LOOK: 10 Country Artists Who Died in Plane Crashes (2024)

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Sunday Almanac: March 5 | Sunday Almanac: March 5, 1963. Country Singer Patsy Cline died 61 years ago in a plane crash.

Workers retrieve the wreckage of the airplane that crashed into Lake Monona on Dec. 10, 1967, killing singer Otis Redding, four of his young band mates, an assistant and the pilot. Otis Redding. Wreckage of the Otis Redding plane is loaded onto a barge in December, 1967.

American pop singer Ricky Nelson died during the crash-landing of his band's aircraft on December 31, 1985. The plane, a Douglas DC-3, was brought down mid-flight outside De Kalb, Texas, by a fire that rapidly spread from a suspected faulty in-cabin heater.

Richard Steven Valenzuela (May 13, 1941 – February 3, 1959), better known by his stage name Ritchie Valens, was an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. A rock and roll pioneer and a forefather of the Chicano rock movement, Valens died in a plane crash just eight months after his breakthrough.

On February 3, 1959, American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and "The Big Bopper" J. P. Richardson were all killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa, together with pilot Roger Peterson.

The band's Twitter account confirmed the news of Gentry's death by tweeting: "It is with great sadness that we confirm that Troy Gentry, half of the popular country duo, Montgomery Gentry, was tragically killed in a helicopter crash which took place at approximately 1:00 p.m. today in Medford, New Jersey."

John Denver – October 12, 1997

Singer-songwriter John Denver died in a crash off the coast of California when he was flying an airplane that he recently purchased. He was an experienced pilot but the investigation showed that he made an accident while flying that led to the crash.

Patsy Cline was one of the fastest rising stars in country music when her life was tragically cut short on March 5, 1963. The iconic country singer died in a plane crash while flying back to Nashville from a show in Kansas City, Kansas.

Lynyrd Skynyrd lead vocalist and founding member Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist and vocalist Steve Gaines, backing vocalist Cassie Gaines (Steve's older sister), assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, Captain Walter McCreary and First Officer William John Gray all died as a result of the crash, while twenty others ...

Reba McEntire is reflecting on the loss of her bandmates, 33 years after their tragic deaths. On Saturday, the country star, 68, shared an Instagram post that memorialized her eight late band and crew members who died in a plane crash after her concert in San Diego in March 1991.

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Ritchie Valens (born May 13, 1941, Pacoima, California, U.S.—died February 3, 1959, near Clear Lake, Iowa) was an American singer and songwriter and the first Latino rock and roll star. His short career ended when he died at age 17 in the 1959 plane crash in which Buddy Holly and the Big Bopper also perished.

On Oct. 20, 1977, three members of the rock group Lynyrd Skynyrd, including lead singer Ronnie Van Zant, were killed along with three others in the crash of a chartered plane near McComb, Mississippi. On this date: In 1803, the U.S. Senate ratified the Louisiana Purchase.

William Kapell (September 20, 1922 – October 29, 1953) was an American pianist, esteemed as one of the foremost American pianists. In 1953, at age 31, he was killed in the crash of BCPA Flight 304 while returning from a concert tour in Australia.

On December 31, 1985, Nelson died when the Douglas DC-3 on which he was a passenger crashed into trees, poles, and electrical wires, when it attempted to make an emergency landing while in flight between Guntersville, Alabama, and Dallas, Texas, where he was to perform a New Year's Eve concert.