DICK EBERSOL ESCAPES PLAN CRASH – YOUNGEST SON MISSING
2004-Nov-29 05:27
A charter plane carrying NBC Sports and Olympics chairman Dick Ebersol crashed and burst into flames during take-off yesterday ( Sunday) from a southwest Colorado airport, killing at least two people and seriously injuring Ebersol and one of his sons. Rescue crews were searching for another son.
Ebersol, 57, and son Charles Ebersol survived the crash at the Montrose Regional Airport, NBC said in a statement through its Denver affiliate KUSA-TV. An eyewitness Chuck said Charles helped his father out through the front of the plane, whose cockpit had been ripped off by the force of the crash. The station said crews searched for Edward "Teddy" Ebersol, 14, by helicopter and on the ground. NBC said the plane seat was missing from the wreckage. A local TV station said Ebersol's wife, actress Susan St. James, was not on the plane. Dick Ebersolhas 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. Ebersol worked as an ABC researcher at the Grenoble Olympics in 1968. That began his love affair with the multisport event.
Kevin Roberts
kevinr@sportbusiness.com
I hate myself for speculating but it seems more and more likely to me that an aborted takeoff was attempted. I just heard Charles McCord (Imus) say that the pilots were killed instantly and read earlier in the thread that the plane went through a fence and a ditch. If the plane "tucked" into the ditch, it may explain the total breakup after that.