased their lead to 7-0 by scoring on a 32-yard touchdown pass from Garoppolo to Devante Adams on fourth-and-inches play-action.
However, the Steelers skipped a drive on their subsequent possession because they had not gained a first down up to that point.
When facing third-and-7, Pickett connected with Austin 40 yards down the field between the hash marks for a 72-yard touchdown throw that knotted the game at 7-7. Austin was covered by cornerback Marcus Peters and safety Marcus Epps.
The touchdown, which was Pickett's first of the game on his fourth throw attempt, was the longest of the season for the Steelers, surpassing a 71-yarder to George Pickens last week against the Browns.
Early in the second quarter, the Raiders had an opportunity to go ahead, but Levi Wallace intercepted Garoppolo by leaping inside of rookie tight end Michael Mayer at the Las Vegas 31.