Sudden death is the most stylish call, and airplane crashes are very sudden.
March 20, 1977 - Carlos
Pace (7) - J. Basal
J. Basal probably
had high-speed driving in mind when he selected Brazilian Formula One driver
Carlos Pace, but it was another mode of rapid transit that would be Pace's
undoing. He died in the crash of a light aircraft near Sao Paulo.
February 19, 1983 - Charles G. Bluhdorn (5) - Phaedrus
Phaedrus didn't even have to bring down the plane to score this solo. The chairman of Gulf & Western died of a heart attack while airborne, en route from the Dominican Republic to New York City.
August 5, 1986 - Chuck Sewell (5) - SID
Chuck Sewell was a highly decorated Marine pilot who flew more than 330 missions during the Korean and Vietnam conflicts. The chief test pilot for Grumman, he ended his flying days at the stick of a vintage WWII fighter plane, a single engine Grumman torpedo bomber formerly used in the Pacific Theater, crashing in dense woods near Brooklyn, Connecticut. SID was there for the points.
October 19, 1986 - Samora Machel (5) - Ghostwriter, Montressor
After a visit to Zambia, the Marxist president of
Mozambique boarded his airplane, a Tupelov 134 jet with an experienced Soviet
crew, and headed for home. But a radio beacon on the same frequency as the
Maputo Airport's drew the plane off course and into a hillside in nearby South
Africa. Machel and 33 others died. A unilateral South African panel of inquiry
determined pilot error to be the cause of the crash, a conclusion never
accepted by the government of Mozambique. Skeptical from the get-go,
Ghostwriter and Montressor took the points.
August 17, 1988 - Zia ul-Haq (4)
- El Chileno, Montressor, Silver Tapps
General Mohammad Zia ul-Haq ruled Pakistan with an iron
hand from his 1977 coup until he was blown out of the sky under mysterious
circumstances 11 years later. Handling baggage just before take-off were El
Chileno, Montressor and Silver Tapps.
April 5, 1991 - Sen. John Tower
(4) - Doom & Gloom, Skul
What goes
up must come down, and when Senator John Tower went down in a commuter plane
near Brunswick, Georgia, the Style Board lit up for Doom & Gloom
and Skul.
October 12, 1997 - John
Denver (5) - The Hexters, Mr. Dit, Yule Iggy
Singer John Denver died when his brand new light-plane
ran out of gas over Monterey Bay and dropped 500 feet into the ocean. Hoping
no otters or seals were hurt were The Hexters, Mr. Dit and
Yule Iggy.
July 16, 1999 - John F. Kennedy, Jr. (7) - Montressor
An extraordinary solo for Montressor. On July 16th, novice pilot John F. Kennedy Jr. took off from a New Jersey airport in his Piper Saratoga II HP and headed out over the ocean into dark hazy skies with his wife and her sister. His sister-in-law had been delayed at work, and delayed again in traffic. Their daytime flight to Martha's Vineyard turned into a night flight, for which JFK Jr. was ill qualified. But still, he went anyway. Over-confidence? Impatience? Montressor alone read the tea leaves. Amazingly, it was Montressor's third score stemming from a plane crash, and his second Kennedy solo, his first being on David Kennedy who died of a heroin overdose in 1984.
June 2, 2000 - Svyatoslav Fyodorov (3) - Dr. Doux
Eye surgeon Svyatoslav Fyodorov -- who pioneered radial keratotomy, a precursor to laser eye surgery -- died in the Game's first helicopter crash. The cause was not known but the Tass news agency quoted witnesses as saying the helicopter was emitting black smoke before it went down in an open area surrounded by tall apartment buildings in northwest Moscow. Dr. Doux, himself a licensed pilot, swore he was nowhere near the heliport.