Loses Game, Then Gets Stuck At CPS

As the John Denver song says, 'some days are diamonds, and some days are stone.' And then there are days that are mud.

Battered by a 4-3 loss to the St. Louis Blues, hockey players for the Detroit Red Wings hoped for nothing more than to get the heck out of St. Louis Tuesday night, and head for home. They thought they were home-free as their chartered DC-9 taxied out for departure at St. Louis Downtown Airport...

...Until the plane's right maingear wheels slid off the taxiway, a team spokesman told KSDK-5. The plane tilted sharply to starboard, bringing the plane's right wing to less than one foot off the ground, but no one onboard the plane was injured.

Video footage shot by a news helicopter overhead shows the DC-9's thrust reversers deployed, in an apparent attempt to "Red Wing II" off the grassy median. That only served to dig the wheels deeper into the mud.

Media reports indicate the incident occurred when the pilot "took a wide turn" on the taxiway. Detroit's WJBX-2 reports the wheel is "stuck pretty good," and will take some time to remove. Crews will likely need to pump fuel out of the right wing tanks, so it can be raised.

At least the Red Wings had some time to loiter in St. Louis, before their replacement aircraft arrived. The team's next game isn't until Saturday.

(Photo from the Red Wings' website)

FMI: www.stlouisdowntownairport.com, http://redwings.nhl.com/