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 Scott
Scott began playing in small jazz clubs at the age of 16, his claim to fame then being that he was taught to play by "Vera Lynn's father-in-law!". Scott toured with trumpeter Johnny Claes from 1944 to 1945, and with Ted Heath in 1946. He also worked with Ambrose, Cab Kaye and Tito Burns. Scott was involved in the short-lived musicians' co-operative Club Eleven band and club (1948–50), with Johnny Dankworth and others. He was a member of the generation of British musicians who worked on the Cunard liner "Queen Mary" (intermittently from 1946 to around 1950) in order to visit New York City and hear the new jazz music that was emerging directly. Scott was among the earliest British musicians to be influenced in his playing style by Charlie Parker and other bebop musicians.