Clarkson: Jazz players feared for their lives during emergency landing

Utah Jazz sixth man Jordan Clarkson said teammates feared the worst when the team charter suffered engine failure after striking a flock of birds Tuesday.

"It got to that point where we were all on the plane like, 'This might be really the end,'" Clarkson told ESPN's Tim McMahon.

Engine fire and failure forced an emergency landing shortly after the Delta jet took off from Salt Lake City for Memphis.

"For a good 10 or 15 minutes, I think all of us on that flight were questioning if we were going to be here today," Jazz point guard Mike Conley said following Wednesday's 111-107 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies.

"That's how serious it was for us. I can't speak for everybody, but I know that guys were trying to text family just in case, you know? It was that kind of situation," Conley added.

Donovan Mitchell, who's expressed a fear of flying in the past, didn't accompany teammates for the flight that departed for Memphis hours after the initial incident and missed Wednesday's contest.

"I mean, it was a crazy situation. I understand fully why (Mitchell) didn't come," Clarkson said.

Jazz head coach Quin Snyder didn't say postgame Wednesday if the incident would affect Mitchell's participation in future road games.

"Everybody's impacted in different ways, all very significant," Snyder said.

"And it wasn't something that we were going to solve by just talking through everything, but I think it was important to acknowledge what we all went through (Tuesday), and, really, that same feeling of gratitude and appreciation for the fragility that we all live with, sometimes without being aware of it."

Delta confirmed Tuesday that the left engine was shut down after the plane collided with birds, though players and staff were uncertain what initially happened.

"Nobody knows. Everybody's just quiet," Conley said. "It took the pilots probably five to 10 minutes, probably about 10 minutes, to go through everything, go through their checks and get back to us and let us know what was going on. Because it was obvious that something was really wrong with the plane."

"It felt like the plane was breaking apart in midair. For five or 10 minutes, it felt like complete helplessness. We're thankful it wasn't as serious as it could have been, but it was scary," Conley added.