Heavy smoke, jammed exit: NTSB describes Earnhardt Jr. family's plane crash escape

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and a pilot struggled to open a crashed airplane's wing emergency exit as the aircraft began to burn and fill with smoke before the race car driver and his family managed to escape from the main door, according to new details about the 2019 accident released by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Documents released Thursday by the NTSB provide pilot, passenger and witness statements about the Aug. 15, 2019 plane crash at an airport in Elizabethton, Tennessee.

Earnhardt was with wife Amy, 15-month-old daughter Isla, two pilots and the family dog when their Cessna Citation Latitude crashed. The NTSB said three passengers suffered minor injuries.

Earnhardt retired from full-time racing following the 2017 season and is now working as a NASCAR analyst for NBC Sports, though he has raced since the plane crash.

Earnhardt was with wife Amy, 15-month-old daughter Isla, two pilots and the family dog when their Cessna Citation Latitude crashed. The NTSB said three passengers suffered minor injuries.

In a preliminary report, NTSB investigators have said part of the landing gear collapsed and a section of the right wing hit the runway as the plane bounced twice before touching down a third time with about 1,000 feet of paved surface remaining.

The plane went through a chain-link fence before coming to rest on the edge of Tennessee Highway 91.

Pilot Richard Pope told the NTSB that he was carrying extra speed on the approach to the runway because the airplane “slows down so easy,” according to a summary of the pilots' statements to the NTSB.

Pope said the initial touchdown was “pretty hard” and the airplane came off the runway. The flight crew reported that thrust reversers, which help an airplane decelerate during landing, were applied after the first touchdown.