Tragic: Famous People Who Died In A Plane Crash

Airplane crashes are among the most tragic accidents. Here's a sad list of celebrities who died in a plane crash.

Singer Aaliyah Dana Haughton and eight others died in a plane crash in the Bahamas. They were flying back from filming a music video for "Rock the Boat".

On November 24, 2001, Melanie Thornton died in a plane crash at the age of 34. She was on her way from a concert in Leipzig to Zurich, where she was performing as part of a promotional event in Langenthal.

Mike Todd died in a plane crash near Grants, New Mexico. Along with Todd, screenwriter and writer Art Cohn, pilot Bill Verner and co-pilot Tom Barclay also passed. Mike Todd was married to Elizabeth Taylor at the time.

Joe Lara, star of the television series 'The Return of Tarzan', and his wife Gwen Shamblin Lara, founder of the Remnant Fellowship Church, died in a plane crash along with five other people. The Cessna C501 plane crashed into Percy Priest Lake in Tennessee.

Carole Lombard (left) was one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood in the late 1930s. She died along with 21 other passengers in a plane crash while on a war bond promotional tour.

Two-time Oscar winner James Horner († 61) was one of Hollywood's most respected film composers. His score for James Cameron's Titanic is one of the best-selling orchestral film soundtracks of all time. Unfortunately, he died in a crash of his turboprop plane. He was the only fatality in this accident.

Buddy Holly was a major figure in the rock 'n' roll scene in the mid-1950s. He was killed in a plane crash shortly after takeoff near Clear Lake, Iowa. JP Richardson (The Big Bopper) and Ritchie Valens were traveling on the same plane as Buddy Holly. All three musicians and the pilot Roger Peterson perished in the crash. The tragedy was later dubbed "The Day that Music Died."

Ronnie Van Zant, founding member and lead singer of the rock band Lynryd Skynyrd, also tragically died in a plane crash. They had run out of fuel. Other band members Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines, along with assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary and co-pilot William Gray also died in the crash. The rest of the band was seriously injured.

On July 16, 1999, John F. Kennedy Jr. (see photo), his wife Carolyn (see photo) and her sister Lauren Bessette died in an accident. When the plane crashed off Martha's Vineyard Island, 38-year-old John F. Kennedy Jr. was in the cockpit himself. The take-off was late, it was dark and visibility was poor, and Kennedy didn't have his usual flight instructor by his side. Apparently he had lost his bearings over the sea.