Investigation Summary
The flight was one of three chartered to return the OSU basketball team and staff from a game against the University of Colorado. Shortly after climbing through 22,000 feet, the aircraft suffered a failure of the A.C. electrical system. This failure was critical because the King Air 200's primary flight instruments on the pilot's side, including the attitude indicator, were powered by A.C. inverters. While the co-pilot's side may have retained some instrumentation, the co-pilot had no formal training on the King Air and was not qualified to act as a flight crew member on the type. The pilot, faced with a dark cockpit and failing instruments in heavy cloud cover, lost track of the aircraft's attitude. Radar data showed the aircraft entered a 'graveyard spiral,' descending at rates exceeding 15,000 feet per minute. The NTSB determined that the pilot likely broke through the cloud base at a low altitude and attempted a desperate pull-up, but the force of the maneuver exceeded the airframe's structural limits, causing the wings or tail to fail moments before the aircraft struck the ground.
Final Conclusions
The NTSB determined the probable cause was the pilot's spatial disorientation resulting from his failure to maintain positive manual control of the airplane with the available flight instrumentation. Contributing to the accident was the loss of A.C. electrical power during instrument meteorological conditions. The investigation also noted that the pilot failed to appropriately manage the workload of troubleshooting the electrical failure while maintaining basic aircraft control (Aviate, Navigate, Communicate).
Video Analysis
How a Pilot Lost Control in Bad Weather | King Air 200 — A detailed breakdown of the 2001 Oklahoma State University plane crash, examining the electrical failure and spatial disorientation that led to the loss of the King Air 200.
If playback is blocked, the owner has disabled embedding — use the link above.
Airframe & Maintenance
Crew Experience
Captain
Denver Mills, age 55. Certified flight instructor.
First Officer
Bjorn Fahlstrom, age 30. Not a required crewmember; had no formal King Air training.
Systems & Failure Modes
A.C. Electrical System
The aircraft used inverters to convert D.C. power to A.C. power for primary flight instruments; a total failure of this system disabled the pilot's attitude indicator and HSI.
Flight Instrumentation
The pilot-side instruments (altimeter, attitude indicator, HSI, and radio altimeter) were lost, leaving the pilot without reliable orientation cues in IMC.
Interesting Facts
- 01The aircraft was a Beechcraft Super King Air 200 manufactured in 1976.
- 02The pilot-in-command had 767 hours on King Air aircraft.
- 03The co-pilot was not a required flight crewmember and had received no formal training on the King Air 200.
- 04The crash site was characterized by a quarter-mile debris field, indicating an in-flight breakup.
- 05The final descent rate was estimated at more than 15,000 feet per minute.
- 06The accident claimed the lives of two players, six staff/broadcasters, and two pilots.
Safety Actions & Advisories
OSU Travel Policy Review
Following the accident, Oklahoma State University conducted a comprehensive review of its air travel safety policies for athletic teams.
NTSB Electrical System Recommendations
Source ↗The NTSB issued recommendations to the FAA to require the installation of a dual-inverter failure warning light in King Air 200 cockpits and to mandate that pilots be trained to recognize and respond to a total A.C. power loss.