Hostile
The Duke
- Messages
- 119,565
- Reaction score
- 4,544
NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol Among Those Injured in Colorado Jet Crash; Two Killed
NBC Sports Chairman and President Dick Ebersol is seen at a news conference in Athens, Greece in this April 5, 2001 file photo. Ebersol survived a charter plane crash that killed at least two people in Montrose, Colo., Sunday, Nov. 28, NBC said in a statement through its Denver affiliate KUSA-TV. (AP Photo/Aris Messinis, File)
11-28-2004 6:31 PM
MONTROSE, Colo. -- A charter plane crashed and burst into flames during takeoff Sunday, killing at least two people and seriously injuring NBC Sports Chairman and President Dick Ebersol and two others. Rescue crews were searching for one of Ebersol's sons.
Ebersol and another son, Charles, survived the crash at the Montrose Regional Airport outside this southwest Colorado town, NBC said in a statement through its Denver affiliate KUSA-TV.
The station said crews searched for Teddy Ebersol by helicopter and on the ground. NBC said the seat was missing from the wreckage.
Eyewitness Chuck Distel told KUSA-TV that one of the wings and the cockpit was ripped off the plane after it skidded sideways. "There were two people outside the airplane when we pulled up. Both of them pretty much were in shock," he said.
Montrose County Sheriff's officials said two people were dead. The network said the victims were the pilot and co-pilot. No identities were released, but KUSA said Ebersol's wife, actress Susan St. James, was not on the plane.
Linda McCool, a nursing supervisor at Montrose Memorial Hospital, said three men were brought to the hospital after the crash, but had all been transferred to other hospitals by Sunday afternoon. Dan Prinster, vice president of St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, said two people were moved there from Montrose Memorial. Neither McCool nor Prinster would release any other information on the survivors.
The crash occurred in an area covered with small brush and cedar trees, sheriff's Communications Supervisor David Learned said. A large drainage ditch also is at the site.
A storm hit much of the state over the weekend and dumped more than 3 feet of snow in the area, but it was not known if weather was a factor in the crash. Montrose is less than an hour from the Telluride Ski Area, popular with celebrities.
The plane was on its way to South Bend, Ind. The plane's tail number was N873G, identifying it as a CL-601 Challenger registered to Jet Alliance of Millville, N.J. An operator at Jet Alliance said she had no information about the crash.
Investigators from the FAA and National Safety Transportation Board were en route to the airport, 185 miles southwest of Denver.
Ebersol has a long history at NBC. He became director of late-night programming at NBC in 1974 and replaced Lorne Michaels for a rocky tenure as executive producer of "Saturday Night Live" in the early 1980s. He became president of NBC Sports in 1989 and recently signed a contract that keeps him at the network through 2012.
Charles Ebersol is a senior at the University of Notre Dame.
NBC Sports Chairman and President Dick Ebersol is seen at a news conference in Athens, Greece in this April 5, 2001 file photo. Ebersol survived a charter plane crash that killed at least two people in Montrose, Colo., Sunday, Nov. 28, NBC said in a statement through its Denver affiliate KUSA-TV. (AP Photo/Aris Messinis, File)
11-28-2004 6:31 PM
MONTROSE, Colo. -- A charter plane crashed and burst into flames during takeoff Sunday, killing at least two people and seriously injuring NBC Sports Chairman and President Dick Ebersol and two others. Rescue crews were searching for one of Ebersol's sons.
Ebersol and another son, Charles, survived the crash at the Montrose Regional Airport outside this southwest Colorado town, NBC said in a statement through its Denver affiliate KUSA-TV.
The station said crews searched for Teddy Ebersol by helicopter and on the ground. NBC said the seat was missing from the wreckage.
Eyewitness Chuck Distel told KUSA-TV that one of the wings and the cockpit was ripped off the plane after it skidded sideways. "There were two people outside the airplane when we pulled up. Both of them pretty much were in shock," he said.
Montrose County Sheriff's officials said two people were dead. The network said the victims were the pilot and co-pilot. No identities were released, but KUSA said Ebersol's wife, actress Susan St. James, was not on the plane.
Linda McCool, a nursing supervisor at Montrose Memorial Hospital, said three men were brought to the hospital after the crash, but had all been transferred to other hospitals by Sunday afternoon. Dan Prinster, vice president of St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, said two people were moved there from Montrose Memorial. Neither McCool nor Prinster would release any other information on the survivors.
The crash occurred in an area covered with small brush and cedar trees, sheriff's Communications Supervisor David Learned said. A large drainage ditch also is at the site.
A storm hit much of the state over the weekend and dumped more than 3 feet of snow in the area, but it was not known if weather was a factor in the crash. Montrose is less than an hour from the Telluride Ski Area, popular with celebrities.
The plane was on its way to South Bend, Ind. The plane's tail number was N873G, identifying it as a CL-601 Challenger registered to Jet Alliance of Millville, N.J. An operator at Jet Alliance said she had no information about the crash.
Investigators from the FAA and National Safety Transportation Board were en route to the airport, 185 miles southwest of Denver.
Ebersol has a long history at NBC. He became director of late-night programming at NBC in 1974 and replaced Lorne Michaels for a rocky tenure as executive producer of "Saturday Night Live" in the early 1980s. He became president of NBC Sports in 1989 and recently signed a contract that keeps him at the network through 2012.
Charles Ebersol is a senior at the University of Notre Dame.
