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KEVIN GUTTING

Derek Kellogg coaches the University of Massachusetts men’s basketball team against Boston University on Dec. 31 at the Mullins Center. The charter flight carrying the Minutemen to their game at St. Bonaventure was forced to make an emergency landing in Albany on Tuesday afternoon because of smoke in the cockpit.

OLEAN, N.Y. - The University of Massachusetts men's basketball team's charter flight to Bradford, Pa., had to make an emergency landing in Albany at 4 p.m. Tuesday. The flight left from Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee.

According to UMass spokesman Jason Yellin, the travel party was told "smoke in the cockpit" forced the landing. The travel party included players, coaches, radio broadcasters Josh Maurer and Tim Kenney, a trainer, team managers and Yellin.

There were 32 people aboard the airplane, including crew.

UMass is scheduled to play St. Bonaventure at 7 p.m. Wednesday in Olean, N.Y., a small college town south of Buffalo not far from the Pennsylvania border.

"Anytime the pilot comes on and tells you there's going to be an emergency landing because of smoke in the cockpit and you can smell some kind of odor, it's a little bit concerning," UMass coach Derek Kellogg said. "The pilot and flight attendants did a really good job of letting us know what was going on and keeping everybody calm."

Kellogg said a handful of players and members of the coaching staff were uneasy fliers to begin with.

UMass Tuesday evening was scheduled to get a new plane from World Atlantic, its charter company. That plane was scheduled to take the Villanova men's basketball team to Providence, and then fly to Albany to pick up the Minutemen and deliver them to Pennsylvania.

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Follow UMass coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/GazetteUMass. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at http://www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.