Carter boarded Flight 180 with his girlfriend Terry. When Alex attempts to warn the other passengers about the plane exploding, Carter believes he is making the whole thing up as a joke and tries to fight him. As a result, both of them are removed from the plane, along with Terry and five others. After the plane departs, Carter begins to criticize and mock Alex, who fights with him at the terminal. While the guards manage to separate them, the plane explodes shortly after, as Alex predicted
In the aftermath, Carter continues to show hostility towards Alex, refusing to admit that he saved him. At the memorial service, he tells Alex that he doesn't owe him anything and that he is in charge of his own life. Carter probably didn't get the news at first that Alex's best friend Tod Waggner got strangled in his bathtub that evening. Later, Carter is driving with Terry when he sees Alex and Clear Rivers talking at a café. When he confronts Alex and begins to mock him again, Terry snaps, frustrated with Carter's obsession with Alex. She then storms away in frustration, reprimanding Carter and breaking up with him. But as Terry steps into the intersection, she is suddenly killed by a speeding bus, leaving Carter devastated. Later on, he attempts to carve Terry's name into the memorial plaque for the students that died on Flight 180
