Stacy Conradt
The Quick 10: 10 Musical Artists Who Died in Plane Crashes
by Stacy Conradt - February 3, 2009 - 7:28 PM

q10

Music fans know today as “The Day the Music Died” because a plane carrying Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper crashed in Iowa, killing them all. The site of the crash is only about an hour and a half away from Des Moines, so it’s a pretty big deal around here, especially since this year is the 50th anniversary. But there seems to be an inordinate number of recording artists who have died in plane crashes. I mean, probably not – since so many of them fly on small planes to get from gig to gig, it stands to reason that the number of deaths by plane crash would be higher in the music industry than any other profession. But still… it seems like a lot, and they’re all certainly very tragic. Today’s Q10 pays homage to 10 other music greats who met their ends via aviation accident.

patsy1. Patsy Cline, 1963. Patsy may have had a premonition that she was going to die – according to June Carter Cash and Loretta Lynn, Patsy told them that something didn’t feel right and she didn’t think she was going to be around much longer. That was in 1962, and in 1963, the plane taking her from Kansas City to Nashville crashed just about 90 miles away from its destination.
2. Ricky Nelson, 1985. There are lots of things you might know Ricky from – The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet, his teen idol days or as the dad of Gunnar and Matthew. He was also married to Mark Harmon’s older sister, Kristin. By the late ‘70s, though, he was in a lot of debt and his wife left him and took the kids. He started touring almost constantly to try to dig his way out of his financial hole. It was a 1985 nostalgia rock tour of the South that would be his undoing – after playing a show in Guntersville, Alabama, he and his band were headed to Dallas to play a New Year’s Eve show. It crashed northeast of Dallas, killing all seven passengers (the pilots survived). Investigation later showed that a fire had broken out in the cabin and the pilots attempted an emergency landing.

3. Lynyrd Skynyrd members Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, and his sister, backup singer Cassie Gaines, 1977. The band was flying from Greenville, S.C., to Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge; the plane went down about five miles outside of Gillsburg, Mississippi. There is a lot of speculation as to why the plane actually crashed, but the official accident report says that it was a combination of fuel exhaustion, engine malfunction and inadequate flight planning.

4. Otis Redding and the Bar-Kays, 1967. Redding and his band were headed from Cleveland to Madison, Wisconsin, on December 9. They were almost there when the plane crashed into Lake Monona in Madison. The lone survivor of the crash, Bar-Kay member Ben Cauley, says there were at least some survivors even after the crash – he heard some of his fellow passengers calling for help, but help didn’t arrive fast enough and the frigid waters claimed them.

rhoads5. Randy Rhodes, 1982. Chalk this one up to drugs and stupidity. Rhodes toured with Ozzy Osbourne after he went solo; you can hear his guitar work on Crazy Train and Mr. Crowley (among others). Anyway, he, Ozzy and other members of the band were on their way to Orlando, but they stopped in Leesburg, where they picked up one of the tour bus driver’s planes. The driver took some band members for rides, and was flying Rhodes and seamstress Rachel Youngblood around when the accident occurred. Aycock “buzzed” the top of the tour bus carrying the rest of the band members a couple of times, but the third time he did it, a wing of the plane clipped the bus and sent the plane spiraling. All three of the people on the plane were killed instantly, and were burned so badly that only dental records could identify them. It was later revealed that the pilot/tour bus driver had cocaine in his system at the time.

6. Will Rogers, 1935. Will was a big fan of aviation and was embarking upon a flight around the world with his friend, aviator Wiley Post. On August 15, they made a brief stop at Walakpa Bay, just south of Barrow, Alaska. When they tried to take off again, the plane stalled and crashed into the river, killing them both.

7. Stevie Ray Vaughan, 1990. Stevie was touring with Double Trouble and Joe Cocker in the “In Step” tour; the tour manager had rented a helicopter for members of the tour to get from Elk Horn, Wisconsin to Chicago. Despite a little bit of fog, three of the four helicopters departed without a hitch, but the pilot of Stevie Ray’s helicopter failed to reach the altitude necessary to clear the hill at the takeoff site and crashed into it. Everyone died. Eric Clapton and Stevie Ray’s brother, Jimmie, were called to identify his body.

aaliyah8. Aaliyah, 2001. Aaliyah had just finished shooting a music video in the Bahamas and was on the way back to Miami when her plane crashed. It was grossly overloaded because her crew insisted on bringing all of their heavy equipment back on the plane instead of sending it on a later flight. In addition, the pilot, Luis Morales, had apparently faked documents for his FAA license, citing hundreds of hours that he never actually flew. His autopsy also showed cocaine and alcohol in his blood, and it was his first day flying with the company that Aaliyah’s team had hired to get them back to Florida. Her family later filed a wrongful death lawsuit and settled out of court.
9. John Denver, 1997. Although he was an experienced pilot with more than 2,700 hours, Denver was flying an unfamiliar plane – the experimental Long-EZ aircraft – and crashed it off the coast of California. The official investigation thought that he probably accidentally pushed the right rudder pedal when he was trying to turn to reach the fuel handle, causing the plane to suddenly plunge downward.

10. Jim Croce, 1973. After finishing up a concert in Natchitoches, Louisiana, Croce was flying to Sherman, Texas for his next gig. It was a clear evening and visibility was excellent, but for some reason the pilot didn’t get the plane high enough in the air to clear a pecan tree at the end of the runway. Reports speculate that the pilot, who had a history of heart problems, may have had a heart attack. Everyone on board died, including Croce’s good friend and musical partner Maury Muehleisen.

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Comments (29)

  1. interesting…but why no comments on the Pittsburgh article, I want to share some ‘burgh lovin’!!!

    posted by erin on 2-3-2009 at 4:16 pm

  2. A great Canadian singer. Stan Rogers died of smoke inhalation on June 2, 1983, while travelling on Air Canada Flight 797. An in-flight fire forced the flight to make an emergency landing at the Greater Cincinnati Airport

    posted by magicBoy on 2-3-2009 at 4:18 pm

  3. Intersting, thanks for the summary. Never heard some of the details before. No mention of how the fire started on Ricky’s plane? I won’t rumour monger, but it didn’t just start itself. Did they check any of the passengers bodies for drugs? I guess it is only mandatory for pilots and flight crew.

    posted by Av8tor on 2-3-2009 at 4:59 pm

  4. What about Buddy Holly?

    posted by Emily on 2-3-2009 at 5:23 pm

  5. Keith Green was a child prodigy in the 1960, signing his first record contract at age 11. After his conversion he became one of the early pioneers of Contemporary Christian Music, or “Jesus Music” as it was called in the 70s. He died in a small overloaded plane that crashed on July 28, 1982. Many of the songs and hymns that he wrote are still popular in churches today. You can see his videos on You Tube and read more about him on Wikipedia.

    posted by Steve on 2-3-2009 at 5:52 pm

  6. Will Rogers had some recordings, but he was much more a humorist and political commentator than a music artist. Surely another musician can be found to round out the list. Av8tor: Yes, cocaine was found in Ricky Nelson’s system after the crash.

    posted by Biff on 2-3-2009 at 5:53 pm

  7. Interesting read, thanks a bunch.

    RE Emily… there is a separate article on mental_floss today about Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper:

    http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/22355

    posted by Sarah in CA on 2-3-2009 at 6:49 pm

  8. Will Rogers was not trying to fly around the world, his pilot, aviation pioneer Wiley Post, was the first person to fly solo around the world. Post was trying to find a good route from the west coast of the US to Russia and Rogers was up in Alaska getting material for his newspaper column. Thirty seconds at wikipedia would have told you this…

    posted by evgen on 2-3-2009 at 7:04 pm

  9. Country singer Jim Reeves died in a plane crash in Nashville. Country singers Hawkshaw Hawkins and Cowboy Copas were killed in the same crash as Patsy Cline.

    posted by KG on 2-3-2009 at 7:31 pm

  10. Glen Miller was supposedly on a plane when he disappeared, but we won’t ever really know what happened there.

    posted by Miss Cellania on 2-3-2009 at 8:10 pm

  11. Interesting — but NOTE –>

    ELKHORN, WI is ONE WORD, not two.
    (Item #7)
    Who did your research?
    see: http://www.elkhorn-wi.org

    All the best

    posted by WizardBoy on 2-3-2009 at 8:26 pm

  12. Where is Buddy Holly?? The “day the music died”??

    posted by ems on 2-3-2009 at 9:54 pm

  13. ems: see comment above from Sarah in CA. There is an earlier article written about Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and The Big Bopper.

    posted by Tricia on 2-3-2009 at 11:18 pm

  14. Thanks for the article. Great stuff. I’d love to see one about non-musicians, and I offer the example of Rocky Marciano. In his later years, he was known to travel on the cheap (read: free) by selling the first-class tickets furnished by hosts of his various public appearances, and hitching with freight haulers grateful for the reflected splendor. His last flight experienced some mechanical problem, and the pilot attempted to land in an enormous, flat, empty field with one lonely tree in its center. Said tree apparently contained a former-heavyweight-champion magnet, and both occupants were killed instantly.

    posted by El Tigre on 2-3-2009 at 11:18 pm

  15. John Denver

    posted by Dempster on 2-4-2009 at 1:48 am

  16. ummmmm Emily? read the intro……

    posted by Andrew on 2-4-2009 at 8:25 am

  17. @Dempster

    Did you read the article before you posted a comment? He’s #9.

    posted by crocostimpy on 2-4-2009 at 8:36 am

  18. This was a cool article as usual. But honestly, to not include Ricky Valenz (died at 17 hit record “donna”) and Buddy Holly is absolutely horrible. La La Bamba!!!!

    posted by Mike on 2-4-2009 at 10:04 am

  19. One side note on the Skynyrd plane crash. Drummer Artimus Pyle went to a nearby farmhouse for help and was shot in the shoulder by the terrified farmer. Hands down winner for Worst. Day. Ever.

    posted by Patrick on 2-4-2009 at 10:42 am

  20. Word of advice to anyone contemplating leaving a comment: read the intros to the articles, the article IN FULL, AND the entire comment board BEFORE harping on the writer for forgetting something. Odds are, the writer didn’t mess up, you overlooked something. Like, the whole point of the article.

    Good job, Stacy, as always.

    posted by Chelsea on 2-4-2009 at 10:44 am

  21. A name not necessarily as well-known as some of the ones listed above is Keith Chapman, Wanamaker Grand Court Organist at the John Wanamaker department store in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from 1966 until his death in 1989. – see Wikipedia entry for complete details…. I met him when he came to our church for the dedication ceremony of our new organ. He was an avid pilot, and both he and his wife were killed in a plane crash on June 29, 1989, while returning from an organ convention in California. Re-Captcha = silver-chased Lydia

    posted by Mama9cats on 2-4-2009 at 11:19 am

  22. Great comment Patrick. I had forgotten about that until you brought it up. I wonder how many other people in the history of the world (or aviation) have ever been in a plane crash and shot the same day (outside of the military).

    posted by BW on 2-4-2009 at 1:29 pm

  23. Wow, this must have gotten linked somewhere, because there aren’t normally this many off-the-mark comments. Did you make CNN again?

    posted by kate on 2-4-2009 at 5:43 pm

  24. Rick Nelson and several bandmates, the pilot, and Rick’s fiancee.

    posted by Sara on 2-4-2009 at 9:49 pm

  25. In Rick Nelson’s crash, the restored DC3 he had still used the original gasoline fed cabin heater located on the bulkhead at the rear of the cabin. The NTSB report says the fire originated at the heater and tags the most probable cause as a leak at the fuel connection to the heater.

    posted by Wayne on 2-5-2009 at 8:25 am

  26. @Wayne- That didn’t make headline news.

    posted by Sara on 2-5-2009 at 9:25 pm

  27. ok- who was the one a few (umm- more than a few by now I guess) whose plane was drifting along as though there was no one inside- it eventually crashed (over MN?? ND???)

    this was an interesting post!

    posted by ann on 2-6-2009 at 4:46 pm

  28. The truth rarely makes it into the headlines any more. You can find NTSB accident reports on almost any aviation accident at http://www.ntsb.gov/avaition

    posted by Wayne on 2-8-2009 at 1:43 am

  29. What about The Big Bopper,Richie Valens and Buddy Holly…….Just Kiding!

    Seriously, though good article as always.

    posted by Britt on 2-9-2009 at 4:05 am

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