USC's football team, coaches and staff endured several terrifying minutes as their chartered flight to South Bend plummeted amid a severe thunderstorm, forcing the pilot to abort his first landing attempt. About 125 people, including 82 players, coach Pete Carroll and most of the coaching staff faced a harrowing end to their trip across the country for Saturday's game. "There was a moment there when I was thinking, 'This is it,' " Dennis Slutak, USC's director of football operations, told The Los Angeles Times.