NTSB looks at de-icing as possible cause

By P. Solomon Banda
Associated Press

BYERS, Colo. — After a snowy day walking through a mile of scattered wreckage, aviation investigators focused on whether a plane used by Oklahoma State had been de-iced before takeoff.

“We have some very detailed and painstaking work ahead of us in what are not the best weather conditions,” said John Hammerschmidt, head of the National Transportation Safety Board crash investigation team.

Ten people, including two Oklahoma State basketball players and six staffers, were killed Saturday when the twin-engine plane crashed into a field. The plane had taken off from Jefferson County Airport in light snow and with one-mile visibility.

The crew had been warned ice could form on the wings, but investigators said conditions were not harsh enough for authorities to ground the plane.

The Beechcraft King Air 200 Catpass was one of three planes carrying the school’s basketball team and associates back to Stillwater, Okla., after they lost to Colorado at Boulder.

Federal investigators planned Monday to interview maintenance crews who worked on the plane before its takeoff, people who spoke with the plane’s crew just before takeoff and the pilots of the two planes that arrived safely at Stillwater.

No distress call was sent before the crash, said Arnold Scott of the NTSB. The plane was not required to carry a flight data recorder because it carried less than 10 passengers, said Mike Kelly of the Federal Aviation Administration’s flight standard office.

Among the victims were Oklahoma State players Nate Fleming and Daniel Lawson, sports information desk employee Will Hancock, director of basketball operations Pat Noyes and trainer Brian Luinstra.

Classes were held at Oklahoma State Monday; the school set a memorial service for Wednesday.

On Sunday, cold rain contributed to the somber mood in Stillwater.

“It’s like a part of the school died,” said Justin Battista, a freshman walking to Sunday Mass.

Two of Fleming’s friends stopped at the crash site Sunday on their way to comfort his family in Edmond, Okla.

Sarah Cook, 23, of Jackson, Wyo., said Fleming, a freshman walk-on, was delighted to have some playing time.

“Everybody was chanting for him and we told him he was awesome,” Cook said.

Witnesses said the plane climbed and banked hard to the right before it crashed. They told investigators the propeller plane’s engines revved and eased several times before the fiery crash in a field about 40 miles east of Denver.

“It sounded like he was flying full power,” said Jon Carrick, who lives about two miles southwest of the crash site. “Then I heard a thump and saw a low glow.”

Also killed was student manager Jared Weiberg, the nephew of Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg; broadcast engineer Kendall Durfey; broadcaster Bill Teegins; pilot Denver Mills; and co-pilot Bjorn Falistrom.

The victims’ bodies were removed and over the next few days the engines, de-icing boots and other pieces of the wreckage are to be taken to a hangar in Greeley, where investigators are to create a mock-up of the plane.

The plane was registered to North Bay Charter of Reno, Nev. The company declined to comment. The university said the plane was provided for the trip by an Oklahoma City man, so it wasn’t a charter flight.