On
Oct. 20, 1977, the Jacksonville, Florida-based band
Lynyrd Skynyrd left Greenville, South Carolina, after a concert at the Greenville Memorial Auditorium, and boarded a chartered plane en route to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where they were scheduled to perform the next night at Louisiana State University.
They didn't make it.
Near the end of the flight, the twin-engine Convair CV-240 ran out of fuel. After the pilot and co-pilot determined that the plane didn't have enough fuel to land at a nearby airport, they unsuccessfully attempted an emergency landing and crashed a few minutes before 7 p.m. in a wooded area near Gillsburg, Mississippi.
The crash took the lives of lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines and backup singer Cassie Gaines.
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