Accident occurred Saturday, August 25, 2001 in Marsh Harbour, Bahamas
Aircraft: Cessna 402B, registration: N8097W
Injuries: 9 Fatal.
This is preliminary information, subject to change, and may contain errors. The foreign authority was the source of this information.
On August 25, 2001, about 1845 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 402B, N8097W, registered to Skystream Inc. and operated by Blackhawk International Airways Inc, as a 14 CFR Part 135 air taxi flight, crashed shortly after takeoff from runway 27 at Marsh Harbour Airport, Bahamas. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time. A VFR flight plan was filed, but not activated. The airplane was destroyed, the commercial-rated pilot and eight passengers were fatally injured. The flight was originated at the time of the accident and was destined to Opa-Locka, Florida.
The airplane was seen lifting off the runway, and then nose down, impacting in a marsh on the south side of the departure end of runway 27. The baggage from the airplane was removed and weighed. The total weight of the luggage, fuel on board at the time of the accident, plus the weight of the passengers showed that the total gross weight of the airplane was substantially exceeded. Preliminary center of gravity calculations showed that the center of gravity was significantly outside the flight envelope past the aft center of gravity.
Preliminary information indicated that the pilot was not approved to act as pilot-in-command in the accident aircraft under 14 CFR Part 135. The owner of Blackhawk International Airways Inc, Mr. Gilbert Chacon, has only communicated to investigators through his attorney, and has not produced the aircraft or engine logbooks. The complete maintenance history of the airplane is unknown.
The engines and airframe were torn down and examined at Marsh Harbour; no discrepancies were found. The propellers will be shipped to Miami, Florida, for examination at a later date.
The investigation is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Civil Aviation, Nassau, Bahamas. This report is filed for informational purposes only and contains that information released by the Bahamian authorities. For additional information contact:
Director of Civil Aviation, Bahamas
P. O. Box N-975
Nassau, N. P. Bahamas
Phone: (242) 326-0339
Aaliyah Dana Haughton
(January 16, 1979 – August 25, 2001)
(January 16, 1979 – August 25, 2001)
Rest in Peace
Ten years ago, a private Cessna carrying singer Aaliyah to Miami-Dade crashed on takeoff in the Bahamas, killing the rising R&B star and eight others.
Although Aaliyah was only 22 and was on the cusp of breaking into the mainstream music market, she had developed loyal fans who on Thursday — the 10th anniversary of her death — have revived her unusual name on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.
Here are some social media messages in her honor:
“Aaliyah I miss you...Rest in Peace.”
“You will never be forgotten.”
“I’m spending this rainy day listening to Aaliyah.”
And South Florida has a connection to Aaliyah’s death: Her ill-fated private plane was headed to Opa-locka Airport and had been chartered from a Fort Lauderdale company.
A Cessna 402B carrying the singer and her crew was returning to Florida when it crashed. The singer had traveled to Marsh Harbour to shoot a video for the song Rock the Boat off her third album, Aaliyah.
Her parents sued the plane's operator, Blackhawk International Airways Corp., owners Skystream Inc. and Gilbert Chacon and flight broker Atlantic Flight Group. In 2003, they reached a secret settlement in Miami federal court.
It turned out that at the time of the crash, Blackhawk did not have permission from the Bahamas for commercial flights.
Though Bahamian investigators never officially determined what caused the crash, police initially speculated that the plane foundered because it was 700 pounds over the aircraft's specified 6,300-pound limit.
In the days after the crash, it was revealed that Blackhawk has received several citations for safety violations, including a warning for not adequately testing employees for drugs.
And pilot, Luis Morales, of Fort Lauderdale, also had a troubling past. Less than two weeks before the crash, he pleaded no contest to charges of possession of crack cocaine and attempting to sell stolen airplane parts and was on probation.
He began working at Blackhawk two days before the accident, and the company hadn't licensed him to operate the plane used for Aaliyah's fatal flight.
The singer had released her first album at 14 produced by Chicago R&B kingpin R. Kelly, called Age Ain't Nothing but a Number, which sold more than 1 million copies. Reports surfaced that she had married Kelly when she was only 15 and he was 27; Aaliyah denied it, although a marriage certificate was found in a Chicago county clerk's office, Rolling Stone magazine reported.
In 1996, she relased One in a Million, which sold 2 million copies and launched to stardom its producer-songwriter team of Timbaland and Missy Elliott.
Aaliyah began modeling for Tommy Hilfiger. She landed a role in Romeo Must Die (2000).
Aaliyah, released in July 2010, had already gone gold when she flew to Abaco Island in the Bahamas to finish the video for the album's third single.
Also killed that day 10 years ago today: pilot Morales; video-production director Douglas Kratz, 28; bodyguard Scott Gallin, 41; hairstylists Anthony Dodd, 34, and Eric Forman, 29; Blackground Records executive Gina Smith, 30; makeup artist Christopher Maldonado, 32 and Keeth Wallace, 49.
Source: http://www.miamiherald.com
"On August 25, 2001, at 6:45 pm (EST), Aaliyah and various members of her record company boarded a twin engine Cessna 402B (N8097W) at Marsh Harbour, Abaco Islands, The Bahamas, to travel to an airport in Opa-locka, Florida, after they completed filming the music video for "Rock the Boat".The crew had a flight scheduled the following day, but Aaliyah and her entourage were eager to return to the United States due to the filming finishing early, so they demanded that their heavy equipment be loaded on the plane rather than left behind. It resulted in the aircraft being well beyond the standard weight and balance tolerance provided by Cessna.
The plane crashed shortly after takeoff, about 200 feet (60 m) from the runway.Aaliyah, pilot Luis Morales III, hair stylist Eric Forman, Anthony Dodd, security guard Scott Gallin, video producer Douglas Kratz, stylist Christopher Maldonado, and Blackground Records employees Keith Wallace and Gina Smith were killed.According to findings from an inquest conducted by the coroner's office in The Bahamas, Aaliyah suffered from "severe burns and a blow to the head", in addition to severe shock. The coroner theorized that, even if Aaliyah had survived the crash, her recovery would have been virtually impossible given the severity of her injuries.The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) report stated that "the airplane was seen lifting off the runway, and then nose down, impacting in a marsh on the south side of the departure end of runway 27."It also indicated that the pilot was not approved to pilot the plane he was attempting to fly. Morales falsely obtained his Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) license by showing hundreds of hours never flown, and he may also have falsified how many hours he had flown in order to get a job with his employer, Blackhawk International Airways.Additionally, an autopsy performed on Morales revealed traces of cocaine and alcohol in his system.
Further investigations determined the plane was over its total gross weight by 700 pounds and was loaded with one more passenger than it was allowed to carry.John Frank of the Cessna Pilots Association stated that the plane was "definitely overloaded". The NTSB reported that the total gross weight of the plane was "substantially exceeded", which caused the center of gravity to be pushed too far aft. Aaliyah's funeral was held on August 31, 2001, at the Saint Ignatius Loyola Church in New York, which was attended by over 800 mourners. After service, 22 white doves were released to symbolize each year of her life.Aaliyah was buried at the Ferncliff Cemetery.
The day of the crash was Morales' first official day with Blackhawk International Airways, an FAA Part 135 single-pilot operation. In addition, Morales was not registered with the FAA to fly for Blackhawk. As a result of the accident, a wrongful death lawsuit was filed by Aaliyah's parents and was later settled out of court for an undisclosed amount.Barry & Sons, Inc., a corporation formed in 1992 to develop, promote and capitalize Aaliyah and to oversee the production and distribution of her records and music videos, brought an unsuccessful lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court against Instinct Productions LLC, the company that was hired in August 2001 to produce the music video for "Rock the Boat". The case was dismissed due to New York's wrongful death statute only permitting certain people to recover damages for wrongful death.
Source: http://www.listown.com/group/how-did-aaliyah-die-6206
NTSB Identification: MIA01RA225
Nonscheduled 14 CFR
Accident occurred Saturday, August 25, 2001 in Marsh Harbour, Bahamas
Aircraft: Cessna 402B, registration: N8097W
Injuries: 9 Fatal.
On August 25, 2001, about 1845 eastern daylight time, a Cessna 402B, N8097W, registered to Skystream Inc. and operated by Blackhawk International Airways Inc, as a 14 CFR Part 135 air taxi flight, crashed shortly after takeoff from runway 27 at Marsh Harbour Airport, Bahamas. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed at the time. A VFR flight plan was filed, but not activated. The airplane was destroyed, the commercial-rated pilot and eight passengers were fatally injured. The flight was originated at the time of the accident and was destined to Opa-Locka, Florida.
The airplane was seen lifting off the runway, and then nose down, impacting in a marsh on the south side of the departure end of runway 27. The baggage from the airplane was removed and weighed. The total weight of the luggage, fuel on board at the time of the accident, plus the weight of the passengers showed that the total gross weight of the airplane was substantially exceeded. Preliminary center of gravity calculations showed that the center of gravity was significantly outside the flight envelope past the aft center of gravity.
Preliminary information indicated that the pilot was not approved to act as pilot-in-command in the accident aircraft under 14 CFR Part 135. The owner of Blackhawk International Airways Inc, Mr. Gilbert Chacon, has only communicated to investigators through his attorney, and has not produced the aircraft or engine logbooks. The complete maintenance history of the airplane is unknown.
The engines and airframe were torn down and examined at Marsh Harbour; no discrepancies were found. The propellers will be shipped to Miami, Florida, for examination at a later date.
The investigation is under the jurisdiction of the Department of Civil Aviation, Nassau, Bahamas. This report is filed for informational purposes only and contains that information released by the Bahamian authorities.
NASSAU, Bahamas (CNN) -- The small aircraft that crashed last weekend on the island of Abaco, killing singer Aaliyah and eight others, was overloaded by hundreds of pounds, officials said Thursday.
The extra weight -- and the way in which it was distributed -- most likely contributed to the plane's crash shortly after takeoff, said John Frank, executive director of the Cessna Pilots' Association.
According to a report released Thursday by the Bahamian Civil Aviation Department, the plane was loaded to within 805 pounds of its maximum takeoff weight, not counting the weight of the nine people on board -- one of those a 300-pound bodyguard.
"Clearly the airplane was above its certificated gross weight when it took off, by several hundred pounds at least," said Frank.
A private funeral for Aaliyah will be held Friday in New York, as will a public event at a restaurant near Grand Central Terminal. The 22-year-old actress and singer had been in the Bahamas filming a video for her latest album.
Immediately after the crash Saturday at Marsh Harbour airport, airport employees told CNN that baggage handlers and the pilot of the Cessna 402 had complained before takeoff that the aircraft was overloaded with luggage, but the passengers insisted on taking everything with them.
Thursday's report said the authorized takeoff weight of a Cessna 402 is 6,300 pounds. Weight and balance information recorded for the aircraft showed it weighed 4,117 pounds empty. The recovered baggage was weighed at 574 pounds -- not counting one suitcase that sank in the marshy area where the plane crashed -- and the fuel weighed 804 pounds, the report said.
That left 805 pounds available for the eight passengers and pilot -- or just under 90 pounds apiece.
Based on the weight of the luggage and the aircraft's full capacity of nine people, Frank said, "every nook and cranny of that airplane was packed."
He said the placement of the plane's cargo was as important as the weight, because a tail-heavy load can cause a pilot to lose control of an aircraft.
"When you start talking about control, weight doesn't matter so much, although it makes it harder to fly," Frank said. "Control is based on where the weight is placed."
Officials at the medical examiner's office in Nassau weighed the remains of the passengers. The Civil Aviation Department's report said that total has not yet been confirmed.
The report said the on-scene phase of the accident investigation has been completed. It said both of the plane's engines were examined and appear to have been producing power at the time of impact. It said the propellers will be examined in the United States, and the rest of the investigation will be continued in Florida, with the Bahamian team traveling to the FAA office there.
On Wednesday, the Broward County, Florida, sheriff's office told CNN that the pilot of the plane, Luis Morales, had been charged with cocaine possession on July 7. After being stopped for running a stop sign, he gave sheriff's deputies permission to search his car, and the crack cocaine was found, authorities said. He posted bond, and his case was later adjudicated.
Morales had 60 days to voluntarily report this incident to the FAA, which could have suspended or revoked his flight certificate. He was still within that period when he was killed.
FAA spokeswoman Kathleen Bergen told CNN that Morales had no rules violations against him but confirmed he had a criminal record that might have affected his flying record.
The FAA is still attempting to pinpoint the charter company of record for the flight. The FAA's records show that the flight's operator, Blackhawk International Airways, is cleared to fly only as a "single pilot certificate." That is, only one pilot is licensed to fly for Blackhawk, and it was not Morales.
The registered owner of the plane is a Pembroke Pines, Florida, company, SkyStream. FAA officials said they are trying to determine the link between the two companies.
