Country music’s deadly year in flight: Latest star killed in helicopter crash

Rick Sollo might not be a name that many country music fans in the United States know, but he was a big deal on the global stage. Sadly, though, Sollo, who was one half of the duo Rick and Renner, was killed in a helicopter crash in Brazil on September 21.He was 69. Four others on board — businessman Bruno Avelar, video maker Paulo Soares, pilot Antonio Roberto Nobrega de Araujo and co-pilot Leopoldo Barros Teixeiera — were also killed in the crash, according to Globo.Sollo’s tragic death was just one of a handful of tragedies or scary close calls when it comes to country music stars and air travel across the past year. The following is a look at a few of the other incidents that took place:Dwight Yoakam The country music star revealed that he had a big-time scare during takeoff as he prepared to fly out to a show in Lubbock, Texas, on Feb. 12.The singer took to social media to explain it all.“I want to personally apologize to the fans who bought tickets and attended our show in Lubbock TX this past Thursday evening the 12th of February,” Yoakam wrote on Facebook. “It has only today been brought to my attention that unfortunately the circumstances surrounding my delayed arrival to perform the concert that night were not conveyed clearly by an in-person announcement from the stage but rather by a vague anonymous PA announcement about a flight delay.“What actually happened Thursday afternoon was that we had an emergency takeoff abort as the aircraft was about to lift off from the runway due to a mechanical failure warning in the cockpit,” he continued. “Fortunately, the pilots handled the aborted takeoff with exceptional professional skill and they were able to avoid anything more dangerous of catastrophic occurring. After taxiing back to the hangar and concluding that the issue with that aircraft could not be corrected we were luckily able to be moved to a different plane and continue our flight to do the show in Lubbock.”Yoakam wrote that he was “approximately an hour and thirty minutes” later for his scheduled 9 p.m. stage time. “Again, I want to express my sincere apologies to all the fans in attendance that evening that the announcement about the show’s delay was not made from ‘onstage’ respectfully,” he added. “I am very sorry for any frustration and disappointment the delay caused. Dwight.”Chris Young Young had a frightening close call this year while he was flying to Nashville to celebrate Father’s Day with his dad, according to Taste of Country. “Brake failure on the plane,” Young wrote on Instagram. “Luckily had some amazing pilots. Ended up landing safely. Thank you Lord, the fire department, and the men up front.”Brett James James was killed in a plane crash in North Carolina last September. James’ wife, Melody Carole, 59, and her daughter, Meryl Wilson, 28, were also killed in the crash.The National Transportation Safety Board has released its report on the crash which includes the final radio transmission from James. According to the report, James approached Macon County Airport at around 2:48 p.m. at around 6,800 feet and reported that he “intended to perform a 360 degree turn to land,” on the runway there.That was the chilling last transmission from James. Everything seemed to be going fine, and then tragically it wasn’t.The plane reportedly descended to 6,300 feet and made a turn to approach the runway at 3,300 feet.“Surveillance video showed the airplane flying over the runway before initiating a descending left turn,” the NTSB report said. “The airplane continued descending in the left turn before entering a tightening spiral and impacting the ground.”No signs of engine failure were detected.James, a Grammy-winning songwriter and a member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, was in the plane that went down near an elementary school in Franklin, North Carolina.The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers noted that James was a two-time ASCAP Country Songwriter of the year.James, 57, began his career as a solo artist in 1995, and charted three singles that year. But he became best known for his ability as a songwriter with 494 songs being recorded by other artists. He is perhaps best known for writing Carrie Underwood’s 2006 number one hit, “Jesus, Take the Wheel.” He has also written songs for the likes of Martina McBride, Jason Aldean, Kenny Chesney and Rodney Atkins.Red Clay Strays The Red Clays Strays are as hot as any group in country music at the moment, but the fellas might want to reconsider their method of traveling.That is because they apparently nearly crashed in a private jet for the second time since October, 2025.The group revealed the incident during an interview with Yahoo on the ACM’s red carpet in June. They were asked, “What is the most country thing you did this week?”‘I drove my F-250 Super Duty to fly in a private jet to get here,” bassist Andrew Bishop replied.“Then we almost died in that private jet,” guitarist Zach Rishel said.“That’s pretty country,” Bishop replied. “Skynyrd died in jet.”Rishel explained that part of the jet’s engine cowling flew off during takeoff.“We had to circle Mobile for about two hours to lose enough fuel to land again, to then get some more planes,” Bishop added.The Red Clay Strays made it to the show where they won ACM Group of the Year.If the story sounds familiar it is because the Strays had another scare last fall, and the group shared a video from inside the aircraft to prove it.As the plane bumped and bounced about, Bishop fired up Lynyrd Skynyrd to ride it out.That band, of course, lost three members, including frontman Ronnie Van Zant, in a 1977 plane crash.“If it’s gonna go down, it’s gonna go down to Lynyrd Skynyrd,” Bishop said on the video. “I think I wanna go back to commercial flights.”The video showed off that the group was on a fairly small private plane, and not everyone was handling things as well as Bishop. The group members were obviously frightened, and Brandon Coleman vomited.“Hold it together boys,” one of them said. “Hold it together boys.”When they had finally managed to land, Bishop asked the pilots, “So it doesn’t get much worse than that?”“No, it doesn’t get much worse,” one of the pilots answered. “I mean, you die. That’s about as bad as it gets right there.”