For The Red Clay Strays, the 2026 ACM Awards nearly became memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Before arriving in Las Vegas to celebrate one of the biggest achievements of their career, the rising country-rock group experienced a frightening issue aboard their private jet that forced an emergency return to Alabama. The band later opened up about the incident while speaking during ACM Awards festivities, revealing just how serious the situation felt in the moment.

The Red Clay Strays ultimately won Group of the Year at the ceremony, marking a major milestone for the fast-rising band. But despite the excitement surrounding the award, bassist Andrew Bishop joked that one of the most “country” things he had done recently was driving his Ford F-150 Super Duty to the private plane before the trip.

Band member Zach Rishel then shifted the conversation in a much more serious direction when he bluntly admitted, “We almost died in that private jet.”

According to the group, the scare began when part of the engine cover unexpectedly ripped off during the flight. The issue forced the pilots to take immediate precautions and return to Mobile, Alabama, rather than continue toward Las Vegas.

Rishel explained that the aircraft had to remain in the air for roughly two hours before landing because the pilots needed to burn enough fuel to safely touch down. After returning, the band had to secure another plane before continuing their trip to the ACM Awards.

While the musicians later laughed about the experience, the incident clearly rattled them. For a band heading toward one of the proudest moments of their career, the emergency served as a stark reminder of how quickly circumstances can change during air travel.

The story also resonates deeply within country music because aviation tragedies are unfortunately woven throughout the genre’s history. Some of music’s most legendary performers lost their lives in plane crashes while traveling between shows.

In 1959, Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson — better known as The Big Bopper — died in a crash that later became known as “The Day the Music Died.” Country and Southern rock history also carries painful memories of the 1977 plane crash that killed several members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, including Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, and Cassie Gaines.

Country music icon Patsy Cline also tragically died in a plane crash in Tennessee in 1963 at just 30 years old. Years later, Reba McEntire endured a devastating loss when several members of her band and touring team were killed in a 1991 aviation accident.

Because of that history, stories involving flight scares tend to strike a nerve within the country music community. Touring artists spend enormous amounts of time traveling between performances, and private aviation has become a normal part of life for many successful acts.

Thankfully for The Red Clay Strays, this frightening chapter ended safely. After securing another aircraft, the band arrived in Las Vegas and celebrated their ACM victory alongside some of the biggest names in country music. Their candid comments afterward showed both relief and perspective, acknowledging how close a routine travel day came to becoming something much more tragic.