Renowned Pak, world celebrities killed in plane crashes

LAHORE: Renowned Pakistani pop singer of the yore, Junaid Jamshed, became yet another celebrity Wednesday to have perished in an aviation accident after a PIA PK-661 plane flying from Chitral to Islamabad had crashed near Abbottabad, hence inflicting a sad loss to the admirers of his music skills, though the ill-fated vocalist had left singing many years ago. 

Late Junaid Jamshed thus features in the list of over a dozen eminent global singers who had lost lives in tragic air accidents. These unfortunate singers include globally-renowned American Rock & roll singer Ricky Nelson (1940-1985), who had breathed his last on December 31, 1985 after a fire had broken out onboard a DC-3 plane taking them to a New Year’s Eve performance in Dallas, Texas.

Five members of teen idol Ricky Nelson’s Stone Canyon band, and his fiancée, were also among those who were killed in this accident. Ricky’s discography comprises 36 albums and 91 singles. His first release had sold in excess of one million copies on the first day of its release, and by 1963, Nelson had sold over 35 million records. 

On August 25, 2001, US singer and actress, Aaliyah (22), was killed in a plane crash when leaving the Bahamas following a video shoot. Her Cessna 402-B had crashed during takeoff.

On October 12, 1997, yet another widely-acclaimed American singer, John Denver (53), had died when his plane had crashed near California. Human fatalities have been caused by plane crashes since September 1908, when an American Army soldier Thomas Selfridge, had perished during a demonstration flight flown by Orville Wright, the aviation pioneer credited with inventing and flying the world's first successful airplane. 

Since then, at least 16 world presidents, prime ministers and heirs to the throne have died in plane crashes. Here follows a list of some of the most famous Pakistani and global personalities, including powerful rulers of the time, who could not survive air crashes:

Charles Stewart Rolls (co-founder of Rolls Royce on July 12, 1910), Lord Thompson (British Air Minister on October 5, 1930), Rajasekhara Reddy, the two-time chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, died in a helicopter crash in 2009 at Rudrakonda Hill. His helicopter went missing for almost 24 hours. A massive rescue operation was launched to trace the helicopter. 

Reddy was among the most famous faces of Congress and helped the party to come back in power in 2009. Elected to the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th Lok Sabha from the Kadapa constituency and to the Andhra Pradesh assembly for five terms from the Pulivendula constituency, Reddy had won every election he contested. Rajasekhara Reddy, the two-time chief minister of Andhra Pradesh, died in a helicopter crash in 2009 at Rudrakonda Hill. His helicopter went missing for almost 24 hours. A massive rescue operation was launched to trace the helicopter.

On December 9, 1936, the then Swedish Prime Minister Arvid Lindman’s plane had crashed into houses in London’s Croydon area while attempting to take off in heavy fog), Sir Fredrick Grant Banting (Canadian co-discoverer of Insulin on February 20, 1941), Dr Fritz Todt (chief designer of the German Autobahn on February 8, 1942), Baron Carl-August von Gablenz (founder of Lufthansa Airlines on August 21, 1942), exiled Polish Premier Wladyslaw Sikorski (his plane has crashed into the Mediterranean Sea near Gibraltar shortly after takeoff while on a flight to London on July 4, 1943), Joseph Kennedy (brother of President John F. Kennedy on August 12, 1944), Swedish Crown Prince Gustav Adolf (his plane had crashed during take-off at Copenhagen on January 26, 1947), Kathleen Kennedy Cavendish (sister of President John Kennedy on May 13, 1949), Major General Muhammad Iftikhar Khan (1909-1949), who was brother of Pakistan’s first general Muhammad Akbar Khan, had died in a Dakota plane accident on December 13, 1949 (the plane was flying from Lahore to Karachi when it had crashed near Jhungshahi, killing Major General Iftikhar Khan, Brigadier Sher Khan and 24 others. General Iftikhar was on his way to Karachi to proceed to England for a course at the Imperial Defence College. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Major General Iftikhar had been nominated to become the first local Commander in Chief (C-in-C) of the Pakistan Army after General Douglas Gracey’s retirement, but Lady Luck had other plans), Laurence Steinhart (US ambassador to Canada on March 28, 1950), Robert Porter Patterson (US Secretary of War under President Roosevelt on January 22, 1952), Filipino President Ramon Magsaysay (while on a campaign, his plane had crashed into a mountain on March 17, 1957), Barthelemy Boganda (President of the Central African Republic: His plane had exploded in mid-air while on a flight on March 29, 1959), Dag Hammarskjold (UN Secretary General on September 17, 1961), Hombi Bhabha (father of India’s nuclear programme on January 24, 1966),  Iraqi President Abdul Salam Arif (he had died mysteriously in a helicopter accident on April 13, 1966),  Bolivian President Rene Barrientos (his helicopter had struck high tension wires and crashed on April 27, 1967),  Mohammed bin Laden (father of Osama bin Laden on September 3, 1967), Joel Rakotomalala (Prime Minister of Madagascar: His plane had crashed into the sea on July 30, 1976), Yugoslav President Dzemal Bijedic (His plane had crashed into a mountain during a snowstorm on January 18, 1977), Sanjay Gandhi (son of Indian Premier Indira Gandhi on June 23, 1980), Portuguese Prime Minister Francisco Sa Carneiro (His plane had mysteriously crashed on December 4, 1980), Jaime Roldos Aguilera (President of Ecuador: His plane had crashed in poor weather on May 24, 1981), General Omar Torrijos (Leader of Panama: His plane crashed under suspicious circumstances, possibly sabotage on July 31, 1981), the plane of Mozambique’s President Samora Machel had met an accident in South Africa on October 19, 1986, Salem bin Laden (brother of Osama bin Laden on May 29, 1988), the C-130 carrying then Pakistani President-cum-Army Chief, the then ISI Chief General Akhtar Abdur Rehman and then US Ambassador to Pakistan Arnold Raphael, etc. had blasted 10 minutes after taking off from Bahawalpur on August 17, 1988. It was reported to be an act of sabotage, possibly through an explosive device), Frank Wells (President of Walt Disney on April 3, 1994), on April 6, 1994, Cyprien Ntaryamira (President of Burundi) and Juvenal Habyarimana (President of Rwanda) had both died in a plane accident near Rwanda. Their plane was possibly shot down by a missile while on approach to the airport), Ron Brown (US Secretary of Commerce on April 3, 1996), John F. Kennedy Jr. (son of President Kennedy on July 16, 1999), Ibrahim Shamsul-Din (Deputy Defense Minister of Sudan on April 4, 2001), a notable CNN and Fox Commentator Barbara Olsen (September 11, 2001), Senior Congress leader Madhavrao Scindia and six others were killed when the private plane in which they were travelling crashed on the outskirts of Mainpuri district, 172km from Kanpur, in September 2001.Senior Congress leader Madhavrao Scindia (September 2001), Indian Lok Sabha Speaker Balayogi (March 3, 2002), Hansie Cronje (former South African Cricket captain on June 1, 2002), in February 2003, the then Pakistan Air Force Chief Air Chief Marshal Mushaf Ali Mir, his wife and 16 others had perished when their plane had hit a mountain in foggy conditions near Kohat (the officers killed with the Air Chief were Air Vice-Marshal (AVM) Abdul Razzaq, AVM Saleem Nawaz, Air Commodore Syed Javaid Sabir, Air Commodore Rizwanullah Khan, Group Captain Aftab Cheema, Wing Commander Syed Tabassam Abbas, Squadron Leader Ahmed Yusuf, Squadron Leader Abdur Rab and Squadron Leader Mumtaz Kiani, etc. The Air Chief’s wife Bilqis Mushaf Ali Mir was sister of Major General (retd) Hussain Mehdi, then DG Rangers of Punjab, on February 26, 2004, the plane of Macedonian President Boris Trajkovski had crashed into the mountains of Bosnia and Herzegovina while attempting to land in poor weather, John Walton (billionaire and second son to Sam Walton founder of Wal-Mart on June 27, 2005) and Dr John Garang (Vice President of Sudan on July 30, 2005) and the two-time Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy (2009), on April 10, 2010, the military jet of Polish President Lech Kaczynski had crashed into a Russian forest and broke up while attempting to land in dense fog (the president’s wife and 86 other high ranking government officials were among the 96 killed) and in May 2015, a Pakistan army helicopter crashed in mountainous territory of the Pakistani-administered Gilgit-Baltistan region, killing seven people, including the Filipino and Norwegian ambassadors on the spot.