One person killed, another presumed dead in a mid-air collision over Lake Texoma

PLATTER, Okla. (AP) -- A plane carrying a flight instructor and a student from Southeastern Oklahoma State University went down near Lake Texoma Tuesday night, killing both aboard, after a mid-air collision with another plane.

The other plane landed safely.

Lynn C. Mathew, 19, of Mesquite, Texas, and John Jacob Marcum, 20, of Baker City, Ore., were killed when the two-seat Cessna 152 they were on went down near the southeastern Oklahoma lake, said university spokeswoman Pam Mauldin.

Marcum was a certified aviation instructor for the school, which runs the largest aerospace program in Oklahoma. The two were on a training flight when their plane collided The second plane, a Cessna 172, landed safely in Sherman, Texas, after the collision. The aircraft was based out of Dallas' Addison Airport.

The occupants of that plane, Jeoffrey Reese and Nicholas Woodyard, were not injured. Reese reported a large gash in his fuselage, said John Clabes, a spokesman for the FAA in Oklahoma City.

Reese said he felt something strike his plane.

"It was just a little before 6 p.m. and we were about to head back to Addison when we felt it," Reese said.

Reese said he was fairly sure something more substantial than a large bird had struck his plane. After sending out a mayday call, Reese learned that Oklahoma Highway Patrol had spotted a downed plane in the water near the Platter Flats area of the lake.

"We never did see what we hit," Reese said.

Clabes said the time of the crash is believed to have been about 5:50 p.m., around sunset.

"We have a lot of shadows and visibility is poor at that time," he said.