What happened to Chiefs' plane? Patrick Mahomes and Co. get terrible news ahead of Broncos clash

On Saturday afternoon, the Kansas City Chiefs were scheduled to fly to Colorado for their Week 18 clash against the Denver Broncos at Empower Field at Mile High. However, their trip has been delayed due to inclement weather in Missouri.

The Kansas City International Airport temporarily shut down operations due to rapid ice accumulation on the runway, making it difficult and dangerous for planes to take off and land. To make matters worse, Fox Sports Kansas City's Harold R. Kuntz reported that the airport's deicing machine was having an issue.

"More problems at KCI: We've received more messages and calls that the De-Icing machine at the airport is currently broken, delaying flights at this moment. Have been Informed of some flights being deverted to Omaha." - Harold R. Kuntz on X

The Chiefs' plane was scheduled to depart from the Kansas City International Airport at 2:45 PM local time. However, at the time of writing, nearly three and a half hours had passed from their take-off time and the team was still stranded at the airport.

According to Chiefs Digest's Matt Derrick, the team's logistics department had anticipated that the weather would cause issues and tried to prepone their flight to Denver. However, they couldn't accommodate the last-minute change and had no choice but to stick to their schedule.

The Chiefs' issue is bad news for the Bengals and Dolphins

The Chiefs' travel troubles would concern the Cincinnati Bengals and Miami Dolphins the most as they are relying on the reigning Super Bowl champions to help them earn a playoff berth.

Both teams are 8-8, one game behind the Broncos, who currently hold the seventh and final spot in the AFC playoff seeding. Denver can seal their postseason berth with a win over the Chiefs, who are fielding their backup players.

If they lose and the Dolphins and Bengals win their games, Miami will head to the playoffs due to their superior record against conference opponents. Cincinnati is banking on Kansas City to beat Denver and the New York Jets to upstage the Dolphins, as without those results they would be eliminated from playoff contention.

The Chiefs' backups were already underdogs against the determined Broncos. However, their travel woes will only tip the scale further in Denver's favor, a disappointing development for the Bengals and Dolphins.