he died during a european tour in sweden on september 24, 1986 when metallica was celebrating the success of their album master of puppets. the band’s tour bus skidded off the road and flipped over. burton was thrown out of the bus window and the bus fell on him. they attempted to rescue burton from underneath the bus by lifting it with a crane, but the crane slipped, and the bus landed down on top of burton a second time. by that time, he was already dead at just 24 years old.