On October 20, 1977, an overcast evening near Gillsburg, Mississippi, became the backdrop for rock and roll tragedy. Three days after dropping their fifth album, Street Survivors, Lynyrd Skynyrd boarded a nearly 30-year-old Convair CV-240, bound for Louisiana. The band’s decision to fly on this notoriously unreliable aircraft led to one of the darkest days in rock history.
A Fatal Journey
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s band members had their doubts. Cassie Gaines and Allen Collins were particularly apprehensive about boarding the aging plane. Despite their fears, Ronnie Van Zant convinced them saying, “If the Lord wants you to die on this plane, when it’s your time, it’s your time. Let’s go, man. We’ve got a gig to do.”
Moments of Horror
An hour into the flight, the right engine started spitting fire—a clear sign of impending disaster. Pyle recollected, “We knew after the fire shot out of the right engine that we had a problem… But we thought surely our pilots would land at the closest airport.”
Unfortunately, they didn’t.
The pilots attempted an emergency landing but failed as the fuel ran out. The crash was inevitable and survivors described the impact as akin to “a thousand people with baseball bats repeatedly beating on the side of the fuselage.”
Twenty survived but many were severely injured. Band members Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Cassie Gaines—along with the pilots and assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick—did not make it.
NTSB Findings and Tributes
The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that “fuel exhaustion” due to “crew inattention to fuel supply” caused the crash. This oversight resulted in a tragedy that shook the rock world.
Years later, memories lingered painfully among survivors. Drummer Artimus Pyle told NPR in 2018 that they could all still feel Ronnie’s presence when he said, “sometimes we might be talking on the bus and somebody mentions Ronnie…we’d just hug each other because that’s as close to saying ‘I love you, man’ as we could get.”
The Aftermath and Legacy
A decade post-crash, Johnny Van Zant revived Lynyrd Skynyrd honoring his brother’s legacy. Though they continued to produce music and tour successfully, October 20th remains etched as a day of sorrow.
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