BYERS, Colo. -- Aviation investigators said Monday they have
no evidence that engine failure caused a plane used by Oklahoma
State University to crash into a field, killing all 10 on board.
|  | | Investigators search over some of the wreckage on Sunday. |
Investigators also said that small pieces of the plane had
fallen to the ground before the crash, but the cause remained
unknown.
The victims, including two Oklahoma State basketball players and
six employees, were killed Saturday when the twin-engine plane went
down in a field about 40 miles east of Denver.
John Hammerschmidt, head of the National Transportation Safety
Board investigation team, said the plane had not de-iced before
taking off from Jefferson County Airport in light snow and with a
visibility of 1 mile. But he said it went straight from a warm
hangar to the runway and took off promptly.
"It's up to the pilot and in this particular case he'd just be
wasting the fluid. It would cause more problems than it would be
worth," said Robert Benzon, another member of the NTSB
investigation team.
Jim Burnett, who served as NTSB chairman from 1982 to 1988, said
the debris, which is in a narrow line about a mile long, was not
consistent with a nose dive. He said the debris field could mean
the airplane broke up in flight and might have been upside down
before the crash.
Burnett is not part of the investigation, but based his comments
on the board's early findings.
The crew of the Beechcraft King Air 200 Catpass were told ice
could form on the wings, but investigators said conditions were not
harsh enough for authorities to ground the plane.
"It's better not to fly any airplane in icing conditions with
the exception of a plane with a heated wing," Burnett said.
NTSB spokesman Paul Schlamm said investigators did not think the
plane had a flight data or voice recorder. Such devices, which
record the pilot and copilot's conversations and the airplane's
control settings, were not required on this aircraft under FAA
regulations.
No distress call was made before the crash, which happened after
the plane leveled off at 23,000 feet.
Hammerschmidt said fractured pieces of metal from the airplane
were being examined to determine if they caused the crash or if
they were broken during impact. Other pieces of the wreckage also were
being collected.
Investigators also are looking at weather and radar data, flight
manuals, maintenance records and interviewing pilots who have flown
the airplane.
The plane was one of three carrying the school's basketball team
and associates back to Stillwater, Okla., after Oklahoma State lost to
Colorado at Boulder.
The aircraft is registered to North Bay Charter of Reno, Nev.
The company declined to comment on Monday.
Among the victims were Oklahoma State players Nate Fleming and
Daniel Lawson, sports information employee Will Hancock, director
of basketball operations Pat Noyes and their trainer Brian
Luinstra.
Witnesses said the plane climbed and banked hard to the right
before it crashed. They told investigators the propeller plane's
engines revved and eased several times before it crashed.
Also killed in the crash was student manager Jared Weiberg, the
nephew of Big 12 commissioner Kevin Weiberg; broadcast engineer
Kendall Durfey, broadcaster Bill Teegins, pilot Denver Mills and
copilot Bjorn Fahlstrom.
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Reaction from around the Big 12
AUDIO VIDEO
 ESPN's Steve Cyphers takes a close look at the Oklahoma State plane crash tragedy.
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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