January 6, 1998: D.K.
Ulrich, a Winston Cup driver, escaped injury when his Cessna Citation
500 jet overshot a runway and crashed into a mobile home park near Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania. He had been attempting to land in heavy fog at the Allegheny
County Airport when he lost control of the jet as it landed on the wet runway.
One mobile home went up in flames, forcing its occupants to flee for their
lives. One of the passengers in the jet experienced broken bones, while the
other escaped uninjured.
January 16, 1996: After mistaking it for
a drug trafficker's plane, Jamaican authorities fired upon the seaplane owned by
singer Jimmy Buffett. Neither Buffett nor U2
singer Bono, a passenger, were hurt in the
incident.
January 21, 1995: Singer
Courtney Love (30) was arrested for swearing at
a flight attendant who had told her not to prop her feet up on the bulkhead
during a Qantas flight from Brisbane to Melbourne in Australia. In February
2003, she was taken off a Virgin Atlantic flight after being abusive to a flight
attendant.
February 3, 1987: Israeli
Ofra Haza survived the crash of a Cessna plane
near the Israeli/Jordanian border.
February 17, 1953: During the Korean War,
baseball great Ted Williams was shot down
over Korea. While his plane crashed, he escaped without injury.
February 29, 2000: German photographer
Leni Riefenstahl (97) broke her thigh when her
light plane had to make a forced landing at El Obeid, Sudan due to technical
problems. Riefenstahl had been known as Adolf Hitler's favorite film maker
because of her documentary films made during the Nazi era.
March 27, 2000: A plane carrying
Donny Osmond and others had to make an
emergency landing at St. George, Utah, after a faulty fire warning signal
flashed during a flight from Salt Lake City to Los Angeles.
April 1, 1994: Model
Christie Brinkley (40), Los Angeles real estate
developer Ricky Taubman (45),
Sandra Will Carradine, and three others
survived the crash of their helicopter as it hit the top of a 12,800-foot peak
south of Telluride, Colorado during a skiing expedition.
April 11, 1956: After appearing in a
concert in Texas, singer Elvis Presley
chartered a plane to get to Nashville, Tennessee to record “I Want You, I Need
You, I Love You.” Engine trouble caused the plane to fall out of the sky almost
touching ground before the pilots were able to restore power and continue the
flight.
April 26, 2002: Jack
Roush (60), owner of several NASCAR Winston Cup teams, was critically
injured when his small plane crashed into a pond near Troy, Alabama.
May 2, 2000: A Learjet with Formula One
driver David Coulthard and his girlfriend
crashed while trying to make an emergency landing at the Lyon, France airport.
Both pilots died but Coulthard and his girlfriend survived with just a few
scratches.
May 15, 2000: Five people, including
Dick Rutan (who was part of a two-person crew
who made the first nonstop flight around the world without refueling in 1986),
were stranded at the North Pole for 12 hours after their Russian-designed An-2
biplane landed and began to sink.
June 1, 2000: While flying a 1978
twin-engine Cessna 414A from Van Nuys, California to Las Vegas, Nevada, actor
Patrick Swayze (47) crashed while attempting to
make an emergency landing on a dirt road in central Arizona. He was not injured
in the crash.
June 19, 1947: During Pan Am's first
westbound round-the-world flight, the #1 engine on its Lockheed Constellation
failed midway between Karachi and Istanbul. Due to a lack of adequate repair
facilities between the two places, the pilot pushed on. Several hours later, the
remaining engines overheated and the #2 engine caught fire causing the plane to
crash. 14 of the 36 aboard were killed in the crash. Star Trek creator
Gene Roddenberry, then a deadheading Pan Am
pilot, was one of the survivors who helped rescue others aboard the plane.
June 28, 1996: Falsetto singer
Tiny Tim was involved in a weird luggage cart
accident at the Philadelphia International Airport. Two people were injured in
the incident.
July 31, 2002: Dan
Rooney (70), Pittsburgh Steelers president, escaped injury when he
had to make an emergency belly landing at Allegheny County Airport in
Pennsylvania. His plane's landing gear didn't deploy as was landing.
August 6, 1980: Country singer
Charley Pride survived a mid-air collision
of his chartered Fairchild F-27 twin-turboprop with a Cessna 172 near
Bridgeport, Texas. The student pilot and flight instructor in the Cessna were
killed, but the F-27 sustained damage to its vertical stabilizer and rudder but
was able to make an emergency landing at Meacham Field in Fort Worth, Texas.
August 14, 1999: The family of Tampa Bay
Buccaneers quarterback Eric Zeier survived
the crash of their private Cessna 172 airplane. On the way from Marietta,
Georgia to Tampa Bay, Florida to see their son play, Eric's parents as well as
his sister and a friend came out with only minor injuries when their plane lost
power and they had to make an emergency landing on County Road 347 near
Chiefland, Florida. But, Rick Zeier (Eric's father) didn't see a power line
crossing the road. As he attempted to land, the plane's rear clipped the line
causing the plane to tumble to the ground and flip over.
August 16, 1972:
Morocco King Hassan II's B727 was shot at, but no one was injured.
August 25, 1994: Country singer
Jimmy Buffett suffered minor injuries when his
seaplane crashed right after take-off from Nantucket, Massachusetts.
August 30, 1989: Guns 'n Roses guitarist
Izzy Stradlin was arrested for creating a
disturbance on an airline flight. He had urinated on the carpet and smoked in
the non-smoking section.
September 7, 1997: Auto racing champion
Emerson Fittipaldi fractured his back but
his son escaped uninjured when the ultralight carrying them crashed into a swamp
near their citrus farm in Araraquara, Brazil.
October 20, 1997: Dozens of
Major League umpires, baseball officials, fans,
and reporters were stranded in Fort Lauderdale when a cracked windshield caused
the cancellation of a World Series flight bound for Cleveland. The windshield
had cracked on the flight in from Cleveland. Several umpires ended up taking a
charter flight with the Florida Marlins.
November 4, 1998: A single-engine Cessna
210 carrying three top rodeo competitors to the Grand National Rodeo, Horse &
Stock Show crashed in a field near Lodi, California, as it was running out of
fuel. The pilot and Scott Johnston, a
nationally ranked saddle bronc rider, were severely burned. Also injured were
three other competitors: Mark Garrett and
Marvin Garrett, both leading bareback riders,
and Thad Bothwell, a nationally ranked
bullrider. The plane had been on a flight from Bozeman, Montana to San Carlos,
California.
November 6, 1992: A year after members of
her band were killed in an airplane accident, country singer
Reba McEntire and others aboard her twin-engine
jet escaped any injury when they crash-landed at the Nashville airport.
November 9, 1986: Nigerian musician
Fela Kuti and 46 members of his entourage were
kicked off a United Airlines flight in Dallas following complaints they were
smoking dope, throwing food, and harassing the flight crew and passengers.
November 9, 1997: A jet plane flying
Hillary Rodham Clinton to Central Asia was
forced to dump fuel and return to Andrews Air Force Base after experiencing
engine problems shortly after takeoff. A frayed wire was apparently the cause of
the engine alert.
December 18, 1946:
Eddie Rickenbacker flew over Broadway scattering the ashes of author
Damon Runyon, known for his stories about New York City.
December 19, 1999: Members of the rock
group Goo Goo Dolls were unhurt when their
plane skidded off a runway in Sicily as they finished a holiday tour of U.S.
military bases in Europe.
Recommended title:
Music's Broken Wings: Fifty Years of Aviation Accidents in the Music Industry
(Dreamflyer Publications).
Miscellaneous Celebrity Air Deaths
