Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 13, 1995 TAG: 9502140079
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DOUG DOUGHTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHARLOTTESVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Never mind that Virginia's return trip from Clemson was delayed six hours Saturday night. The Cavaliers were happy just to be home.
The UVa traveling party was forced to return to the Greenville-Spartanburg (S.C.) airport after the loss of one of the engines on its charter airplane.
``I was sitting behind Jeff [Jones] and something clearly had happened,'' said assistant coach Tom Perrin, who subbed for the ailing head coach at a news conference following the Cavaliers' 75-65 men's basketball victory over Nevada-Las Vegas.
``It wasn't so dramatic that you felt like we were going to crash. There wasn't a lot of screaming, but Jeff turned around and said, `What was that?' The right engine went up, the right wing went up and the plane dipped to the left.''
Steve Melewski, host of the UVa coach's show, said he did not hear the engine blow and was looking at a boxscore when he noticed the plane wasn't gaining elevation.
``I wasn't scared,'' Melewski said, ``but I knew something was not right. Then, the pilot came on the [intercom] and said, `There's no cause for alarm, but, for the first time in 37 years, I will be landing a plane without an engine.'''
A second plane was called, but was unable to depart for Greenville-Spartanburg because of bad weather in Mississippi. UVa finally left for home on a plane that had been summoned from Buffalo.
``I don't even want to talk about it,'' said UVa freshman Curtis Staples. ``My heart stopped. I didn't know what was going to happen. I've seen stuff like that in movies, but I never thought it would happen to me.''
Staples recovered in time to score a career-high 27 points against the Runnin' Rebels.
by CNB