"Let's take this Overboard, now." ~ Aaliyah
"On August 25, 2001, at 6:45 pm (EST), Aaliyah and various members of the record company boarded a twin-engine Cessna 402B (registration N8097W) at the Marsh Harbour Airport in Abaco Islands, The Bahamas, to travel to the Opa-locka Airport in Florida, after they completed filming the music video for the single 'Rock the Boat.' They had a flight scheduled the following day, but with filming finishing early, Aaliyah and her entourage were eager to return to the United States and made the decision to leave immediately. The designated airplane was smaller than the Cessna 404 in which they had originally flown. The whole party and all of the equipment were accommodated on board. As a result, when the aircraft attempted to depart, it was over its maximum takeoff weight by 700 pounds (320 kg) and was carrying one excess passenger, according to its certification. The plane crashed shortly after takeoff, about 200 feet (60 m) from the runway. Aaliyah and the eight others on board, pilot Luis Morales III, hair stylist Eric Forman, Anthony Dodd, security guard Scott Gallin, video producer Douglas Kratz, stylist Christopher Maldonado, and Blackground Records employees Keith Wallace and Gina Smith, were all killed.
"It was an awful sight. Some bodies were so badly disfigured, you couldn't identify them. And two guys were alive — one screaming and screaming for help. He was horribly burned all over." ~ Witness George Thomas
A local official, Silbert Mills, helped rescue the injured. "I pulled one from the aircraft, and he was screaming," Mills said. "He said he was in a lot of pain."
According to findings from an inquest, conducted by the coroner's office in The Bahamas, Aaliyah suffered from 'severe burns and a blow to the head,' in addition to severe shock and a weak heart. The coroner theorized that, even if Aaliyah had survived the crash, her recovery would have been virtually impossible given the severity of her injuries. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report stated that ‘the airplane was seen lifting off the runway, and then nose down, impacting in a marsh on the south side of the departure end of runway 27 and then exploding in flames.'"
It just occurred to me how appropriate it was for Aaliyah to perish in a plane crash and explains why I am afraid of flying {not necessarily of Heights} like Aretha Franklin.
