STILLWATER, Okla. — The Oklahoma State University women’s basketball coach and his assistant coach were killed when the single-engine plane they were in during a recruiting trip crashed in steep terrain in Arkansas, the university confirmed this morning.

The university said Kurt Budke and Miranda Serna died in the crash Thursday afternoon in the Winona Wildlife Management Area near Perryville, about 45 miles west of Little Rock. The pilot, former Oklahoma state Sen. Olin Branstetter, and his wife Paula also died in the crash, university president Burns Hargis said at a news conference.

“This is our worst nightmare. The entire OSU family is very close, very close indeed. To lose anyone, especially these two individuals who are incredible life forces in our family, it is worse beyond words,” Hargis said.

The crash is the second major tragedy for the sports program in about a decade. In January 2001, 10 men affiliated with the university’s men’s basketball team died in a Colorado plane crash, prompting the university to require that planes used by the school’s sports team undergo safety checks before travel. It wasn’t immediately clear if the same policy applied to travel by coaches or administrators.