2 Oklahoma St. Players Killed in Plane Crash

Two Oklahoma State basketball players and six staffers and broadcasters were killed Saturday in a plane crash returning from a game in Colorado, officials said.

The plane crashed in a snowstorm about 20 miles south of Denver after taking off from Jefferson County Airport, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman John Clabes said. The pilot and co-pilot also died.

Oklahoma State players Nate Fleming and Dan Lawson, sports information employee Will Hancock, director of basketball operations Pat Noyes, trainer Brian Luinstra, student manager Jared Weiberg, broadcast engineer Kendall Durfey, broadcaster Bill Teegins, and pilot Denver Mills and co-pilot Bjorn Falistrom were aboard the plane, Oklahoma State sports information director Steve Buzzard said during a news conference in Stillwater.

“The players are handling this with each other and obviously are grieving very deeply,” Buzzard said.

Big 12 officials will meet this morning to discuss whether to postpone OSU’s Tuesday night game at Texas Tech.

The Beechcraft King Air 200 Catpass, which seats 11 passengers, crashed at about 5:35 p.m., said Jerry Snyder, an FAA spokesman.

“This is indeed a very sad day for Oklahoma State University,” OSU President James Halligan said.

Fleming was a redshirt freshman guard from Edmond, Okla., and Lawson a junior guard from Detroit.

Lawson, 21, played in Saturday’s loss at Colorado and did not score. He was one of the Cowboys’ main reserves, playing in every game this season and averaging about two points. Fleming, 20, did not play Saturday.

Teegins, 48, was a broadcaster for KWTV in Oklahoma City for the past 13 years. He was the play-by-play announcer for OSU basketball.

Hancock was the media relations coordinator for OSU basketball. He had been with the program for five years and was a graduate of Kansas.

At Oklahoma State, several players and girlfriends of teammates came in and out of the school’s basketball office with tears in their eyes.

Tom Dirato of the OSU Broadcast Group said he and an assistant coach almost got on the plane that crashed but were moved at the last minute to another plane.

“There is a pecking order on who goes where,” he said. “This is part of a family in the athletic department. If anything like this happens it affects many, many people. “

In Washington, the National Transportation Safety Board said a team headed by board member John Hammerschmidt would fly to Colorado this morning to initiate the agency’s investigation of the crash.