Oklahoma State Crash: NTSB Says Weather Not a Factor

Bethany Whitfield

Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 09:53 PM ET

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Key Takeaways:

A plane crash in central Arkansas killed four people, including two Oklahoma State University women's basketball coaches, pilot Olin Branstetter (a former state senator), and his wife.
NTSB investigators have ruled out weather as a factor, focusing instead on the pilot's medical history and a possible loss of control, indicated by the plane's nose-dive and witness accounts of sputtering.
The accident, involving an experienced pilot in the same plane he used to set a record 30 years ago, has led OSU to re-evaluate its travel policy following a similar fatal crash a decade prior.

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Weather was not a factor in the recent high-profile crash that killed two Oklahoma State University women’s basketball coaches last week, according to NTSB investigators.

Former Oklahoma state Senator Olin Branstetter was flying the Cherokee 180 carrying the coaches when it crashed nose-first into a wooded area in central Arkansas on Thursday. All four people on board were killed, including the 82-year-old pilot, his 79-year-old wife Paula, who was also a pilot, and OSU women’s basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant coach Miranda Sernawere.