Dispute Summary - OSU Case
On January 27, 2001, a group of 10 Oklahoma State University basketball players and officials were killed when their small plane in route to Stillwater, Oklahoma crashed. Victims include Nate Fleming, a freshman guard; Dan Lawson, a junior guard; Bill Teegins, a play-by-play announcer; Kendall Durfey, a broadcast engineer; Will Hancock, a sports information employee; Pat Noyes, director of basketball operations; Brian Luinstra, a trainer; Jared Weiberg, a student manager; Denver Mills, pilot; and Bjorn Falistrom, co-pilot. The Beechcraft King Air 200 disappeared from controllers' radar screens before it went down near Byers, Colo. The plane was one of three aircraft traveling back to Stillwater from the basketball team's game versus the University of Colorado.
On June 7, 2001, Lawson's parents filed a tort claim with the State of Oklahoma's Office of Risk Management Administration, the first step in the legal process towards a lawsuit.
Morrill Hall
English: Shot of the Gardiner Art Gallery at Oklah...
English: Photo of the Spirit Rider statue in front...In the claim, Lawson's parents stated that the University was negligent in its behavior, specifically in its failure to secure, maintain, and inspect the plane. In addition, the claim states that the University failed to "take reasonable steps to promulgate adequate rules and regulations regarding the use of aircraft."
In July 2002, five families filed a wrongful death civil suit against the owner of the airplane, North Bay Charter, LLC, Lindell Jean Mills, personal representative of the estate of deceased pilot Denver Mills, Raytheon Aircraft Company, and Marathon Power Technologies Company in the district court of Oklahoma County.
Marathon Power Technologies Company was named in the lawsuit because our company rebuilt the plane's two electrical inverters as part of a routine refurbishment of the mechanisms. Such inverters convert DC power to AC power for some of the aircraft's flight instruments and lights. It was claimed that the King...