"Our world has been rocked unlike anything you've ever seen," Family member Todd Nelon posted to social media.
Three of four of The Nelons, one of the most popular gospel singing groups in the United States, have died in a plane crash.
The Georgia gospel singers were making a series of stops on the way to Seattle where they were scheduled to perform on a cruise ship to Alaska. The plane crashed in a remote area of Wyoming Friday. The pilot reported a problem with the auto-pilot minutes earlier.
Three members of the Grammy-nominated group were killed along with the group's assistant, the pilot, and his wife, when the plane broke up in midair.
Dr. Bob Arnot, an experienced pilot, has flown a similar plane, a single-engine turboprop, and provided his opinion on what may have happened if the plane had an auto-pilot issue.
"All of a sudden the plane starts to pitch down and pitches up and pitches down and pitches up, an auto-pilot issue," Arnot says. "Apparently enough at 300 miles an hour that it tore the plane apart."
Family member Todd Nelon posted a video to social media.
"Our world has been rocked unlike anything you've ever seen," Todd Nelon said.
The last surviving member of the music group, Autumn Nelon, who did not join the others on the flight because she is pregnant, posted, "I don't have the words to comprehend how I feel right now and I'm not sure when I will."
