News Editor
MONTROSE - After a body was recovered at 5 p.m. today from underneath the chartered corporate jet that crashed Sunday, Montrose County Coroner Mark Young said he was "99.9 percent" sure it was the body of Edward "Teddy" Ebersol.
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"At 5 p.m. we recovered a body that matches the description of Teddy Ebersol," Young said during a 6 p.m. news conference outside of Montrose Regional Airport. "The dental records are being flown in and we should have a positive identification by tomorrow. God rest his soul."
Charles Ebersol is a senior at Notre Dame, and, according to the Associated Press, was on his way back to school after watching Notre Dame play the University of Southern California in a football game. Another Ebersol son, 18-year-old Willie, is a freshman at USC.
The family flew to Colorado, where they have a home, to drop off Ebersol's wife, Susan Saint James, an actress who starred in the 1980s television series "Kate and Allie."
This morning the coroner's office released the names of the deceased crewmembers. Pilot Luis Polanco Espaillat, 50, was from the Dominican Republic while flight attendant Warren T. Richardson, 36, was from Coral Gables, Fla. Both were killed upon impact and autopsies are scheduled.
Young said Edward Ebersol's body was recovered from underneath the wreckage of the plane and that heavy equipment was used in the recovery. Edward Ebersol was ejected from his seat and died instantly, according to Young.
"He didn't lay there and suffer," Young said. "The pilot and flight attendant were both ejected from their seats. The only one not ejected was Mr. Ebersol and his son, Charles, pulled him out."
Charles and Dick Ebersol were transported to Saint Mary's Hospital after initially going to Montrose Memorial Hospital on Sunday. The co-pilot, who was also initially treated in Montrose and whose name is unavailable, is in "very" critical condition at Denver Health Medical Center, according to Young.
Arnold Scott, a senior air safety inspector from the National Safety Transportation Board's Denver office, said he arrived at the crash site around noon today and conducted a preliminary walk through. Arnold said the cockpit recorder box was burned on the exterior but it is wrapped in a protective layer of asbestos.
"We'll fly the cockpit recorder to the Denver office and then to our Washington D.C. office and hopefully have a preliminary readout tomorrow," Scott said.
Since there is no control tower at Montrose Regional Airport, Scott said there were no voice recordings between the pilot and Montrose Regional Airport personnel. The pilot was in contact with the Denver Air Route Traffic Control Center, in Longmont, Colo. prior to takeoff. Pilot Espaillat's last words to Denver Air Route at 9:50 a.m. were "Ready for takeoff now," according to Scott.
Scott declined to comment on whether the plane's wings were de-iced prior to takeoff. In a Denver Post article, Steve McLaughlin of MTJ Air Services, which de-ices private planes at the airport, said his company did not de-ice Ebersol's plane before it took off. At a press conference this morning, Airport Manager Scott Brownlee said he did not know whether the plane had been de-iced.
Scott said one of the passengers in the plane said the plane swerved prior to takeoff, but he hasn't been able to determine the condition of the runway or whether the plane was airborne prior to crashing.
Scott said the CL-601 Challenger was manufactured in 1985 by Canada-based Bombardier and had "a very good" service record prior to the wreck.
Contact Mike Robuck via e-mail at miker@montrosepress.com.
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