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CNN Saturday Morning News

Investigation Continues Into Crash That Killed Aaliyah, Eight Others

Aired September 01, 2001 - 08:09   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Thousands of people attended a series of day long memorial events for singer Aaliyah, who died a week ago in a plane crash in the Bahamas. Her casket was placed inside a carriage drawn by two horses to a Park Avenue church. Celebrities, friends and family attended the services. Hundreds of fans were held back by police barricades.

Now to the service. Twenty-two doves were released, one for each year of her life. Later, 3,000 people attended a memorial event. Sales of her new album jumped 41 percent last week.

Meanwhile, the investigation of the crash continues, as CNN's John Zarrella reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): As in many air disasters, the one that killed Aaliyah and eight others appears increasingly to have been caused by more than one thing. Aaliyah and her production team, in a rush to leave the Bahamas, apparently settled on a smaller plane than the one originally chartered. And, the plane appears to have been significantly overweight when it took off.

The maximum takeoff weight for the Cessna 402-B is 6,300 pounds. According to Bahamian investigators, Aaliyah's plane, with baggage and fuel, weighed just under 5,500 pounds. In order not to be too heavy the average weight of each of the nine passengers would have to have been less than 89 pounds. Aaliyah's bodyguard, Scott Gallin, weighed 300 pounds himself.

On the way to the hospital before he died, Gallin told paramedics what happened right after the plane took off.

ERROL THURSTON, PARAMEDIC: All Scott was saying was the plane, after takeoff, just slided a little to the right and the pilot tried to recover it by turning to the left. And as he turned to the left, the plane just ditched, just fell completely out of the sky.

ZARRELLA: Aviation experts are saying it's pretty clear the plane was too heavy at takeoff.

JOHN FRANK, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CESSNA PILOTS ASSOCIATION: A pilot that had more experience and maybe more time with the company and who felt more secure might have sat there and looked at all of this stuff and said look, it's going to be one of two ways. We either fly the people out or we fly the baggage out, but we're not flying both.

ZARRELLA: U.S. investigators are reportedly looking into whether Luis Morales was qualified to fly the Cessna. According to published reports, he was certified to fly a smaller Piper aircraft on charters, but perhaps not the larger, more powerful Cessna.

And it turns out that just 12 days before the crash, Morales was sentenced to three years probation for cocaine possession. The conviction could have led to the suspension of his pilot's license, but Morales had not yet reported the drug conviction to the FAA. He had 60 days to do so.

John Zarrella, CNN, Miami.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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