October 20, 1977: A plane crash ended the original Lynyrd @Skynyrd band with the passing of singer Ronnie Van Zant, guitarist Steve Gaines, back-up singer Cassie Gaines and road manager Dean Kilpatrick. Artimus Pyle: "Right before the wreck, the plane was completely quiet. I feel that everyone there at that moment was speaking to their concept of God." Billy Powell: "After the engines stopped, only the whooshing noises of gliding through the air during our descent could be heard. Then it sounded like hundreds of people with baseball bats hitting the outside of the plane as we skimmed along the tops of the trees. Suddenly I saw the plane's wings being ripped off of its sides." Gene Odom: "Everyone was wearing their seat belts before we crashed, yet every seat but one was ripped from the floor. Almost everyone and everything was hurled forward into a pile of broken bodies that smothered those on the bottom." Artimus Pyle: "The plane was completely torn apart when we hit the ground. I got out of the plane and started walking in a daze. I can't describe how terrifying it was. Among the dead and dying, the conscious survivors were moaning and screaming for help. I saw the copilot hanging in a tree, decapitated. The pilots paid dearly for their mistake." Thieves arrived before the rescuers did and stole thousands of dollars in cash, jewelry and anything else that was valuable from the crash site -- even off of the deceased and those who were too injured to stop them from being robbed. Billy Powell: "Afterward when I learned that Ronnie had died... I felt relieved, to be honest -- because thank God, it meant that now the beatings would finally stop. He was a hard man - a street fighter. Everyone was scared of him and no one dared to argue with Ronnie because they knew that they'd get hurt if they did." Quotes taken from – Lynyrd Skynyrd: An Oral History by Lee Ballinger – Lynyrd Skynyrd: Remembering The Free Birds Of Southern Rock by Gene Odom – Freebirds: The Lynyrd Skynyrd Story by Marley Brant [These are non-AI images of #LynyrdSkynyrd beside their touring plane. Repost this if you want Ronnie’s final photo, his last interview and more to be added in the comments section.] #CIRCUSMagazine