Dick Ebersol Plane Crash!

[BigJohn&TheLions]

Son reportedly missing; at least two killed

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Associated Press

MONTROSE, Colo. -- NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol survived a charter plane crash that killed at least two people Sunday, the network said in a statement through its Denver affiliate KUSA-TV.

Montrose County sheriff's officials said three survivors, including Ebersol, were seriously injured when the jet crashed through a fence and burst into flames while taking off from Montrose Regional Airport, which serves the Telluride Ski Area.

One of Ebersol's sons, Charles Ebersol, survived but another son, Teddy, was missing, NBC affiliate KUSA-TV in Denver reported late Sunday. NBC said the pilot and co-pilot were killed.

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.

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. NBC said Ebersol's wife, actress Susan St. James, was not on the plane.

Authorities were searching for the missing person in rugged terrain by helicopter and on the ground.

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.

It was snowing in the area but regional Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer said he did not know if that was a factor. The National Weather Service had forecast up to 2 feet of snow by afternoon in the area.

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 AirJet Alliance of Millville, N.J.

An operator at AirJet 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 became president of NBC Sports in 1989 and has turned it into the Olympic network, buying the U.S. broadcast rights for every Summer and Winter Games through 2012. Ebersol also worked as an NBC entertainment executive, and in the early 1980s was executive producer of Saturday Night Live.

[Buccaneer]

I just came home from work and saw my wife bawling her eyes out. She's watching the Ebersol family on Oprah where they are speaking publically about the crash for the first time. I guess I don't understand why the interest in watching something so sad and tragic that it makes one so tearful and depressed.