Rock tragedy: Lynyrd Skynyrd's 1977 plane crash

The legendary Southern band has a memorial in Mississippi

The Day the Music Died is associated with the 1959 plane crash that took the lives of three rock stars and a pilot Clear Lake, Iowa.

But it’s a sad song that has repeated choruses since that day.

My travels recently took me to the site of a October 20, 1977, plane crash that killed six people and injured 20 more in a rural part of southern Mississippi, just west of Interstate 55.

A monument to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 1977 plane crash stands in a forested, rural area in southern Mississippi. (Photo by John Naughton.)

The plane crash shares that unfortunate history of many rock and roll disasters. A tour that was poorly planned and rushed. A flight that shouldn’t have taken place — this one aboard a plane that was dangerous when it came to a lack of proper maintenance.

Unlike the Clear Lake crash that claimed the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, the Big Bopper and pilot Roger Peterson, as I’ve written about, the Mississippi crash was a much bigger plane with much bigger problems. Published reports have suggested the pilots consumed alcohol before the scheduled flight from Greenville, S.C., to Baton Rouge, La., and the plane didn’t have enough fuel to reach its destination.

The plane attempted an emergency landing. It’s amazing to me that 20 people survived. The band did, too, reforming a decade later after losing two members and a backup singer in the crash. (The rest of the band was severely injured.)

The names of the passengers and crew of the ill-fated plane flight are engraved on a memorial stone. (Photo by John Naughton.)

Ronnie Van Zant, the charismatic lead singer, was among those killed. So was singer-guitarist Steve Gaines. His sister, Cassie, was a backup singer who died in the crash.