2008 Woodie Awards
Notre Dame senior Charlie Ebersol survives Colorado plane crash
NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol seriously injured, younger son still missing
Observer Staff Report
Issue date: 11/23/04 Section: News
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Notre Dame senior Charlie Ebersol and his father, NBC Sports Chairman and President Dick Ebersol, survived a charter plane crash that killed at least two people in Montrose, Colo. Sunday.
Both men were seriously injured when the private jet crashed on takeoff at Montrose Regional Airport, hitting a fence and bursting into flames, according to the Associated Press. The crash occurred at approximately 10 a.m. Mountain Standard Time and happened 185 miles southwest of Denver, near the Telluride Ski Area, according to the Bloomberg News Service.
Charlie Ebersol helped pull his father out through the front of the plane, which had been ripped apart from its cockpit, eyewitness Chuck Distel told the Associated Press.
A younger son, Teddy Ebersol, 14, was still missing from the wreckage Monday.
Local authorities conducted a thorough search for the boy Sunday night, but suspended their investigation until representatives from the National Transportation Safety Board arrive on the scene, Matt Eilts, chief deputy coroner for Montrose County, said Monday.
NTSB officials should reach Montrose Monday by noon Mountain Standard Time, Eilts said, but he added that investigators are not optimistic about the search's outcome.
"We believe at this time that the boy has probably perished within the crash," Eilts said in a press conference at the airport, broadcast nationally by CNN. "We don't believe we will find a survivor."
The area's surface is covered by brush and cedar trees and contains a large drainage ditch, all of which were searched Sunday, Eilts said. Though the National Weather Service forecasted up to two feet of snow there by Sunday afternoon, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer told the Associated Press he did not know if the weather was a factor in the crash.
The plane skidded sideways after impact, ripping off the cockpit and one of the wings, Distel told the Associated Press. "There were two people outside the airplane when we pulled up. Both of them pretty much were in shock," Distel said, describing the men as an "older gentleman" with gray straight hair and a "younger gentleman with shorter dark hair" walking around the wreckage.
Both men were seriously injured when the private jet crashed on takeoff at Montrose Regional Airport, hitting a fence and bursting into flames, according to the Associated Press. The crash occurred at approximately 10 a.m. Mountain Standard Time and happened 185 miles southwest of Denver, near the Telluride Ski Area, according to the Bloomberg News Service.
Charlie Ebersol helped pull his father out through the front of the plane, which had been ripped apart from its cockpit, eyewitness Chuck Distel told the Associated Press.
A younger son, Teddy Ebersol, 14, was still missing from the wreckage Monday.
Local authorities conducted a thorough search for the boy Sunday night, but suspended their investigation until representatives from the National Transportation Safety Board arrive on the scene, Matt Eilts, chief deputy coroner for Montrose County, said Monday.
NTSB officials should reach Montrose Monday by noon Mountain Standard Time, Eilts said, but he added that investigators are not optimistic about the search's outcome.
"We believe at this time that the boy has probably perished within the crash," Eilts said in a press conference at the airport, broadcast nationally by CNN. "We don't believe we will find a survivor."
The area's surface is covered by brush and cedar trees and contains a large drainage ditch, all of which were searched Sunday, Eilts said. Though the National Weather Service forecasted up to two feet of snow there by Sunday afternoon, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer told the Associated Press he did not know if the weather was a factor in the crash.
The plane skidded sideways after impact, ripping off the cockpit and one of the wings, Distel told the Associated Press. "There were two people outside the airplane when we pulled up. Both of them pretty much were in shock," Distel said, describing the men as an "older gentleman" with gray straight hair and a "younger gentleman with shorter dark hair" walking around the wreckage.