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Dale Earnheardt and family emerge unscathed from Citation crash landing

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and his family survived a serious crash incident at Elizabethton Municipal Airport when their Cessna Citation Latitude overran runway 24 and burst into flames.

The 44-year-old retired race car driver escaped the incident in Bristol, Tennessee without serious injury, as did his wife, infant daughter, the two pilots and a dog.

The passengers managed to get out before the twinjet went through a fence and caught ablaze, before finally coming to rest 500 feet past the paved end of the runway.

The aircraft, which was destroyed in the fire, was registered to JRM Air based in Mooresville, North Carolina, where Earnheardt, Jr. lives.

National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators arrived to inspect the crash site, while a Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) preliminary report said the aircraft “experienced a hard landing, bounced, departed the runway, and caught fire.”

Earnheardt, Jr. was travelling to the area from Statesville Municipal Airport, North Carolina, in order to join the broadcast team covering the Bristol Motor Speedway race at the weekend.

“We’re incredibly grateful that Dale, his wife Amy, daughter Isla, and the two pilots are safe following today’s accident,” NBC Sports said in a statement.

“After being discharged from the hospital, we communicated with Dale and his team, and we’re all in agreement that he should take this weekend off to be with his family.”

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