The Daily O’Collegian

New answers are being offered by the National Transportation Safety Board in explanation to what happened to the 10 victims of the plane crash in Strasburg, Colo.

In a statement issued Thursday, the NTSB determined the probable cause of the Jan. 27, 2001, plane crash was “the pilot’s spatial disorientation resulting from his failure to maintain positive manual control of the airplane with the available instrumentation. Contributing to the cause of the accident was the loss of A.C. electrical power during instrument meteorological conditions.”

Prior to the plane crash, Oklahoma State University followed a loose policy regarding the procedures for student athlete travel, said Zane Fleming, father of the late Nate Fleming.

The OSU transportation policy before Jan. 27, 2001, stated:

“All charter flights — any trips for which money, goods or services are exchanged for air service — are required to be contracted and scheduled through the flight department.

Aircraft could be donated for OSU use and those aircraft had to be certified and approved through the flight department, according to the prior policy.

Information regarding the airplane’s inspection records and insurance policy, the pilot’ s FAA certificate number and medical certificate, and the pilot’s biannual flight review record were to be updated annually and kept on file within the department.

This was not the case in review of the Strasburg crash, wrote John A. Hammerschmidt, acting chairman of the NTSB, in a letter in reply to Thursday’s NTSB report.

“According to the flight department manager, four charter companies were on file with the flight department, but Jet Express Services was not one of them,” he wrote. “OSU indicated that its flight department did not have any records on file regarding the accident pilots or airplane.”

Suspicion stewed in the minds of the victim’s families as to why policies were not followed.

As reported by The Daily O’Collegian Thursday, Fleming said, “If more care would have been taken, this crash could have been avoided and all those men would be with us now, but that is the way things happen.”

The NTSB gave thought to the fact that OSU did not follow proper procedure in this case, but Hammerschmidt wrote, “OSU’s former air transportation policy was not causal to the accident. In fact, the policy was not likely different from those in place at other universities of the same size as OSU.

“The flight was coordinated with the flight department manager, as were charter flights and flights involving university airplanes,” Hammerschmidt wrote. “Thus, OSU did not provide any significant oversight for the accident flight.”

Hammerschmidt stated the goal statement of the task force designed to reformulate OSU’s travel policy was “to provide a framework for safe and efficient athletic team travel for Oklahoma State University Department of Intercollegiate Athletics, … to assign responsibility and accountability for enforcement.”

Fleming said the new team travel policy at OSU is very inclusive. The policy takes into account every aspect of athletic and academic travel, whether it be in the air or on the ground.

According to the OSU post-accident team travel policy, “All flights are to be operated on an IFR flight plan and aircraft may not depart into forecast hazardous weather conditions, including severe icing, thunderstorms, or severe turbulence or windshear.”

IFR, or Instrument Flight Rules, is a system the aviation world uses to determine the severity of meteorological conditions and whether a plane is able to function in such conditions.

Also in the OSU policy, “… inspection and maintenance must be performed by an appropriately rated FAA-certified repair station, the manufacturer or a manufacturer-authorized service center.”

The policy calls for the pilots and owners of the aircraft, private or commercial, to carry insurance policies of no less than $250,000 and no more than $1 million dollars for private planes and $3 million dollars per passenger for commercial airlines, Hammerschmidt wrote.

The NTSB recommended that the National Collegiate Athletic Association “review Oklahoma State University’s post-accident team travel policy and develop, either independently or jointly with the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics and/or the American Council on Education, a model policy for member institutions to use in creating a travel policy or strengthening an existing travel policy,” Hammerschmidt wrote.