Location Eases Trip Concerns in Southland

There are advantages to attending college in a major metropolitan area. A small aircraft such as the Oklahoma State plane that crashed Saturday night is almost never used by Southland basketball teams to travel to games.

From the most prominent--UCLA and USC--to the tiniest--Chapman and The Master’s--the 11 schools contacted by The Times on Monday said their teams usually take commercial jet flights, most often out of Los Angeles International Airport. All players, coaches and support personnel are on the same flight.

“I can’t recall in my [22 years] here our teams taking small aircraft flights,” said Tim Tessalone, USC sports information director. “We’ve always flown commercial into larger airports. Los Angeles is serviced by so many cities. Every Pac-10 school [has an airport] that handles large commercial jets.”

Ten people, including two Oklahoma State basketball players, were killed when their twin-engine plane crashed into a field about 40 miles east of Denver. The plane had taken off from Jefferson County Airport in nearby Broomfield in light snow and with a visibility of one mile.

The Beechcraft King Air 200 Catpass was one of three planes carrying the school’s basketball team and associates back to Stillwater, Okla., after a loss to Colorado at Boulder. The other planes were small jets.

The Big 12 Conference includes several schools in small cities, but most teams fly midsize charter jets. Only Texas Tech and Texas fly planes such as the 11-passenger aircraft that went down.

Texas Tech flies to games in a Lear jet and a Beechcraft King Air chartered by the university. At Texas, the Longhorns usually fly in state-owned planes that seat about eight people.

Nebraska formerly used small, state-owned planes, but Coach Barry Collier went to a 49-seat charter plane this season.

Oklahoma State is an exception. Coach Eddie Sutton has long flown on small, private aircraft donated for his team’s use by friends or supporters of the program. The system has offered a low-cost, flexible way to get players to games, then back to school in time for classes.

Boosters donated all three planes, according to Tom Dirato, director of radio and television at Oklahoma State. The plane that crashed was registered to North Bay Charter of Reno. The Daily Oklahoman reported that the team had previously used the plane through the help of Sutton’s friend, Richard Bogert, an oilman and Oklahoma State alumnus.

Dirato flew to Colorado on the prop plane but returned to Stillwater on one of the jets. He said Sutton arranged the switch after seeing that Dirato was bothered by back pain. The flights on the jets are 20 to 30 minutes shorter than those on the prop plane.

Dirato and second-year assistant Kyle Keller were given spots on one of the jets, which resulted in reserve players Dan Lawson and Nate Fleming being bumped to the plane that crashed. Dirato said the players’ seating was based on seniority, with seniors and upperclassmen joining Sutton and his coaches on one jet, and the rest of the players boarding the second jet. Trainers and the radio crew usually fly on the third plane.

Such distinctions are not made by Southland teams flying commercially.

Cal State Northridge, which often faces inclement weather on trips to Big Sky Conference schools, learned of the Oklahoma State tragedy after a victory over Montana at Missoula. Two days earlier, Northridge played at Montana State in Bozeman.

“Right away, I prayed and asked the Lord to protect the families of anyone involved,” Northridge guard Carl Holmes said. “Then my uncle called, and he’s a life insurance agent. I know we travel a lot. I told him I want to get life insurance when we get home.”

On Thursday, Northridge traveled 202 miles by bus from Bozeman to Missoula, a sometimes treacherous trek that includes crossing the Continental Divide.

Most trips involve flight and bus legs. Northridge travels by bus to Idaho State in Pocatello after flying to Salt Lake City and travels by bus to Northern Arizona in Flagstaff after flying to Phoenix.

“They say flying is safer than being on some of the roads,” Coach Bobby Braswell said. “But I’m not interested in making trips in any puddle hoppers.”

Most teams that charter flights or take small planes do so out of necessity. Some Southeastern Conference schools are in small cities such as Athens, Ga.; Tuscaloosa, Ala.; and Oxford, Miss. Conference games are played on Wednesday nights, and charter flights return the visiting teams home the same evening so that players can attend classes Thursday.

“We avoided driving and sitting in an airport,” said Jan van Breda Kolff, coach at Vanderbilt from 1993-99.

Since becoming coach at Pepperdine last season, Van Breda Kolff has traded the convenience of charter flights for the security of flying to big airports in large jets.

“Many times during my playing and coaching career, flights in inclement weather were very bad,” he said. “I’ve been through scary experiences and most players and coaches I know have as well.”

UCLA, a short distance from LAX, flies commercially except for charter flights for some NCAA tournament games. Two seasons ago, a flight to Louisville, Ky., for a regular-season game became so turbulent that when a scheduled stop was made in Memphis, Tenn., a few Bruin players refused to re-board. One was in tears. Staffer Doug Erickson rented a van and drove the six hours to Louisville.

Chapman Coach Mike Bokosky worries that the pressure on athletic teams to meet game commitments can compromise safety.

“You rarely see a game being postponed,” he said. “Teams make every effort to get there. The last thing a school wants to do is postpone a game. Not to say they will do that at a risk of injury, but you always have weather to worry about.”

Sound planning can make for safer travel.

“We look at the cost, then we make a determination of whether we will take buses or flights, whether it is prudent to take vans, or whether we need expediency,” said Dan Guerrero, UC Irvine athletic director.

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

The Cowboys’ next road game is Feb. 6 at Nebraska. Sports information director Steve Buzzard said there are no plans for the team to depart from its normal use of small, private planes.

“I would expect it to be status quo,” he said.

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Staff writers Vince Kowalick, Sam Farmer, Mike Terry, Eric Stephens, Lon Eubanks, Paul McLeod and wire reports contributed to this story.