"Born in the Bayou"

'Lynyrd Skynyrd', one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed Southern Rock groups of the 1970's, was founded in the mid-1960s when five friends - singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Gary Rossington, guitarist Allen Collins, bassist Leon Wilkeson, and drummer Bob Burns - formed at Robert E. Lee High School in Jacksonville, Florida, initially as the group, 'My Backyard.' By 1969, the band's name had changed to 'Lynard Skynard' to immortalize (and jab at) their school gym teacher and coach Leonard Skinner, who was regarded by the long haired students as a source of teen angst.

In 1972, the band was discovered by producer Al Kooper of “Blood, Sweat, and Tears,” who had attended one of their shows at a club in Atlanta. The band changed the spelling of their name to "Lynyrd Skynyrd", and Kooper signed them to MCA Records, producing their first album, which was self-titled, in 1973, and featured their hit song "Free Bird", which received national airplay, eventually reaching #19 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts.

The band enjoyed rising success, and Lynyrd Skynyrd was set to headline at some of the top venues in the nation, including Madison Square Garden -- fulfilling a lifelong dream of Van Zant's – on their “Street Survivor” tour of 1977, which  started in Miami, Florida, on October 15^th, 1977, and was set to end on February 1^st, 1978, in Honolulu.

The music group stood on the precipice of becoming one of America's favorite touring bands, coupled with the release of their sixth album, named Street Survivors, on October 17th, 1977, & sold a half million records immediately upon release.  Of note, the cover of the album featured a photograph of the band, engulfed in flames.  The album also included an order form for a "Lynyrd Skynyrd Survival Kit".

“I Ain't The One”

As an integral part of the tour, a airplane was required to transport the band, their management, entourage, and roadies, from gig to gig.  The aircraft chosen, a Convair 240, was manufactured in 1948, the third one ever built, and originally delivered to Western Airlines on December 30, 1948 and registered NC8401H. The aircraft had gone through many owners before being purchased by the L&J Company of Addison, Texas, in April 1977, been registered as N55VM, and had accumulated over 29,000 flight hours in October of 1977.  The plane was powered by two counter-rotating Pratt & Whitney R-2800 engines.

Ironically, the same plane had been inspected by members of Aerosmith's flight crew for possible use in the early summer of 1977, but was rejected because it was felt that neither the plane nor the crew were up to standards.

In an interview in the book “Walk This Way”, Aerosmith's assistant chief of flight operations Zunk Buker tells of seeing the pilots, Captain Walter W. McCreary and First Officer William J. Gray, Jr., employees of Falcon Aviation, trading a bottle of “Jack Daniels” back and forth while Buker and his father were inspecting the plane.

In mid-October, during the tour, Kenneth Peden, a sound technician with Lynyrd Skynyrd, said a six-foot flame was shooting from one of the engines on a flight earlier in the week from Miami to Greenville. South Carolina. Peden also stated that several members had decided to take a vote on whether to continue flying on the plane as soon as it reached their Louisiana State University concert in Baton Rouge, that had been scheduled for that Friday night.  Afterwards, Cassie Gaines indicated she wanted to ride with the band's equipment truck, but was talked out of it

Ronnie Van Zant's last words before he boarded that plane were, "If it's your time to go, it's your time to go."

"I Know A Little"

The Convair departed the Greenville Downtown Airport (GMU) a little after 4 PM, Eastern time, on October 20^th, 1977, and bound for Ryan Airport (BTR) in Baton Rogue. Aboard were the two pilots, and 24 passengers, all associated with Lynyrd Skynyrd in one way or another.

The intended route of flight for N55VM was to be, via Instrument Flight Rules, following radio navigation airway V-20 to Electric City, direct Atlanta, direct La Grango, direct Hattiesburg, V-222 to McComb, then V-194 direct to Baton Rouge. The pilot requested an altitude of 12,000 feet and stated that his time enroute would be 2 hours and 43 minutes, and that the aircraft had 5 hours of fuel on board.

But, at around 6:42 PM,  one of the pilots advised the air traffic controllers, based at Houston Center, "Yes sir, we need to get to an airport, the closest airport you've got, sir!"

Houston Center responded by asking the crew if they were in an emergency status. The reply was, "Yes sir, we're low on fuel and we're just about out of it, we want vectors to McComb, post haste please, sir!"

Houston Center gave the flight vectors to McComb and advised it to turn to a heading of 250 degrees. The flight did not confirm that a turn was initiated until a few moments later, but then the pilot of N55VM said, "We are not declaring an emergency, but we do need to get close to McComb as straight and good as we can get, sir!"

A minute later, the crew of N55VM advised Houston Center saying, “55 Victor Mike, we're out of fuel!"

Center replied, "Roger, understand you're out of fuel?"

The flight replied, "I'm sorry, it's just an indication of it." The crew did not explain what that indication was.

Then, Houston Center requested the flight's altitude. The response from the flight crew was, “We're at four point five." That was the last recorded communication between N55VM and Houston Center.  A few minutes later, the sound of an emergency location transmitter was heard by a nearby aircraft, broadcasting from a remote wooded section near Gillsburg, Mississippi.

“That Smell”

Meanwhile, aboard N55VM, Billy Powell would recall his experiences in an interview with Rolling Stone in November of 1977, “We had decided the night before that we would definitely get rid of the plane in Baton Rouge. So we started partying to celebrate the last flight on it. The right engine started sputtering, and I went up to the cockpit. The pilot said they were just transferring oil from one wing to another, everything's okay. Later, the engine went dead. Artimus [Pyle] and I ran to the cockpit. The pilot was in shock. He said, 'Oh my God, strap in.' Ronnie [Van Zant] had been asleep on the floor and Artimus got him up and he was really pissed. We strapped in and a minute later we crashed. The pilot said he was trying for a field, but I didn't see one. The trees kept getting closer, they kept getting bigger. Then there was a sound like someone hitting the outside of the plane with hundreds of baseball bats. I crashed into a table; people were hit by flying objects all over the plane. Ronnie was killed with a single head injury. The top of the plane was ripped open. Artimus crawled out the top and said there was a swamp, maybe alligators. I kicked my way out and felt for my hands -- they were still there. I felt for my nose and it wasn't, it was on the side of my face. There was just silence. Artimus and Ken Peden and I ran to get help Artimus with his ribs sticking out.”

The plane had skipped and skidded across tree tops for about 100 yards, then smashed into a swampy area, twisting the cockpit to the left, throwing several people to the ground when it split open at about the middle of the fuselage, and spilling the plane's contents throughout the mangrove, on timber company acreage adjoining the farm of Johnny  Mote.

Johnny Mote, a 22-year-old dairy farmer  &  factory worker, who lived near the crash site close to the Mississippi-Louisiana border, told reporters that the plane "sounded like a car skidding in gravel" as it clipped the trees. "When it hit the ground it was a deep rumble, like it was underground. It sounded like wrinkling metal" he said.