|
Engine incident delays Marshall team plane
From staff reports
©2006 Bonesville.net
A Boeing
727 chartered to carry the Marshall football team from Ceredo, WV, to
Greenville, NC, for a game with East Carolina was delayed on the ground
Friday after smoke was reported in an engine, according to various reports.
The
incident, which forced the evacuation of the plane, prompted recollections
of a plane crash on Nov. 14, 1970, that killed 75 people, including most of
the Marshall team. That tragedy occurred when the Southern Airways DC-9
carrying the team home from a game at East Carolina plowed into a West
Virginia hillside in cold, rainy weather.
Friday's
flight took off after a two-hour delay. Excess fuel burning off one of the
engines caused the smoke, said Alpa Shah, director of operations for the
Tri-State Airport Authority.
News of
the problem with the team's aircraft coincides with substantial exposure in
film and in the media about events surrounding and subsequent to the deadly
crash of more than three and a half decades ago.
"We Are
Marshall," a major motion picture about the rebuilding of the Thundering
Herd football team after the 1970 crash, will open nationwide on Dec. 22.
The movie will have
an advance screening this coming Tuesday, the 36th
anniversary of the crash, at the College Football Hall of Fame in South
Bend, IN.
ECU-TV,
East Carolina University's official cable station, on Wednesday televised
"Remembering
Marshall," a special program delving into poignant memories
of the hard-fought contest between ECU and Marshall in then-Ficklen Stadium
in 1970 and the tragedy that unfolded in the hours after that game.
Saturday's game between the teams, set for a 1:00 p.m. kickoff, will mark
Marshall's first trip to Dowdy-Ficklen Stadium as a member of Conference
USA. The contest has significant implications in the jockeying for a spot in
the C-USA championship game.
A victory
will place ECU (4-2), which stands alone
in first
place in the league's East Division, in position to lock up
the division title with a win at Rice on Saturday, Nov. 18. If Marshall
(3-2) prevails, it will claim at least a share of the league lead and will
stand alone in first place if Southern Miss (3-2) loses at Tulane on
Saturday.
An East
Carolina win over Marshall combined with a Southern Miss loss to Tulane
would guarantee that the Pirates will represent the East in the conference
championship game regardless of the outcome of their game at Rice.
©2006 All rights rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. A College Football Hall of Fame
press release contributed to this report.
02/23/2007 11:32:55 AM |
