On this day in 2001, a small Cessna 402 took off from Marsh Harbour Airport in the Bahamas and came down shortly after. Aaliyah was twenty-two. Eight other people died with her, most of them working members of her record company and her crew, and the pilot. The aircraft was overloaded.
She had spent the previous days filming the video for Rock the Boat on the water there, and was flying home. The song was on her third album, released about a month earlier, with her name on the cover and not much else.
"Rock the boat, rock the boat." That is the line, and the record is still there to be played.
Nine people. Their names are worth looking up today.
The Cessna 402 is a good honest twin, but it was carrying more weight than it was certified for that afternoon. The crash led to closer scrutiny of small charter operators, which is a small thing set beside nine people.
She had finished filming Queen of the Damned that spring. Watching it, what stays with me is how still she was on screen — unhurried, letting the camera come to her. Twenty-two, and she already knew that.