On Friday night, a strange incident occurred at 35,000 feet involving a major college basketball program. As the Auburn Tigers basketball team was flying to their game against the Houston Cougars, a fight reportedly broke out on the plane. Multiple reports indicate that this altercation prompted the plane’s captain to redirect the flight back to Auburn instead of continuing to their destination.

Shortly after the news emerged, audio of the captain’s conversation with Air Traffic Control circulated on social media and quickly went viral. The exchange sheds light on the situation on the flight.

According to the captain, “Is there a reason for the change? Well, that’s the… the fight is being contained. We’ve talked to the coach and a nurse on board. So let’s just pull the captain on the ship to confirm that the situation is secured.” The captain replied, “Situation is secured and contained for the moment, sir.”

Reports from ESPN indicate that Auburn’s replacement flight took off for Houston late Friday night. Earlier in the week, the team had an impressive 94-43 victory over the Vermont Catamounts at Neville Arena. Now, they face a much tougher opponent after going through this bizarre ordeal just before game time. 

Here’s full the exchange, via Chris McCulley

Auburn basketball plane saga has conflicting stories, reporters slinging accusations at each other

Auburn basketball provided the college hoops world a WWE-esque storyline on November 8 with “Plane Gate.” As the story goes, AU’s team jet, en route to Houston for a Saturday night game at the Toyota Center with the No. 4 Cougars, had to be grounded after a conflict on the plane.

Here’s where it gets tricky.

 From FOX6 WBRC’s provided details from Air Traffic Control audio that pointed to a physical altercation on the flight.

“ATC audio includes pilot saying ‘flight deck is secure the threat level is contained. We just had—we’ll have police on the ground, we had 2 players that got into a physical altercation, clothes were ripped.’ And appears to say one of the players was bloody,” Hardison tweeted.

The Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman, who provided initial details of the incident, claimed it had never become a “kerfuffle.”

Now, as for who the players involved were, On3’s Justin Hokanson condemned a self-proclaimed credentialed college basketball reporter for spreading false news that Chad Baker-Mazara, Dylan Cardwell, and Drake Cardwell were the culprits.

“False. But I guess you got engagement from your lies, for whatever you think that’s worth,” Hokanson tweeted.

Auburn basketball building hype for marquee Houston matchup

Who knows what actually happened. For the plane to be grounded, a ruckus was clearly caused. As for who was involved and if it got violent? We may never know.

But this incident has the college basketball world talking about a No. 4-No. 11 game in an NBA arena, the Toyota Center.

During a controversial week that saw Bruce Pearl called out at a press conference for his politics after his team won their home opener by 51 points, “Plane Gate” was a climactic peak from an emotional standpoint.

We’ll see if AU thrives under the added attention or gives many reasons to be worried about team chemistry when the real story should be on how good this team could be.