Ronnie Van Zant
On October 20, 1977, a plane carrying the band between shows from Greenville, South Carolina, to Baton Rouge, Louisiana, ran out of fuel outside Gillsburg, Mississippi. The passengers had been informed about potential problems with the Convair CV-240 and were told to brace for a crash. Van Zant died on impact from head injuries suffered after the aircraft struck a tree. Bandmates Steve Gaines and Cassie Gaines, along with assistant road manager Dean Kilpatrick, pilot Walter McCreary, and co-pilot William Gray, were also killed. The rest of the band was seriously injured. Van Zant was 29 years old.
Ronnie Boon
Boon began his career at Barry Parade Club, before playing at schoolboy level with Barry Grammar and then representing Wales for Welsh Secondary Schools. Boon played for several club teams, including London Welsh which he would become club secretary during most of the 1960s, but spent the majority of his time at Cardiff. He joined the blues during the 1928/29 season, and by 1930 he was selected to represent Wales in a Five Nations Championship match against Scotland in an all-Cardiff three-quarter line alongside Davies, Jones and Turnbull. Wales lost the match, and although Boon missed the next game against Ireland he had impressed some quarters of the sporting press. 'Old Stager' reported that Boon's covering tackling against Scotland's Ian Smith had been impressive and that he had shown an '...extraordinary facility for retaining a grasp on whatever part of his anatomy he could lay his hands'. For the final game against France, Boon's Wales rival Jack Morley had been selected to play for the British Lions, so Boon was reselected in a notoriously aggressive match which resulted in a Welsh win.