Reba McEntire marked the 33rd anniversary of a devastating plane crash that killed seven of her band members and her tour manager in a post to social media on Saturday (March 16), writing, “Rest in peace, my friends.”
Two planes were waiting at Brown Field Municipal Airport to transport the musicians to Fort Wayne, Ind., to perform their next scheduled concert. The band and tour manager flew on ahead while McEntire, her then-husband and manager Narvel Blackstock and her stylist, Sandi Spika, opted to stay the night in San Diego.
The second plane proceeded to its destination without incident, but the first plane carrying McEntire’s entourage went down just ten miles east of the airport, shortly after takeoff.
“The tip of the wing of the airplane hit a rock on the side of Otay Mountain, and it killed everyone on the plane,” McEntire recounted in a tearful interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2012.
“When we were notified, Narvel went and met with our pilot, and he told us what had happened. And Narvel came back to the hotel room where I was — it was two or three o’clock in the morning — and he said one of the planes had crashed, and I said, ‘Are they OK?’ He said, ‘I don’t think so.’ I said, ‘But you’re not sure?’ He said, ‘I don’t think so.'”
Fellow country stars including Vince Gill and Dolly Parton offered McEntire the use of their own bands to finish her tour, but she chose not to continue. She dedicated her next album, For My Broken Heart, to the band members she had lost, and the project reached No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, going on to sell four million copies.
“33 years today since Heaven gained some great angels,” McEntire wrote on Twitter on Saturday, adding, “Rest in peace, my friends.”
The country legend listed the names of her departed friends and bandmates in her post, adding a lyric from the title song of the album she dedicated to them: “I guess the world ain’t gonna stop … for my broken heart.”
33 years today since Heaven gained some great angels. Rest in peace, my friends. pic.twitter.com/CQoaCkQXuT
— Reba McEntire (@reba) March 16, 2024
