On October 20, 1977, three members of Lynyrd Skynyrd, along with three other individuals were killed in a horrific plane crash on the Louisiana-Mississippi border.
Lead singer and founder Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, and his sister, backup singer Cassie Gaines, along with assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and co-pilot William Gray were all killed in the crash.
Gene Odom, Lynyrd Skynyrd's security manager, and one of the survivors of the crash, told Fox News Digital, "The crash took away one of the great American musicians. It took from me a lifelong dear friend and fishing buddy."
Odom was thrown from the plane and found by rescuers later with terrible injuries, including "a massive hole in the head from flying through the fuselage, a broken neck, broken ribs and 45 years of pain," he said.
On this day in 1977, in Greenville, South Carolina, Lynyrd Skynyrd play their last show before the plane crash that kills three of their members. Nazareth is the opening act. pic.twitter.com/Nd8OCVA22B
— Monsters Of Rock® (@MonstersOfRock) October 19, 2022
The small Convair CV-240 passenger plane ran out of fuel at about 10,000 feet and crashed into a wooded area as the band was flying from Greenville, South Carolina, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana.
"The only reason so many survived is that there was no fuel left on the plane. So there was no fire," said Odom.
The band went on hiatus, reforming ten years later with Van Zant's younger brother Johnny tackling vocal duties for the band his big brother founded.
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