The Oklahoma City Thunder basketball team were caught up in a bizarre mid-air incident when their charter plane was struck by an as yet unidentified object on its way to Chicago, damaging the nose cone.

The collision occurred Saturday morning during the team’s flight to Chicago-Midway ahead of their game against the Chicago Bulls. Pictured after landing, the Delta Airlines Boeing 757-200’s nose was seen to be badly dented and scratched.

After disembarking, NBA stars Carmelo Anthony and Josh Huestis posted pictures of the damage to social media.

What possibly could we have hit in the SKY at this time of night? Everyone is Safe, Though. “All Praise Due” #ThunderStrong A post shared by Carmelo Anthony (@carmeloanthony) on Oct 27, 2017 at 11:12pm PDT

I guess we hit something? 30,000 feet up... pic.twitter.com/Rem9GmwRKq — Josh Huestis (@jhuestis) October 28, 2017

Baffled center Steven Adams even took to Twitter to ask NASA, television personality and engineer Bill Nye, and renowned astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson: “What caused this?”

Hey @NASA@neiltyson@BillNye We had a rough flight to say the least. 30000 feet in the air. Flying to chicago. What caused this? pic.twitter.com/uEVrEm7noi — Steven Adams (@RealStevenAdams) October 28, 2017

In a statement to the Oklahoman, Delta Airlines moved to quash speculation by saying the plane likely came in contact with “a bird.”

“Delta flight #DL8935, operating from Minneapolis to Chicago-Midway as a charter flight for the Oklahoma City Thunder, likely encountered a bird while on descent into Chicago,” the statement read.

“The aircraft, a Boeing 757-200, landed safely without incident; customers have since deplaned and maintenance teams are evaluating. Safety is Delta’s top priority.”

Statement from a Delta spokesperson on the Thunder's plane damage: pic.twitter.com/5fTBajA5Xi — Erik Horne (@ErikHorneOK) October 28, 2017

The drama in the early hours Saturday ended with the players being taken safely to their hotel.