Overview

• Local authorities confirmed three fatalities and no survivors after a small plane went down in Macon County on Sept. 18.
• The other passengers were identified as Melody Carole, 59, and her daughter Meryl Maxwell Wilson, 28, according to the New York Times.
• Reports say the aircraft was a single‑engine Cirrus SR22T that departed Nashville’s John C. Tune Airport and crashed near Iotla Valley Elementary School in Franklin.
• Investigators have not issued findings on what led to the crash.
• James, 57, was a Grammy‑winning songwriter behind Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus Take the Wheel” and was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2020.