Oklahoma State University women’s basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant coach Miranda Serna killed in plane crash

Two women’s basketball coaches from Oklahoma State University were killed yesterday when their single-engine plane crashed in the steep terrain in central Arkansas.

Coach Kurt Budke and assistant coach Miranda Serna died around 7:00 p.m. Thursday, when their aircraft crashed in the Winona Wildlife Management Area near Perryville, about 45 miles west of Little Rock.

Reports say the pilot and another passenger also died in the crash.

Oklahoma State canceled its women’s basketball games that were scheduled for Saturday and Sunday. 

School officials said the team were on a recruiting trip.

This is the second devastating incident to hit the school’s sports program in a little over ten years.

In January 2001, 10 men affiliated with the men’s basketball team died in a Colorado plane crash.