Sean O'Keefe, who has survived a small plane crash in Alaska, managed the response to the 2003 Columbia space shuttle disaster during his time as the head of NASA, reported the dpa. O'Keefe and his son were among he four survivors of the plane crash Monday night in the southwestern remote part of the state, authorities confirmed Tuesday. Five people died, among them former Alaska senator Ted Stevens. O'Keefe, 54, is currently the chief executive of EADS North America, helping oversee the Europe-based aerospace and defence giant's efforts to win the Pentagon's 35-billion-dollar contract to build the next generation of aerial refuellers against rival Boeing. Former president George W Bush in 2001 appointed O'Keefe as the top administrator of NASA, a position he held until 2005, when he became the chancellor at Louisiana State University. O'Keefe was running NASA when the Columbia shuttle disintegrated on February 1, 2003, while re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. All seven astronauts on board died in the worst US space disaster since the shuttle Challenger exploded in 1986. The Columbia crisis was a national tragedy, and O'Keefe was credited for astutely managing NASA through the trauma. The accident prompted a grounding of the space shuttle fleet pending a review of the programme.
