Plane crashes on way to Peach Bowl; coach’s in-law among 5 dead
ATLANTA
(AP) — A small plane en route to a college football playoff game
crashed into a post office parking lot in Louisiana shortly after
takeoff Saturday, killing five people, including a well-known sports
reporter who was the daughter-in-law of one of the team’s coaches.
The
two-engine Piper Cheyenne crashed in the city of Lafayette about a mile
from the regional airport where the flight began, Federal Aviation
Administration spokesman Tony Molinaro said. Investigators from the FAA
and the National Transportation Safety Board were investigating,
according to Molinaro and an NTSB statement on Twitter.
The plane
was an eight-passenger aircraft, said Lafayette Fire Chief Robert
Benoit. Six people were on board the plane, five of whom were killed, he
said. The sixth, a 37-year-old man, was being treated at an area
hospital along with two people who were in the post office.
A
person who was either in or near a car on the ground was also “impacted”
by the crash and was being treated for injuries, Benoit said. He did
not elaborate. A blackened car sat in the post office parking lot, which
was carpeted with scattered tree limbs.
Kevin Jackson and other
eyewitnesses told KLFY-TV that the plane hit a car as it fell, and that
someone could be heard screaming inside the vehicle.
Steven
Ensminger Jr., son of the offensive coordinator for the Louisiana State
University football team, said his wife, Carley McCord, was on board the
flight and died when it crashed. He said the plane was en route to the
Peach Bowl playoff game in Atlanta between LSU and Oklahoma.
“I just don’t feel like this is real,” Ensminger Jr. told the AP in an Instagram message.
Ensminger
Jr. said he was unable to go to the game and was at work when the crash
happened. He said his father, Steven Ensminger, called him just before
the elder Ensminger got to the stadium. The coach had tears in his eyes
when he appeared on the field at the start of the game Saturday
afternoon, and LSU players embraced him with hugs.
“He’s the MVP right now,” LSU head coach Ed Orgeron said in an on-air halftime interview. LSU won 63-28.
The
Lafayette Fire Department identified the other people who were killed
as Ian E. Biggs, 51, the plane’s pilot; Robert Vaughn Crisp II, 59;
Gretchen D. Vincent, 51; and Michael Walker Vincent, 15. The injured
passenger, Stephen Wade Berzas, was in critical condition, said
department spokesman Alton Trahan.
The plane went down in a part
of the city with a scattering of banks, fast food chains and other
businesses. A trail of scorched and burning grass could be seen around
the crash site.
Marty Brady, 22, said the lights went out at his
apartment a couple of hundred yards (183 meters) or so away from where
the plane crashed just as he was making his morning coffee.
Brady
said he ran out and saw black smoke and flames from the post office
parking lot. He said the plane clipped and knocked down a power line
over the gate to his apartment complex.
“If it had been a little lower, it could have been a lot worse,” he said.
McCord
was a Baton Rouge native and sports reporter for WDSU-TV in New Orleans
and appeared as a sideline reporter for ESPN, according to her website.
She previously worked in television in Cleveland, and she was a
two-time runner-up in the Miss Louisiana pageant.
“We are
devastated by the loss of such an amazing talent and valued member of
our WDSU family,” said WDSU President and General Manager, Joel
Vilmenay. “Carley’s passion for sports journalism and her deep knowledge
of Louisiana sports, from high school to the professional ranks, made
her an exceptional journalist. “
McCord was also part of the
game-day entertainment staff for the NFL’s New Orleans Saints and the
NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans, regularly appearing in promotional segments
broadcast during games.
“Carley was a valued member of both our
New Orleans Saints and New Orleans Pelicans family as an in-game host
and her infectious personality and knowledge of both teams entertained
our fans,” the two teams said.
Ensminger Jr. said he and his wife
had the same birthday, and he shared a photo of the two celebrating at a
restaurant, a dessert with a candle between them. His Instagram account
shows photos of the couple and their families at various sporting
events and celebrations. He updated the account Saturday to say: “I’ll
never be the same with out you, Carley! You are, and will forever be my
world.”
McCord is the second journalist working in the New
Orleans area to die in a plane crash this year. On August 16, WVUE news
anchor Nancy Parker was doing a story in New Orleans about stunt pilot Franklin Augustus when the plane crashed. Both Parker and Augustus died.
Lafayette is the fourth-largest city in Louisiana with a population of about 130,000, according to the 2018 census. It is located about 135 miles west of New Orleans.
This story has been edited to correct that the playoff game is in Atlanta, not Louisiana.