Manchester United were forced to make an emergency landing in China while travelling from Shanghai to Beijing ahead of their clash with Manchester City.
Players and staff travelled in two separate planes from Shanghai, where they were badly beaten by Borussia Dortmund on Friday.
The first plane landed as scheduled but the second had to make an unscheduled stop in Tianjin, several hours' drive from the Chinese capital due to dangerous weather conditions.
Jose Mourinho said on Sunday that the first plane was "lucky" and the second was "unlucky", saying the second group of players arrived in Beijing in time to have dinner at 1am.
“We were supposed to fly with two different planes, with half of us in one plane and half in the other,” Mourinho said.
“The ones in the first plane were lucky because we landed safely and were in the hotel to have dinner.
“The second group was unlucky. The plane was not good. They had to make an unscheduled landing for a couple of hours, and then they arrived in the hotel to have dinner at one o’clock in the morning. But they had it with a smile on their faces which is good.”
Winger Memphis Depay was among the players in the "unlucky" plane and shared a video on Facebook .
"We are lost somewhere, we had to make a quick landing somewhere," Depay says in the video shared with his fans.
He shared a video with his fans on the social media website, explaining how he and his teammates were forced to touch down earlier than planned.
"We are lost somewhere, we had to make a quick landing somewhere," Depay says in the video shared with his fans.
"We tried to fly to Beijing but the weather is a little bit bad so we had to land somewhere else."
"Now we're waiting until the weather gets a little bit easier so that we can land. I hope we can leave soon so that we can prepare ourselves for the game versus Manchester City."
After the plane scare and fears that United's match with City might be cancelled due to fierce weather in Beijing ruining the Bird's Nest pitch, Mourinho now just wants to get his players home safely.
Commercial obligations add pressure to getting the game on, and staff are working tirelessly to make sure it is played.
But when asked by a local journalist if he hoped Beijing will be a lucky place for his side, Mourinho didn't bother with niceties.
"I think Beijing is unlucky because the pitch is very bad," he said. "The condition of my players is more important than the results in pre-season.
"I need to get the players home safe. We can't run away and disappear and not play. We try to be lucky and normally when you say lucky we want a result, but the luck I want tomorrow is a to go home without injuries.
"This game is for the fans and it's commercial opportunity which is important to the growth of our club. I hope our players and City’s players can go home without injury."
Heavy rain continued and was expected overnight, meaning the first Manchester derby outside the UK may still not go ahead.
City boss Pep Guardiola earlier expressed his own concern for player safety.
Instead of training on the stadium, which was the main venue for the 2008 Olympics, City moved to the Olympic Sports Centre on Sunday morning .
Guardiola made his priorities clear as to what he wanted to get out of the game. "No injuries," he said.
"We didn’t see the pitch but the information we have is there could be a lot of rain in the last day so it’s not in good condition.
"We’re going to adapt, adjust. It’s the second game for our preparation. The most important thing is that people aren’t going to be injured.
"Today all the big clubs in the world are coming here to China, sometimes in the United States or Australia. The club decides. We talk about the best conditions as possible for training. The humidity and the conditions for training is not ideal but we have to adapt."
United will train at the same facilities on Sunday evening.
United's first friendly in China ended in a disappointing 4-1 defeat by Borussia Dortmund.
Depay started the match up front for United but delivered a drab display and was hooked at half-time by boss Mourinho.