Brett James, the songwriter who won a Grammy Award for his work on Carrie Underwood's Jesus Take The Wheel, has died in a plane crash. He was 57. According to local TV station WLOS, James was on board a small plane that went down in Macon County in North Carolina, around 3pm on Thursday. None of the three people on board survived. The FAA reports that the aircraft was registered to Brett Cornelius of Brentwood, which is Brett James' official name. James was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2020 and that organisation posted a short tribute on Facebook to confirm the news of his passing. "We mourn the untimely loss of Hall of Fame member Brett James (Jesus Take The Wheel / When The Sun Goes Down), a 2020 inductee who was killed in a small-engine airplane crash on Sept. 18." James started as a solo artist, and went on to become a behind-the-scenes star, writing for Billy Ray Cyrus, Kenny Chesney and Martina McBride. In 2001, he landed his first Billboard No. 1 with Who I Am by Jessica Andrews. All together, James wrote more than 300 major-label songs for the likes of Chesney, Dierks Bentley and Rascal Flatts. He scored major success with Underwood, whose 2005 single Jesus, Take The Wheel hit No. 20 on the Billboard Hot 100 and captured two Grammy nominations, winning for best country song. James was twice named ASCAP Country Songwriter of the Year, in 2006 and 2010.