Reba McEntire and her team suffered an unimaginable loss on March 16, 1991. That was the day that a plane crash claimed the lives of seven members of the star’s band, plus her tour manager. But it was only a small twist of fate — and a case of bronchitis — that kept the country superstar herself from boarding that plane.
Here’s the scenario: On March 15, McEntire played a private show in the San Diego, Calif., area for a group of IBM executives. After the show, the team planned to fly from San Diego to Fort Wayne, Ind., for their next gig. But McEntire was still on the mend from a bout with bronchitis, and she elected to stay back in San Diego for a night with her then-husband, Narvel Blackstock, and stylist, Sandy Spika.
The rest of the crew left in two aircraft from a Southern San Diego airstrip at 1:45AM on March 16, but they never made it to Fort Wayne. The first of the two planes to take off crashed into an Otay Mountain peak just east of the airstrip, killing all 10 people on board. Those were McEntire’s tour manager, crew and band members, plus the pilot and co-pilot operating the plane.
McEntire’s illness might well have saved her life that night. If she had felt well enough to travel, there’s a 50/50 chance she could have been on the plane that crashed. But there’s one more country superstar who had a near-miss experience with the fatal crash, too.
One of the members of McEntire’s team killed in the crash was a backup singer named Paula Kay Evans, who’d gotten a job touring with McEntire’s band. The person she beat out for that position? A young soon-to-be star named Faith Hill.
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.”
The country icon lost her band members and her tour manager in a plane crash that took place after she and her band performed a private show in San Diego on March 16, 1991.
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
