Grammy Award winning singer killed in plane crash as horrific pictures emerge

A Grammy Award-winning singer has died in a plane crash. Brett James, 57, was among three people on board an aircraft that crashed into a field in North Carolina.

He was known for working as a songwriter alongside the likes of Carrie Underwood, Rascal Flatts and Bon Jovi. Brett bagged a Grammy Award in 2007 for Carrie's track Jesus Take The Wheel.

The Cirrus SR22T aircraft was registered to Brett and had taken off from Nashville, Tennessee. It crashed in Macon County at around 3pm local time on Thursday, killing all occupants. The crash happened in an open field near Iotla Valley Elementary School. No students or staff were injured.

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The cause of the horrific crash is not yet know, with National Transportation Safety Board officials set to launch an investigation. Brett had a successful music career and was even a member of the National Songwriters Hall of Fame.

He started out as a solo artist, where he released his first album in 1995. Brett then turned to songwriting and worked on Jessica Andrews' 2001 track Who I Am, which reached number one in the charts.

The musician went on to write for groups including The Backstreet Boys and The Fray. He was the writer behind 26 number one songs, as well as several top 10 country tracks.

Jesus Take The Wheel was named SOCAN Song of the Year at the 2006 Canadian Country Music Awards and bagged Carrie Underwood two Grammys in 2007.

It won the Best Country Song and Best Female Country Vocal Performance gongs and also reached number one in Billboard's US Hot Country Songs.

Carrie won American Idol just months after releasing the track. Tributes have poured in for Brett following the tragedy.

Nashville Songwriters Association International said: "The NSAI family is stunned by the death of board member and legendary songwriter Brett James. The loss is profound."

Brett wrote Dierks Bentley’s 2013 hit I Hold On, and the musician has since paid tribute. He said: “Rest in peace pal. Total stud. Fellow aviator. One of the best singer-songwriters in our town….total legend.

"I brought a couple of roughy sketched verse ideas of I Hold On to Brett after my dad died and he just did his thing. The chorus is all him. When I sing that song live, I’m always thinking of my dad, but I also think about that day we wrote it.

"He just got it, just lit into it. It was one of the first times we wrote and I decided to drop the most meaningful and necessary idea of a song I had on him, because I felt like God was telling me to do so. Our friendship and that song changed my life. Prayers for his family

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