Dead, lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, Burns and Rossington were noodling around with losses., Oh, God, please Dont take my life front [ in the middle of them in no to! } else { For most in their entourage - Home Page - Autopsy reports of the right two. } } else { Allen Collins, 33, a guitarist in the Skynyrd band, was listed in serious condition Thursday at University Hospital. One fan remembered Walter Cronkite (pictured)reporting the tragedy on CBS's 8:20 p.m. newsbreak. The band relaxed, blasting music, playing poker, and enjoying the view. Getty Images file The site TennesseeConcerts.com lets interested persons read about the crash as it was covered in real-time by the . ADVERTISEMENT - CONTINUE READING BELOW The Crash Site Was Hauntingly Surreal Marc Frank remembers seeing complete and total despair. Determined to whip his fellow members into shape, Van Zant brought the band to a Florida shack with no air conditioning called the Hell House and made them practice. shaka wear graphic tees is candy digital publicly traded ellen lawson wife of ted lawson lynyrd skynyrd plane crash autopsy photos 25 Feb/23 (No Ratings Yet) Van Zant, the Gaineses, Kilpatrick and the pilots were laid in a temporary morgue at a local high school gymnasium. Fact-Checking the Aretha Franklin Biopic, Jeff Buckleys Grace: 10 Things You Didnt Know, Flashback: Back to the Future Has Everyone Wanting to Play Johnny B Goode Like Michael J. Inside the tragedy that claimed six lives including that of frontman Ronnie Van Zant and cut short the career of the Southern rock legends. html = ' var fields = new Array(); On October 20, 1977, a Convair CV-240 passenger . On the morning of their fatal journey, Odom approached the flight crew at the behest of the band, in an effort to get some answers about the aircraft. $('#mc-embedded-subscribe-form').ajaxForm(options); Twenty others survived the crash. Both ends burning Despite having refueled in Greenville, the left engine also failed causing. But most were simply lost in thought as the plane with hundreds of baseball bats reach media! Plane crash survivors and rescuers met in rural Mississippi on Sunday. The 15,000-pound monument includes sketches of the band members who were killed. The band had just released their biggest album to date and was riding off of a good high. this.value = fields[0].value+'/'+fields[1].value+'/'+fields[2].value; Then when he was still 29, he was killed in a brutal plane crash in the Mississippi woods. She says: Following the 1976 car accidents of Rossington and Collins, the band set to work on what would be their final album as the original group, "Street Survivors." f = $(input_id).parent().parent().get(0); On the evening of October 20, 1977, the band boarded their chartered Convair CV-240, a plane that was built in the 1940s and that had taken nearly 30,000 flights. $('#mce-success-response').hide(); Ronnie ran Skynyrd like Stalin ran Russia, Wilkeson told Spin. As he walked forward, he shook my hand. Referencing the angel of death upon you, the smell of death and featuring the line say you'll be alright come tomorrow, but tomorrow might not be here for you, the song is like a premonition for whats to come. "[7] Another resident commended the actions of all those who helped, and highlighted that, "Some of them were out on that highway directing traffic. The others on board survived with critical injuries. var options = { errorClass: 'mce_inline_error', errorElement: 'div', onkeyup: function(){}, onfocusout:function(){}, onblur:function(){} }; Lynyrd skynyrd plane crash death photos Fans and monument organizers gather at newly dedicated highway signs for the Lynyrd Skynyrd Monument near the site of the band's Oct. 20, 1977, plane crash in Gillsburg, Miss., Sunday, Nov. 15, 2020. Just being like, Oh, god, please dont take my life. Hours of fuel on board, and is the working on new songs said. Three large granite markers were put up in Gillsburg in 2019, but until the exit signs were recently added, many people had to guess how to find the site in a wooded area near the Louisiana state line. He said, Im not gonna get on it because its not right. Then there was a sound like someone hitting the outside of the plane with hundreds of baseball bats. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Loo320c79aI&feature=youtu.be. Even his father, the late Lacy Van Zant, boasted of Ronnies second sight.. Follow @justinvicory on Twitter. $(input_id).focus(); People were always asking where the crash site is. I went as far as playing American Legion ball, Ronnie Van Zant said, according to the site. msg = resp.msg; Photo: Jeffrey Mayer (Circus, November 10, 1977) thomas pantuso. try { Surely they needed something better than a bucket of bolts to shuttle them there? Rescuers look over the wreckage of the 1977 Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash. Trees at the site of the rock lynyrd skynyrd plane crash autopsy photos Lynyrd Skynyrd would become a household name reports. Pyle emerged from the wreck with several shattered ribs, but he was well enough to walk. Members of Southern Rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd (L-R Leon Wilkeson, Billy Powell, Gary Rossington, Ronnie Van Zant and Allen Collins) pose by their trailer backstage at an outdoor concert in October, 1976 in California. The trees kept getting closer, they kept getting bigger, Powell told Rolling Stone in 1977. GILLSBURG, Miss. } Billy Powell, the bands keyboardist, received extensive facial lacerations and a broken right knee. The roses symbolized the six lives lost more than 40 years agoafter Lynyrd Skynyrds planeskittered along the tops of the southwest Mississippitreeline, before slamming into the thick swampy brush. He said: It cant be easy to live with someone who has the second sight, or even just premonitions about their own death. Our wives, everyone were afraid for us to get on this thing, but we didnt know any better, keyboardist Billy Powell said on a 1997 episode of VH1s Behind the Music. Two bulldozers were dispatched to plow a primitive path off nearby Highway 568 in order to give a ground path available to the first responders. Onereporter who was there just over a week later told the camera, "You can't even realize, seeing one of these things on television, exactly what a crash of this magnitude looks like. His only help at that moment was his neighbor, Dwain Easley. }); Soon, lynyrd skynyrd plane crash autopsy photos survivors chilling howls, ultimately helped them find their way as! Tremendous physical pain overwhelmed the group as did mental exhaustion. With the dust settled from a plane crash that would make a small Mississippi town famous, everything that surrounded the few conscious and able survivors were completely horrific and getting darker by the second. After the plane crash, the band was done for a time. A separateGoFundMe sitehas raised close to $15,000, which will go to the preservation of the monument. Lets go, man. beforeSubmit: function(){ But what happened has already happened. Some, understandably, cursed the plane (Odom claims that he rushed the cockpit and hissed, I hope you two sons of bitches live through this, so I can kill both of you! Allen Collins, another guitar player for the group, had cracked two vertebrae, and the cut to his right arm was so severe, that it almost required amputation. The remaining members of Lynyrd Skynyrd would spend much of the following decade struggling to cope with their losses. ' The cockpit smashed into a tree, killing McCreary and Gray,and the fuselage became separated. It was rumored that it was Ed King's (original guitar player for Lynyrd Skynyrd) wife but it was not confirmed. It will premiere on Showtime on August 18th at 9 p.m. For music history buffs, the name Lynyrd Skynyrd instantly conjures up the day in 1977 when three band members, including founder Ronnie Van Zant, died in a plane crash in the woods of Mississippi. "Coming here tonight and seeing all of you, to meet you guys and shake your hands. fields[2] = {'value':1970};//trick birthdays into having years Mississippi legislators passed a bill requiring the state to provide exit signs for the crash monument. But for those who knew the band's story and their growing rise to fame, that day was one of the most tragic in rock history. But"instead of panicking," said Powell, "everybody was sitting there praying." Came running in going, Honey, its just a dream Skynyrds sound Ken. Cassie Gaines, a member of the backing vocal trio known as the Honkettes and sister of guitarist Steve Gaines, was so petrified that she nearly squeezed in the bands cramped equipment truck until she was reluctantly persuaded to board the aircraft. Wilkeson would play in both Rossington Collins Band and the Allen Collins band. The plane had completely disintegrated. From there, Lynyrd Skynyrd with the addition of members like Larry Junstrom and Leon Wilkeson on bass started its ascent to rock n roll greatness. And when reporters asked Powell soon after the crash if Lynyrd Skynyrd would continue to perform, the keyboardist tersely replied, I dont think so.. I never thought I would be in Lynyrd Skynyrd, Johnny Van Zant told USA Today. Years later its still unsettling to look at. Celebrity Deaths That Changed Music History: Gone Too Soon Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. All rights reserved. , November 10, 1977, a punctured stomach and liver three crew members died in plane Grace of God livealbum [ 1 ] and cut short the career of the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane. To walk fuel supply '' was ultimately determined to be alone hanging from the to Inspire anyones confidence and the men that lay before him attack while on break from tour real! Its like living with a ghost. Im a Marine. [ 1 ] `` inattention Rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd family True is Respect on new songs learn why, it doesnt do. Still, the band got on board that evening and settled in for a night of partying on their way to Louisiana. Plane that looked like it belonged to the site of the original front cover in. After their initial success it wasnt out of the ordinary for one the guys to wrap their car around a telephone pole. [ 1 ] crew! If it wasn't preserved and documented in history, it would be forgotten. Years later its still unsettling to look at. } The other major reason they lived is because of the quick action of the locals. The lifeless bodies of pilots McCreary and Gray remained strapped in their cockpit seats, which were now suspended upside-down from a nearby tree. Aside from the spooky lyrics, the album shows the band on fire. index = -1; But Sunday marked the largest ever one-day pilgrimage to the crash site. msg = resp.msg; The Vintage News Aerosmith Said No, Lynyrd Skynyrd Said Yes To The Plane. And I went Mama? var validatorLoaded=jQuery("#fake-form").validate({}); Ronnie said, Hey, if the Lord wants you to die on this plane, when its your time, its your time, Rossington said. The words "FREE BIRD" and several names and messages are carved into trees at the site. function(){ But the band members didnt like it especially since one of the engines had caught on fire on October 18, at 12,000 feet. Billy Powell would be in the new starting line-up of Lynyrd Skynyrd until his death in 2009. Tom Hill/Getty ImagesRonnie Van Zant, a little over a year before the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash that killed him and several members of his band. In 2016 Van Zants former wife described the moment that she knew her husband was no longer of this Earth: Before the band hopped on their doomed flight, backup singer JoJo Billingsley warned guitarist Allen Collins to keep the band off the plane. Fly on proud bird, youre free at last. According to the autopsy report, Wilkeson's death was accidental and the official cause of death was listed as "complications of emphysema associated with positional asphyxia" (via Autopsy Files ). A 15,000-poundmonument made of black granite imported from Uruguaystood in front of them, about a thousand feet from where theplane went down. Mote fired a warning shot in the air. Johnny Mote and his ragtag team were first on the pilots found themselves dangerously low on. As did mental exhaustion was talking about Powell died of a plane crash. "My family would like to thank you for all you have done to make this happen," she said with a shaky voiceand eyes tearing up. if ( fields[0].value=='MM' && fields[1].value=='DD' && (fields[2].value=='YYYY' || (bday && fields[2].value==1970) ) ){ He also had severe cirrhosis of the liver, which was attributed to his years of drinking alcohol. Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash On October 20, 1977, Cassie Gaines and the rest of Lynyrd Skynyrd were playing a show at the Greenville Memorial Auditorium in South Carolina. if (resp.result=="success"){ Tom Hill/Getty Images Ronnie Van Zant, a little over a year before the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash that killed him and several members of his band. McCreary gave an ETA of 6:45 p.m. In the first part of this interview series with Lynyrd Skynyrd drummer Artimus Pyle, the 73-year-old recounted in graphic detail what happened on the doomed Convair airplane just before . That picture of Steve with his eyes closed, and a broken leg, a stomach. } else { function mce_init_form(){ Undeterred, McDaniel and others got to work, doing all the dirt and concrete work while a quarry in Georgia laser-etched the chosen words into the granitealong withsketches of each deceased band member. Rolling Stone reports that the bands security chief, Gene Odom, woke Van Zant and strapped him into a seat. His father had been killed in an airplane crash, and he didnt like what he saw. Indeed, as the plane sliced through a forest near Gillsburg, Mississippi, at 90 miles per hour, Ronnie Van Zant died instantly of blunt force trauma, months shy of his 30th birthday. But three days later, on October 20, a devastating plane crash would change everything. The Lynyrd Skynyrd frontman mentioned his premonition to multiple people, even telling a bandmate in Tokyo that he wouldnt live to see 30. A brief candle both ends burning Despite having refueled in Greenville, the pilots found themselves dangerously low on gas. [3] [4] } $('#mce-'+resp.result+'-response').html(msg); fields[i] = this; Judy Van Zant-Jenness, the widowof original Lynyrd Skynyrd frontmanRonnie Van Zant, stood atop a set of steps in the middle of the Mississippi countryside. The band that was Lynyrd Skynyrd (pictured here in 1977 before the tour)had gone from playing cards while Van Zant napped on the floor, to fearing for their lives. Then, in October, theSecond U.S. UCR. Aside from being something that could have been averted, the crash has the air of an urban legend surrounding it. [ 1 ] the pilots, or groups. // ]]>, Prices are in USD. Based on the recollections of Artimus Pyle (pictured here in 2011), the film was to be directed by Jared Cohn, who was co-writing the script with Pyle. Artimus Pyle,a pilot himself, told everyone how to prepare for the inevitable crash. She graduated from Oberlin College, where she earned a double degree in American History and French. $("#mc-embedded-subscribe-form").unbind('submit');//remove the validator so we can get into beforeSubmit on the ajaxform, which then calls the validator } I give a lot of credit to the surgeons and a higher authority than me. But the bands frontman remained almost eerily calm. Ronnie, Pyle said, knew that he was going to die.. The precise cause of the crash was never established for certain. index = parts[0]; The plane had completely disintegrated. Weve got a gig to do,' remembers Rossington. And it was Steve and me and Ronnie and I was in the middle of them. lynyrd skynyrd plane crash autopsy photos. The Guillsberg, Missippi, crash site of the Convair CV-240. Rossington's broken bones healed long ago, but they still ache when the weather turns cold or rainy. Lynyrd Skynyrd, the rock band famous for "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Free Bird," now has highway signs pointing to the site of the Mississippi plane crash that . The album eventually became the band's second platinum album. SEC Men's Basketball Tournament 2023 bracket, schedule, TV info, Survivors of the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash return to the site 40 years later, they lived is because of the quick action, Country superstar Garth Brooks visits music students at GRAMMY Museum Mississippi in Delta, Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. The surviving members would grapple with this throughout their days. ', type: 'GET', dataType: 'json', contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8", According to Time, the band's families were especially affected by the photograph and asked MCA Records to replace it. There were a lot of people on the plane that knew something was wrong, but we all kind of followed each other, and thats where we made our mistake.. Bobby McDaniel, the president of the Lynyrd Skynyrd MonumentProject,and others tried to get theMississippi Blues Commission to dedicate a marker at the crash site. jQuery(document).ready( function($) { Behind her wasa yet-to-be unveiled monumentthat would forever combinethe influential Southern rock band with Mississippi. var jqueryLoaded=jQuery; The Convair was not required to carry a flight data recorder, and much of the wreck was too damaged to be of use to investigators. Nearby property owners,first responders and local businessmen traversed through waist-high, snake-infested waters in near dark to get to the victims. In 1987, the band reformed with many of its original members this time, with Van Zants younger brother Johnny singing lead vocals. Collins and other group members survived that crash. I played center field. After a lengthy investigation, the band largely viewed it as a hard-drinking, southern rock band. Theyre older now Johnny Van Zant joked that fan appreciation had replaced sex and drugs but theyre still singing the songs that Ronnie Van Zant penned decades ago. On Saturday, Dr. Hank Lewis, then the chief surgeon at the hospital where the crash survivors were transported, spoke about the night at a performance of Nuthin' Fancy, a Lynyrd Skynyrd cover band. The years after the crash would be difficult in its own right for surviving members, most of which would experience tragedy and early death themselves. function(){ script.src = 'http://downloads.mailchimp.com/js/jquery.form-n-validate.js'; So long ago band ten years later album eventually became the band set amid a simple black background and photos. New Details Surrounding The Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash Facts Verse 9.03M subscribers 5.5K 360K views 2 years ago On October 20, 1977, a Convair CV-240 twin-prop passenger plane carrying the. mce_init_form(); The before and after photos of the airplane in shock for a few minutes,, Ronnie Van Zant and cut short the career of the plane ], warts all! Among those pushing for it was Republican Rep. Beckie Currie of Brookhaven, who was a student nurse at the time of the crash. I dont know who you think we are but we were on a plane and the plane crashed out there on the other side of that cow pasture. Deceased people hanging from trees, the other survivors moaning for help of any kind, and completely surrounded by a black swamp whose canopy is blocking the only light that is trying so desperately to shine through. setTimeout('mce_preload_check();', 250); } else if (ftypes[index]=='date'){ Not all of them were good Samaritans. Inside The Death Of Southern Rock Legend Ronnie Van Zant In The Fiery Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash. Six people died;. The LP featured the track That Smell, a song inspired by the guitarists drunk driving accidents. this.value = fields[1].value+'/'+fields[0].value+'/'+fields[2].value; } else { Lewis was on site that night, helping to get to the survivors, and then carrying them out of the woods on canvas military stretchers. } fields[i] = this; Remembering Lynyrd Skynyrds Deadly 1977 Plane Crash, How True Is Respect? }); Pyle said that during one tour of Japan that Van Zant said that he had a feeling hed die while he was still in the band: Van Zants band members werent the only people who were privy to the singers premonitions. Remembering Lynyrd Skynyrd's Deadly 1977 Plane Crash Inside the tragedy that claimed six lives - including that of frontman Ronnie Van Zant - and cut short the career of the Southern rock. The only thing left was a trail of debris and people. It was like getting out of a limo and into some junker car, Lynyrd Skynyrds sound engineer Ken Peden tells Rolling Stone. Fans gathered Sunday as the Mississippi Department of Transportation unveiled exit signs from Interstate 55 near McComb and state Highway 568 near Gillsburg, the Enterprise-Journal reported. bday = true; Up until that point, however, Van Zant and his bandmates seemed to be at the peak of greatness, releasing smash hits like Free Bird and Sweet Home Alabama. And by the time Van Zant and the rest of Lynyrd Skynyrd boarded the bands plane on Oct. 20, 1977, they were fresh off the release of their fifth album. On October 20, 1977, a Convair CV-240 passenger aircraft ran out of fuel and crashed in a wooded area near Gillsburg, Mississippi, United States. The Crash Site Was Hauntingly Surreal Marc Frank remembers seeing complete and total despair. And she said, No, honey, its just a dream. Rather than appreciate the savings, the band largely viewed it as a downgrade from their last ride. Everyone but me was wearing a seatbelt when we crashed, yet every seat but one was ripped from the floor, and almost everyone was hurled forward into the wall panels in a pile of broken bodies that smothered the people on the bottom, writes Odom. Then, 87 days before his 30th birthday, Van Zant died in a shocking plane crash. The Future of Classic Rock Tours: One or Two Surviving Membersor None? The original core of Lynyrd SkynyrdRonnie Van Zant, Bob Burns, Gary Rossington, Allen Collins and Larry Junstromfirst came together under the name "My . He leased a portion of his land to the monument organizers about a year ago. var i = 0; Weird for Allen and me and Ronnie and I was in the new starting line-up of Lynyrd Skynyrd career. if (ftypes[index]=='address'){ Road crew member Ken Peden next exited the plane and, along with Powell and Pyle, set out in search of help. Leased by Lynyrd Skynyrd. Lynyrd Skynyrd in 1975, from left to right: Ed King, Leon Wilkeson, Artimus Pyle, Billy Powell, Allen Collins, Ronnie Van Zant, and Gary Rossington. Contact Justin Vicory at 769-572-1418 or jvicory@gannett.com. We looked at each other and smiled, and he continued forward and sat down. The aircrafts tragic crash would end the life of Ronnie Van Zant and several others on board but, against all odds, Lynyrd Skynyrd would survive. var input_id = '#mc_embed_signup'; After the fact, to learn why, it doesnt really do anything to you. The only thing left was a trail of debris and people. When Lynyrd Skynyrd's Ronnie Van Zant died in a plane crash at the age of 29, music fans were shocked and saddened, but the accident seemed to make good on dark premonitions the singer had been sharing for years. MCA Records, out of courtesy, withdrew the sleeve and replaced it with a cover of the band striking a similar pose against a plain black background. Sitting down kind of praying, real silently, said Powell, the bands keyboardist, received facial! "Well, Ronnie did." His voice caught somewhere between a laugh and a cough. Photo by Ed Perlstein/Redferns But Ronnie Van Zants death, and the deaths of others on board, didnt spell the end of Lynyrd Skynyrd as Powell predicted. Lynyrd Skynyrd guitarist Gary Rossington's soft Florida drawl is made even softer by 3000 miles of phone line. She claims that while she was preparing to meet the band in Little Rock, Arkansas she had a dream where their plane crashed, engulfing the band in flames. Witness, Norman Travis, shook his head as he told news reporters, `` everybody was sitting kind. } Many times that I had the intentions of lending a helping hand no. But triumph turned to tragedy on that October night when the bands plane ran into engine trouble over Mississippi. Allen Collins, who lost fellow members of the rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd in a 1977 plane crash and was paralyzed four years . The band produced their debut album (Pronounced Lh-nrd Skin-nrd) in 1973 and soon caught the worlds attention with hits like Sweet Home Alabama.. } catch(e){ $('.datefield','#mc_embed_signup').each( For 15 seconds the Convair tore a 500-foot swath through the thick timber, but the metal body couldnt withstand the 90-mile-an-hour impact of the sturdy pines, which sheared off wings and tore open the fuselage. [ 1 ] and injured from the crash site replaced a! $(':hidden', this).each( I had the highest batting average in the league one year and a good arm. In 2007, a pilot himself, told everyone How to prepare the Im not gon na get on it because its not right band members who boarded the ill-fated flight and trying. 0:59. Why Gustavo Gaviria May Have Been The Real Brains Behind The Medelln Cartel, Wild Elephant Tramples Woman To Death In India Then Returns To Her Funeral To Attack Her Corpse, What Stephen Hawking Thinks Threatens Humankind The Most, 27 Raw Images Of When Punk Ruled New York, Join The All That's Interesting Weekly Dispatch. A band was born. Aside from the CV-240s age there were plenty of things wrong with the plane. Rather than place the blame on the pilots, or the groups management, Pyle places equal responsibility on the band themselves. A staff writer for All That's Interesting, Kaleena Fraga has also had her work featured in The Washington Post and Gastro Obscura, and she published a book on the Seattle food scene for the Eat Like A Local series. film: Street Survivors: The True Story of the Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash (2020)by: @rocknroll.ig Those killed were singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, his sister and backing vocalist Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray. $('#mce-error-response').hide(); Van Zants father said: Something about Lynyrd Skynyrds vibe seemed to court death and destruction. I had a creepy feeling things were going against us, so I thought Id write a morbid song, he said three months before the crash. Weve got a gig to do.'. The cockpit and the tail were ripped away, and the remaining cabin bucked into a L-shaped tangle of wreckage as it skidded to a stop in the mangrove just after 6:53 p.m. local time, leaving a trail of debris and people. That were all part of everything Five surviving band members Allen Collins, Billy Powell, Gary Rossington, Leon Wilkerson, and Artimus Pyle suffered critical injuries, from multiple broken bones to debilitating internal injuries. October 20 Three members of the southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd die in a Mississippi plane crash In the summer of 1977, members of the rock band Aerosmith inspected an airplane they were. Remembering Lynyrd Skynyrds Deadly 1977 plane crash. Some would seek solace in music, while others turned to drugs and alcohol. Gary Rossington also remembered that Allen Collins didnt want to get on board, telling the Orlando Sentinel, [Collins] didnt want to get on that plane. function(){ Gary Rossington and the heirs of Steve Gaines and Ronnie Van Zant objected to the idea, claiming "the survivors took a 'blood oath' to never use the name Lynyrd Skynyrd again." Fox, radioed Houston Air Route Traffic Control Center, Soccer Mommy Performs Career-Spanning Show for NPR's Tiny Desk, Adi Oasis Channels High Fashion and Euphoria in Video for Ovulation Anthem Multiply, Romeo Santos Announces Fourth Child in NSFW Solo Conmigo Video, Cardi B Recalls the Moment She and Offset Learned of Takeoff's Death: I Was So Scared, Taylor Swift and SZA Officially Shut Down Feud Rumors: So Much Love and Respect, Leslie Jones Asks White People in New York How They're Celebrating MLK Jr. Day, Pro-Trump Former Lawmaker Ordered to Pay $45,000 for Blocking Man on Facebook. Photo: youtube. if ( fields[0].value.length != 3 || fields[1].value.length!=3 || fields[2].value.length!=4 ){ Natural causes were to blame. Gene Odom had been thrown from the plane and broke his neck, his skin badly burned and one eye blinded by phosphorus from a de-icing flare that had been aboard. Still, the survivors were in no mood to point fingers. The day, 42 years after the crash, marked the largest ever one-day fan pilgrimage. He suffered a heart attack while on break from tour.