Singer Aaliyah dies in plane crash

Aug 26, 2001 by Ian Evans

Successful R&B singer Aaliyah, whose budding film career included an upcoming role in the sequels to The Matrix, has died along with seven others in a small plane crash. She was 22.

She had been shooting a video in the Bahamas and was returning to the U.S. in a Cessna 402. According to reports on CNN, the pilot had asked the passengers to leave behind some of their luggage because the plane’s load was too heavy, but the passengers refused.

There was one survivor of the crash who was rushed to a Nassau trauma center.

Aaliyah’s 1994 debut CD was Age Ain’t Nothing but a Number. 1996’s One in a Million, went multiplatinum and featured the single “If Your Girl Only Knew.”

Her film career started opposite Jet Li in Romeo Must Die. She had two Grammy nominations for the soundtrack singles “Try Again” (from Romeo Must Die]) and “Are You Somebody” from Dr. Dolittle. She also earned an Oscar® nomination for “Journey to the Past” from Anastasia.