Reports: Auburn basketball team's plane turns around after teammates fight onboard

Nov. 9 (UPI) -- A plane carrying the Auburn men's basketball team to a game in Houston turned around and headed back to Alabama on Friday due to an onboard fight between players, according to multiple reports.

The flight took off Friday afternoon from Auburn, Ala., and was heading to Texas where the 11th-ranked Tigers were to play the No. 4 Houston Cougars on Saturday when the pilot decided to turn the plane around, according to sources cited by ESPN.

The broadcaster reported the fight was between reserve players Jahki Howard and Ja'Heim Hudson, and was over before it escalated into "anything serious."

Air traffic control audio obtained by WBRC-TV in Birmingham, Ala., revealed a pilot in the team flight's airspace telling controllers, "We have a bunch of basketball players fighting."

In a subsequent audio, a pilot is heard saying, "Flight deck is secure the threat level is contained. We just had -- we'll have police on the ground, we had two players that got into a physical altercation, clothes were ripped."

The pilot also appears to say one of the players was "bloody," WBRC-TV reported.

Howard and Hudson were barred from getting on a second flight late Friday night, which later arrived in Houston early Saturday morning, according to CBS Sports.

Auburn University officials had yet to release a statement on the reported incident as of Saturday afternoon.

The Tigers began the 2024-25 season with a lopsided 94-43 blowout victory over Vermont on Wednesday.