There is some speculation as to why the second engine had ultimately failed. Members of the band that survived the crash said that Cassie actually . According to a Billboard report, he died of natural causes in his sleep. The albums that followed featured a plain black background. On several occasions, the latter shined through. My younger brother and I banged out "Freebird" on a cheap set of drums in our bedroom. Willing to lend a hand and stick by his bandmates, he was hard to beat when standing by your side. Allen Collins suffered two cracked vertebrae in his neck, and both Collins and Leon Wilkeson nearly had arms amputated as a result of crash injuries. Powells nose had been nearly ripped from his face after crashing head first through a table. Gary Rossington broke both his arms and both his legs in the crash, and took many months to recuperate. I knew I had no business going, and my wife told me so. The band buckled in. Streamline your workflow with our best-in-class digital asset management system. There have been several different theories as to the culprits of this . On hearing of the accident, Billingsley was so shaken that some of her hair fell out. The pilots were still in their seats, but were laying upside down in nearby trees. Rossington recalls saying It was always weird for Allen and me because we were up front in the plane. Billy Powell would be in the new starting line-up of Lynyrd Skynyrd until his death in 2009. Drummer Artimus Pyle crawled out of the plane wreckage with several broken ribs, but was ambulatory, as were road crew members Kenneth Peden Jr. and Mark Frank. Street Survivors became the band's second platinum album, and was the #5 top selling album on the U.S. album chart. Performance & security by Cloudflare. The only thing left was a trail of debris and people. Any debris left on the ground has long been buried. Brenda Martin, 17 at the time, lived with her husband, Johnny Mote (now divorced) in their mobile home on the north side of the crash site. Four of the passengers were killed including bandleader and lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines and assistant tour manager Dean Kilpatrick. But I couldn't stand it any longer. She was planning to join the tour in Little Rock on October 23, three days after the crash. A little after an hour of trudging through a creek and at one point burrowing underneath a barbed wire fence they found themselves staring at a small, dim light in the distance. All reality had been broken and none of the surviving members would ever be the same or view life the same again. Don't look like they can afford a ticket. Ronnie Van Zant, drunk and laying in the middle of the aisle, simply pulled himself together, sat up, and quietly chose a seat up front. "He didn't want to talk about it for years.". I admired his ability to tell gripping stories with his camera, so I began considering a career change. Artimus Pyle emerged with several broken ribs, and bleeding everywhere you could. The choppers belonged to the Coast Guard, National Guard and Forrest County General Hospital, who were doing their best to ferry people in, and illuminate the crash site. Laying on the ground, still alive for only a moment, to slowly bleed to death. Four of the passengers were killed including bandleader and lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines and assistant tour manager Dean Kilpatrick. Artimus Pyle was also notoriously outspoken against the plane and on several occasions would take buses to shows. Marc Frank recalled hearing both engines on the plane then within a matter of minutes, just air passing over the cabin. He claims that Artimus Pyle, drummer for Lynyrd Skynyrd, survived scathe-less and crawled into the bushes watching Ronnie and the others die in this horrid fiery crash. As soon as it seemed that the worst of the flight was passing, the true nightmare was about to set in for Lynyrd Skynyrd and the crew aboard. He had been impaled by a part of the fuselage and it pushed through his body and projected out of his back. With my camera at the ready, the translator and I stood watch on the prow of the brightly colored wooden boat as we plowed the exotic coastline. She performed as a backup singer in popular hits such as One More Time and That Smell. Rossington recalls saying It was always weird for Allen and me because we were up front in the plane. The other two members were JoJo Billingsley and Leslie Hawkins. All of the seats were ripped from the frame of the plane, landing in the front section of the crash. Rescue vehicles on the ground found no direct path in sight. Ronnie had died instantly upon impact, his head slamming into a tree. The tail section broke off, the cockpit broke off and buckled underneath, then both wings broke off. I was a young graphic artist at the time. Street Survivors was released just three days before the crash and would quickly become a hit. The whole scene tore him apart. I'm really not sure anymore," he said. I would like to think that only one grave robber was involved, but so many items were missing that I have to believe otherwise. It was as if they were back in Noahs time and all but a select few were stricken with greed of mankind and the chance to capitalize on an easy opportunity. Collect, curate and comment on your files. On another occasion, while reportedly on a drunken rage, he even slashed the hands of Gary Rossington, his best friend and guitarist, with a broken beer bottle. Mote fired a warning shot in the air. But a message on the group's official Web site said the summer tour will resume on Aug. 7, in Spokane, Wash. Shining from what seemed to be a small house on a dairy farm. In 1977, lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Stevie Gaines and Gaines sister, Cassie Gaines, were killed in a plane crash. He was the New Orleans-based photographer for the Associated Press Jack Thornell, known for his Pulitzer Prize winning photo of civil rights leader James Meredith. There were 24 passengers and two crew members aboard the aircraft. She was hesitant because she had seen a small fire in one of the engines the previous day. It is reported that the pilots whose eyes were full of terror, told them to go back to their seats and prepare for impact. A design that would most likely lead to the infamous crash. An old high school friend, Bobby McDaniel, posted a photo and a comment about a name-carved tree from the crash site. She said her husband grabbed his .243 hunting rifle, ran out and fired a warning shot. ", "There were plenty of old boys standing around here. The band decided that once they had landed in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, they would acquire a Learjet to replace the severely outdated 30-year-old plane. The band has sold an estimated 35 million records. All reality had been broken and none of the surviving members would ever be the same or view life the same again. How do they know? Leon Wilkeson and Billy Powell would both go on to pursue other musical ventures and both have a hand in several Lynyrd Skynyrd re-boots. The fuselage turned sideways, and everybody was hurled forward.. I'd deal with that later. Photo: thetv.info. Soon after the plane would begin to jerk and shake violently. The pilot and co-pilot also died; 20 others aboard lived. Other band members were injured, some very seriously. Here Are Our Sources: Remembering Lynyrd Skynyrds Deadly 1977 Plane Crash, Jordan Runtagh, The Rolling Stones, What Happened To The Surviving Members Of The Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash?, Micheal Cristopher, Ultimate Classic Rock.com, Falling Free Bird: The Truth About The Infamous Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash Is Stranger Than Fiction, Phil Gibbons, Ranker.com, The Joplin Globe Steve and Cassie Gaines to be inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame. A little after the two-hour mark, however, events started to unfold that would soon make history. In a separate interview, revealing the story of sound man Paul Welch who suffered traumatic injuries in this crash and was sent into a coma, shares that the plane that was utilized during this trip was already catching fire around the engine area and Lynyrd Skynyrd had requested to cease using it. Wilkeson cheated death in 1977, surviving a crash of the band's chartered plane. The album cover depicted the band members in an alleyway covered in flames. Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information, K-Pop isnt the only hot ticket in Koreatown how trot is captivating immigrants, Daisy Jones & the Six becomes the first fictional band to hit No. Wilkeson would play in both Rossington Collins Band and the Allen Collins band. The reason behind this? She was requested to join the band as a backing vocalist. In this video you will see the true story behind the tragic passing of Ronnie Van Zant, Cassie Gaines, Dean Kilpatrick, and Steve Gaines on October 20, 1977. With that cue, Governor took the honors and introduced everyone as Gabel's mouth gaped in disbelief. Artimus Pyle once said they were flying in a plane that he believed belonged to the Clampett family (they were the family from the Beverly Hillbillies, a family notorious for using pieced together equipment.). In 1975, his sister, Cassie, whose group had been hired to sing back. "The first thing I saw was a bloody hand reaching out from the debris. Mote fired a warning shot in the air. "I had expertise on what to do and growing up in Amite County, Mississippi didn't hurt. The band buckled in. The band had just released their biggest album to date and was riding off of a good high. She is famous for starring in Saved by the Bell: The New Class, Goode Behavior, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and The Secret Life of the American Teenager. His first impression was, "What is a bunch of hippies doing on an airplane? In an interview in the book Walk This Way, Aerosmith's assistant chief of flight operations Zunk Buker tells of seeing pilots McCreary and Gray trading a bottle of Jack Daniels back and forth while Buker and his father were inspecting the plane. 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. I had not realized before, but he also was there that night. A plane crash left lead singer Ronnie Van Zandt, lead guitarist Steve Gaines and backup singer Cassie Gaines dead. According to Powell, Cassie Gaines' final moments were particularly painful as she bled to death in his arms and that her throat had been cut from ear to ear, which gave more indications of execution than an accident.