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The plane carrying Lynyrd Skynyrd crashed near Gillsburg, Mississippi, on October 20, 1977. Six of the 26 people aboard died, including three band members. The National Transportation Safety Board found that the aircraft ran out of fuel and both engines lost power; it cited crew inattention to fuel supply as the probable cause.
Why the “45 years ago today” headline is dated
“45 Years Ago Today” was accurate for the crash’s 45th anniversary on October 20, 2022. The crash happened nearly 49 years before October 8, 2026, so that phrase is historical headline wording, not a current description of the date.
What happened on October 20, 1977
An L & J Company Convair 240, registration N55VM, was flying Lynyrd Skynyrd from Greenville Downtown Airport in South Carolina to Baton Rouge, Louisiana. At about 6:52 p.m. Central Daylight Time, it crashed in a heavily wooded area five miles northeast of Gillsburg, Mississippi, during an attempted emergency landing.
There were 24 passengers and two crewmembers aboard. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reported six deaths and 20 injuries. The aircraft was destroyed by impact; the report recorded no post-impact fire. The NTSB accident report is the primary account of the flight and crash.
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What caused the Lynyrd Skynyrd plane crash?
The NTSB’s probable-cause finding was fuel exhaustion and the resulting loss of power from both engines, which it attributed to the crew’s inattention to the fuel supply. The report states: “The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was fuel exhaustion and total loss of power from both engines due to crew inattention to fuel supply.” The NTSB adopted the report on June 19, 1978.
Contributing factors named by the NTSB
The board separately identified inadequate flight planning and a right-engine malfunction of undetermined nature that caused higher-than-normal fuel consumption as contributing factors. The report does not establish a specific mechanical defect as the sole cause: its probable-cause finding centers on fuel exhaustion and crew inattention, with the engine malfunction and planning cited as contributors.
The crew’s emergency request
Before the crash, the flight told Houston Air Route Traffic Control Center that it was “low on fuel” and requested vectors to McComb, Mississippi. The aircraft came down while attempting an emergency landing. This sequence is consistent with the NTSB’s fuel-exhaustion finding, but the report’s distinction between probable cause and contributing factors matters: the right-engine malfunction was of undetermined nature.
Who died in the crash?
The NTSB’s report records six fatalities in total. The Associated Press identifies Lynyrd Skynyrd lead singer Ronnie Van Zant among the three band members killed and reports that three other people also died. The sources cited here do not establish a complete, verified list of all six people who died, so no further names are included. The Associated Press anniversary account provides that partial identification.
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What the anniversary headline gets right—and leaves out
The original 2022 anniversary wording captures the date, but not the crash’s full human toll: the NTSB counted six deaths among 26 people aboard, while AP identifies three of the dead as band members. The official report also gives a more precise explanation than a simple “mechanical failure” account: fuel exhaustion and total loss of power were the probable cause, while inadequate planning and an undetermined right-engine malfunction contributed.
A local radio-news headline used “45 Years Ago Today” for the October 20, 2022 anniversary. DRGNews’s dated headline is evidence of that historical phrasing, not a source for the crash’s technical findings.
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