10/20/2025
Sad Day In The Music World!
On October 20, 1977, the plane carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd ran out of fuel and crashed in a wooded area near Gillsburg, Mississippi.
Three days after releasing their album Street Survivors, Lynyrd Skynyrd performed at the Greenville Memorial Auditorium in Greenville, South Carolina, and boarded an airplane to take them to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where they were to perform at LSU. The plane ran out of fuel near the end of the flight.
Upon realizing that the plane had insufficient fuel, the pilots attempted to navigate to McComb Airport, about ten miles northeast of the eventual crash site in Amite County, Mississippi, 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. Despite their efforts, 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.
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 twenty others survived.
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. 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.
The doomed flight of October 20, 1977, was intended to be the last Lynyrd Skynyrd would make on the Convair. "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.
Photo courtesy of News4Jax
