Aaliyah

Aaliyah Dani Haughton, 16 January 1979, Brooklyn, New York, USA, but grew up in Detroit, Michigan. Pronounced Ah-Lee-Yah ("highest, most exalted one" in Swahili), this female artist initially came to attention as part of the "new jill swing" movement in the mid-90s. Her early career was fostered by R. Kelly and 1994's debut Age Ain't Nothing But A Number included the US Top 10 singles "Back & Forth" and "At Your Best (You Are Love)". She travelled to Kelly's home in Chicago for the sessions while she was still a student at the Detroit High School of the Performing Arts. She remained a "straight A's" student throughout the first stage of her recording career, persevering with her education despite commercial success. After marrying Kelly, Aaliyah released 1996's superior follow-up, One In A Million, on which she worked with hotshot producer Timbaland. Soundtrack work followed, with contributions to Anastasia ("Journey To The Past") and Dr. Dolittle ("Are You That Somebody?"). Aaliyah also began filming on her screen debut in Andrzej Bartkowiak's Romeo Must Die. "Try Again", taken from the movie soundtrack, went to the top of the US singles chart in June 2000.

8/25/01,Breaking News,Aaliyah and 7 Other are dead.Story below. ARSH HARBOUR, Bahamas (AP) - R&B singer and actress Aaliyah died after a small plane that was to carry her and eight others back to the United States crashed after takeoff in the Bahamas, authorities said.

Eight were killed in Saturday's crash, and one critically injured man was flown to Florida for treatment, officials said. ``We find it devastating and most unfortunate that after having this world-famous star Aaliyah and her crew select the Bahamas as their choice location for her latest video, the project has climaxed on such a tragic note,'' said Minister of Tourism Tommy Turnquest, who happened to be visiting Abaco Island, where the plane went down.

Aaliyah, 22, was to begin shooting the video for ``Rock The Boat'' this month in Miami, according to her Web site. It was not clear whether she filmed that video while in the Bahamas.

Aaliyah's song ``Try Again'' earned her a Grammy nomination for best female R&B vocalist. She made her feature acting debut in the film ``Romeo Must Die.'' She also had signed on to appear in two sequels to the high-tech thriller ``The Matrix.'' ``She was like one of my daughters, she was one of the sweetest girls in the world,'' said Quincy Jones, 68, the Grammy-winning producer, arranger and composer. ``She vacationed with me and my family together in Fiji. I loved her and respected her and I am absolutely devastated.''

The private plane was leaving the Marsh Harbour airport on a trip to Opa-locka, Fla. when it went down Saturday evening, said police spokesman Marvin Dames. Marsh Harbour is located about 100 miles north of Nassau.

After the crash, the mangled twin-engine plane rested about 75 yards from the end of the runway in a marshy area. Workers carried away badly burned bodies and laid them nearby. Pieces of the plane were strewn about the crash site.

Abaco Island Chief Councilor Silbert Mills said those killed included two women and six men. He said he happened to be at the airport and saw the plane taxi out. The next thing he knew, the plane was on the ground. He said he helped rescue the injured. ``I pulled one from the aircraft, and he was screaming,'' Mills said. ``He said he was in a lot of pain.''

The cause of the crash was unclear. Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites) in Atlanta, said the plane was a Cessna 402 owned by Skystream, a company based in Pembroke Pines, Florida. She said the plane crashed at the end of the airport's runway at 6:50 p.m.

8/26/01 The latest on Aaliyah:

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) - U.S. aviation officials searched for clues Monday in the plane crash that killed the singer Aaliyah and eight others, saying they would investigate whether excess weight from production equipment may have hindered the takeoff.

Aaliyah, 22, and the others were in the Bahamas shooting a music video. Their twin-engine Cessna was bound for Opa-locka, Fla., when it went down Saturday in clear skies with little wind roughly 200 feet from the end of the runway at Marsh Harbour airport on Abaco Island, 100 miles north of Nassau.

``We're just in the beginning stages of the investigation,'' said Alan Yurman, from the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board (news - web sites).

Yurman said the Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites), the makers of the plane and local aviation officials were helping in the investigation, which will include examining how much weight the plane was carrying and how that could have affected takeoff.

``It is one of many possibilities that we're considering,'' said Bahamian aviation investigator Randy Butler.

John Frank, executive director of the Santa Maria, Calif.-based Cessna Pilots Association, said the Cessna 402B can safely carry about 2,300 pounds, which includes passengers, fuel and baggage. The passengers and fuel alone on the plane would have been at least 1,600 pounds.

``There's a very good possibility this aircraft was carrying a bigger load than it was certified to carry,'' he said.

Frank said it's possible for an overloaded plane to take off because of ``ground effect,'' or when an airplane gets a boost from the cushion of air that builds up close to the ground. On Monday, two local newspapers, The Tribune and The Freeport News, quoted a baggage handler they did not name as saying he had warned the pilot that the plane was too heavy for a safe takeoff.

Gloria Knoles, an office manager for Abaco Air, a local airline that flies in the Bahamas and Florida, said she saw a pickup truck on Saturday headed toward the plane with equipment and luggage that towered above the truck's sideboards.

Cameron Sands, a local who hauled much of the luggage after the crash, said the bags filled the bed of his truck, and one large suitcase seemed to weigh at least 150 pounds.

Lewis Key, a Bahamian pilot on Abaco, said he heard rumors the plane was overloaded, but he did not believe extra weight could have caused the crash if both engines were working.

Key, who said he has flown the same model of Cessna in the past, said that judging by the distribution of the wreckage, it appeared the plane veered off sharply, indicating a failed engine.

A witness, Claude Sawyer, said he was alongside the runway when the plane started to plummet.

``It appeared to be a normal takeoff,'' Sawyer, a 25-year-old pilot, told The Associated Press on Monday. ``After that he pulled his landing gear up and then the plane veered slightly to the left and then it went toward the ground.'' The plane burst into flames shortly afterward.

Aaliyah (pronounced Ah-LEE-yah), who had two Grammy nominations, a platinum album and several high-profile movie roles, was killed instantly. Five others on board also died in the crash, while three more died later of their injuries, Rahming said.

Born in New York City and raised in Detroit, Aaliyah - whose name in Arabic means ``powerful one'' - had deep roots in the R&B community. She later returned to live in Manhattan.

On Monday, hundreds of fans posted remembrances on the Web while a larger-than-life portrait of Aaliyah sprouting wings took shape on the side of a building in Manhattan's Lower East Side.

``Aaliyah's family is devastated at the loss of their loving daughter and sister,'' said a statement from her publicist, PMK.

Police identified the other victims as bodyguard Scott Gallin, 41; Keith Wallace, 49, of Los Angeles; Douglas Kratz, 28, a representative for Virgin Records, makeup artist Eric Foreman, 29, Gina Smith, 29, all of Hollywood, Calif.; Anthony Dodd, 34, of Los Angeles; and Christopher Maldonado, 32, of New Jersey. The plane's pilot, identified only as L. Maradel, also died.

The bodies were taken to the morgue at Princess Margaret Hospital in Nassau. Seven of the nine had been identified and arrangements were being made to fly them back to the United States, U.S. Embassy spokesman Brian Bachman said.

The Cessna 402B was owned by Skystream, a company in Pembroke Pines, Fla., said Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the FAA in Atlanta. The company's telephone number was not listed, and company officials could not be reached for comment.

A spokeswoman for Wichita, Kan.-based Cessna, Marilyn Richwine, said she was not aware of any safety problems with the twin-engine 402B.

The latest on what happen to Aaliyah plane 8/29/01:

Private Funeral for Aaliyah Friday in Manhattan:A private funeral for R&B star Aaliyah, who died on Saturday with eight other people in a plane crash in the Bahamas, will be held on Friday in Manhattan, the funeral home said.

The service, details of which were being worked out on Wednesday by the Frank E. Campbell Funeral Home and Virgin Records, will be private, but a public memorial for fans will also be held, Campbell's general manager, Kevin Mack, said.

Mack said Aaliyah's family had had a private visitation but there were no plans for a wake.

Virgin distributed records for Aaliyah's label, Blackground Records. A Blackground spokeswoman said the public service was scheduled for Friday, but she had no details on where or when it would take place, although New York was a likely choice. She said an announcement was expected on Thursday night.

Campbell's has held funerals for such prominent figures as former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, boxer Jack Dempsey and entertainers Judy Garland and Rudolph Valentino.

Aaliyah's body was flown back to the United States on Tuesday as safety experts examined the debris of the plane that crashed in the Bahamas.

A private jet carrying the body of the 22-year-old singer and movie actress landed at Newark International Airport in New Jersey, and a hearse carried the casket away. Hours earlier, heartbroken fans gathered outside a Nassau funeral home to watch as a black hearse drove away with Aaliyah's body.

At Nassau International Airport, police stood guard while her white cardboard coffin, stamped ``Extreme Care,'' was loaded onto the jet.

A funeral home spokeswoman said she expected the bodies of all nine killed in the crash to be returned to various cities in the United States by midday on Wednesday.

Aaliyah and her crew, all U.S. citizens, were leaving Marsh Harbour in the northern Bahamas after shooting a music video when the twin-engine Cessna propeller plane crashed.

Witnesses said the plane climbed steeply, then veered left and crashed nose-first into swampy scrub, bursting into flames on impact just 200 feet from the runway. They also said they heard an engine sputter before the crash.

PROBING CRASH

Investigators were trying to determine if engine problems or excess weight played a role in the crash, Bahamian police said. Witnesses said baggage handlers had argued with those boarding the Cessna 402B that there was too much baggage.

Bahamian and U.S. investigators removed the engines and cockpit instruments from the plane and took them to a secure building at the airport for inspection.

Authorities in Florida said on Wednesday that the pilot of the small plane, Luis Morales, 30, of Fort Lauderdale, who was among those killed in the crash, pleaded no contest in Broward County court on Aug. 13 to charges of cocaine possession, dealing in stolen property, grand theft and driving with a suspended license.

The singer, born Aaliyah Dana Haughton in Brooklyn, New York, moved to Detroit at age 5. She started singing at a local church and by age 11, was performing in Las Vegas with Gladys Knight. Knight's ex-husband, Barry Hankerson, was Aaliyah's uncle.

Aaliyah attended the Detroit High School for the Fine and Performing Arts, and saw her 1994 debut album, ``Age Ain't Nothing But A Number,'' sell a million copies. She released her third album, ``Aaliyah,'' last month.

She made her acting debut last year with a starring role in the Jet Li film ``Romeo Must Die'' and was booked to appear in the upcoming sequels to ``The Matrix.'' Aaliyah had recently finished shooting ``Queen of the Damned,'' playing the vampire queen Akasha in the movie based on the Anne Rice novel.

A vigil for Aaliyah:

Fans of R&B singer Aaliyah, who died in an airplane crash on Saturday, have met to remember her in a candlelight vigil.

Hundreds gathered on Monday near her former high school in Detroit to listen to Aaliyah's music and express their sadness.

The cause of the crash is being investigated by police, but reports are emerging that the plane was carrying too much baggage.

Two local newspapers, The Tribune and The Freeport News, quoted an unnamed baggage handler as saying he had warned the pilot the aircraft was too heavy for a safe takeoff.

Gloria Knoles, an office manager for local airline Abaco Air, also said she saw a pickup truck on Saturday headed toward the plane with luggage that towered above the truck's edges.

But Aaliyah's fans were focusing on remembering the singer.

"She was such a role model to teenage girls," said 15-year-old Marisha Lane, adding that she admired Aaliyah's positive attitude and generous spirit.

The 22-year-old singer and eight others were killed when their small plane went down after it took off from the Bahamas where she was shooting a music video.

Investigators are examining the wreckage of the twin-engined Cessna which crashed into scrubland and burst into flames after taking off from Marsh Harbour airport, bound for Miami.

Police said that the aircraft had apparently experienced engine trouble.

Aaliyah had attended the Detroit High School of Fine and Performing Arts, where fans wrote messages to her on posters and cards.

Some held pictures of Aaliyah; others brought flowers, stuffed animals and balloons.

"I just felt like I needed to be a part of this. To cry together, to remember together and to sing together," Demetrice Greene-Luckey, 27, said, wiping her eyes. "It hurts even for a lot of people that don't know her personally, because we can relate to her and we admire her spirit."

Born in 1979 in New York, Aaliyah Haughton was raised in Detroit.

She began performing at age 11 when she sang with Gladys Knight, and her first album Age Ain't Nothing But A Number came out when she was 15 - and sold millions.

Aaliyah's song Try Again earned her a Grammy nomination for best female R&B vocalist, and last year she made her film acting debut in Romeo Must Die.

Rapper DMX, who also had a role in Romeo Must Die, described her as: "Talented, classy, warm, beautiful, compassionate (and) humble."

Back to main page.
A poem from DMX to Aaliyah
Aaliyah funeral