Ronnie Van Zant's bandmates were anxious as they prepared to board their leased plane at Greenville, South Carolina's Downtown Airport on the afternoon of October 20th, 1977. And they had good reason to be: Lynyrd Skynyrd's rickety Convair 240, pushing 30 years old, was obviously past its prime.
This article originally appeared on www.rollingstone.com: Remembering Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Deadly 1977 Plane Crash