Top 10 celebrities who died in airplane crashes
10. Aaliyah Dana Haughton (Siger and Actress):The 22-year-old singer and actress, born Aaliyah Haughton, was killed on 6 August, 2001 when the Miami-bound Cessna passenger plane crashed and burst into flames shortly after take-off from Marsh Harbor in the Bahamas. The craft, which was bound for Opa-Locka Airport, just northwest of Miami, apparently suffered engine failure upon liftoff and exploded just 200 ft. beyond the end of runway. According to the Bahamas Department of Civil Aviation - “The pilot in the plane crash that killed Aaliyah had traces of cocaine and alcohol in his body.”
South African cricketer Hansie Cronje, 32, was killed on June 1, 2002 when a light plane in which he was a passenger crashed into a mountain in the far south of the country. Cronje, who was captain of the national team, and regarded as a brilliant cricketer, was forced out of the side after the match-fixing scandal in 2000. Every man commits mistakes. But it requires great guts to confess that mistake to the whole world and it is obvious that Hansie had that guts.
This prominent comedian was killed on August 15, 1935 when a private plane flown by both Wiley Post and Will Rogers, crashed just after take-off. The aircraft, a Lockheed Orion Explorer departed and just 50 feet off the ground began having engine problems. Once he said – When I die, my epitaph or whatever you call those signs on gravestones is going to read: “I joked about every prominent man of my time, but I never met a man I did not like.” I am so proud of that I can hardly wait to die so it can be carved. And when you come to my grave you will find me sitting there, proudly reading it.
Prince George, Duke of Kent was killed on August 25, 1942, in a plane crash during World War II at Eagle’s Rock, near Dunbeath, Caithness. The Sunderland Flying Boat in which he was flying was officially heading to Iceland where the Duke was to meet senior members of the U.S. military. His air crash is still a great royal mystery. Was it an accident? Was it drunken misadventure ? Or was it, as many still suspect, the result of something more sinister?
One of the most powerful figure in Indian Politics and the elder son of India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Sanjay was killed in an air crash on 23 June, 1980 near Safdarjung Airport in New Delhi. He was flying a new aircraft of the Delhi Flying club, and, while performing a loop over his office, lost control and crashed. The only passenger in the plane, Captain Subhas Saxena was also killed in the plane crash.
Colonel Abdul Salam Arif was killed on April 13, 1966 in a mysterious helicopter crash. on the banks of the Shatt-al-Arab river in Southern Iraq. Abdul Salam Arif rose to power in a bloodless military coup in 1963, overthrowing the Baathist regime. His time in power is remembered for his policy of working towards economic union with Nasser’s Egypt. He personally supported the idea of a pan-Arab alliance between Arabian nations, and gathered Iraq’s Arab nationalists under the umbrella of the Arab Socialist Union.
Known the world over as “The Great One,” this all-star outfielder for the Pittsburgh Pirates, was killed on Dec. 31, 1972, en route to deliver assistance to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. His humanitarian legacy survives to this day. Roberto Clemente continues to be an inspiration for sports fans of all ages, and even has an international club that was created in his honor. Several schools are named after him in the U.S., and he is the second baseball player to appear on a U.S. Postage Stamp (Jackie Robinson was the first).
Country roads take me home, to the place I belong. On October 12, 1997, John Denver, popular folk singer and amateur pilot, at the controls of a newly-purchased experimental aircraft, died after crashing into Monterey Bay, in California when he apparently lost control of the aircraft while attempting to manipulate the fuel selector handle. His brain, his teeth, his eyes, for that matter, 75% of his head was missing. Also gone were his right hemipelvis, and right thigh, one lung and his gallbladder.
September 3rd, 2007: Millionaire and adventurer Steve Fossett (63) disappeared after flying a Bellanca Super Decathlon, tail number N240R, from the “Flying M Ranch” near Yerington, Nevada. Despite an intense two week search for the missing aviator, including the unorthodox use of online mapping software by over 50,000 people, no trace of Fossett, or his plane, had been found for over a year, until October of 2008. A hiker found the contents of Fossett’s wallet in California’s Mammoth Lakes region. On October 29, search teams recovered two large human bones that they suspected might belong to Fossett. Tennis shoes with animal bite marks on them were also recovered.
On 16 July 1999, John F. Kennedy, Jr., his wife Carolyn Bessette, and his sister-in-law Lauren Bessette, were killed when the aircraft piloted by John F. Kennedy, Jr. crashed in the Atlantic Ocean near Martha’s Vinyard, Massachusetts. Kennedy was the sole pilot on a night flight that departed from the New York City area and was en route to a family gathering in Massachusetts.
