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 retired 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 and 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, a NASCAR television analyst and retired driver, was with wife Amy, 15-month-old daughter Isla, two pilots and the family dog when their Cessna Citation Latitude crashed.