Mizzou charter slides off Columbia runway

Sunday, October 31, 2004

Associated Press

COLUMBIA, Mo. -- A charter plane carrying Missouri players to a football game against Nebraska went off the runway in wet conditions Friday evening at Columbia Regional Airport.

No one was injured in the incident shortly after 5 p.m., said airport safety officer Robert Bias.

''The pilot made a tight turn, and the left main gear slipped into the mud,'' Bias said. The plane was pulled out of the mud so passengers could reboard the Champion Air 727 on Friday night, he said.

Chad Moller, a spokesman for Missouri athletics, said the plane had been getting into position on the runway and moving at a very low speed. He said about 125 people in the Tigers' travel party were on the plane and everyone was fine.

He said the plane did not slip off the runway. ''There was a right angle turn, and it cut the corner a little too closely.''

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