Downright terrifying.
Throughout history, some of the most tragic and untimely deaths in music have come via plane crashes. Of course, you have your highest-profile deaths such as Buddy Holly, along with Ritchie Valens and “The Big Bopper” J. P. Richardson, all passing away in 1959 on a day often referred to as “The Day The Music Died,” as well as Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines of Lynyrd Skynyrd tragically losing their lives in 1977.
This doesn’t even mention the likes of legends such as John Denver, Patsy Cline, Jim Croce, Otis Redding, Stevie Ray Vaughn, Glen Miller and more, all of whom died in either airplane or helicopter accidents.
While you can blame a few of these on both recklessness and outdated technology at the time, each and every death still remains equally tragic in its own right. Thanks to improvements in both technology and air traffic safety over the decades, similar tragedies have become much less frequent.
With that being said, however, reigning CMA Male Vocalist of the Year, Cody Johnson, had a terrifying flight scare of his own that he believed would have resulted in him joining the rest of the aforementioned artists.
In a recent appearance on Dale Brisby’s Rodeo Time podcast, the “Dirt Cheap” singer would recall a harrowing moment in 2019 when his jet was in complete free fall for tens of thousands of feet.
As Johnson explains, he was flying from Haddysburg, Mississippi, to Austin, Texas, to perform the national anthem at the NASCAR Cup Series in 2021. Unlike most of his flights, this was the first time he was traveling via private jet. Despite the flight getting off to a fine start, shortly after flying over the crash site of Lynyrd Skynyrd (of all places), the plane started plummeting downward.
“It was very ironic because we were going over the crash site where Lynyrd Skynyrd went down. The alarms go off and the plane just starts plummeting. And you want confidence out of a lot of people, like your surgeons, you know, the guy pulling your bull rope. But I think your pilot [is another one]. When you can see true, unadulterated fear in a man’s eyes and he’s the one controlling the aircraft, [it’s terrifying].
Even more ironic compared to the fact that they started going down around the Skynyrd crash site, the Texas native would note that he said how much he was enjoying the flight before the alarms started going off.
“So I get up, and we’re kind of plummeting through the air. You can feel like the drinks are starting to kind of move around. We were actually playing cards, and I’ve never said this on a plane ever again. I said, ‘Well, this don’t suck,’ [and the alarms went off].”
Clearly sensing something was wrong, Johnson would go up to the cockpits to ask the pilots what was wrong. In response, they told him that the plane was going down — not to emergency land but actually free-falling. After being told the terrifying news, Johnson began looking at pictures of his kids next to his wife, Brandi, both thinking they might not make it out of the plane alive.
“I ran up to the pilots, and I said, ‘What the heck is going on?’ and he was white as a sheep. He looked at me and said, ‘You need to sit down and make yourself ready. We’re going down.’ And I said, ‘Where are we putting it down?’ He said, ‘We’re not putting it down, we’re going down.
I turned around and Noe and Jackson and Brandi are looking at me, like eyes wide open… I went and sat by Brandi and we started looking through our phones and looking at pictures of our kids. [We were like], ‘Look at what we did.'”
Call it divine intervention, during Brandi’s prayer in the back of the plane, the aircraft finally leveled off at 10,000 feet after losing tens of thousands during the free-fall.
“She gathered us around that back table in the plane, and we held hands. She went to praying out loud, speaking over that plane, and at 10,000 feet, it leveled off.”
When asked how bad the plane was falling, Johnson would note how multiple panels of the interior of the plane fell off due to the force:
“It was scary. Panels were falling off the walls.”
Thankfully, Cody, Brandi and the rest of the crew ended up landing in Austin safely; however, that was after they found out the entire situation was completely on the fault of the pilot — not an engine malfunction or any mechanical problem.
“This is the power of prayer right here. They did diagnostics on that plane; there was nothing wrong with the plane. I truly, to this day, believe she prayed that plane into the air.”
Whether it was the power of prayer or something else entirely, I think it’s safe to say the entire country music community is thankful Johnson did not add to the list of tragic deaths that fateful day. Either way, it’s an incredibly harrowing story from one of the best in the business.
Watch the full podcast here:
Cody Johnson Tour Dates
March 28 – Little Rock, Arkansas – Simmons Bank Arena with Kip Moore & Carter Faith
April 10 – Bossier City, Louisiana – Brookshire Grocery Arena with Kip Moore
April 24 – Indio, California – Stagecoach
May 2 – Clemson, South Carolina – Death Valley (Clemson Stadium)
May 9 – Des Moines, Iowa – Casey’s Corner
May 30 – Rosemont, Illinois – Allstate Center
July 11 – Cavendish, Prince Edward Island – Cavendish Beach Music Festival
July 17 – Columbus, Ohio – Nationwide Arena with Drew Baldridge
July 18 – Columbus, Ohio – Nationwide Arena with Ian Munsick & Walker Montgomery
July 25 – Jacksonville, Florida – Vystar Veterans Memorial Arena
August 8 – Oklahoma City, Oklahoma – Paycom Center
August 22 – Knoxville, Tennessee – Food City Center
August 29 – Saint Paul, Minnesota – Grand Casinoa Arena
September 12 – Tacoma, Washington – Tacoma Dome
