Oklahoma State officials will examine travel policy in wake of basketball coaches’ deaths
The Associated Press
November 21, 2011
Oklahoma State University officials will examine the school’s travel policy in the wake of a plane crash that killed women’s basketball coach Kurt Budke, an assistant coach and two other people in central Arkansas, a spokesman said Sunday.
“Certainly, it’s a little early, we’re still kind of recovering from this, but we’ll certainly look at the policy,” university spokesman Gary Shutt said. “Any time you have a terrible accident like this, definitely you look at the policy.”
A memorial service is scheduled for 1 p.m. Monday at Gallagher-Iba Arena for Budke, 50, assistant coach Miranda Serna, 36, and the others who died in Thursday’s crash. Organizers were working to finalize plans Sunday.
The two coaches were killed when the plane they were riding crashed into a wooded hillside in central Arkansas. The pilot, Olin Branstetter, 82, and his wife, Paula, 79, also died.
Budke and Serna’s deaths come more than 10 years after two men’s basketball players and eight others associated with the program were killed in a January 2001 plane crash in Colorado. Changes were made to the travel policy, including rules requiring two pilots to be on board for all OSU travel involving student athletes and aircraft to be powered by two or more turbine engines.
