- Sports reporter Carley McCord was one of five people who died in a plane crash in Lafayette, Louisiana, on Saturday morning.
- McCord was a WDSU-TV sports journalist covering Louisiana sports and the daughter-in-law of Steve Ensminger, the offensive coordinator for the Louisiana State University football team.
- Her husband, Steve Ensminger Jr., told Sports Illustrated that he had a missed text and call from McCord on the morning of the crash.
- “I don’t have my phone and she sends me a message saying she loved me,” he told Sports Illustrated. “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.”
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The husband of 30-year-old sports reporter Carley McCord, who died in a Louisiana plane crash on Saturday morning, says that his wife tried to contact him before the aircraft went down but he wasn’t able to answer.
Carley McCord, a WDSU-TV sports journalist covering Louisiana sports and the daughter-in-law of Steve Ensminger, the offensive coordinator for the Louisiana State University football team, was one of five people who died in the crash, near Louisiana’s Lafayette Regional Airport.
Her husband, Steve Ensminger Jr., told Sports Illustrated that he had a missed call and a text from McCord on the morning of the crash.
“I don’t have my phone and she sends me a message saying she loved me,” he told Sports Illustrated. “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 said that his father, who still coached Saturday's game, called him after the crash.
"The one voice that got on the phone with me that was clear and strong and supportive and confident while I was laying in that bed was my dad right before he walked out for warm-ups," Ensminger said in text messages to Sports Illustrated. "I could barely speak. I couldn't hold myself together and he said, 'Son, you will get through this, it's what we do. We face the darkest times in our lives and it's what we do, we get through it. And I will take care of you and I'll be there for you to keep you strong. You're my one and only son, and my namesake and I love you and I can promise you we will get through this.'"
McCord and the others on board were en route to the Peach Bowl playoffs in Atlanta, Georgia, between LSU and the University of Oklahoma. The plane crashed after attempting an emergency landing less than a mile from Lafayette Regional Airport.
Ensminger, a chemical operator at a nitrogen facility in Louisiana, said he had planned to drive to Atlanta with his wife, but couldn't get off work.
Bruce Landsberg, Vice Chairman of the National Transportation Safety Board, said during a press conference that the plane hadn't issued a distress call, according to CNN.
NTSB Investigator Jennifer Rodi told CNN that witnesses saw the plane strike power lines on its way down.
McCord served as a WDSU-TV in-game host for the New Orleans Pelicans and New Orleans Saints.
The teams praised her "infectious personality" in a statement following her death.
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