How Did John Denver Die? Inside the Fatal Plane Crash That eliminateed the Country Icon 27 Years Ago

NEED TO KNOW

• John Denver died in a aircraft crash in October 1997

• The nation singer was piloting a small plane when it nosedived into Monterey Bay in California, killing him immediately

• Reports later revealed that Denver gave no indication of an emergency when he last spoke with air visitors control

It’s been over 20 years since John Denver died in a tragic aircraft crash.

On Oct. 12, 1997, the “Take Me Home, Country Roads” singer’s small, single-engine experimental plane plummeted into Monterey Bay in California. Denver, the pilot and sole passenger, died on influence.

“He loved flying,” Teri Martell, sister of Denver’s ex-wife Annie Martell, told SFGATE at the time. “He died doing something he loved.”

The nation icon and environmental activist rose to fame in the Seventies with hits like “Rocky Mountain High” and “Sunshine on My Shoulders.” He also helped discovered a nonprofit environmental research heart and served on the Presidential Commission on World and Domestic Hunger.

In addition to his hits, he also wrote the 1967 traditional “Leaving on a Jet Plane” for Peter, Paul and Mary.

Aside from hundreds of adoring followers, Denver left behind three kids: Zachary, Anna Kate and Jesse Belle.

Here’s every part to know about how John Denver died and what investigators believed brought about his aircraft to crash.

How did John Denver die?

Two years after his death, the National Transportation Safety Board decided that a number of components, including a lack of fuel and the poor placement of a crucial fuel tank deal with, brought about the deadly crash.

CBS reported that the board blamed the builder of Denver’s experimental Long E-Z plane for relocating the fuel-tank-selector deal with, which permits the pilot to change fuel tanks. Because the deal with sat behind his left shoulder, the singer was compelled to flip in his seat, which the NTSB decided brought about him to lose control of the plane.

The singer bought the aircraft two weeks before his death. His crash led the NTSB to urge other organizations to give new pilots formal training before flying experimental plane.

Where did John Denver die?

Denver died in Monterey Bay, a bay that sits on the edge of Pacific Grove, Calif. Witnesses told SFGATE in October 1997 that his aircraft was flying about 500 ft over the water when it all of a sudden nosedived into the ocean.

“I thought it was doing some kind of acrobatic move,” Caroline Pearl, a spectator who was on a close by seashore, told the outlet. “And then, of course, I realized it wasn’t.”

Before he took off, Denver reportedly told other people at the airport that he only had enough fuel for about an hour. The nation singer was an avid flyer and had been piloting planes for over 20 years.

How outdated was John Denver when he died?

Denver — born Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. — was 53 years outdated when he died. He grew up in Roswell, N.M., and discovered to fly from his father, who was an Air Force pilot, according to the singer’s obituary in The New York Times.

He survived a aircraft accident in 1989, when a 1931 biplane he was piloting spun while taxiing at an Arizona airport. Denver walked away from that incident unhurt.

What have been John Denver’s last phrases?

According to the NTSB, Denver gave no signal that there was an emergency when he radioed the Monterey airport control tower seconds before his deadly crash.

“He was sending the transponder signal,” George Petterson, a security board investigator, told SFGATE in 1997. “And then his last words were, ‘Do you have it now?’ They saw it on the screen and tried to call him back, but his signal vanished … There had been no indication of any trouble.”

What was the publics response to John Denver’s death?

The singer’s death prompted an outpouring of grief and shock from both Denver’s followers and those who labored with him. Over 2,000 people attended a candlelight vigil in Aurora, Colo., the weekend he died, and some have continued to collect in Aspen, Colo., where he had lived since 1969, on the anniversary of his death.

According to The Aspen Times, Colorado legislators voted to make “Rocky Mountain High” a second state tune in 2007.

Even President Bill Clinton paid tribute to the nation icon at the time. The New York Times reported that the then-president said that Denver’s “soaring music” touched thousands and thousands of people and that his work as an activist “opened many doors to understanding among nations.”

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