The Auburn men’s basketball team’s plane was diverted after a fight between players

A chartered plane was forced to turn back Friday after two players from the Auburn University men’s basketball team got into a physical altercation, CBS Sports reported.

According to flight tracking site FlightAware, Meregrass Flight 681 departed Auburn University Regional Airport at 2:40 p.m. Friday. The flight returned to the airport around 3:30 p.m., the Federal Aviation Administration said in a statement.

According to FlightAware, the flight did not leave Alabama airspace. The Auburn Tigers traveled to William P. Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas. The team will face the University of Houston Cougars on Saturday evening.

The FAA said the flight crew “reported a passenger disturbance” but did not provide further details.

In an audio recording obtained by CBS News, the plane’s pilot can be heard telling air traffic controllers that two players had “entered into a physical change” and that “clothes had been torn.”

The incident involved freshman forward Jahki Howard and senior forward Ja’Heim Hudson, sources told CBS Sports.

According to CBS Sports, both players were not allowed to take a second flight that left the airport later Friday evening. The two players will miss Saturday’s highly anticipated game. Auburn University told CBS Sports it would release a statement but had not done so at the time of publication.

Howard, 19, was the 2024 King’s Hawaiian National Slam Dunk Champion, according to his bio.

Hudson, 22, played two seasons at the University of Georgia and one season at Southern Methodist University before transferring to the University of Auburn for his senior year, according to his bio.

Neither player was a starter, CBS Sports said, but both played in Wednesday’s season opener against the University of Vermont Catamounts.