“The tip of the plane’s wing hit a boulder on the edge of Otay Mountain, and it killed everyone on board,” McEntire told Oprah. “When we were notified, Narvel went to our pilot and told him what had happened.”
“When Narvel returned to the hotel room where I was — two or three a.m. — and said one of the planes had crashed, I asked, ‘Are they OK?’ ‘I don’t think so,’ he responded. ‘But you’re not sure?’ I asked. ‘I don’t think so,’ he replied.”
According to McEntire, they were anxious to learn the specifics of the catastrophe.
“Narvel was going room to room with a phone, ringing…” she said, pausing as tears rose. “I’m sorry – it’s been 20 years, but I don’t think it ever stops hurting,” she added. “But, I can see that chamber. Narvel is pacing back and forth.”
Friends like Vince Gill and Dolly Parton offered McEntire their bands to finish the tour, but she declined. For My Broken Heart, her next album was dedicated to the band members she had lost, and it debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, selling four million copies.
On the anniversary of the tragedy, McEntire regularly pays tribute to those who died that day. She used Instagram to commemorate the crash anniversary in 2014. On the 25th anniversary of the tragedy in 2016, she took a memorable trip to San Diego and shared it with admirers on social media.
McEntire wrote, “Today is the 25th anniversary of the plane accident.” “In November last year, I returned to San Diego and took a helicopter to the accident site. I have a feeling they realize how much we miss them. My heartfelt condolences and prayers go out to all the families and friends.”
I pushed my husband out of bed to stop what I believed was snoring.
Lisa Lee, 25, was sleeping next to her husband Lewis Little when she thought she heard him snoring. “I shoved him out of bed to stop what I believed was snoring,” Lisa explained. But as she touched the moist sheet, she knew something wasn’t right. Lewis wasn’t breathing. “I turned on the light and stared at his battered face,” she added.
Panicked, Lisa called for an ambulance, but the wait felt endless. When medics arrived, they broke the heartbreaking news: Lewis had passed away hours earlier. The sound Lisa had mistaken for snoring was, in fact, air escaping his body and passing through his vocal cords.
Lewis had been diagnosed with Brugada syndrome, a rare heart condition, just a year earlier. Doctors had assured him that his life wasn’t in danger and that he could live a long life despite the condition. Tragically, just a year later, Lewis died unexpectedly in his sleep.
Lisa was left in shock. “I couldn’t believe it. The doctors told us he was going to be fine,” she said, still processing the sudden loss of her husband.
Brugada syndrome is a genetic condition that affects the heart’s rhythm and can lead to sudden death. In Lewis’s case, it proved fatal despite earlier reassurances.
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