Watch Rare Footage of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Final Moments Before the 1977 Plane Crash
via The Ballad of Curtis Loew / Facebook
Footage recently surfaced showing the rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd boarding their charter plane on the night of October 20, 1977 — the flight that ended in tragedy. Three days earlier, the group had released their album Street Survivors and were at the height of their touring schedule.
The clip highlights the band’s three-guitar lineup, including founding members Ronnie Van Zant and Gary Rossington, and new guitarist Steve Gaines. They were pictured happy and excited, unaware that the next morning their lives would change forever.
What Happened That Night
On October 19, 1977, Lynyrd Skynyrd performed in Greenville, South Carolina. The next day they boarded a chartered Convair CV-240 plane bound for Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The aircraft ran out of fuel en route and crashed near Gillsburg, Mississippi.
“At 10,000 ft and no fuel remaining the left propeller also stopped working,” reads the accident summary. The crew attempted an emergency landing but the plane clipped treetops and crashed into swampy woods.
Six people died in the crash — lead vocalist Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist/vocalist Steve Gaines, backing vocalist Cassie Gaines, road manager Dean Kilpatrick, and the two pilots. Twenty others on board survived, though many suffered serious injuries.
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Warnings and Final Words
Some band members had concerns about the aircraft before take-off. Flames had been seen shooting from the plane’s right engine on a previous flight, prompting backup vocalist Cassie Gaines to express fear. She later recalled that she would have preferred traveling by the band’s equipment truck.
Just before boarding the doomed flight, Ronnie Van Zant told Cassie, “If it’s your time to go, it’s your time to go.” His words proved to be tragically prophetic.
Aftermath and Legacy
The official investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board found the cause to be fuel exhaustion and total power loss from both engines, attributed to “crew inattention to fuel supply,” along with an undetermined engine malfunction.
The crash effectively ended Lynyrd Skynyrd’s original lineup. The album released just days earlier, Street Survivors, shot toward platinum status in the wake of the tragedy.
Survivor interviews frequently mention how the crash changed everything. For example, guitarist Gary Rossington later recalled: “We always wondered why, you know.”
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