|  | | Tom Dirato talks to reporters Sunday about not taking the fated flight. |
STILLWATER, Okla. -- If not for a last-minute schedule change because of his ailing back, Oklahoma State broadcaster Tom
Dirato would have been aboard the flight that crashed and left all aboard dead.
"It's an emotional situation and one that I haven't had a whole
lot of time to sit and think about," Dirato said Saturday. "I
could have been there. I should have been there."
Dirato said he and an assistant coach almost got on the doomed
plane but were moved to another plane.
The 56-year-old Dirato said his back had been hurting so
Oklahoma State coach Eddie Sutton reassigned him and assistant
coach Kyle Keller to one of the faster-moving corporate jets that
safely carried the rest of the team back to Stillwater after a game
at Colorado.
"I'm basically alive today because of coach Sutton's wanting to
make sure my back was better," he said.
The plane, one of three chartered by the school, crashed about
40 miles east of Denver after taking off from Jefferson County
Airport.
Killed in the crash were two Oklahoma State basketball players,
a university basketball executive, five staffers and broadcasters
associated with the program, the pilot and co-pilot.
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AUDIO VIDEO
 OSU associate athletic director Steve Buzzard talks about the toll the tragedy has taken on coach Eddie Sutton.
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 OSU basketball color commentator Tom Dirato talks about a night in which Eddie Sutton spent meeting with his grieving players.
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Oklahoma State University President Dr. James Halligan speaks about the grief surrounding Saturday's tragic plane crash.
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Oklahoma State University athletic director Terry Don Phillips feels for all of the people involved in Saturday's crash.
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