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.
Distel, who was driving on a highway that runs parallel to the runway, saw the plane as it skidded sideways off the runway, went though a fence and brush before hitting a roadway that ripped the cockpit from the plane and left it an unrecognizable wreck separate from the plane.
An "older gentleman" with gray straight hair and a "younger gentleman with shorter, dark hair," were walking around outside the wreckage as Distel and an airport official arrived at the scene.
"I had to think for a second, 'Who are these people?"' he said. "They weren't severely injured, they were in shock."
He said the older gentleman, whom he later identified as Ebersol from pictures showed to him by other reporters, didn't say a word as the younger man cried and yelled, "Oh my God! Oh my God!"
An airport official yelled into the plane looking for survivors, but heard none. The plane, which had left a burning trail of jet fuel, burst into flames that forced Distel and other rescuers away from the wreckage.
The younger man was able to climb into an ambulance while Ebersol was loaded onto a stretcher, Distel said.