HOUSTON - A Delta Air Lines jet returning to a gate at Houston's William P. Hobby Airport got stuck in the mud at the edge of a taxiway Monday morning.

No one on Delta Flight 4302, bound for Atlanta at 6:45 a.m., was hurt, Houston Airport System spokeswoman Darian Ward said.

Delta spokesman Joe Williams said the Delta Connection flight, a Bombardier CRJ-900 aircraft operated by Pinnacle Airlines, Inc., was carrying 76 passengers and a crew of four.

Ward said the incident didn't affect other flights, although Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Elizabeth Isham Cory said an airport runway was temporarily closed.

"The pilot reported a communication problem, returned to the gate but ended up taxiing on the grass, where the plan was stuck," Cory said.

Images from the scene showed the jet's front gear in the grass.

Shuttle buses were dispatched to take the passengers back to the terminal for rebooking.

Hobby Airport, the smaller of Houston's two major airports, is a few miles southeast of downtown.