Ebersol Says Jet Faltered in the Air Before Crash

NBC Sports executive Dick Ebersol told investigators his chartered jet struggled just 20 feet into the air before it fell back to the runway and broke apart, aviation officials said Wednesday.

Ebersol’s 14-year-old son Edward and two crew members were killed when the twin-engine CL-601 Challenger crashed in light snow, fog and freezing temperatures at Montrose Regional Airport on Sunday.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators said the plane had not been de-iced before attempting takeoff.

“I would say right now we’re looking at environmental factors and [aircraft] performance factors,” said NTSB lead investigator Arnold Scott on Wednesday.

Scott said investigators did not believe engine failure was a factor because the roar of the jets could be heard on a cockpit voice recorder. He also said the plane did not break apart in the air.

Ebersol, 57, and another son, Charlie, 21, remained hospitalized in Grand Junction but were expected to make a full recovery, NBC said.

Dick Ebersol reportedly suffered broken ribs, a broken sternum and had fluid in his lungs, while Charlie had a broken hand and a sore back.

The copilot, identified by Denver newspapers as Eric Wicksell, 30, of Daytona Beach, Fla., was in critical condition at a burn unit in Denver.

The NTSB had not interviewed Wicksell. “We don’t interview people who are fighting for their life,” Scott said.

Charles Eastlake, a professor at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, said the evidence seemed to point toward ice on the plane as a factor in the crash.

“The behavior of the aircraft makes it more likely that de-icing is an issue,” he said.

NTSB spokesman Keith Holloway said investigators wanted to compare Sunday’s crash with a deadly January 2002 crash in England of a CL-600 Challenger that tried to take off in freezing temperatures without de-icing.

“We will look at it and see if there are similarities other than that,” he said.

The pilot of the Ebersol plane, 50-year-old Luis Alberto Polanco of the Dominican Republic, and flight attendant Warren T. Richardson III, 36, of Coral Gables, Fla., were also killed.

The Federal Aviation Administration will conduct toxicology tests, Young said.