New air travel policy approved for Oklahoma State

LANGSTON, Okla. (AP) - Oklahoma State regents have approved tougher oversight of the airplanes that employees use on official business following the death of women's basketball coach Kurt Budke and three others in a crash last November.

The new policy requires an aviation consultant to pre-approve any private aircraft and the pilot who'll be flying it before the flight is allowed.

Budke, assistant Miranda Serna, pilot Olin Branstetter and his wife, Paula Branstetter, died on a recruiting trip to Arkansas last year. A federal report on the cause of the crash is pending.

Vice president and general counsel Gary Clark chaired the task force that put together the new policy. He says coaches wanted more latitude than the policy allows, but the taskforce believes the policy is "workable.''