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eastern tennessee. look at this video. earnhardt's wife and their 15-month-old daughter with him. they are okay. steve harrigan is live on the tarmac and elizabeth din, tennessee >> melissa, it's hard to imagine anybody came out of that crash alive. as a matter fact, everybody, all five people on board and a dog, did walk out. you can see the wreckage behind me. yesterday at 3:40 p.m. this was a cessna citation plane, landing on that single runway right over there. instead of stopping at the end of the runway it skidded across the field, through the fence, and right on highway 91 it burst into flames. dale earnhardt jr., his wife, amy, their 15-month-old, to copilots, and a dog all had to ask that plane while it was on fire. with the fire department even arrived at the scene. officials there say they are extremely lucky. >> when they came through the
some of those skiers did manage to crawl out and even start rescuing the others after falling hundreds of feet. we'll have the latest on that. also ahead, religion and politics. typically, those two topics are taboo subjects for mixed company. but this is a presidential campaign year. find out how rick santorum's comments about the president's faith really hit a nerve. >> he's been saying some controversial remarks the last couple of days, santorum. also later this half hour, one week from now we will know who this year's big oscar winners are. we'll bring you the latest educated guesses about who could take home all that oscar gold. >> a lot of speculation there. but first, one minute a group of skiers were waiting to take their turn on the mountain. then the snow gave way, sweeping four of them more than 2,000 feet down. >> three were killed, and one other skier came to rest completely buried except for her head and hands. so the rest of the group watched horrified from the top of the hill. komo's elizabeth din has more
these skiers are suffering from medical issues. they began cpr. and unfortunately, they were not able to resuscitate the victims. >> reporter: the last couple of days we've had a lot of snow up in this mountain area and especially here in the cascades, and unfortunately creating very dangerous conditions and of course avalanche conditions. at stevens pass, washington, elizabeth din, abc news. >> and we keep hearing about these dangerous conditions. so far this year there's been 13 deaths due to avalanches across the west. there's this dry base. a lot of, you know, snow coming down at certain times, and there's just not enough to stick there. it's really causing some hazardous conditions. >> the down side of a milder than expected winter here. you wonder too if the area was at such risk of avalanches, even though you're skilled and you're good and you know the area, why take that risk? >> it's scary. it's a risk. definitely a risk. moving on this morning, plenty of questions need to be answered right now after a mid-air collision in northern california. a small plane and a helicopter clipped each other while flying near a small airport that's about halfway between oakland