Before Reba McEntire made name in
movies and television, she had shaken up country music. Coming out of a celebrated ranching and rodeo
family from near Chockie, Oklahoma, Reba got her start in music singing with
her siblings. In 1974 she dropped out of
Southeastern Oklahoma State to pursue a solo career in Nashville after country
singer Red Steagall heard her sing the national anthem at a rodeo. Over the next fifteen years she charged the
gates of Nashville, stepping out of the bouffant and beehives of old Nashville
while not fully aligning with the outlaw country sound of Waylon and
Willie. By 1990 her effort to fuse
R&B and rock into country was criticized by traditionalists, but also
pointed the way for the next generation of country stars.
On
March 15 1991, Reba McEntire and her band were in San Diego to play a private
concert for a group of IBM executives at the San Diego Sheraton Harbor Island
Hotel. After the concert the group would
briefly part ways before a planned meet-up in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Reba and her husband, Narvel Blackstock, were
to stay in San Diego for the night and then fly to Indiana the next day. Reba had been suffering bronchitis and
Blackstock had insisted that she rest and recover. The rest of the band and crew will fly on to
Fort Wayne after the show in two craft, departing from San Diego’s Brown
Field.
On
the first flight, leaving at about 1:41 AM, were road manager Jim Hammon and
band members Kirk Cappello, Paula Kaye Evans, Michael Thomas, Terry Jackson,
Anthony Saputo, Chris Austin, and Joey Cigainero. At the controls of the Hawker Siddeley
DH.125-1A/522 were pilots Donald Holms
and Chris Hollinger. Two minutes later the craft struck Otay Mountain,
killing all onboard. A review of the flight history reveals a breakdown in
communication.
Communication between the pilot and the airport indicated that Holms
did not have an instrument departure procedure from Brown Field. Holms filed an IR flight plan, indicating
that he would “depart VFR toward the northeast” and then obtain an IFR clearance
after departure. The pilot also specifically expressed concerns about staying
below 3,000’. At this point one
communication breakdown becomes clear – the pilot was evidently inquiring about
problems staying below 3,000’ above sea level, while the FSS Specialist though
the pilot meant 3,000’ above ground-level. This distinction proved fatal.
A delay in the arrival of the band at the airport further complicated
things. The instrument plan filed at
midnight by Holms expired at 1:30AM. The
flight departed before the new instrument flight plan was entered -- indeed, the new plan was being entered
into the computer just as the Hawker Siddeley slammed into the mountain at a
height of 3,300’ and going in excess of 200 mph – 400 feet shy of the peak and
sufficiently fast that no one on board probably knew what happened. Soon after
the accident, comment from the FAA’s Richard Childress summed up the mystery at
the time “The radar
showed the plane was holding altitude and air speed . . . It just disappeared .
. . It's possible [the pilot] didn't see
the mountain."
The NTSB’s probable cause
evaluation lays the blame for the accident at the feet of the pilot, with the
flight specialist contributing to the cause, stating that
Improper
Planning/Decision By The Pilot, The Pilot's Failure To Maintain Proper Altitude
And Clearance Over Mountainous Terrain, And The Copilot's Failure To Adequately
Monitor The Progress Of The Flight. Factors Related To The Accident Were:
Insufficient Terrain Information Provided By The Flight Service Specialist
During The Preflight Briefing After The Pilot Inquired About A Low Altitude
Departure, Darkness, Mountainous Terrain, Both Pilot's Lack Of Familiarity With
The Geographical Area, And The Copilot's Lack Of Familiarity With The Aircraft.
People Magazine noted, with no small amount of
irony, that “Among their last numbers [performed by the Crazy Eight] was one of
McEntire's favorites, ‘Sweet Dreams,’ made famous by her idol, Patsy Cline, who
died in a 1963 hillside plane crash.”
McEntire
was emotionally distraught over the event.
She and Blackstock moved to contact the second jet, which had arrived
safely in Memphis to refuel en route to Fort Wayne. She canceled all events except for an
appearance at the Academy Awards (for which she was initially criticized). And, strange events seemed to be at work. In
an interview with People Magazine
soon after the accident, Reba revealed one of the oddities of the evening:
I remember a strange thing
happened that night in San Diego. In the contract, audience members were not
supposed to tape the show, but after the concert Narvel heard my voice singing
“Sunday Kind of Love.” He realized somebody had taped it. Jim ran out to see
about it and came back with the tape, saying they apologized for making it. Jim
handed the tape to Narvel, and I started to ask why, because Jim always took
care of that stuff. But I didn't say a word. So the tape was with Narvel
instead of Jim, and now we have the tape of the last show they played with me.
About the Hawker
Siddeley DH.125: The DH.125 is a twin engine executive jet developed by the de
Havilland. Originating as the “Jet
Dragon” in 1961, the prototype flew in 1962.
When de Havilland was bought out by Hawker Siddeley in 1963, the DH.125
was reclassified the HS.125 and still later redesignated the BAe 125 when
British Aerospace purchased Hawker Siddeley.
In 1993, Raytheon bough BAe’s business jet division and the craft was
again reclassified the Raytheon Hawker. The compact craft has a crew of two and
carries eight passenger, with a cruising speed of 453mph, a range of over 2,500
miles, and an operational ceiling of 41,000’.Since 1962 over 1,000 125’s have
been assembled and sold around the world.
