After the Boston Red Sox played the Los Angeles Dodgers on Sunday afternoon, they headed to Logan International Airport (BOS) for their Delta Air Lines charter flight to Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport (MSP) to play the Twins the following night. What should have been a routine two-hour and forty-minute flight turned into a much longer ordeal when the plane hit severe turbulence over Michigan; the pilots turned around and diverted to Detroit. See Flight Aware screenshot below.
The Boeing 757-200 was scheduled to depart at 5:50PM EDT but didn’t leave the gate until 7:47PM EDT. It took off at 8:21PM EDT and landed at 10:33PM EDT. They stayed on the ground for almost an hour before taking off again at 11:25PM EDT and landing at 12:23AM CDT (+1). They were almost five hours late (the same as my American Airlines flight from Chicago a couple of days earlier but ours wasn’t due to weather. It was mechanical).
The flight was so rough that many players were “reeling from the motion sickness” according to Chris Cotillo, Red Sox beat writer for MassLive.com. However, Manager Alex Cora somehow slept through it. He told Cotillo, “Rough flight last night. Very rough. For them. I don’t know, I slept through it. But there were a lot of people banged up after that flight.”
“Rough flight last night. Very rough. For them. I don’t know, I slept through it. But there were a lot of people banged up after that flight.”
On chaos in the air potentially impacting Monday’s game in Minnesota:https://t.co/oPanIhH1YW
— Chris Cotillo (@ChrisCotillo) July 28, 2025
Like most people, I dislike turbulence, though I know a couple of people who like it (yeah, I have no idea what’s up with them). It used to really freak me out until a pilot told me to think of it like being in a jeep on a rocky back road. He and other pilots have also assured me that planes are safe even in severe turbulence and that pilots don’t like it either and do their best to avoid it. But sometimes they can’t because it’s not always detectable (it’s called Clear Air Turbulence), which is why they always wear a seatbelt and encourage passengers to do the same.
It’s the passengers and flight attendants who aren’t wearing a seatbelt who really get hurt in severe turbulence and there are plenty of examples including last year’s high profile Singapore Airlines incident, which killed a passenger and injured 18 others. A couple years before that, a Hawaiian Airlines flight required 36 people to get medical attention.
In 2023, a popular TikToker and pilot from Australia recorded a video while he was a passenger in severe turbulence and explained what was going on and shared tips that may help you if you ever find yourself in the same situation as the Red Sox players. BTW: They lost 4-3 in yesterday’s game.
Jimmy said, “Horrible turbulence on our flight today. I’m a pilot and actually fly this aircraft type (Airbus). Here’s why you have nothing to worry about.” In the video Jimmy calmly explains, smiling at times, while everyone including his wife is screaming that this is “some of the worst turbulence I’ve ever felt. So it’s a short flight. It’s not comfortable.” Jimmy gives these tips:
- Remind yourself — it’s completely normal. The plane isn’t going to fall out of the sky.
- Water bottle trick; the water isn’t moving much is it? he writes. He then shows a three quarters empty Evian bottle turned upside down and the water is indeed not moving.
- Fresh air, look outside window (we didn’t have one) he says.
If you’re curious, here are the flight routes that have the most turbulence in North America and around the world.
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