Ten die in Oklahoma university team plane crash

Ten die in Oklahoma university team plane crash
REUTERS

JAN 28: Two players on the Oklahoma State University men's basketball team were among 10 people who died when a small charter plane crashed on Saturday night near Denver, university and police officials said.

The other victims were OSU basketball team support staff, a radio sports broadcaster and producer, and the pilot and co-pilot of the plane, university officials said. "This is indeed a sad day for OSU," university president James Halligan told a news conference in Stillwater, Oklahoma, late on Saturday night.

The officials said the twin-engine turbo-prop Beech King Air 200 crashed in a field shortly after take-off from Jefferson County Airport in the Denver outskirts on its way to Stillwater, Oklahoma.

Light to moderate snow was falling. "There are no survivors," Adams County Sheriff's Sgt. Craig Coleman said, adding that debris from the accident at about 5:30 pm local time (00.30 GMT) was spread over a wide area. Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Jerry Snyder said the crash occurred about 15 miles (24 km) southeast of Denver International Airport. Halligan said the plane was one of three bringing the team home from a game against the University of Colorado in Boulder. The other two aircraft returned safely to a regional airport in OSU's hometown of Stillwater, about 65 miles (105 km) north of Oklahoma City. The two players who died in the crash were named by the university as Freshman Nate Fleming, 20, and junior Dan Lawson, 21, both guards. Lawson had played in every game this season. The other victims were an athletics administrator, a trainer, a media relations staffer, an OSU radio sports broadcaster and his producer, another student and the two pilots, OSU athletics spokesman Steve Buzzardtold the news conference. Halligan said counselling staff were available to help the players deal with the tragedy. Snyder said investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board would be sent to investigate the cause of the accident.