The Daily O’Collegian

Monday marks the two-year anniversary of the plane crash that killed 10 Oklahoma State University students and employees.

In respect of the families’ wishes, there will be no formal public ceremony to remember the victims of the Jan. 27, 2001, plane crash, according to a press release from the OSU Athletic Department.

The crash claimed the lives of eight OSU employees and students and the two pilots.

Until recently, the cause of the plane crash was not determined, but as reported by The Daily O’Collegian on Friday, the National Transportation Safety Board sited pilot spatial disorientation and A.C. electrical failure as the cause of the accident.

OSU officials announced Jan. 20 that the southwest lobby of the Athletic Center will be open from 4 to 6 p.m. Monday for visitors to pay their respects to the victims of the crash.

The lobby houses a memorial to the victims, and memory books will be set up in the lobby for visitors to pen remembrances or personal notes to the victims’ families, according to the press release.

Mary Noyes, mother of the late Pat Noyes, said, “It has just been very difficult, and I think only time will heal.”

“We will never get over it; it leaves an empty void in our lives not having him here,” she said. “When it’s a close game we pray to him to become the sixth man on the team to help them win.

“Pat would be so proud and excited if he were here today with how the team is playing and all the wins this season.”

Family members of all the victims have chosen to remember their loved ones in different ways.

Shynika Lawson, sister of the late Dan Lawson, said, “We are going to get together and pray as a family. We will spend time together to try and ease our minds, but nothing will be able to take our minds off Dan.”

“We will try to talk about all the good times we had, try to always remember the good things and times we had with Dan,” Lawson said.

Noyes and Lawson said there is love in their hearts for every family who lost someone in the crash. 

Lawson asked for the students of OSU to remember the victims of the crash in a positive way.

“Remember the good times you could have had with him; remember how great of a person Dan was and that he loved people,” she said.

“Remember everyone on the plane and the people that they were and for the good, not for the bad, in each one of them. Try to live each day remembering the love that each person gave to the school and everyone around them.”

Andrew Williams can be reached via email at awilliams@ocolly.com