Curious and curiouser. There are a lot of unanswered questions about the plane crash that killed Canadian pilot Michael Callan in Nashville three weeks ago, but the strangest by far is this: Why did Callan, 45, list country-pop superstar Taylor Swift as his next of kin?
According to a report in the Tennessean, authorities heard from the Federal Aviation Administration that Callan had listed the 23-year-old "Red" songstress as his next of kin with the flying club in Canada. That information was relayed to Swift via her security team, none of whom knew or had heard of the pilot prior to his death.
"The first we heard of this was when the appropriate authorities contacted Taylor's management about the crash," Paula Erickson, the singer's publicist, wrote in an email response to the Tennessean. "Taylor does not know this person."
As reported by the Tennessean, Callan's plane went down on Oct. 29 at the Nashville International Airport, 500 miles from his planned destination. Authorities say he circled the airport for as long as two-and-a-half hours before attempting to land; after he crashed, the wreckage from his plane, a Cessna 172R, remained undiscovered for several hours. It's not known at this point why he was in the Nashville area.
Swift, for her part, has called the city home for several years; she has a three-bedroom duplex near Vanderbilt University, with 20-foot-high windows and panoramic views.
A recent profile in New York Magazine referred to the "I Knew You Were Trouble" songstress as "Nashville's sweetheart," and it's apt; she recently won the Nashville Songwriters Association International's Songwriter/Artist of the Year for a record sixth time. Of Nashville's famed Music Row, the Pennsylvania native said, "I love being a part of the country-music community."
