On October 20th, 1977, while promoting their latest album, American rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd was en route to the fifth stop of a 45-day tour titled ‘Tour of the Survivors.’ However, that fifth date would never be played, and the tour’s title would become dreadfully prescient.
On that day, as they boarded a rickety 30-year-old Convair 240 in Greenville, South Carolina, the band and their entourage had already agreed to invest in an upgrade – a Learjet – for the next trip. Drummer Artimus Pyle is quoted by Rolling Stone as saying, “We were flying in a plane that looked like it belonged to the [Beverly Hillbillies] Clampett family.”
The flight departed Greenville Downtown Airport for Baton Rouge, Louisiana, shortly after 4pm. By 7pm that evening, two crew members and four of the passengers would be dead, including lead vocalist Ronnie Van Zant and sibling band members Steve and Cassie Gaines.
The tragedy shook the rock and roll world and brought the band’s career to an abrupt halt (until a controversial revival a decade later). So, why did Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane crash, and who was to blame?
The Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash: how it happened
Lynyrd Skynyrd’s management had chartered an aircraft from L & J Company, located in Addison, Texas, to fly them on the tour. The Convair 240, registered N55VM and built in 1947, was a bargain basement executive rental. Rumor has it that Aerosmith recently inspected the very same plane for their Draw The Line tour, only to reject it as not up to standard.
The aircraft arrived in Greenville on October 18, 1977. It was refueled with 400 gallons of 100-octane low-lead fuel, and was readied for departure on the afternoon of October 20, 1977.
The fateful flight took off at 16:02 CT for a roughly three-hour jaunt to Baton Rouge. Onboard were two crewmembers and 24 passengers, including Lynyrd Skynyrd band members Ronnie Van Zant, Steve Gaines, Allen Collins, Leon Wilkeson, Billy Powell and Gary Rossington.
As they approached their destination, the pilots realized there was a problem. The Air Accident Report states that, at 18:42, N55VM advised Houston Center: “We need to get to an airport, the closest airport you’ve got, sir.”
Advising they were out of fuel, the crew received headings to McComb-Pike County Airport (MCB). At 18:45, N55VM advised Houston they were completely out of fuel. Houston requested the aircraft’s altitude, to which the response was, “We’re at four-point-five.”
That was the last recorded communication from N55VM. Around 10 minutes later, another aircraft reported picking up a weak transmission from an emergency locator. The US Coast Guard Station at New Orleans responded, and their helicopter located the crash site at 19:36.
The Convair had crashed in a heavily wooded area near the town of Gillsburg, MS. It had been gliding until it hit the trees, some of which stood 80 meters tall. The impact pitched the plane into a steeper angle and it crashed through the trees, tearing off the outboard section of the wings and the left horizontal stabilizer.
The wreckage path was almost 500 feet long, and the cockpit was crushed against tree trunks. Six people lost their lives in the crash:
- Ronnie Van Zant: lead vocalist and primary lyricist
- Steve Gaines: guitarist and backing vocalist
- Cassie Gaines: backing vocalist
- Dean Kilpatrick: assistant road manager
- Walter McCreary: captain
- William John Gray: first officer
Miraculously, a further 20 people survived the devastating crash, though 19 were seriously injured, many with severe lacerations and fractures. One passenger – drummer Artemis Pyle – walked away with only minor cuts and bruises (although he was subsequently threatened at gunpoint after stumbling into a farmer’s field).
How did Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane run out of fuel?
Following the crash, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) launched an investigation to determine the cause of the accident. The investigation concluded that the aircraft experienced fuel exhaustion, leading to complete engine failure.
The NTSB stated that, according to the fuel receipts, the aircraft should have had more than enough fuel on board for the trip and estimated that there should still have been 207 gallons in the tanks at the time of the crash. The report discussed three scenarios that could explain the depletion of fuel:
- A fuel leak: The Safety Board dismissed this as a viable explanation as the investigators saw no evidence of damaged lines or loose caps.
- A discrepancy in fueling: The aircraft may have received less fuel in Greenville than documented, but this was considered unlikely as fuel meters on trucks cannot be reset.
- A problem with the engines: The NTSB found that the right engine was operating in the ‘auto-rich’ setting, meaning it could have consumed more fuel than expected.
The report states that, in ‘auto-rich’ mode, the Convair’s engines would have burned around 25 gallons an hour more than if set to ‘auto-lean.’ Witnesses on the aircraft reported seeing ‘torching,’ whereby unburnt fuel flames out from the engine, and one claimed to have asked the captain about it, to which they were told it was running rich due to an engine problem.
Of course, it’s impossible to say for how long the engine was running with this setting, but the NTSB says that it would have needed 583 gallons for the whole 2.8-hour flight. That’s significantly more than the 502 gallons they estimated to be onboard after refueling.
Aside from the depleted fuel issue, the NTSB concluded that the crew were negligent in their monitoring of the aircraft. The Board states that “had they properly monitored their fuel supply and noted excessive fuel consumption early in the flight, they could have planned an alternate refueling stop.”
The fuel gauges were subsequently sent for testing at the NTSB labs in Washington D.C., but the instruments were too badly damaged to determine whether they had been functional.
How did 20 people walk away from the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash?
Oddly, there was a silver lining to the fact that the plane had run out of gas. With no fuel to ignite when the wings detached, the devastating fire that normally engulfs a crash site did not happen.
Drummer Pyle claims that he realized something was wrong before the crash and went into the cockpit. There, Captain McCreary reportedly told him to get everyone in the brace position and strapped in. This, it is thought, saved many lives that day.
Although the front of the aircraft was destroyed, the mid-section remained remarkably intact, allowing 20 people to be rescued.
The NTSB praised the efforts of the six medical doctors and 20 corpsmen and emergency medical technicians who diagnosed, treated, and stabilized crash victims during the evacuation.
Overall, the NTSB didn’t feel any need to implement any safety recommendations as a result of the crash, as they determined the fault to lie with a distracted flight crew and a plane that was flown with a known fault. Nevertheless, the board did issue an advisory circular relating to the leasing of planes, recommending due diligence before stepping on board.