A plane crash that killed former Senator Ted Stevens as well as four others was survived by a former Secretary of the Navy, according to a feature on the Navy Times.
Former Navy Secretary Sean O’Keefe was aboard the private plane that crashed into a fishing village in Alaska on Monday. A former NASA spokesman has confirmed that the former SecNav survived the crash.
O’Keefe is currently the CEO of EADS North America. At one point, he also served as administrator for NASA. His teenage son Kevin is also among the four survivors of the accident, according to Glenn Mahone, a former spokesman for NASA. Mahone shared further that he was spoken with the family of O’Keefe, who shared that father and son suffered from broken bones and other injuries.
The feature shared that O’Keefe and Sen. Stevens were fishing buddies, and that they had been planning a trip in the area of the accident.
Sean O’Keefe served as the Secretary of the Navy under former President George H.W. Bush. His tenure, however, was rather short, having served only from October 2, 1992 to January 20, 1993, during the last months of the administration.
He served as the deputy director of the Office of Management and budget prior to being asked by President George W. Bush to head NASA in late 2001. He was at the helm of NASA when the shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry in 2003.
O’Keefe served with NASA until 2005, and went on to serve as chancellor of Louisiana State University.