Singer-Songwriter Brett James 'Lost Control' of Plane that Killed Wife and Stepdaughter, Was 'Not Far' From Runway as Chilling New Details About Crash Surface

New details have emerged about the devastating plane crash that killed singer-songwriter Brett James, his wife, Melody Wilson, and stepdaughter, Meryl Maxwell Wilson, last month.

The September 18 crash was captured on camera as the small aircraft spiraled out of the air “not far” from the runway where James, 57, was attempting to land, officials said in a news report published on Monday, October 20.

James had “requested a visual approach” to land a Cirrus SR22T at Macon County Airport (MCA) before the crash, per the National Transportation Safety Board.

The songwriter attempted to “intended to perform a 360° turn to land” when he apparently lost control of the aircraft and no further communication to air traffic control was made.

Surveillance cameras captured the plane descending into a left turn, entering a “tightening spiral” before slamming into the ground.

"Multiple witnesses ... reported observing the airplane flying at a low altitude near the airport and over a nearby school playground," the NTSB report stated, adding the plane was seen “rocking from side-to-side” before “rolling inverted and descending behind a tree line.”

No signs of engine failure were found and the situation is still undergoing investigation.

On September 18, headlines revealed that James, the award-winning songwriter behind Carrie Underwood’s “Jesus Take the Wheel,” died at age 57 when his plane crashed near North Carolina’s Iotla Valley Elementary School. Authorities later confirmed that his wife and stepdaughter were also killed in the crash.

“A Cirrus SR22T crashed in a field in Franklin, North Carolina, around 3 p.m. local time on Thursday, Sept. 18. Three people were on board,” a statement from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) read at the time, confirming there would be a formal investigation by the NTSB into the accident.

The crash tragically happened two days after his stepdaughter’s 28th birthday, which she marked with a special Instagram post.

“28 years old.✨142 days sober,” she captioned the social media post on September 16. “Extremely happy to be here.”

The “Jesus Take the Wheel” singer, 42, reacted to the death of her longtime collaborator days after the accident, calling it “unfathomable.”

“The loss of Brett James to his family, friends and our music community is too great to put into words,” Underwood wrote via her Instagram on September 19. “Brett was the epitome of ‘cool.’ I see him in my mind riding up to my cabins to write on his motorcycle [and] his hair somehow perfectly coiffed despite being under a helmet for however long.”