rhoads died on march 19, 1982. he was touring with his band at the time. while driving in their tour bus, the band stopped in leesburg, florida, to fix the bus' air conditioner. osbourne stayed asleep because he had been drinking heavily earlier in the evening. while stopped, their driver andrew aycock noticed an airstrip with small helicopters and planes. aycock had previously worked as a commercial pilot. he decided to take a small beechcraft f35 plane registered to a man named mike partin. he took it without partin's permission. he took keyboardist don airey and tour manager jake duncan for a flight. he took rhoads and makeup artist rachel youngblood on for the second flight. aycock tried to fly the plane very low over their tour bus, where the other band members were sleeping. he made two close passes but caused an accident on the third one. one of the plane's wings had clipped the top of the tour bus. this broke the wing into two parts and sent the plane spiraling out of control. both rhoads and youngblood were thrown out of the plane's windshield by the initial impact. while traveling at about , the plane crashed into a nearby garage. all three passengers were killed instantly. they were burned beyond recognition from the fire of the plane. the only person to witness the accident was keyboardist don airey.