Former Oklahoma University Football Player Was Among Those Fatally Injured

The cockpit voice recorder from a Beech Premier 1 that went down in a residential neighborhood in South Bend, IN, is on its way to an NTSB lab in Washington, D.C., where it will be examined as a key part of the accident investigation. Two people were fatally injured in the accident, and two others on board the plane sustained serious injuries. One person on the ground was also injured.

The airplane, which is registered to a company in Helena, MT, had departed from Tulsa, OK, Sunday, and was attempting to land at St. Josephs County Airport in South Bend, IN. According to the Associated Press, the airport's executive director Mike Daigle said that the pilot of the plane executed a missed approach and went down in the residential neighborhood on the second landing attempt. The aircraft impacted three houses, eventually winding up with its cockpit wedged inside one of the dwellings. No one on the ground was reported to be seriously injured.

The plane was owned by Wesley Caves of Tulsa, OK, who also owns the business to which the plane was registered. Caves, 58, was fatally injured in the accident, as was former Oklahoma University quarterback Steve Davis, 60, who reportedly also held a pilot certificate. It was not known who was flying the plane when it went down. Davis led Oklahoma to back-to-back national championships in the 1970s. The NTSB said both Caves and Davis held the proper certificates to fly the plane, though the Huffington Post reports that Davis' mother Patsy said he "hadn't flown for a while, but as far as we know, he was still a licensed pilot."

A total of eight homes were under a mandatory evacuation due to the accident. There was reportedly a significant amount of fuel spilled when the airplane went down, but the accident did not cause a fire.

FMI: www.ntsb.gov