Former Penn State professor Sean O’Keefe was involved in the plane crash that killed former Alaskan U.S. Senator Ted Stevens and four other passengers yesterday in Alaska.

It is not clear whether O’Keefe also died in the crash.

O’Keefe, 54, was a business administration professor at Penn State from 1993-1996 and served as Assistant to the Vice President of Research, university spokesman Geoff Rushton said.

He was NASA administrator for three years from 2001 to 2004. He served in that position when the shuttle Columbia broke apart during re-entry in 2003.

Stevens served longer than any other Republican Senator but lost re-election in 2008 after he was convicted on seven counts of corruption charges.

He was one of two survivors in a 1978 plane crash at Anchorage International Airport that killed his wife, Ann.

At least three of the crash victims were airlifted to Anchorage, Alaska, Alaska National Guard spokeswoman Kalei Brooks Rupp said.