OKLAHOMA CITY, Nov 18 (Reuters) - Oklahoma State University
women's basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant coach Miranda
Serna died when a plane carrying them on a recruiting trip
crashed in Arkansas, the university said on Friday.
The pilot, former Oklahoma state senator Olin Branstetter,
and his wife, Paula, also were killed, leaving no survivors,
the school said.
The single-engine Piper plane owned by the Branstetters
crashed on Thursday afternoon in a wooded area south of
Perryville in central Arkansas, about 45 miles (72 km) from its
destination of Little Rock, Arkansas, officials said.
The plane went down "under unknown circumstances," Federal
Aviation Administration spokesman Lynn Lunsford told Reuters.
The university said the women's team would not play games
scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. Mike Holder, OSU vice
president for athletics, said associate head coach Jim Littell
would take over as the interim head coach.
(Additional reporting by Suzi Parker in Little Rock; Writing
by Colleen Jenkins; Editing by Jerry Norton and Eric Walsh)
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