Dale Earnhardt Jr. is SERIOUSLY lucky to be alive today … National Transportation Safety Board officials just announced his plane bounced TWICE on the runway before it eventually crash landed.
Junior, his wife, his 1-year-old daughter and the two pilots on the plane all miraculously survived after their aircraft crashed in Elizabethton, Tennessee on Thursday.
Scott Reis
NTSB officials updated media members on some of the details of the accident … revealing the whole thing was caught on surveillance video — and it sounded scary as hell.
The lead NTSB investigator, Ralph Hicks, said he could see the plane hit the runway two times before the right landing gear on the aircraft collapsed on the runway.
Hicks said the plane — a Cessna Citation Latitude 680 — skidded down the runway, through a chainlink fence and into a ditch before it came to a stop near the local highway.
Hicks said all five passengers — and Dale’s dog — were able to get off the plane in a matter of minutes … before massive flames engulfed the aircraft.
Hicks said the flight was only a 20-minute one from a nearby city in North Carolina.
NTSB officials have yet to determine a cause for the crash … saying it could take about week before their investigation concludes.
Dale Jr. — who works as a race announcer for NBC — took the weekend off of work after the crash. He’s expected to try to return to his broadcasting job next week in Darlington.
For their part, the Earnhardts released a statement on Friday through Dale’s sister, Kelley, saying, “Dale, Amy, Isla and our two pilots are doing well.”