Remember it was snowing. By the time he got to the plane, there was probably
a coating of snow on the remaining airframe. Hence the "iced up pretty
heavy" determination.

Marco


"Tune2828" wrote in message
...
hi - lurker here, but reading my local tv new's site and this seems like
an odd
statement from an eyewitness, i believe the correct term is "notoriously
unreliable" eyewitness

key phrase:

"The one wing that was still there was iced up pretty heavy," said Doug
Percival, who was driving by at the time of the crash and one of the first
people to get to the burning plane.

can you actually tell if a wing is iced up from driving by a moving
aircraft? i
have my 40 hours of instrument, (no ticket yet), but would be curious to
know
if you could tell outside of the cockpit - plus maybe it wasn't deiced
because
the plane was hangared.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
GRAND JUNCTION - The jet that crashed Sunday with NBC executive Dick
Ebersol
aboard, wasn't de-iced before taking off.

9NEWS mountain newsroom reporter Matt Renoux updates the story. 9NEWS at
noon.
November 29, 2004.

MTJ Air Services, the company that handles de-icing services at the
airport,
did de-ice a commercial jet that took off shortly before the charter plane
that
Ebersol and two of his three sons were aboard. The company says that the
pilot
flying Ebersol's plane declined de-icing services.

The CL-602 Challenger crashed Sunday morning as it was attempting to take
off
from Montrose Regional Airport. The plane never left the ground. Instead,
it
slipped off the runway, hurtled across a road and burst into flames as it
ploughed across a field.

"The one wing that was still there was iced up pretty heavy," said Doug
Percival, who was driving by at the time of the crash and one of the first
people to get to the burning plane.

The National Transportation Safety Board is just beginning its
investigation
into the crash. Some NTSB members are already in Montrose and will hold
their
first briefing Monday evening. More experts from around the country are on
their way. The investigative team will include the engineers who helped
build
the plane's engine, to see whether there was a mechanical failure.

Ebersol and his older son Charles survived the crash and are being treated
at
St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction. Fourteen-year-old Edward "Teddy"
Ebersol
is still missing and presumed dead. NTSB investigators haven't been able
to
closely examine the wreckage yet.

There were three crewmembers on board the plane. Jet Alliance, the company
that
owns the aircraft, confirms that the pilot, Captain Luis Palanco
Espaillat, 50,
and a cabin attendant, Warren T. Richardson III, 36, were killed. A
co-pilot,
whose name hasn't been released, is being treated at Montrose Hospital.

Jet Alliance says Palanco Espaillat was a 20-year veteran with over 12,000
hours total flying time and over 900 hours in Challenger aircraft.