The NTSB says several of the flight control cables were broken on a Piper Cherokee that crashed, killing four people, including two high-profile college basketball coaches, in 2011. Oklahoma State University Women's Coach Kurt Budke and Assistant Coach Miranda Serna died along with pilot Olin Branstetter, 82, and his wife Paula, 79, when the Cherokee crashed in good weather near Perryville, Ark., Nov. 17, 2011. In the factual report on the accident issued last week, the NTSB said everything else on the aircraft appeared in normal operating condition but the cables were "fractured in multiple places" and that "each fracture was consistent with overload." The impact site suggested the aircraft hit with a 50- to 60-degree nose-down attitude and most of the wreckage was in a hole ten feet wide and three-and-a-half feet deep.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/news/osu-crash-planes-control-cables-broken