LITTLE ROCK, AR - The National Transportation Safety Board has released a report on the
plane crash that killed four people in November 2011, including two Oklahoma State University basketball coaches.
The report does not list a cause for the crash but notes that the conditions were clear and no medical conditions were found in the pilot's autopsy which would have led to the crash. Investigators did not find any mechanical problems in the wreckage of the plane which may have caused the crash.
Oklahoma State University women's basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant coach Miranda Serna were on a recruiting trip when the plane crashed. The pilot, Oklahoma state senator Olin Branstetter, and his wife Paula were also killed.
Witnesses, who were near the accident site,
reported seeing the airplane flying at a low altitude and making turns. They then observed the airplane enter a steep nose-low attitude prior to descending toward the terrain.
The single-engine, four-seat plane crashed in a heavily wooded area of the Ouachita National Forest, about 8 miles southwest of Perryville. The report says the impact crater was about 10 feet in diameter and about 3.5 feet deep with a debris field about 80 yards long.
