It’s Been 25 Years Since Aaliyah’s Death In A Plane Crash

Aaliyah died 25 years ago, but her impact on R&B music and pop culture lives on. The Detroit-raised singer was only 11 when she began performing, taking the stage in Las Vegas alongside her aunt Gladys Knight. By 14, she released her debut album, 1994’s Age Ain’t Nothing But a Number, which received nominations from the American Music Awards, the Billboard Music Awards and the Soul Train Awards.

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Aaliyah’s second album, One in a Million, went double platinum after its release in 1996. Her third and final album, Aaliyah, followed in 2001 and peaked at No. 2 on Billboard’s top 10 list. Sadly, two months after the debut of her self-titled album, the beloved singer’s life was tragically cut short when she died in a plane crash in the Bahamas after filming a music video for “Rock the Boat” on Aug. 25, 2001.

In the decades since Aaliyah’s death, her musical and style influence has endured. She received three posthumous Grammy Award nominations for Aaliyah and earned nods for her acting in the 2002 vampire movie Queen of the Damned. On what would have been the late singer’s 46th birthday on Jan. 16, 2025, Barbie released a doll in Aaliyah’s likeness, dressed in an all-black outfit similar to the one she wore in her music video for “One in a Million.” The Detroit News reported that the doll sold out within 30 minutes of its midnight release. Here’s everything to know about what happened the day Aaliyah died and the legacy she left behind.

Aaliyah died in a plane crash in the Bahamas when the small twin-engine Cessna 402B she was in crashed shortly after takeoff. The chartered plane was carrying Aaliyah and eight others, including the singer’s hairdresser, bodyguard, a record executive and the plane’s pilot, per The New York Times. The plane’s wings “shattered on impact,” and the engine and landing gear were torn off, the outlet reported. Aaliyah and five of the other passengers died instantly; three others died of their injuries the next day. Aaliyah’s official cause of death included “severe burns and a blow to the head,” the pathologist who performed autopsies on the victims testified in court during a coroner’s inquest into the crash in 2003, according to CBS News.

Source: People