Convair 240 N55VM crash
A Convair CV-240 similar to the accident aircraft
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| Accident summary | |
|---|---|
| Date | October 20, 1977, at 18:52 (CST). |
| Summary | Fuel exhaustion due to pilot error |
| Site | Heavily-wooded swamp, Amite County, five miles northeast of Gillsburg, Mississippi 31°04′19″N 90°35′57″W / 31.07194°N 90.59917°WCoordinates: 31°04′19″N 90°35′57″W / 31.07194°N 90.59917°W |
| Passengers | 24 |
| Crew | 2 |
| Fatalities | 6 |
| Survivors | 20 |
| Aircraft type | Convair CV-240 (first flew in 1948) |
| Operator | L & J Company of Addison, Texas |
| Registration | N55VM |
| Flight origin | Greenville Downtown Airport (South Carolina) |
| Stopover | McComb-Pike County Airport, Pike County, Mississippi (emergency attempt) |
| Destination | Baton Rouge Metropolitan Airport (Louisiana) |
On October 20, 1977, a Convair CV-240 chartered by the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd from L&J Company of Addison, Texas, ran out of fuel and crashed in Gillsburg, Mississippi, near the end of its flight from Greenville, South Carolina, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
Lead vocalist/founding member Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist/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. Twenty others survived.
On October 20, 1977, three days after releasing their album Street Survivors, Lynyrd Skynyrd's chartered Convair CV-240 airplane ran out of fuel near the end of their flight from Greenville, South Carolina, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The band had just performed at the Greenville Memorial Auditorium and were to play at Louisiana State University upon arriving in Baton Rouge.
Upon realizing that the plane had insufficient fuel, the pilots were going to attempt an emergency landing on a small rural airstrip. Despite their efforts, they did not make it and the plane crashed in a wooded area near Gillsburg, Mississippi. Lead singer/founding member Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist/vocalist Steve Gaines, backing vocalist Cassie Gaines, assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and copilot William Gray all died in the crash.
Cassie Gaines had been so fearful of flying in the Convair that she had preferred to travel in the band's cramped equipment truck instead, but Ronnie Van Zant convinced her to board the plane on October 20. Keyboard player Billy Powell's nose was nearly torn off as he suffered severe facial lacerations and deep lacerations to his right leg. Decades later Powell gave a lurid account of the flight's final moments on a VH1 Behind The Music special. He said Van Zant, who wasn't wearing a seat belt, was thrown violently from his seat and died immediately when his head impacted a tree as the plane broke apart. Some elements of Powell's version of the events, however, have been disputed by both drummer Artimus Pyle and Van Zant's widow Judy Van Zant Jenness, who posted the autopsy reports on the band's web site in early 1998 to "set the record straight", while essentially confirming Powell's account. Pyle suffered broken ribs but managed to leave the crash site and notify a nearby resident.
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