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Weather woes put Penguins’ return on thin ice
Youngstown State’s battle wasn’t entirely over once the clock hit zero and the Penguins capped off their final drive in miraculous fashion.
Getting back to Youngstown might have been just as challenging as the game.
The team, after defeating Eastern Washington 40-38 in the final seconds to advance to the FCS national title game, arrived to their chartered plane at the Spokane, Wash., airport about 9 p.m. PST, or midnight back in Youngstown.
After getting everyone through security and to their seats, loading all the team equipment and de-icing the plane, it was 10:30 before the plane was cleared for takeoff.
Travel was smooth on the way back, and a steady jet stream ensured the plane was going to get back into Youngstown in under four hours – much quicker than the six hours it took to fly west to Spokane.
But during the final descent, the captain came on the intercom to tell the team that Youngstown-Warren Regional Airport officials had radioed that their runway was too icy from the freezing rain and they worried about the chance of stopping the plane by the end of the runway.
So the plane went into a holding pattern, circling the airport.
About 20 minutes later, the captain said conditions had deteriorated more at YNG and the plane would have to divert to Pittsburgh.
Dan Dickten, director of aviation at Youngstown-Warren, said when the freezing rain hit, the airport staff had just 15-20 minutes to get the runway to a safe point to land, and it wasn’t feasible.
“There just wasn’t enough time to put chemicals down and react,” Dickten said. “Normally we take a lot of pride in keeping the airport open, especially for Youngstown State, but my staff said the runway was deteriorating by the minute and that’s when the decision was made to divert the flight to Pittsburgh.”
Breaking points at airports are measured with friction meters and give out readouts as either “good,” “medium,” or “nil.” The reading at YNG was nil.
“If we had an hour or so, we would’ve had no problem bringing that aircraft in,” Dickten said. “It’s just all about timing when an event like that occurs.”
The plane touched down in merely rainy conditions at 5:30 a.m. EST in Pittsburgh, but because of the diversion, there were no buses to pick anyone up. So the team, a few coaches and members of the media all hunkered down in a charter lounge for two hours until two buses arrived to take everyone back to Youngstown.
The team was dropped off at YSU around 9 a.m., but those who had driven to the Youngstown airport had to then take another bus to Vienna to pick up their cars.