The death of “Miss You” singer Oliver Tree on Sunday (June 14) in a helicopter crash in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was the latest in a distressingly long list of aviation accidents involving helicopters and small aircraft that have taken the lives of beloved artists, their band mates and prominent concert promoters.
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From the Feb. 3, 1959 weather-related crash of a small plane near Clear Lake, Iowa that killed early rock icons Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson — commonly referred to as “the day the music died,” in honor of Don McLean’s 1971 song “American Pie” — to the deaths of six people, including 32-year-old Tree (born Oliver Tree Nickell) over the past weekend, deadly aviation accidents can sometimes feel like a dark cloud looming over the music industry.
The list of tragic airborne deaths over the past half-century or so reads like a grim, flashing signpost about the potential dangers of eschewing commercial flights or road travel in favor of taking off in smaller craft. A list of just some of the lives lost in such accidents includes:
