Landing train collapsed to blame

The National Transportation Safety Board determined that a mechanical malfunction had resulted in the plane crash in East Tennessee. Dale Earnhardt Jr. and his wife, Amy Earnhardt, and their young daughter, Isla Rose, were slightly injured last week.

The accident occurred on August 15 at the Elizabethton Municipal Airport in Elizabethton, Tennessee. Two other people – a pilot and his co-pilot – as well as the Earnhards' family dog, Gus, were on board the plane and were not injured, according to a preliminary report. NTSB plane crash.

The aircraft suffered a hard landing and bounced, leaving the runway and igniting, according to the Federal Aviation Administration's accident and incident report.

According to the NTSB report, which shed more light on the accident, the airport surveillance video captured the initial landing of the aircraft near the touchdown zone. the track and part of the sequence of the accident.

"The aircraft rebounded twice, then continued to take off downstream of runway 24 until it rests a third time and that there remains about 1,000 feet of coated surface, "says the report. "The video revealed that the right main landing gear had collapsed and that the outer section of the right wing had hit the runway shortly after the third landing. the paved surface beyond the starting point of runway 24, through a dike, through a fence, and up a dike, coming to rest at the edge of Highway 91 from Tennessee. "

The report continues, the flight crew secured the engines and helped the passengers to evacuate through the main door of the aircraft. A post-accident fire was in progress during the evacuation, the report says.

The plane is immobilized vertically, concludes the report.

Earnhardt went to a local hospital after the accident for observation, Carrier said. He left the hospital later on Thursday without any major injuries being reported.

According to the NTSB report, Textron Aviation Inc. 680A, N8JR, was destroyed in the accident.

Contact Natalie Neysa Alund at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.