It Started Out Smooth…
There were 26 people in total on that fateful flight. Two of the crew members; pilot Walter McReary and co-pilot William Gray. The rest were band members and roadies. In the beginning, all was well. But everyone on the flight, except for Van Zant, was feeling uneasy. They learned that a few days before, some band members saw sparks as large as 10 feet shooting out of the right engine. That’s not a good sign.
Source: ABC
Ronnie got severely drunk while on the flight, which was basically just another routine flight for this group. A little after two hours, however, events started to unfold. Marc Frank, a 24-year-old roadie, noticed what looked like fuel spewing from the right engine. Soon after, the plane started to jerk and shake violently.