A seat was left empty in the press box at the Saints-Vikings game in New Orleans Sunday for the Louisiana sports reporter killed in a small plane crash last weekend.
Carley McCord, 30, was among five people killed as they headed to the Peach Bowl to see Louisiana State University play Oklahoma in Atlanta.
Reporter Amie Just tweeted a heartbreaking image of McCord’s press pass in the seat assigned to her, along with a bunch of flowers.
‘There’s a seat saved in the press box for the the late Carley McCord today, who was credentialed to work the Saints-Vikings game’, Just wrote.
Just added: ‘That’s twice in one week where a seat has been saved for her — one today and one for the Sugar Bowl.’
McCord’s funeral was held at St. Jean Vianney Church in Baton Rouge on Saturday. Memorial services were held in the church parish hall after the funeral.
The local television station where she worked, WDSU, showed a long line of people waiting to get into the church.
Reporter Amie Just tweeted a heartbreaking image of McCord’s press pass in the seat assigned to her, along with a bunch of flowers. ‘There’s a seat saved in the press box for the the late Carley McCord today, who was credentialed to work the Saints-Vikings game’, Just wrote
Just added: ‘That’s twice in one week where a seat has been saved for her — one today and one for the Sugar Bowl.’ Carley McCord, 30, was among five people killed as they headed to the Peach Bowl to see Louisiana State University play Oklahoma in Atlanta
Family asked that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to a memorial scholarship fund set up in McCord’s honor. The fund will benefit women pursing a degree in sports journalism at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, where McCord was a student.
Carley’s husband, Steven Ensminger Jr, says he has continued to text ‘I love you too’ to her phone after missing her final call and text to him, minutes before she plunged to her death.
Just before her doomed plane took off from Lafayette Regional Airport last Saturday, McCord texted her husband Steven Ensminger Jr: ‘I love you.’
Ensminger didn’t receive the message until it was too late to respond because he’d forgotten his cell-phone when he went to work that morning.
‘It’s the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing I think about when I finally fall asleep,’ he told ABC News.
‘Every once in a while throughout the day, I find myself grabbing my phone and sending a text to her phone replying, ‘I love you too.’
‘Now I don’t know if that’s crazy of me or not, but I’m praying she gets my message. And I wish there was a way she could let me know she has.’
McCord, 30, was killed in a plane crash over the weekend. Her husband, Steven Ensminger Jr (above together) says he has continued to text ‘I love you too’ to McCord’s phone after missing her final call and text to him, minutes before she died
The twin-engine aircraft bound for Atlanta came down near a post office and Walmart, hitting a car, flipping it over and then slamming into a tree around 9.22am Saturday
Ensminger had to be rushed to the hospital after he learned of his wife’s death from his aunt.
‘It is by far the most pain, angst and terror and just darkest time of my life. And I honestly don’t know how long it will last because I still don’t believe it. I don’t want to believe it,’ he told Sports Illustrated.
‘I was in and out of a nightmare, not being able to tell what was real and what wasn’t.
‘I can remember laying in the hospital bed repeating myself saying it wasn’t real and then one of the hardest things I’m dealing with is that I missed her text and I missed her call.’
Investigators, meanwhile, released early findings from the crash on Sunday that suggested the small aircraft had only climbed 900 feet after taking off Saturday from an airport in Lafayette, Louisiana.
The twin-engine aircraft bound for Atlanta came down near a post office and Walmart, hitting a car, flipping it over and then slamming into a tree around 9.22am.
No distress call was ever made, authorities said.
The 30-year-old reporter worked for WDSU television in New Orleans
McCord, who was on her way to the Rose Bowl, where Louisiana State University was playing the University of Oklahoma, was among the dead along with pilot Ian Biggs, 51, Robert Crisp II, 59, Gretchen Vincent, 51, and her son Michael ‘Walker’ Vincent, 15.
Pilot Biggs was laid to rest Saturday in Lafayette. The Advertiser newspaper reported that hundreds of people packed the chapel where his service was held, with crowds overflowing into the lobby and hallway.
Biggs worked for a Lafayette-based technology firm, Global Data Systems, for the past 20 years. Most of the five people killed on the plane had a connection with the firm. The company’s founder, Chuck Vincent, spoke during Biggs’ service of his love of family and his hobbies of hunting, camping, fishing and flying.
‘He was truly a part of our family,’ said Vincent. Vincent’s daughter-in-law, Gretchen D. Vincent, 51, and her son Michael Walker Vincent, 15, were killed in the crash. Their services were held Thursday. A Catholic funeral Mass was held for Robert Vaughn Crisp II, 59, on Friday in Mamou.
The other victims of the crash, from left to right: pilot Ian Biggs, 51; and passenger Robert Crisp II, 59
The other victims of the crash, from left to right: Gretchen Vincent, 51, and her son Michael ‘Walker’ Vincent, 15
The sole surviving passenger, Stephen Wade Berzas. 37, remained hospitalized in critical condition at Our Lady of Lourdes Regional Medical Center in Lafayette.
Another person, Danielle Britt, is hospitalized at University Medical Center in New Orleans after suffering serious burns when her vehicle flipped and caught on fire as the plane crashed to the ground.
McCord’s husband said he was so distraught when he got the news that he had to be sedated
The plane had taken off from runway 22L, began its climb and then started a left, descending turn, said Bruce Landsberg, vice-chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, reports the Lafayette Daily Advertiser.
Air Traffic Control had issued a low-altitude warning when the plane reached 700 feet.
Two witnesses told NTSB investigators the plane was in a steep turn, it rolled at about wing’s level before it hit the trees, power lines and a vehicle.
The plane then continued, coming down in a post office parking lot and coming to rest in a field.
No flight data recorder was on the eight-seat Piper Cheyenne, which investigators said was not unusual for a small aircraft.
It will likely take more than a year to determine the cause of the crash, said investigators.
McCord had been on her way to the Rose Bowl, where Louisiana State University was playing the University of Oklahoma.
Her father-in-law, also Steven, is the offensive coordinator for the school’s football team. He was pictured wiping away tears before the game on Saturday.
Balloons are released during a 16th birthday party for Walker Vincent at Leslie Jacob’s home
McCord had taken the plane on her way to the Rose Bowl, where Louisiana State University was playing the University of Oklahoma. Her father-in-law, Steven Ensminger (right), is the offensive coordinator for the school’s football team
The elder Ensminger was seen wiping away tears before the start of Saturday’s game