On October 20, 1977, after the end of the concert in Greenville, South Carolina, they were to hit the road for another, this time in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The team traveled by Convair CV-240 aircraft. As it turned out, the Aerosmith team resigned from chartering this plane some time ago, which decided that the crew and the plane itself did not meet their requirements. This was to be the last Convair flight for Lynyrd Skynyrd. The team felt it deserved a better means of transportation. Upon reaching Baton Rouge, they were about to abandon the 30-year-old plane, which, in their opinion, was long past its heyday.
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JoJo Billingsley dreamed of disaster. She tried to convince the guitarist to let the band give up the flight
Cassie Gaines, sister of Steve Gaines, who sang backing vocals in the band, was afraid to get on board and preferred to travel in an uncomfortable bus loaded with concert equipment. That day, however, Ronnie Van Zant convinced her to fly. JoJo Billingsley of The Honkettes, Lynyrd Skynyrd’s backup singers, was scheduled to join the band on October 23, having completed treatment for the side effects of an overdose. Just before the team’s flight, she had a dream about the crash, so she tried to convince Allen Collins over the phone to let the team choose another mode of transportation. Ineffective. A total of 24 passengers boarded the Convair CV-240.
A plane from Lynyrd Skynyrd crashed in the woods. Three team members died in the crash
Just before the flight, it turned out that the plane had a faulty engine. Pilots Walter McCreary and William Gray tried to deal with the failure of the right engine magneto on their own.
The pilots switched on the ‘autorich’ procedure of supplying the working engine with more fuel. […] Gray and McClary seemed unaware that the ‘autorich’ would result in increased combustion of the mixture. When trying to use the reserves from other tanks, it turned out that they were empty. So McClary radioed Houston Air Control – the nearest major airport – that the plane was having fuel trouble.
– Marley Brant in the book “Freebird – the story of Lynyrd Skynyrd”. The pilots failed to reach the airport. Running out of fuel, a Convair CV-240 crashed into a forest near Gillsburg. The impact with the ground killed the leader of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines, manager Dean Kilpatrick, as well as pilots Walter McCreary and William John Gray. The other passengers suffered serious injuries.
A series of unfortunate accidents. For years, fans believed that there was a curse hanging over the band
For many years, fans claimed that the band was cursed. Allen Collins, guitarist for Lynyrd Skynyrd, survived the crash. He was at risk of having his arm amputated, but his father did not consent to it. The musician regained his fitness, but not for long. On January 29, 1986, Allen and his girlfriend, Debra Jean Watts, were involved in a car accident. Debra died, the guitarist was paralyzed from the waist down and never played the guitar again. He died four years later. Bob Burns, drummer for Lynyrd Skynyrd, died in a car accident in 2015. On his way home, he drove into a mailbox and then crashed into a tree. On March 5, 2023, the last member of the original line-up of the band died,
Source: Gazeta
Bruce is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment . He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
