Six years after a devastating plane crash claimed the life of a young sports reporter, her mother has shared the heartbreaking moment she discovered the flight had gone wrong.
A Tragic Journey to a Football Game
On 28 December 2019, journalist Carley McCord, aged 30, was travelling to watch the American football game between Louisiana State University (LSU) and the University of Oklahoma. She was among five people who died when the private aircraft crashed near Lafayette, Louisiana. The plane came down close to a post office and a Walmart, struck a car, flipped it over, and then hit a tree.
The others who lost their lives were pilot Ian Biggs, 51, and passengers Robert Crisp II, 59, Gretchen Vincent, 51, and her 15-year-old son, Michael 'Walker' Vincent. McCord was travelling for work but also to support her father-in-law, LSU offensive coordinator Steve Ensminger Sr., who was seen in tears before his team's decisive 63-28 victory.
A Mother's Devastating Phone Call
Marking the sixth anniversary of the tragedy, Carley's mother, Karen McCord, 66, recounted the painful instant she was alerted to the plane crash. She described receiving a call from one of her daughter's bridesmaids.
"I got a phone call from one of Carley's bridesmaids, and she said, 'Is it true?' And I said, 'What?' And she said, 'The plane crash.' And then she hung up," Karen told KLFY. "Then she called back and she said, 'Look, there's been a plane crash in Lafayette, Louisiana. You know, five people have been reported dead. But there was another person that was alive.'"
Karen revealed she clung to the hope that her daughter was the survivor. "I was keeping my fingers crossed, praying to God that maybe it was Carley," she said. In conversations with a grief counsellor, she has since wrestled with thoughts of how she could have prevented the trip, even joking she would have slashed her daughter's tyres to stop her.
Legal Action and a Legacy of Grief
In the aftermath, Carley's husband, Steven Ensminger Jr., filed a lawsuit against the plane's owners and the pilot's estate. The legal filing, reported by the Lafayette Daily Advertiser, accused them of failing to maintain the aircraft properly and allowing the pilot to fly in poor weather without adequate training.
It also claimed Carley had a fear of flying, which meant she suffered severe emotional trauma and panic upon realising the plane was going down. The lawsuit stated she endured "virtually unimaginable pain and suffering" until her death. The case was settled for an undisclosed sum in 2023, according to The Acadiana Advocate.
Channeling her grief into creativity, Karen McCord was inspired to write a book about her daughter titled Only Rainbows, the McCord Story. "I could just actually feel God nudging me to say that you’re going to write another book and that this book is going to be about Carley and about grief," she explained.
