By Jerry Jordan, Editor
ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. – Ralph Hicks, a senior investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), said surveillance video shows the landing gear on the JRM Air LLC Cessna Citation Latitude carrying Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his family collapsed after “bouncing, at least, twice” upon landing at the Elizabethton Municipal Airport on Thursday afternoon.
Hicks said area businesses provided video that allowed the NTSB investigative team to see the plane as it landed and crashed at the end of the runway. The landing, which Hicks called, “a firm landing” caused the
“The airplane basically bounded, at least, twice before coming down hard on the right main landing gear and you can actually see the right main landing gear collapsing on the video,” Hicks said. “You can visually see the airplane balloon up and come back down. Exactly how high it went, we’re going to be using our flight data information from the avionics to tell us that but we can’t tell exactly from the video right now.”
