Hey YouTube, Jim here!
Welcome to Top10Archive!
I’ve done a lot of flying in my time, and most of those flights I've spent wondering
what it would be like if the plane were to crash.
Among those dark thoughts, I've also pondered over all of the famous people who met their
demise in that fashion.
Which is exactly why we're bringing you today, the top 10 most famous people killed in plane
crashes.
Before we get started, we wanted to wish everyone on our list to rest in peace - and also let
us know in the comment section below of the people we left off our list.
If you wound up enjoying this video, help us out by giving us a thumbs up and subscribe
to the channel and click the bell to be notified of future videos!
10.
Reba McIntyre’s Band Reba McEntire can be found on a very red google
search in all smiles.
She’s perky, all-American, and certainly iconic.
When you think of Reba McEntire, you certainly don’t think about the 90’s plane crash
that cost the lives of her band, eight musicians.
Eight members of Reba McEntire’s band died after their plane crashed into a mountain.
The crash occurred shortly after the flight took off in San Diego.
Basically, they got caught up between classifications of airspace they could and couldn’t take
up.
However, the minimum safe altitude in the area was higher than what they were flying
at.
Ten people died total, the entire band, and the two pilots.
McEntire, her husband, and manager were supposed to leave the next day on a separate flight.
9.
Davey Allison You’d think the most dangerous thing for
a NASCAR driver would be dying during a nasty crash... or Bud Light poisoning.
Davey Allison, though, suffered a very different death.
Davey Allison didn’t precisely die in a plane crash but he did fall to his death on
his brand new helicopter on his way to the Talladega Superspeedway to watch a test drive
for his son’s Busch Series debut.
On the way to the track, he picked up his friend Red Farmer - who survived the crash.
The helicopter crashed after a sudden upward movement during landing.
Allison’s inexperience was to blame, according to the National Transportation Safety Board.
He never regained consciousness, despite doctors’ efforts to save his life with surgery and
other measures.
8.
Roberto Clemente Pittsburgh's Roberto Clemente was a record-breaking
baseball player and philanthropist on his way to Nicaragua to provide help to the nation
after a 1972 earthquake.
The plane, overloaded with supplies by over 4,000 pounds, crashed off the coast of Puerto
Rico shortly after taking off.
He had chartered the aircraft despite its history of problems and was missing a flight
engineer and a co-pilot.
Eerily, his widow mentioned in an interview that he always thought he’d die young.
7.
Lynyrd Skynyrd Also in the 1970’s, we saw the tragic deaths
of three members from the famous band Lynyrd Skynyrd.
These members included Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines and his sister - a backup singer - and
the band’s assistant road manager.
The plane they were on was on its way to a concert at Louisiana State University.
The vocalist was said to have been lying on the ground with a pillow on the plane trying
to sleep off a bad hangover.
When the plane crashed, the band came together to pray and wait for what could happen.
The crash occurred just 300 yards from the airstrip.
It appeared the engine malfunctioned, causing the plane to glide towards the Earth, scraping
tree tops which caused it to burst into flames right before landing.
During the rescue, civilians, authorities, and first responders alike rushed to aid the
plane; of the 26 on board, there were 20 survivors and 6 fatalities.
6.
Otis Redding Pretty much everything about Otis Redding
is smooth except for the story of his death.
Redding and his band were on a streak of back-to-back concerts in several parts of Cleveland, heading
next to a club near the University of Wisconsin.
The plane to the show took off in the middle of stormy weather, under heavy rain, and through
the fog.
Four Miles from Madison, Wisconsin the pilot requested permission to land and crashed soon
after into Lake Monona under still-unknown circumstances.
The only survivor, a bandmate, speaks of how he saw other members of the band scream out
before the impact.
He held onto a seat cushion in the water to survive, and unable to swim, he was incapable
of saving anyone else.
Later, James Brown claimed in his autobiography that he had warned Redding to not fly on the
plane.
5.
Buddy Holly Following the musician trend, in 1959 singer-songwriter
Buddy Holly died in a plane crash in Iowa.
Guitarist Ritchie Valens and Rock And Roll star J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson were
also on board.
It all started when their tour bus started breaking down, which landed them on the decision
to board a charter plane.
And so they did, from Iowa to North Dakota.
They arranged everything with a local company who set them up with 21-year old Roger Peterson,
who, of course, had very little flight experience, especially in bad weather.
This recipe for disaster turned deadly just minutes after takeoff when after just 800
feet of ascension, they crashed into a farm, killing all 4 people on board.
4.
John F Kennedy Jr Oh, The Kennedys.
The family had such bad luck it seemed - you’d think after the first few to die tragically,
you’d just take it easy and retire to a nice calm life on a farm in Nicaragua.
President JFK’s son, a licensed pilot, decided to fly himself, his wife, and his sister in
law over to Martha’s Vineyard from New Jersey for a vacation in July of 1999.
Sadly, the plane was reported missing after an apparent late arrival and was found in
the Atlantic less than a week later, with the bodies of everyone on board.
3.
Rocky Marciano Many thought that Rocky Marciano was an unbeatable,
invincible, Superman, but the day before his 46th birthday, he was defeated by a small
plane on his way to Des Moines Iowa.
As we’ve seen before, the plane fell due to bad conditions and a pilot with shockingly
little experience.
Reportedly, this pilot had no instrument rating and less than 300 hours flying time.
Two miles before landing, the plane hit a tree, and the passengers, including Rocky
and the son of boxer Lew Farrell, fell to their death.
Marciano wasn’t just flying to his luxury property like other people on this list, either,
he was going to give a surprise speech for the birthday of his friend’s son.
2.
John Denver John Denver, the singer well-known for “leaving
on a jet plane,” was also an experienced pilot.
In 1997, at the young age of 53, his experience served him little, when the plane he was flying
crashed into Monterey Bay.
He was the only person onboard and it appears, after investigation, that he was unable to
switch fuel tanks during the flight once he depleted the first.
He had also faced a variety of legal issues regarding his driving at the time, mostly
related to drinking.
In fact, he wasn’t legally allowed to fly when he died after several drunk driving arrests.
His medical certification had also been revoked due to alcohol abuse.
That is just the background, though, as his last flight, he was perfectly sober, just
slightly unfamiliar with his new plane’s valves.
He’d tried to extend the handles before this flight but still couldn’t reach while
strapped in, resulting in his untimely death.
1.
Aaliyah Aaliyah, the 90’s icon on every radio station
- the summer hit-goddess with the winning smile.
How could she not be number one on our list?
In August of 2001, Aaliyah and several other people from her record company boarded a plane
in the Bahamas, returning from a music video shoot.
This is another case of the changing of plans resulting in death.
They were scheduled to leave the following day, but finished their shoot early and rescheduled
to get home sooner.
The substitute plane was smaller than the one they’d arrived on but they all still
fit, so everything seemed fine.
Later investigations proved that everything wasn't fine at all.
It was 700 pounds over take-off weight and was carrying one excess passenger.
To top it off, the pilot was in no condition to fly a plane.
He had traces of cocaine and alcohol in his system and he had faked documents to get his
FAA pilot’s license, and wasn’t even approved to fly that plane.
Aaliyah’s death shook the music industry and fans all over the world, attracting hundreds
to her funeral services.