1977
Six people die, including three members of the Lynyrd Skynyrd band, when their chartered plane runs out of fuel and crashes in Mississippi. Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, backup singer Cassie Gaines (Steve’s older sister), assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and co-pilot William Gray were killed on impact. Twenty people survived the crash. The fuel gauge in the plane was known to malfunction and the pilots had neglected to manually check the tanks before taking off.