Photo Credit:Instagram/TheNelonsOfficial
The gospel music community is in mourning. The seven people on board the private plane crashed on July 26, killing three members of The Nelons, a Grammy-nominated family gospel group.
The Georgia-based band's assistant, Melodi Hodges, along with pilot Larry Haynie and his wife, Melissa Haynie, and singers Kelly Nelon Clark, 64, husband Jason Clark, and their daughter Amber Nelon Kistler, 35, were all killed, according to a statement released by Gaither Management Group.
According to the corporation, they are "one of the best loved gospel music families in America." "The Nelons were involved in a tragic, fatal plane crash on Friday afternoon on their way to join the Gaither Homecoming Cruise to Alaska."
Autumn Nelon Streetman, 27, a fellow Nelons singer who had gone to the cruise alone with her husband Jamie Streetman, is Kelly and Jason's youngest daughter. Autumn, who is expecting the couple's first child and is currently in her second trimester, thanked supporters after the incident.
"Thank you for the prayers that have been extended already to me, my husband, Jamie, and our soon-to-be-born baby boy, as well as Jason’s parents, Dan and Linda Clark," she posted to Instagram. "We appreciate your continued prayers, love, and support as we navigate the coming days."
According to flight records that E! News was able to collect, the single-engine Pilatus PC-12 aircraft took off from Georgia on July 26 and traveled to Nebraska City, Nebraska, before taking off once more. that afternoon, en route to another stop in Billings, Mont. The disaster happened in a rural location north of Gillette, Wyoming, and was the subject of an investigation by the Federal Aviation
Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, according to WSB-TV in Atlanta. The tragedy occurred after an "autopilot issue during flight," according to early evidence, an NTSB spokeswoman told the British publication The Guardian.
