Dick Ebersol has described healing not as forgetting his son Teddy, but as keeping Teddy’s memory and place in the family present. Accounts of the crash also document a separate recovery: his surviving son Charlie’s physical rehabilitation and his own account of survivor guilt and depression. Their experiences were different, and neither establishes a single path through grief.
What happened in the 2004 crash
On November 28, 2004, a chartered Canadair CL-601 Challenger crashed during takeoff near Montrose, Colorado. Teddy Ebersol, Dick and Susan Saint James’s 14-year-old son, pilot Luis Alberto Polanco, and flight attendant Warren Richardson III died. Dick Ebersol, their son Charlie, and co-pilot Eric Wicksell were injured. Susan Saint James was not aboard. The Associated Press report carried by CBS News noted light snow and freezing temperatures, but the reporting cited here does not establish the crash’s technical cause. Read the Associated Press report carried by CBS News.
How Dick Ebersol spoke about grief and remembrance
Ebersol’s reported reflections focus on speaking about Teddy and keeping the relationship part of family life. In an NPR report reproduced by LAist, he described being asked, “What can I convey to people who lose a child?” He answered: “Talk about that child who’s deceased and has gone off to meet his or her maker. It’s important that you talk about that child and what that child brought into your lives not so that you’ll cry more and more but just so that that wonderful relationship remains a part – an important part of your family.” This is Ebersol’s personal reflection, not a clinical recommendation or a claim that talking works the same way for everyone. Read LAist’s account of Ebersol’s reflections.
How the family described the first years afterward
In February 2006, Ebersol, Saint James, and their two surviving sons spoke together on The Oprah Winfrey Show in their first family interview since the crash, according to the Associated Press report. Saint James described how grief affected her relationship to Teddy’s belongings: “Here’s the bad part … I’ve never touched his clothes, I’ve never been able to move his things.” Her account gives a specific glimpse of loss, not a timetable or a measure of how another person should grieve.
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Charlie Ebersol’s separate account of rehabilitation
In a 2015 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Charlie Ebersol described recovering from back injuries through rehabilitation and physical therapy. He also spoke about survivor guilt, saying, “I had very immense survivor guilt,” and characterized part of his experience as “a form of PTSD.” He recalled a period of depression when he did not get out of bed for days, and credited support from his mother and godmother. These are Charlie’s descriptions of his own experience; they should not be recast as a diagnosis made by others or as Dick Ebersol’s account. Read the Los Angeles Times interview with Charlie Ebersol.
Where to hear more from Dick Ebersol
Dick Ebersol discussed the crash and Teddy’s death in a chapter of his Television Academy oral history. The Academy’s index identifies the interview and its chapter topics. View Dick Ebersol’s Television Academy oral-history index.
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For a longer account in Ebersol’s own voice, his memoir is From Saturday Night to Sunday Night: My 40 Years of Laughter, Tears and Touchdowns. The Washington Post discussed the book with him in 2022; Simon & Schuster’s publisher page identifies the memoir and author. It is a memoir, not a recovery guide. See the publisher’s page for the memoir or read The Washington Post interview.
Quick Recap
Best Value
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