Today marks 19 years since the singer Aaliyah tragically passed away in a plane crash at the age of just 22. Now, chilling new details are emerging about the horror crash, and about Aaliyah’s final moments.

The Mirror reported that the singer and actress had flown to the Bahamas to finish filming the music video for her song “Rock The Boat,” and was heading back to Miami, Florida on the night of Saturday, August 25, 2001.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5AAcgtMjUI

Aaliyah boarded a 10-seat twin-engine Cessna 402B private jet bound for Opa-Locka along with seven members of her team: video director Douglas Kratz, 28, record label executive Gina Smith, 30, bodyguard Scott Gallin, 41, hairstylists Anthony Dodd, 34, and Eric Forman, 29, make-up artist Christopher Maldonado, 32, and her friend Keeth Wallace, 49.

The plane had been late in getting to Abaco Island, and Aaliyah’s group was reportedly anxious to get back to Miami in time for that night. The flight was set to be a quick one, as it was only going to be an hour-long trip across the water. Less than a minute into the flight, however, tragedy struck when the aircraft fell from the sky, plummeting to the ground only 200 feet (60 m) from the runway.

Claude Sawyer is a charter pilot who witnessed the plane go down while he was working on machinery nearby. He described what he saw in Christopher John Farley’s book “Aaliyah: More Than a Woman.”

“I saw the plane go up and then it banked to the left and nosed in,” Sawyer said. “I’ve seen crashes before, but this was probably one of the worst ones. It was pretty devastating. The aircraft was broken into pieces and some of the seats were ejected from the aircraft.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAwELEB_l1I

Dr. Giovander Raju carried out the inquest into Aaliyah’s death, and he concluded that she died of severe burns, a blow to the head and severe shock. He also found that the singer had a weak heart, meaning she never would have survived the shock even if she had been spared in the crash,

“[She] went into such a state of shock, even if she had survived the crash, recovery would have been near impossible,” Raju said.

Aaliyah was one of the six passengers who died at the scene, with the other three dying hours later. After carrying out an investigation into the crash, the America’s National Transportation Safety Board found that the plane had been overloaded at the time of take off.

The entire music world went into mourning for Aaliyah after her death, and she continues to be missed by millions of fans to this day.

This piece originally appeared in UpliftingToday.com and is used by permission.

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