Former NASA Chief O'Keefe's Condition Improving

Former NASA Administrator and current EADS North America CEO Sean O'Keefe's condition has improved since he was injured in the Alaska crash of a DHC-3 Otter single-engine turboprop that killed former U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens and four others. A spokeswoman at the hospital where the four survivors were taken was quoted as saying O'Keefe's condition has been upgraded from critical to serious. O'Keefe's son Kevin remains in fair condition. James Morhard, chief of staff for the Senate Appropriations Committee when Stevens was its chairman, also is in fair condition, and William Phillips Jr. is listed in good condition. The single-engine floatplane, carrying a pilot and eight passengers bound for a fishing lodge, crashed 17 miles north of the town of Dillingham shortly after 3 p.m. on Monday afternoon. Stevens, who served 40 years in Congress starting in 1968, survived a crash of a Learjet 25C in December 1978 in Alaska that killed five, including his first wife Ann.