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August 11, 2006

Pats in a flight of nasty

ATLANTA - The Patriots got to their Atlanta hotel around midnight, about five hours after they were supposed to arrive in the Dirty South.

It was not a pleasant trip. Thunderstorms over Atlanta diverted the team plane to Knoxville, Tennessee where it refueled and sat for nearly two hours. When the plane took off, it went up in the thunderstorms that had plagued Atlanta hours earlier.

Pats vice president of media relations Stacey James said that, according to a flight attendant, the plane was struck by lightning.

"The flight was so bumpy and shifting around while we were elevating that (being struck) wouldn't surprise me at all. The flashes were all around on both sides."

James explained that planes are jolted by lightning but don't feel the same impact as a groundstrike because "there's no grounding element and the electricity just moves around you."

He added, "At least that's the assurance I've always gotten."

When it was mentioned that having the plane go down would have been a bad break for the team, James answered dryly, "And it would have been hard from our perspective to spin that positively."

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