Lead vocalist/founding member Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist and vocalist Steve Gaines, backing vocalist Cassie Gaines (Steve's older sister), assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray all died as a result of the crash while 20 others survived.[5]
Upon realizing that the plane had insufficient fuel, the pilots attempted to navigate to McComb Airport, about 10 miles northeast of the eventual crash site, but soon realized that the plane would not make it. As a last resort, they attempted an emergency landing in an open field about 300 yards from where the plane eventually went down.[7] Despite their efforts, at approximately 6:47pm the plane skimmed about 100 yards along the top of the tree line before smashing into a large tree and splitting into pieces near Gillsburg, Mississippi.
Early in the flight, witnesses recall that vocalist Ronnie Van Zant was lying on the floor with a pillow as he nursed a mild hangover. Several other passengers passed the time by playing cards. At some point the passengers became aware that something was wrong, and drummer Artimus Pyle recalls entering the cabin and being told by a terrified pilot Walter McCreary to go back and strap himself in. With the gravity of the situation clear, the passengers sat in silence, some praying.[8] Guitarist Gary Rossington recalls hearing what sounded like hundreds of baseball bats hitting the plane's fuselage as it began striking trees. The sound got louder and louder until Rossington was knocked unconscious; he awoke some time later on the ground with the plane's door on top of him.[9] Lead singer/founding member Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist/vocalist Steve Gaines, backing vocalist Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and co-pilot William Gray all died in the crash.[2][3][4] Most of the survivors had been seated toward the back of the plane.[7] The survivors, all of whom were seriously injured, were transported to different hospitals for treatment and were not immediately aware of the fatalities. Rossington, for instance, was not informed until days later by his mother in the hospital that Van Zant had been killed.[9]
Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1977
Cassie Gaines had been so fearful of flying in the Convair that she had preferred to travel in the band's cramped equipment truck instead, but Van Zant convinced her to board the plane on October 20.[10] Keyboard player Billy Powell's nose was nearly torn off as he suffered severe facial lacerations and deep lacerations to his right leg. Decades later, Powell gave an account of the flight's final moments on a VH1Behind The Music special. He said Van Zant, who was not wearing a seat belt, was thrown violently from his seat and died immediately when his head impacted a tree as the plane broke apart. Some elements of Powell's version of the events, however, have been disputed by both drummer Artimus Pyle and Van Zant's widow Judy Van Zant Jenness, who posted the autopsy reports on the band's web site in early 1998, while confirming other aspects of Powell's account.[11] Pyle suffered broken ribs but managed to leave the crash site and notify a nearby resident.[6]
Another member of the band's trio of back-up singers (collectively known as the "Honkettes"), JoJo Billingsley, was not on the plane, as she was under a doctor's care in Senatobia, Mississippi, dealing with health problems brought about by drug and alcohol abuse.[12] She planned on re-joining the tour in Little Rock, Arkansas, on October 23.[13] Billingsley said that she had dreamed of the plane crash and begged guitarist and founding member Allen Collins by telephone not to continue using the Convair.[10] The band's ex-guitarist Ed King said later that he "always knew it wasn't gonna end well" for Lynyrd Skynyrd due to their penchant for drinking and brawling, but he could never have envisioned it ending the way it did, and recalls being overcome with sadness upon learning of the crash.[14]
It was later discovered that the very same aircraft had earlier been inspected by members of Aerosmith's flight crew for possible use in their 1977 American tour, but it was rejected because it was felt that neither the plane nor the crew were up to standards. Aerosmith's assistant chief of flight operations, Zunk Buker, told of observing pilots McCreary and Gray sharing a bottle of Jack Daniel's while he and his father inspected the plane.[15] Aerosmith's touring family were quite shaken after receiving word of the crash, as Steven Tyler and Joe Perry had pressured their management into renting that specific plane for use on their tour.[16]
The doomed flight of October 20, 1977 was intended to be the last Lynyrd Skynyrd would make on the Convair CV-240. "We were flying in a plane that looked like it belonged to the Clampett family," said Pyle, and the band had decided that their status as one of the world's top rock acts warranted an upgrade. After arriving in Baton Rouge, the band planned on acquiring a Learjet to replace the 30-year-old plane, which all in the band's circle agreed was well past its prime.[17]
The National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of this accident was fuel exhaustion and total loss of power from both engines due to crew inattention to fuel supply. Contributing to the fuel exhaustion were inadequate flight planning and an engine malfunction of undetermined nature in the right engine which resulted in "torching" and higher-than-normal fuel consumption.
Rescuers had to cross a 20-foot-wide, waist-deep creek and dig through an overgrown forest, while digging out rescue vehicles that got stuck in the mud.[18] Locals worked with rescue officials and drove victims to the hospital in the back of pick-up trucks. One local resident recalled, "I found someone on the ground alive. When I walked to the other side of the plane, I tripped on another person."[7]
Another resident commended the actions of all those who helped, and highlighted that, "Some of them were out on that highway directing traffic. Some of them went home and got tractors. My wife was home on a CB radio. I'm relaying messages on CB to her, 10 miles away."[7]
Cause
Powell, among others, spoke of seeing flames shooting out of the plane's right engine during a flight just days before the crash. The subsequent NTSB report listed "an engine malfunction of undetermined nature" in that same engine as a contributing factor in the crash[1] Pyle told Howard Stern years later in an interview that the fuel gauge in the older-model plane was known to malfunction and the pilots had neglected to manually check the tanks before taking off. In his 2003 book Lynyrd Skynyrd: Remembering the Free Birds of Southern Rock, Gene Odom, a bodyguard for Van Zant[19] who was on board the plane and survived the crash, comes to the conclusion that co-pilot Gray was potentially impaired and had been observed using cocaine the previous evening;[20] however, toxicology reports from both pilots' autopsies found no traces of alcohol or other drugs.[1] "Crew inattention to fuel supply" was ultimately determined to be responsible for the crash.[1]
After the accident, the NTSB removed, inspected, and tested the right engine's ignition magneto and found it to be operating normally, concluding, "No mechanical or electrical discrepancies were found during the examination of the right magneto."[1] The inspection also determined that, "All of the fuel cross-feed and fuel dump valves were in the closed position."[1]
The accident report records that the aircraft was both owned and operated by L & J Company,[1] but the lease to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s production company specified that Lynyrd Skynyrd was the operator[1] and therefore was responsible for regulatory compliance (including managing the flight crew).[1] The flight crew were employed by a third party,[1] and the lease period was three weeks.[1] The report records the FAA as taking legal action against L&J in relation to the operator responsibility,[1] and the analysis section concludes by asking, “How does the system in such a case protect a lessee who is uninformed either by design, by inadvertence, or by his own carelessness?”.[1]
Legacy
The band's record label MCA replaced the album cover of the Street Survivors album as it showed the band surrounded by flames.[21] The site of the crash has become a memorial for fans, rescuers and survivors with an oak tree that has been carved with Lynyrd Skynyrd iconography, while the site was also the location of a 40th anniversary memorial by survivors and rescuers.[7]
In 2017, surviving members of the band and family of those who died in the crash filed a lawsuit to block production and distribution of a film entitled Street Survivors: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash. The dispute stemmed from a "blood oath" by survivors, reportedly taken after the crash, to never use the name Lynyrd Skynyrd again in an effort not to capitalize on the tragedy that had befallen them.[22] The film premiered at the Hollywood Reel Independent Film Festival on February 18, 2020.[23]
Lynyrd Skynyrd is an American rock band formed in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1964. The group was originally named My Backyard and comprised Ronnie Van Zant, Gary Rossington (guitar), Allen Collins (guitar), Larry Junstrom and Bob Burns (drums). The band spent five years touring small venues under various names and with several lineup changes before deciding on "Lynyrd Skynyrd" in 1969. The band released their first album in 1973, having settled on a lineup that included bassist Leon Wilkeson, keyboardist Billy Powell and guitarist Ed King. Burns left and was replaced by Artimus Pyle in 1974. King left in 1975 and was replaced by Steve Gaines in 1976. At the height of their fame in the 1970s, the band popularized the Southern rock genre with songs such as "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Free Bird". After releasing five studio albums and one live album, the band's career was abruptly halted by tragedy on October 20, 1977, when their chartered airplane crashed, killing Van Zant, Gaines, and backup singer Cassie Gaines, and seriously injuring the rest of the band.
Ronald Wayne Van Zant was an American musician known as the lead vocalist, primary lyricist, and founding member of the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. He was the older brother of two other rock vocalists: current Lynyrd Skynyrd lead vocalist Johnny Van Zant and Donnie Van Zant, the founder and vocalist of 38 Special. He was the father of Tammy Van Zant and Melody Van Zant.
Steven Earl "Steve" Gaines was an American musician. He is best known as a guitarist, vocalist and songwriter with rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd from 1976 until his death in the October 1977 airplane crash that claimed other band members and crew. He was the younger brother of Cassie Gaines, a backup vocalist with the band.
Larkin Allen Collins Jr. was one of the founding members and guitarists of Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, and co-wrote many of the band's songs with late frontman Ronnie Van Zant. He was born in Jacksonville, Florida.
Cassie LaRue Gaines was an American singer, best known for her work with Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd.
Billy Powell was an American musician and a longtime keyboardist of Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd from 1972 until his death in 2009.
Street Survivors is the fifth studio album by the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, released on October 17, 1977. The LP is the last Skynyrd album recorded by original members Ronnie Van Zant and Allen Collins, and is the sole Skynyrd studio recording by guitarist Steve Gaines. Three days after the album's release, the band's chartered airplane crashed en route to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, killing the pilot, co-pilot, the group's assistant road-manager and three band members, and severely injuring most who survived the crash.
Gillsburg, also spelled as Gillsburgh, is an unincorporated community in Amite County, Mississippi, United States. The community is part of the McComb, Mississippi Micropolitan Statistical Area.
"That Smell" is a song by the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. Written by Ronnie Van Zant and guitarist Allen Collins, it was released in 1977 on the album Street Survivors. At the time the song was written, the band had been drinking and doing many different drugs. Van Zant had said that he started drinking heavily to relieve the pressure of performing in front of large audiences.
Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991 is the sixth studio album by American Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. It was the band's first new studio album since 1977's Street Survivors and the first following a 1977 plane crash that claimed the lives of three members of the band.
The Rossington Collins Band was an American southern rock band founded in 1979 by guitarists Gary Rossington and Allen Collins following the 1977 plane crash which killed three members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, of which both had been members. The band included two other surviving members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Billy Powell and Leon Wilkeson. The band wished to develop their own sound rather than being regarded as a reformed Lynyrd Skynyrd, and toward that objective they hired a female lead vocalist, Dale Krantz, who later married Rossington. The Jacksonville-based band released two albums before disbanding in 1982. Their biggest hit, "Don't Misunderstand Me," charted in late 1980.
In an internal combustion engine, fuel starvation is defined as the failure of the fuel system to supply sufficient fuel to allow the engine to run properly, for example due to blockage, vapor lock, contamination by water, malfunction of the fuel pump or incorrect operation, leading to loss of power or engine stoppage.
Thomas Delmer "Artimus" Pyle is an American musician who played drums with Lynyrd Skynyrd from 1974 to 1977 and from 1987 to 1991. He and his Lynyrd Skynyrd bandmates were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.
Southern by the Grace of God is a live album by southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd, recorded during the Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Tour in 1987. These live concerts were a 10-year anniversary tribute by Lynyrd Skynyrd to the members of the band who had died in a 1977 plane crash. The plane crash killed frontman Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, backing vocalist Cassie Gaines and road manager Dean Kilpatrick.
Old Time Greats is a 2-disc compilation album by American rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd. Released in 1997, this compilation documents the original 1970s run of the band before the 1977 Convair 240 crash that killed Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray.
Deborah Jo Billingsley was an American singer, soloist, songwriter and recording artist. She was best known for her work with The Honkettes, backing vocalists for the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd.
The Lynyrd Skynyrd Tribute Tour was a tour that was undertaken to pay tribute to the original band members who died in a plane crash in 1977. The tour began in the fall of 1987, in honor of the 10-year anniversary of the plane crash. A number of surviving members reunited for the tour. Original members Gary Rossington, Billy Powell and Leon Wilkeson were joined by Ed King, Artimus Pyle, Randall Hall and Johnny Van Zant.
Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991 Tour was a tour in support of the band's first post-plane crash album Lynyrd Skynyrd 1991. The tour took place in the United States, Canada and Europe.
Street Survivors: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash is a 2020 American musical survival drama film directed by Jared Cohn and written by Cohn and Brian Perera. The film stars Ian Shultis, Taylor Clift, Samuel Kay Forrest, Rich Dally III, Neill Byrnes, Anthony Rocco Bovo and Mark Dippolito.
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