NBC's Ebersol survives plane crash

http://cbs2chicago.com/indiana/IN--CorporateJet-Upda-inn/resources_news_html

Sunday November 28, 2004
MONTROSE, Colo. (AP) NBC Sports Chairman and President Dick Ebersol survived a plane crash at Montrose Regional Airport, NBC said in a statement through its Denver affiliate KUSA-TV.

This is by my reckoning three... is this a Gulfsream too?

This is a partial list of small plane crashes since late September. There have been more but some of the stories have been pulled offline already.

Below are the links to stories that are still readable online.




http://www.aberdeennews.com/mld/aberdeennews/news/9981197.htm

http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/10000020.htm

http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/10007905.htm

http://kdka.com/local/local_story_301180833.html

http://tv.ksl.com/index.php?nid=39&sid=128404

http://www.nbc5.com/news/3871435/detail.html

http://www.nbc6.net/news/3841405/detail.html

http://newscenter.ninn.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6969

http://newscenter.ninn.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=6840

http://newscenter.ninn.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7025

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBNW36JY0E.html

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGB3KI78B1E.html

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBAV05H11E.html

http://www.wbay.com/Global/story.asp?S=2483704&nav=51s7SQaU

http://wcco.com/localnews/local_story_299155226.html

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2004-10/25/content_2135456.htm

http://abclocal.go.com/wls/news/111504_ns_planecrash.html

http://www.nbc5.com/news/3949816/detail.html

http://newscenter.ninn.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7323

http://newscenter.ninn.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7124

http://newscenter.ninn.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7217

http://newscenter.ninn.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=7379

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBWFRUOU1E.html

NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol is a very active Democrat, having donated to the campaigns or political committees of Wesley Clark, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., and Dodd.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5106282/

Maybe a warning? I don't see much TV, but they do carry this Olberman fellow on their cable network, who is no Bush fa, don't they? If Olberman gets shunted aside, it would lend support to the hypothesis.

but I just did a search on "Ebersol & Olbermann" on Google--and there was a quote from KO saying that "Dick Ebersol is directly responsible for what I'm doing on MSNBC right now."

Ebersol hired KO to serve as the NBC Networks primary cable anchor during the 2004 Olympics. This was after Fox had fired Olbermann and he was forced to sit out his contract and not work for almost a year. When that contract was over, the networks weren't exactly beating down the door to hire Keith for another network tv job of any kind-the best he could do was a radio commentary gig with ABC-Radio. Anyway, Ebersol lured him back to NBC.

In the interim, Jerry Nachman was diagnosed with terminal cancer, and MSNBC needed someone to sub for him. Olbermann's agent worked out a deal for him to fill-in and that led to MSNBC offering him Countdown in early 2003. By the time the Olympics finally rolled around, KO begged off the Olympics becaue Countdown was beginning to do better in the ratings and he would have had to have left the show for over a month to go to Greece.

At the very least, the loss of Ebersol would mean the loss of a major KO backer in the upper management at NBC-Universal. Let's hope that he's not as badly injured as what I read over at TVSpy (they say that Ebersol was badly burned in the crash and is on life support).

Plane crashes are usually pretty awful. It doesn't sound good.

must have been an assassination. :tinfoilhat:

It would certainly reduce suspicion. :tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat:

I refuse to see something fail in it's most failure prone situation and immediately start tightening the tinfoil. That leads to a life of doubt and delusional thinking ..... the obvious can never be concluded until you have proven all the immaginary problems false.

I just moot these possibilities, and am not necessarily persuaded by them. It is always well to keep things like this in mind, but not to become overwhelmed.

But, there have been plenty of conspiracies in the last four years, in the widest sense of the term. Bush and company's lies about WMD to invade Iraq constitute a very real conspiracy in my book, in the legal sense of the term. So, I put little past them.

I graduate next month from Purdue's aviation program and I can tell you that we are taught that most of us will NEVER experience a failure with a jet engine... even the old ones. The inclimate weather usually doesn't cause as many accidents as landings where the pilot gets lost and runs into terrain. The jet would have taken off and climbed... nothing difficult about that, especially with redundant and independent gyro systems. It sounds like it is probably mechanical, which can of course be sabotaged. Even if the pilot lost one engine, he should have been able to maintain control and return to the airport or go to an alternate if the weather was that bad. Accidents happen, but the number of them lately are suspect.

I have no particular aeronautical background (other than flying commercially) but I know some takeoff crashes have been linked to icing of wings, and the associated lack of lift. There was one in the late 1980's in Dryden Ontario that was caused by inadequate de-icing. But it is hard to believe that a jet carrying millionaires wouldn't be properly maintained and de-iced.

I should have found out more of the specifics of the weather before I posted, but I am in a hurry to leave. Pilots are definitely pressured to takeoff when they don't want to in order to keep schedules, but I like to think most of them would rather loose their job than die. If it was icing, it was pure negligence. I seriously doubt that airplane was even allowed to fly through icing conditions, let alone take off in them.

I am not attacking your idea though... keep 'em coming. Also, keep in mind I am just graduating and have only co-piloted a small aircraft with jet engines (Kingair 200) and I don't have any experience with icing yet.

the number of small plane crashes lately is "unusual"...

NBC says Dick Ebersol was among those on a private jet that crashed at Montrose Regional Airport. At least two people died in the crash.

Ebersol and his wife, the actress Susan Saint James, are longtime residents of Litchfield, Connecticut. No word yet on who else was on board.

Authorities say the corporate jet was taking off from near a ski area crashed through a fence and burst into flames Sunday


http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=2620938&nav=3YeXTatz

Heard it was snowy out by the Denver area, so that must have affected the plane. Thankfully he's not dead and in one piece.

between Grand Junction and Durango

:(.. The older one survived, but the seat that Teddy was is is missing from the crash scene.

How awful for them :( I hope they find him alive....

is sometimes used for people coming and going from Telluride, Colorado. There is a winter storm warning, but I am not sure if it was snowing at the time.

Some places in that corner are getting over 3 feet of snow!

It's been snowing like crazy. Maybe they should never have taken off.

:scared:
rocknation

They probably shouldn't have tried to fly out in this weather.

but it looks like a problem with one or both of the jet engines to me. Pilots are known to do stupid stuff every once in a while, though.

eberwha?

Just like it said in the original post.

Edited to add...welcome to DU!

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.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=519&ncid=716&e=2&u=/ap/20041129/ap_on_re_us/jet_crash

this is so sad.

I have been a pilot for over 4 years now and have been in 3 car accidents within a quarter mile of the airport... and none were my fault. I don't doubt he is afraid to fly, but you're safer in the air than on the roads.

about. BTW, I skydived when I was younger.

edit add btw

Here's some more info from MSNBC site.



An airplane burns after crashing on takeoff on Sunday morning in Montrose, Colo. NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol survived the charter plane crash that killed at least two people.

A charter plane carrying NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol crashed and burst into flames during takeoff from a southwest Colorado airport Sunday, killing at least two people and seriously injuring Ebersol and one of his sons. Rescue crews were searching for another son.

<snip>

The plane’s tail number was N873G, identifying it as a CL-601 Challenger, which can carry up to 19 passengers, registered to Jet Alliance of Millville, N.J. An operator at Jet Alliance said she had no information about the crash.

This is so sad.

trying to scare people

My bet is a botched aborted take-off due to runway contamination.

According to the Denver Post, the crew elected to use the shorter of the 2 runways...IMHO, BIG error in judgement under the prevailing conditions.

Length of runway 13/31 is 7,500 feet and width is 100 feet.

The crash occurred shortly after a "notice to airmen," or NOTAM, had been issued advising pilots of wet snow, a quarter of an inch thick, on the runway, according to Jeff Precup, operations manager for the Montrose airport and manager of MTJ Air Services, which provides flight services to private aircraft flying in and out of Montrose.

http://www.denverpost.com/Stories/0,1413,36~53~2564502,00.html

If there was, indeed, 1/4 inch or more of wet slush on the runway, it may well have impacted either the acceleration or the directional control capabilities of that aircraft during the takeoff roll or, perhaps, both. In either case, judging by the location of the crash site (slightly to the northeast of the runway end if the graphic is correct) it looks, preliminarily, as though the crew attempted to abort the takeoff and were unable to maintain directional control due to degraded runway conditions.

problem...I'm pretty sure they'd read the NOTAM...I suspect they lost some power right about V1 (or got an -indication- of it...EPR gauges have a nasty habit of sticking in cold condx), and as you suggest tried to abort at which point the braking action would be seriously compromised (the Challenger doesn't have thrust reversers)

A damn shame in any case.

...of probable accident sequence.I keep my Reynold's Wrap handy by the computer too....BUT- general aviation....short runway....snow storm..just tell that to any experienced pilot and they'll posit a crash.Keith may get a warning but this aint it IMHO...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6210240

Very touching.

...I sent KO a little email telling him how guilty he made me feel, after reading that lovely tribute, for being pissed at Ebersole in the 80's for trying to ruin SNL.

so sad, and after announcing the body found today believed to be Teddy Ebersol's.

MONTROSE, Nov. 28 — Colorado officials held out little hope Monday that the 14-year-old son of NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol had survived a fiery plane crash in western Colorado.

...

''I've been on the scene since the initial accident. We have done a complete, thorough search of the area surrounding the crash site,'' Montrose County Deputy Coroner Matt Eilts told reporters. ''We believe at this time the boy has probably perished.''

Ebersol, 57, and another son, Charlie, were taken to St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction. Their condition was not disclosed at the request of the family, a hospital spokesman said.

...

The plane was headed to South Bend, Indiana, where Charlie Ebersol attends Notre Dame University.

http://famulus.msnbc.com/famulusgen/reuters11-28-170821.asp?t=renew&vts=112920041228

What a shame...

The loss of a 14 year old boy reminds me how much I adore my own 14 YO son ....

I would simply die ... if .....

My heart goes out to his grieving family ....

Just heard this on FOX, sorry no details.

Keith Olbermann just announced it on Countdown--breaking news from the NTSB press conference.

Spawn of corporate elite dies in private jet crash and the nation mourns. Meanwhile a hundred sons and daughters of less affluent Americans die in car crashes and nobody even knows.

Ebersol should have taken a bus.

While I understand your elitest-phobic angst, and yes, it's hard to feel sorry for rich folk, but Dick Ebersol's one of us. Please pay attention.

eom

but your family. I don't appologize for feeling sorry when anyone loses a child or loved one. Its called empathy and its sorely lacking these days.

He obviously thinks very highly of the guy.