10/20/2026
A truly sad day in rock and roll history.
49 years ago today, October 20, 1977, a chartered plane carrying Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd crashed in a heavily wooded swamp near Gillsburg, Mississippi, killing six people.
The band was flying from a concert in Greenville, South Carolina, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, when the Convair CV-240 ran out of fuel. Lead singer and songwriter Ronnie Van Zant, 29, guitarist Steve Gaines, 28, and his sister, backup singer Cassie Gaines, 29, were killed, along with assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick and both pilots. The other 20 people on board survived, many with serious injuries.
Just three days earlier, the band had released the album "Street Survivors," whose cover showed the group surrounded by flames. MCA Records quickly replaced it with a new cover out of respect for the victims.
Known for classics like "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Free Bird," Lynyrd Skynyrd reunited in 1987 with Ronnie's younger brother Johnny Van Zant on vocals and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2006.