This was taken 2 days before the band's ill l0fated chartered flight would drop out of the sky above Mississippi. Taking the young lives of Ronnie Van Zant,(lead vocals) Steve Gaines (guitarist) Cassie Gaines (backup vocals ) Dean Kirkpatrick (road manager) and the lives of the pilot and copilot.
Ronnie Van Zant is the first person in the photo nice and Steve Gaines is the third person, in the photo. Ronnie was asleep in the floor of the plane, having taken some sleeping pills before take off. Gene Odem a lifelong freind of the band and thier bodyguard, had woken Ronnie up. In his deep medicated slumber Ronnie began to fight Odem. Yelling for Odem to leave him alone and let him asleep.
Odem then screamed at Ronnie " the plane is going down!" And as Ronnie still tried to resist being pulled up to his feet, Odem shoved him into a seat between 2 other men. I believe they were part of the band's road crew. Then in a bid to save his friend, Odem fastened the seat belt around Ronnie. Then gave Ronnie a big slap across his face screamed at him "the plane is crashing!" to remain in the seat with his seatbelt on and to put his head down between his knees. Ronnie was still swatting and fighting as Odem latched the belt and left to run to the back of the plane to his own seat to buckle in. The last thing he remembered was hearing a voice scream "trees!"
They survivors all stated that the sound of the plane hitting the trees sounded as if 100's of baseball bats were hitting the hull of the plane. The sound was deafening. Most don't remember much after that. The plane's body broke in half, opening like a can as the plane dove into the thick Mississippi forest. The time was around 6:45 in the evening on a chilly fall day. The date was October 20, 1977.
When everyone began to wake up from being knocked out by the force of the impact. The night sky was upon them and it was filled with the screams and cries of the wounded. Some had been dumped out as the plane broke in half and were thrown all over the ground. The plane traveled til it hit nose down and the remaining pasengers were all thrown into the nose of the plane. Stacked and crushed upon each other along with twisted metal from the wreckage.
When Gene Odem woke, he found himself within aa twisted mess of metal and wires. He was pinned into place and could not move. Lying there listening to the cries of his friends he began to look around at his sirroundings. Across from him was the row of seats he had strapped Ronnie into. He knew because the men he sat Ronnie between were there, hanging upside down. Still fastened in thier seats. They both were severely injured but alive.
Odem realized that Ronnie's seat, in the middle of the men, was now empty. As he surveyed the horrible scene he saw it...the seatbelt he had fastened around Ronnie's waist was there, dangling from the seat. It wasn't torn nor broken. It was undone. Odem knew that as soon as he left Ronnie's side, he had undone the belt, and tried to stand up onto his feet. He tried looking for his friend but could not find him among the twisted wreckage stacked up around him.
Keep in mind that a message went out at a few minutes after 7 pm that plane had crashed. Helicoptor's were sent with spotlights to find the crash site. After it was located, the rescuers had to travel into the forest. The ambulances had to travel across field where several became stuck in that field. Trucks went on into the forest from there. Rescuers had to cross a large creek that was waiste deep and the water was strong. Finally using a log to cross over. They had to walk thru swamp like conditions to reach the site.
Two farmers from nearby farms, who had seen the plane go down into the treeline and had heard the rumble of metal and felt the moment that it hit the ground rumble under foot. They immediately went to help and those two men had pulled all the surviving victims out of the wreckage. After EMT's arrived on scene, it took 3 - 3 1/2 hours to get the victims out of the forest and on their way to the hospital. The rescuers had put survivors into the bed of trucks to get them out of the horrible crash site.
It wasn't until Gene Odem was well enough to leave the hospital days later, himself being seriously injured, that he learned that Ronnie, Steve Gaines, his sister Cassie Gaines and Dean Kirkpatrick were all killed that evening in Mississippi.
Odem stated that the guilt of that night has ate at him over the years and still does, almost 50 years later. He learned that Ronnie was there in the wreckage where the seats were. The force of 15 tons pressed onto the plane's body causing the seats
( 3 seated couch) to twist upside down and the table that was in front of the seats was now under the seats. There, laying on that table was Ronnie Van Zant's lifeless body. He was under everyone else that had been thrown to the front of the plane. Ronnie sustained blunt force trauma to the side of his head, from a tree limb. He had one quarter size bruise on his temple. He was not in his seatbelt and had fallen out onto the table being knocked unconscious by a tree limb. As he laid there the rest of the debris and bodies piled up on top of him and asphyxiation was another injury that lead to his death.
Odem is 100% sure that as soon as he left, Ronnie made the mistake of undoing the seatbelt. He knows that his voice was the last voice Ronnie heard before he died and that it gives his soul some comfort. Ronnie is noted before as saying...that he was always comfortable knowing that Odem, who never drank, smoked or did any drugs, was always looking out for the band. Maybe Odem's voice comforted Ronnie in some small way. Odem says that Ronnie was knocked out and never breathed again.
Steve Gaines was thrown out of the plane and survived the initial crash, but before the rescuers could get to him, he bled out from his injuries and died there on the ground of the crash site. His sister Cassie is said to have been thrown out as well. Controversial survivor testimony from Billy Powell claims she bled to death in his arms from deep lacerations. It was stated in her autopsy that, like her brother she did bleed out before help could arrive on scene. Dean Kirkpatrick
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