Brett James, the 57-year-old Grammy-winning songwriter behind some of country music’s most recognizable hits, lost his life in a plane crash Thursday afternoon (September 18) in North Carolina.

James, born Brett Cornelius, was piloting a Cirrus SR22T when it went down in a field near Iotla Valley Elementary School in Franklin, NC. The plane had departed from John C. Tune Airport in Nashville for a 250-mile flight but crashed just before 3 pm.

All three passengers onboard sustained fatal injuries.

“There were no survivors,” a Macon County official confirmed. “It’s a total loss.”

Acclaimed songwriter Brett James lost his life in a plane crash alongside two other passengers in North Carolina

James had registered the 2016 aircraft under his real name. Footage from the crash site showed fi

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