Flashmag! Issue 175august 2026

Aaliyah

On August 25, 2001, on a small island in the Bahamas, the sun was slowly setting over Marsh Harbor. A few hours earlier, Aaliyah Dana Haughton had been dancing in front of the cameras for the music video for“ Rock the Boat.” She was 22 years old. Her third album had just been released. Hollywood was opening its doors to her. Her music seemed to be a few years ahead of everyone else. At around 6:50 p. m., a small Cessna 402B took off down the runway. It was far too heavy.

A few seconds after taking off, the plane struggled to gain altitude, spun out of control, crashed beyond the runway, and exploded. Aaliyah, seven members of her entourage, and the pilot died. What at first appeared to be a terrible accident would turn out to be an almost unimaginable series of failures: an overloaded plane, improper ballast, a problematic operator, a pilot unauthorized to fly this flight, a criminal record, traces of cocaine and alcohol in his system, and chaotic transportation arrangements. And then, twenty years later, an even more disturbing account emerged: Aaliyah had reportedly refused to board that plane.