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In a sense, all missing persons cases are “creepy”, especially when the missing person is never found, nor any trace of the person, or clues to what happened to them.Here are two, though, that I find extra creepy due to the circumstances surrounding the disappearance:One is the disappearance of two children, Shasta, 8, and Dylan, 9, Groene from the home where they lived with their mother, stepfather and 13-year-old brother in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. This was 2005. When friends in the area didn't hear from or see any of the family for a few days, someone went to the house and made a gruesome discovery. The children’s mother, stepfather and the oldest child were all found bludgeoned to death in blood-stained rooms. The younger children, Shasta and Dylan, were not there and there was no trace of them anywhere. Especially puzzling was the fact that it was later determined that the murder weapon had been an ordinary hammer. It puzzled criminal justice experts that investigated how so many people in one place could have been beaten to death by a hammer. Logically, one would think an attack of that kind would allow others there the opportunity to escape while only one at a time could be attacked. Police did not believe the missing children “escaped” however. They believed who ever murdered their family members abducted the younger children.The deeply troubling case had investigators stumped, and with no trace of any evidence that might point to who the perpetrator was and where the three of them were for two months. It was as though they had vanished off the face of the Earth. The entire area was flooded with “missing persons” flyers with photos of the missing children, so everyone around was very aware of the case and what the children looked like. One evening, a man and young girl were seen in a Denny’s restaurant on the outskirts of town, and the waitstaff all recognized the child as Shasta Groene. They called police, but the frustrating part of it was the nearest sherrif’s car was about 20–30 minutes away. They were told by the dispatcher to do everything possible to detain the two while local lawmen were on the way. The very brave female server, who was visibly pregnant, took as much time as she could taking the order. Shasta wanted a milkshake and the server went through every possible flavor of shake, and every possible combination she could imagine to stall the pair leaving the restaurant. Luckily, the strategy worked and several deputies arrived with the sheriff in time to apprehend the man, Joseph Duncan, and recover the young victim. Duncan had a record of sexual assault and was being hunted in connection with two other murders. Shasta was terribly traumatized, having endured a horrendous ordeal that may have resulted in her death, easily. She told detectives that Duncan had taken her and Dylan up into the mountains and kept them prisoners at a succession of campsites. Both children were sexually assaulted, repeatedly, for a few weeks, until Shasta saw Duncan take her brother out of her sight and never saw him again. For whatever reason, Duncan decided the boy was too much baggage and murdered him, burying his body in the woods. He hung on to Shasta, however, and towed her around until the day he decided it would be safe to take her back to town to eat a restaurant meal. That was when he was apprehended. He was charged with four homicides, aggravated kidnapping and multiple sexual assaults, including added charges for assaulting children, as well as unlawful restraint and imprisonment. He was tried, convicted and is in an Idaho correctional facility, awaiting execution.An especially nauseating detail of the crime was the little girl had such severe injury to her vagina, it took multiple surgeries to fully repair it and doctors told her father (who came up to get custody of her) she may never be able to have children. She struggled for years with the memories of her nightmarish, harrowing experience, that no doubt led to her troubling teen years, when she became a juvenile delinquent with a record of drug abuse. She was arrested and held in a juvenile detention facility for a year, which she says probably saved her life. She received treatment for drug abuse and today is clean and she turned around her life. In fact, when I looked up the story to remind myself of the details, I learned she is engaged and expecting a baby in a few months. She is now 18. Young to become a wife and mother, but she appears to be on a much smoother path.***The other case is of the disappearance of Mary Shotwell Little in October of 1965. I believe this occurred in Atlanta, Georgia. Mary was a newlywed, married just a few months. She worked as a secretary in a bank. She was well-liked and valued by her employer. People close to her said she seemed very happy with married life. Her co-workers reported the only thing unusual in her routine was seeing she received two or three phone calls at work in the weeks proceeding her disappearance and they observed that she seemed upset on the calls, as though she was arguing with someone. She said nothing about it, though, when her concerned co-workers asked her what was wrong. Another strange mystery was a bouquet of flowers delivered to her at work just a few days before the last time she was seen. The flowers weren't from her husband, nor did she seemed pleased by their delivery.Mary’s husband Roy was out of town on business. He was due back the next day and they had planned a dinner party with a few friends on the evening of his return. Mary and a friend from work went to a shopping center in the early evening where they had dinner together. Mary told her friend after dinner, she was going to the grocery store to buy what she needed for the dinner party. They parted by the parking lot, when the friend went to her car and Mary headed for the store. The friend is the last person known to see Mary. The next morning, she didn't come to work. She was never absent or tardy. Immediately, her colleagues knew something had to be wrong, so they called police. Mary was not at home, nor had anyone in her apartment building remembered seeing her the night before. The police searched the parking lot of the shopping center and found her car, but in a different space than her friend remembered.A mysterious detail on this point is that shopping center security officers said they routinely check the parking lot in the overnight hours, and all were certain the lot had been empty until early morning, as parking was not allowed in the lot after the last store closed. Mary’s car was unlocked and police found grocery bags filled with food she purchased for entertaining that evening. A more troubling discovery was, on the floor, between the driver's seat and front passenger seat. Mary’s underwear and nylon stockings were folded neatly and left on the floor. Far more troubling was all items were blood-stained. A test on the tires of the car revealed considerable mud on them, and it was determined it couldn't be from anywhere nearby. It seemed the car had been driven from the parking lot late in the evening and, for some reason, it had been returned to the lot early the next morning. Mary’s husband, who returned from his trip a bit later that day said he had not spoken with her since the day before. He said he tried calling her at the apartment that evening but got no answer. He was not overly concerned at the time because he theorized Mary had been tired and went to bed early, unplugging the phone so as not to be awakened. The phone in the apartment, however, was found not to be unplugged, and the bed was neatly made. There was no sign Mary had been in the apartment the previous night. Roy had several people he had seen the evening of the disappearance vouch for him as to his whereabouts.The biggest missing persons search ever conducted in the history of Georgia went on for weeks, but nothing to shed any light on what happened to Mary turned up. A strange twist in the case arose when Roy received a bill in the mail later that month from the company that issued Mary’s credit card for a filling station. There was a charge on it for a tank fill-up in a gas station two states away, dated not long after Mary was last seen. Investigators went to the filling station out-of-state and spoke to employees. Two people who worked there remembered seeing a car stop for gas there in which a woman and two men were seated. The witnesses remembered the woman using the credit card to buy her gas because they were struck by her appearance. She looked terrible. Her hair and clothes were disheveled and, most disturbing, both were emphatic they noticed blood stains on the woman’s clothes and legs. They noticed because the woman walked across the lot to use the filling station washroom, accompanied by the man. They didn't remember much else about her, only the blood stains, her disheveled appearance and that the man she was with never left her side. The employee who waited on her remembered her signing the credit card slip, and the car left immediately following that.That was the last credible sighting of Mary anyone ever reported. They believe the woman who bought the gas was indeed Mary because her signature was definitely in her hand-writing. And that's it. No other clues were ever found as to Mary and the men traveling with her. Nothing else ever surfaced. There were reported sightings over the months and years that followed, but each sighting investigated led nowhere. Eventually, Roy had her declared dead by a court and moved away from Atlanta. He has since died. Officially, the case is still open on Atlanta law enforcement files, but there's been no action on it for decades. Most of the agents and officers who worked on the case are no longer alive. It is considered Atlanta’s most mysterious missing persons case to date.UPDATEThe news was made public today, March 30, 2021 that the convicted felon in the multiple murders of the Groene family in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, and the abduction, torture, multiple sexual assaults on Shasta Groene, a child, has died. Cause of death, brain cancer.I for one am glad to hear this news. He got off much too easy compared to what he inflicted on his many victims. But I’ll take what I can get. One less worthless scumbag in the world.

There are numerous websites on the internet that can make you smarter and more intelligent at no cost. Of course, there are websites which can distract you, but if you want to utilize your time on the Internet, here is the list of sites that you must consider.1. Quora.comQuora’s mission is to share and grow world Knowledge. It's a question-answer based site where people ask their questions and queries and get responses from experts. In fact, my this post is inspired by one of questions asked on this website. Simply, Quora is the best source of knowledge. The good thing about Quora is that it contains questions are from all fields like lifestyle, technology, travelling, cooking, internet and many more. Ask Anything and you will get the best answers to your questions and you can also read the answers of the questions asked by other users. In short, Quora contains great information and facts which are rarely available. You can also write blog posts about what you know. I fell in love with this site when I first visited it.2. Duolingo.comAn awesome language teaching site that teaches over 20 languages from scratch. The good thing about the site is that it starts at beginner level and is completely free. If you put in a little effort and are really interested in learning a new language, in a couple of months you could speak and write a new language. Learning with duolingo is fun and addictive. The Dulingo app is available for both iOS and Android so that you can learn anytime.3. Justinguitar.comYou are definitely going to thank me for this if you are fond of learning guitar. Justinguitar.com was started by Justin Sandercoe in 2003 and since then his website has been visited by millions of people. His site provides hundreds of free quality guitar lessons. All lessons are in form of video so that you can easily learn playing guitar. This site provides the best way to learn guitar online and thousands music lovers already making the most of it.4. Cookingforengineers.comNot only provides new recipes but also teach the way how to make them tastier. All the recipes are well written, photographed and very easy to understand. If you love cooking, this is the site to visit.5. Lumosity.comA free online application to test your brain and help you achieve its full potential. It provides free brain testing, memory testing and logical reasoning exercises which refresh your brain and make you smarter and sharper. It’s the Web's most popular scientifically designed training program and it is free.6. Khanacademy.comThis site deserves a much higher place in this list because of its mission which aims at providing world class education to those who need it but cannot afford it. It is a non-profit organization which provides world class education for everyone everywhere free of cost. It covers a wide variety of subjects like mathematics, science, economics, Arts, humanities and computer science. It also provide lectures for those preparing for various tests like like SAT, GMAT,IIT-JEE, MCAT, etc.All of Khan academy’s educational content and material is available to everyone completely free of charge.7. Freerice.comWell, You might living in a developed country and has a modern lifestyle but there are many people out there who are still not getting enough food and suffering from hunger. Freerice helps to end hunger from world by providing rice to hungry people for free. It has multiple-choice type quiz questions on wide variety of subjects and if you answer right, they donate 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme. So you can improve your knowledge and provide some food to needy people at the same time.8. Ted.comCollection of TED (Technology, Education and Design) talks in which experts address a wide variety of useful topics through small interval videos. It is like attending a world class seminar from home.9. Coursera.orgDo you ever dream of studying at world’s top universities? Now you can virtually fulfill this dream. It provides online courses in collaboration with the world’s best universities like University of California, The Hong Kong University of science and technology, Stanford University, University of Pittsburg, University of Tokyo, University of Michigan and many more.The approach used by coursera.org is very much similar to real classes. You learn by watching demonstrating videos, perform activities and assignment and then submit the assignments .On the basis of your assignments you get marks. The quality of content and material at this class matches the education quality at world level universities. Here are the some courses I am currently attending :· An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python· Programming Mobile Applications for Android Handheld Systems· Learn to Program: Crafting Quality CodeAll these courses are available free of cost.10. Nerdfitness.comAn ultimate site that helps stay in shape and provide valuable health tips. It provides very valuable information and case studies on how you can lose your weight. Feels like getting instructions from a professional sitting at home.11. Codecademy.comAs the Internet is expanding each day, there is more demand of web developers and programmers. At codeacademy you can learn the basics of code. You may not become a professional programmer immediately after following the tutorials but this site teaches you the right way to become an expert. Currently it provides classes and courses on web technologies like HTML, Javascript , jQuery, PHP, Ruby, Wordpress, etc.12. Openculture.comThis site can be considered the repository of free online educational resources which include videos, tutorials, eBooks and audio books. It does not provide educational content itself but collects all the good learning material from all the sites(including the sites I mentioned above) and collaborate them so that you can access them at single place.13. geographyiq.comA unique site which provides information about the major facts of all countries. Select a country either alphabetically or from map and access information like Geography, People, Military, Communication, currency, Economy and so on.14. Instructables.comA huge community which provide how-to-do step by step guides on almost everything - from some basic household tricks to high end tech tricks.15. Howstuffworks.comIf your hobby includes reading and you are curious about things, then this is the site for you to visit. How Stuff works – An online source of easy to understand explanations of how certain things actually works. From car engines to search engines, from cell phones to stem cells, and thousands of subjects in between, HowStuffWorks - Learn How Everything Works! has it covered.Still there is many. The list of such kind of websites is very long. I tried to cover only those which I found highly productive and useful. Do I Missed a great online resource? Share it with us by commenting below. Please share this post by using the social sharing buttons below so that everyone can know about these sites.16. Firefox SendSend your files by encrypting them upto 1GB, It’s secure because file will expire after 1 download or 24 hours. And it’s from Firefox, so you can trust them.17. File ChefNext time if you are looking for specific mp3, movie, pdf or any other file,Just use this website, select your category, type your search query and you will find direct file links of almost any file in form of index.It will definitely save you’re a lot of time.18. Expense ManagerAn offline expense manager in your browser, just add it your home screen or bookmark and use it dailyIt’s an open source project you can find the complete code at PWA with full offline capabilities19. Small PDFAn all in one solution for all your PDF related need,Convert, compress, edit, add everything you need to do on a pdf file, you can do it here.Quick, easy and fast to use, when you don’t have enough resources or don’t want to mess around different stuff.You can also try – I love pdf20. Corrupt a FileThe most useful websites listed till now,This website can corrupt any kind of file, just upload and download your corrupted file.Struggling with a report, assignment, bored with reports, half done work?Use this website and send the corrupt file, which will look like original but they can’t really open, Mission accomplished.Make sure you don’t always do this, from next time complete work on time.21. Microsoft Update CatalogAnytime you want specific Windows updates you can search it here.You can use it as a one-stop location for finding Microsoft software updates, drivers, and hotfixes.Many times you are required to update upto certain windows updates in order to particular software to work, this is what you need at that time.22. Resume Maker OnlineSimple, Easy to Use, No Clutter or Ads and Within Few minutes you can make a well-designed resume of one page.There are multiple options to enable different sections to add or remove skills, additional infoboxes.When you are done adding details just download the pdf version in one click.23. File PizzaIt’s kind of different way sending files to someone.Your files are never stored somewhere, the person whom you want to send any spefic files will directly download from your side like peer to peer file transfer.Edit:Additional useful websites:ctrlq.org/screenshots – for capturing screenshots of web pages on mobile and desktops. alternative screen.gurudictation.io – online voice recognition in the browser itself.zerodollarmovies.com – find full-length movies on YouTube.screenr.com – record movies of your desktop and send them straight to YouTube.unfurlr – find the original URL that’s hiding behind a short URL.copypastecharacter.com – copy special characters that aren’t on your keyboard.codeacademy.com – the best place to learn coding online.lovelycharts.com – create flowcharts, network diagrams, sitemaps, etc.iconfinder.com – find icons of all sizes.office.com – download templates, clipart and images for your Office documents.followupthen.com – the easiest way to setup email reminders.jotti.org – scan any suspicious file or email attachment for viruses.wolframalpha.com – gets answers directly without searching – see more wolfram tips.printwhatyoulike.com – print web pages without the clutter.ctrlq.org/save/ – save online files to Dropbox or Google Drive directly.ctrlq.org/rss/ – a search engine for RSS feeds.e.ggtimer.com – a simple online timer for your daily needs.coralcdn.org – if a site is down due to heavy traffic, try accessing it through coral CDN.random.org – pick random numbers, flip coins, and more.pdfescape.com – lets you can quickly edit PDFs in the browser itself.tubemogul.com – simultaneously upload videos to YouTube and other video sites.scr.im – share you email address online without worrying about spam.spypig.com – now get read receipts for your email.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont – quickly determine the font name from an image.google.com/webfonts – a good collection of open source fonts.regex.info – find data hidden in your photographs – see more EXIF tools.livestream.com – broadcast events live over the web, including your desktop screen.iwantmyname.com – helps you search domains across all TLDs.namechk.com - Search for username across social platform with domain search also.homestyler.com – design from scratch or re-model your home in 3d.join.me – share you screen with anyone over the web.onlineocr.net – recognize text from scanned PDFs – see other OCR tools.flightstats.com – Track flight status at airports worldwide.wetransfer.com – for sharing really big files online.hundredzeros.com – the site lets you download free Kindle books.polishmywriting.com – check your writing for spelling or grammatical errors.marker.to – easily highlight the important parts of a web page for sharing.typewith.me – work on the same document with multiple people.whichdateworks.com – planning an event? find a date that works for all.everytimezone.com – a less confusing view of the world time zones.gtmetrix.com – the perfect tool for measuring your site performance online.noteflight.com – print music sheets, write your own music online (review).imo.im – chat with your buddies on Skype, Facebook, Google Talk, etc. from one place.translate.google.com – translate web pages, PDFs and Office documents.kleki.com – create paintings and sketches with a wide variety of brushes.similarsites.com – discover new sites that are similar to what you like already.wordle.net – quick summarize long pieces of text with tag clouds.bubbl.us – create mind-maps, brainstorm ideas in the browser.kuler.adobe.com – get color ideas, also extract colors from photographs.lmgtfy.com – when your friends are too lazy to use Google on their own.midomi.com – when you need to find the name of a song.google.com/history – see your past searches, also among most important Google URLsbing.com/images – automatically find perfectly-sized wallpapers for mobiles.faxzero.com – send an online fax for free – see more fax services.feedmyinbox.com – get RSS feeds as an email newsletter.ge.tt – qiuckly send a file to someone, they can even preview it before downloading.pipebytes.com – transfer files of any size without uploading to a third-party server.tinychat.com – setup a private chat room in micro-seconds.privnote.com – create text notes that will self-destruct after being read.boxoh.com – track the status of any shipment on Google Maps – alternative.mondrian.io – create vector drawings in the browserdraw.io – create diagrams and flowcharts in the browser, export your drawings to Google Drive and Dropbox.downforeveryoneorjustme.com – find if your favorite website is offline or not?ewhois.com – find the other websites of a person with reverse Analytics lookup.whoishostingthis.com – find the web host of any website.labnol.org – software tutorials and how-to guides.disposablewebpage.com – create a temporary web page that self-destruct.urbandictionary.com – find definitions of slangs and informal words.seatguru.com – consult this site before choosing a seat for your next flight.unsplash.com – download images absolutely free.zoom.it – view very high-resolution images in your browser without scrolling.scribblemaps.com – create custom Google Maps easily.alertful.com – quickly setup email reminders for important events.picmonkey.com – Picnik is offline but PicMonkey is an even better image editor.formspring.me – you can ask or answer personal questions here.sumopaint.com – an excellent layer-based online image editor.snopes.com – find if that email offer you received is real or just another scam.typingweb.com – master touch-typing with these practice sessions.mailvu.com – send video emails to anyone using your web cam.timerime.com – create timelines with audio, video and images.stupeflix.com – make a movie out of your images, audio and video clips.safeweb.norton.com – check the trust level of any website.teuxdeux.com – a beautiful to-do app that looks like your paper dairy.deadurl.com – you’ll need this when your bookmarked web pages are deleted.minutes.io – quickly capture effective notes during meetings.youtube.com/leanback – Watch YouTube channels in TV mode.talltweets.com – Send tweets longer than 140 characters.pancake.io – create a free and simple website using your Dropbox account.builtwith.com – find the technology stack to know everything about a website.woorank.com – research a website from the SEO perspective.mixlr.com – broadcast live audio over the web.radbox.me – bookmark online videos and watch them later (review).tagmydoc.com – add QR codes to your documents and presentations (review).notes.io – the easiest way to write short text notes in the browser.ctrlq.org/html-mail – send rich-text mails to anyone, anonymously.fiverr.com – hire people to do little things for $5.otixo.com – easily manage your online files on Dropbox, Google Docs, etc.ifttt.com – create a connection between all your online accounts.The following websites were part of the original list but they are either no longer available or have been replaced with better alternatives.virustotal.com – scan any suspicious file or email attachment for viruses.isnsfw.com – when you wish to share a NSFW page but with a warning.truveo.com – the best place for searching web videos.tabbloid.com – your favorite blogs delivered as PDFs.warrick.cs.odu.edu – you’ll need this when your bookmarked web pages are deleted.tempalias.com – generate temporary email aliases, better than disposable email.whisperbot.com – send an email without using your own account.errorlevelanalysis.com – find whether a photo is real or a photoshopped one.google.com/dictionary – get word meanings, pronunciations and usage examples.wobzip.org – unzip your compressed files online.namemytune.com – when you need to find the name of a song.snapask.com – use email on your phone to find sports scores, read Wikipedia, etc.pastebin.com – No.1 paste tool since 2002encrypted.google.com – Google now redirects all logged-in users to the https version ofgoogle.com by default so this is no longer necessary.bounceapp.com – replace this with a version that works on mobile.dabbleboard.com – a online virtual whiteboard that will shut down in August 2012.chipin.com – helps you raise funds online for an event or a cause (closed).youtube.com/disco – quickly create a video playlist of your favourite artist.liveshare.com – share your photos in an album instantly.Source:www.labnol.org/internet/www.thetechbasket.com/internet/most-useful-websites/519/

Thanks for the A2A.Be warned: I read this as you asking an expert in accident investigation for an analysis, so I'm going to get into eye-glazing detail accompanied by a certain amount of conjecture. If you're idly curious, the first few paragraphs below should do you fine. On the other hand, if you really want to understand what's known to have happened and what might have led to what was officially determined, I'm here to help. Get comfortable.Wikipedia and other popular sites often seem like good places to start to answer questions like this, but in my specialty I prefer to go to the source. In this case, it's the National Transportation Safety Board's investigation report AAR 78-06, which you can download in its entirety at NTSB Aircraft Accident Reports (AAR).The crash itself took place on October 20, 1977. The type of aircraft involved in the accident was a chartered, 30 year-old Convair 240, owned and operated by L & J Company. Of the 26 crew and passengers aboard, both pilots and four passengers were killed, and the 20 survivors all were injured to varying degrees. The aircraft itself was chock-full of people -- it was configured for 24 passengers, and that's what it was carrying. (The original airliner's cabin was designed to carry up to 40 passengers, but this charter aircraft was equipped with tables and couches that cut into that number pretty significantly.)As far as what caused the crash itself, the investigators concluded the following:"The National Transportation Safety Board determines that the probable cause of this accident was fuel exhaustion and total loss of power from both engines due to crew inattention to fuel supply. Contributing to the fuel exhaustion were inadequate flight planning and an engine malfunction of undetermined nature in the right engine which resulted in higher-than-normal fuel consumption."In the body of the report, the NTSB clarified that the engine malfunction itself most likely wasn't that big a deal: "Although examination of the engine and its components did not identify the exact discrepancy. the Safety Board believes that the discrepancy was of a general nature, such as an ignition or induction problem, and was not a major mechanical failure." So, bottom line: the plane ran out of gas and crashed.Okay -- those are the unvarnished, bare-bones words from those responsible for making the determination. The fact that there wasn't much, if any fuel aboard is evident from the lack of a post-crash fire. Before the crash, the crew called air traffic controllers to request a divert to a nearby airport, stating they were "low on fuel." The fact that a pretty big aircraft balled up while attempting a forced landing at twilight isn't all that surprising.Perhaps a little more thinking and digging might be in order, first to zero in a little more on the "why," and then perhaps to a certain extent to consider the "WTF" of how the crew got themselves in this situation in the first place.A number of years ago, once I started getting interested in aviation safety in an organized way rather than just as a matter of self-preservation, it started becoming pretty obvious to me that a lot of popular entertainers, illustrious sports figures, powerful politicians and other celebrities have died in plane crashes over time.Consider: High-profile performers like Patsy Cline, Richie Valens, Buddy Holly and Jiles Richardson (the "Big Bopper"), Jim Croce, Ricky Nelson, Aaliyah, Ronnie Van Zant and Steve Gaines, Audie Murphy, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jenni Rivera, Soundarya, and most of Reba McEntire's band all died in non-scheduled aircraft crashes. Whole sports teams and NASCAR crews have been decimated in such events, as well as individual standouts like Roberto Clemente. Hale Boggs, Nick Begich, Mickey Leland and Ted Stevens -- all current or retired members of Congress -- died under similar circumstances, as did sitting Secretary of Commerce Ron Brown (in a dedicated VIP airlift aircraft).(If you'd like to see a much longer and more depressing set of lists of this type, check out Wikipedia's List of fatalities from aviation accidents and "Plane Crash Info" (Image)).Aircraft accidents were hardly unusual events during the first half of what has come to be referred to as "The Century of Flight" -- the 100 years starting with the Wright Brothers' first flight in December of 1903. However, it's somewhat astonishing to note how often luminaries like those on the list above died in non-scheduled operations that they themselves were not flying.Keep this observation in mind as you read on. I personally think there's a common thread among them that might apply to the accident asked about in this question as well. I'll come back to it presently.Okay. Having offered up the above framing thoughts regarding aviation-related death among the influential, let's get into the specifics of the Lynyrd Skynyrd accident itself.The aircraft involved was refueled two days before the accident, upon its arrival at Greenville SC, with 400 gallons of the appropriate type of fuel. There's no record as to how much was aboard when they filled up that I can find; the NTSB investigators did their best to make such a calculation, to no avail. However, according to their report, "Normal average fuel consumption for the Convair 240 aircraft powered with the Pratt and Whitney R2800CB-16 engine is about 183 gallons per hour." That's a useful data point in and of itself.When the crew filed their flight plan on the day of the accident, they planned for 2 hours and 45 minutes of flight (2+45) to travel the roughly 550-600 nautical miles between Greenville and Baton Rouge, with five hours of fuel aboard (5+00). (Their route of flight works out to roughly 580 nautical miles from takeoff to landing.)Five hours of fuel at the standard burn rate listed above works out to perhaps 1,000 gallons of gas aboard (the NTSB report suggested 900), and a flight of less than three hours should have used perhaps 600 gallons, tops; it seems likely they would have expected to need less than 550 gallons. On the basis of what they put on their flight plan, fuel shouldn't have been an issue, but the 400 gallons they added definitely didn't top them off; otherwise, they would have listed at least 7+30 to 8+00 endurance (1,550 gallon fuel capacity per the NTSB report).So, they weren't by any means full of fuel, but they presumably were carrying significantly more than just the 400 gallons they bought on October 18th. That amount by itself would have taken them about 2+10 if the tanks had been totally dry when they fueled up, assuming the engines were operating optimally. (Hold that thought.)According to the NTSB report, the plane took off at 4:02 PM Central Daylight Time. (I found this a little confusing at first since South Carolina is on Eastern time, but a footnote states that all times in the report were rendered in Central time.) Two hours and forty minutes into a planned 2+45 flight -- at 6:42 PM -- they weren't anywhere near Baton Rouge yet, but they had run dry. Huh?The NTSB report specifically states that a normally operating aircraft of this type, having flown the time it had prior to impact, should have had about 207 gallons of fuel aboard if it had started out with what they stated on their flight plan. The investigators found the wreckage had about a quart of fuel in it. The Board ruled out any possibility of a fuel leak or the aircraft having been fueled with less than what supposedly had been provided at prior fuel stops. As far as the improperly functioning engine was concerned, the investigators concluded that running it on "auto-rich" the entire flight should've burned a maximum of perhaps 70 gallons over and above normal consumption.It appears the aircraft had only flown perhaps 85 to 90% of their intended route of flight when the pilots realized they were basically out of gas, and they took 2+40 just to cover that distance; they probably would have needed at least another 20 minutes or so to get from where they were to Baton Rouge (BTR) when they made the decision to reverse course and try to make McComb (MCB).According to the accident report, there weren't any headwinds getting in their way at all -- just a pretty benign amount of crosswind from the northwest that would have required a relatively minor amount of correction. The Convair 240's advertised cruise speed is about 250 knots, and their ground speed shouldn't have been much different from that based on winds aloft.So, their flight plan's time was so far off that it almost seems like they had no real idea how long it would actually take them, or something was seriously slowing them down along their entire route of flight. On the surface at least, it also seems like they never even looked at their fuel gauges throughout the flight.Even given the above ambiguities and unexplained conditions, on page 14 of the report, the NTSB gets pretty blunt:"The crew was either negligent or ignorant of the increased fuel consumption because they failed to monitor adequately the engine instruments for fuel flow and fuel quantity. Had they properly monitored their fuel supply and noted excessive fuel consumption early in the flight , they could have planned an alternate refueling stop rather than attempting to continue flight with minimum fuel."Bam.The NTSB has a fairly narrow approach to conducting its investigations and determining causes when it chooses to hew to the most rigorous interpretation of its charter. It only was about two years into its newly legislated "independent safety board" status when this accident occurred. Although its perspective has gotten a little more nuanced over time, its institutional mindset typically has been to identify a failure on the part of some identifiable party, and then to stop there. I don't fault them for this (because at least in this case the crew's failure to catch the dwindling fuel state really is pretty stunning), but the Board tends to stop asking "Why?" at a certain point. I'm inclined to want to think a few steps farther.Was the crew somehow impaired? Nope. The report states, "Toxicological examination of the flightcrew disclosed no evidence of drugs, alcohol, or elevated levels of carbon monoxide in the blood." Still, for whatever reason, they flew an aircraft with X amount of fuel aboard for one heck of a lot longer than you would expect a qualified pair of pilots to tolerate, assuming they were aware of their situation. Since pilots tend to be rather cognizant of the fact that they'll be first to arrive at the crash scene if they let things get out of hand, I have a crawly feeling that something else was in play here.Was the aircraft overloaded? A Convair 240 could legally take off weighing just shy of 42,000 pounds, with a typical empty (no fuel) weight of about 27,600 pounds. Its advertised payload was either a full passenger load or 9,350 pounds of cargo. (Convair 240/340/440/540/580/600/640/5800 | Airliners.net).Now let's start cutting into the margins. A full load of fuel would have weighed at least 9,000 pounds all by itself; the reported 5 hours' worth that their flight plan claimed would have run perhaps 6,000 pounds. Standard passenger weights in effect at the time, plus assumed luggage per passenger, would have added 4,440 pounds to it.Just the lesser amount of fuel, passengers and baggage would have brought the aircraft up to less than 5,000 pounds below its maximum gross weight, and a full fuel load would have left them with less than a ton of cargo-carrying wiggle-room beyond that. It seems reasonable to assume that at least some touring equipment (instruments, speakers, lighting, etc.) was aboard, but it isn't mentioned in the report. Hmm.The biggest hazards associated with overloading an aircraft are in not recognizing that you've done so, or doing so because you can (or perceive you need to). Here's what Skybrary (AP4ATCO - Weight and Balance) has to say on this subject:"Most modern aircraft are so designed that if all seats are occupied, all baggage allowed by the baggage compartment structure is carried, and all of the fuel tanks are full, the aircraft will be grossly overloaded. This type of design gives the pilot a great deal of latitude in loading the aircraft for a particular flight. If maximum range is required, occupants or baggage must be left behind, or if the maximum load must be carried, the range, dictated by the amount of fuel on board, must be reduced."Based on the numbers set forth above, along with the possibility that the crew might have had a need to try to accommodate a lot of bodies and gear, I'm hesitant to say "no" to the possibility of overloading, especially since a heavier aircraft is a thirstier aircraft. By the same token, the NTSB report explicitly discounts this possibility (as well as that of crew incapacitation) in the first two paragraphs of its analysis:"The flightcrew was properly certificated and trained in accordance with applicable regulations. There was no evidence of preexisting medical problems that might have affected the flightcrew's performance."The aircraft was certificated and equipped according to applicable regulations. The gross weight and [center of gravity] were within prescribed limits. The aircraft's structure and components were not factors in this accident. There was no evidence of any malfunction of the aircraft or its control system. The propulsion system was operating and was producing power until fuel was exhausted."The historical record shows only a bare handful of explicit fuel exhaustion accidents involving this family of aircraft in civilian operation over time. Most unequivocally, a Swissair flight from Geneva to London crashed into the English Channel in 1954, an accident placed squarely on the pilots for running themselves out of gas; this is summarized at ASN Aircraft accident Convair CV-240-4 HB-IRW Folkestone.(Beyond that one, I'm personally suspicious about a 1960 accident involving a flight from Frankfurt, Germany to Rimini Italy as well (ASN Aircraft accident Convair CV-240-4 D-BELU Rimini Airport (RMI)) -- its listed cause is, "The failure of the aircraft's left engine followed by the malfunction of the right engine," which makes me twitch a bit.)(NOTE: In a weird coincidence, the distance between departure and arrival airports in both of the above accidents was just under 500 nautical miles, and the Lynyrd Skynyrd aircraft wasn't going all that much farther than that; no obvious correlation to me, but maybe CV-240 drivers might know of some -ism of the aircraft that might make that significant somehow.)Still, there's no apparent history of this family of aircraft ever having a pattern of accidents due to fuel exhaustion or excessive consumption, period. This includes the U.S. military variants -- designated T-29 and C-131 -- which had reasonably safe operating histories and no fuel exhaustion accidents that I could find. So, let's accept the proposition that the NTSB report leaves us with -- a flyable aircraft, responsibly loaded and not stuffed to the gills with excess trappings and hangers-on of a touring band, was flown until it ran out of gas.Maybe it was simple pilot inattention and/or negligence that killed these people. Then again, maybe there was another factor in play that's been around for a long time that caused corners to be cut, or perhaps put undue pressure on the crew to push things too far from a weight management and range perspective.Let's circle back to the observations I made earlier regarding the loss of the powerful and influential in aircraft accidents. In my youth I did a fair amount of VIP flying. These are not easy passengers to please. They will push you; they will challenge you. Whether in a military flight or an aircraft leased for the purpose, they want to get where they want to be, when they want to be there. Little irrelevancies like weather, aircraft condition, or their desire to drag along unplanned-for people or "stuff" don't matter to them.The Lynyrd Skynyrd accident report accident report includes a curious line of discussion regarding the status and terms of the leasing agreement between the band's management and the charter operator. It also goes to some pains to highlight the timeline associated with the official mail submission of the signed leasing agreement to the FAA. The legal nuances here are a bit outside my usual swim lane, but I couldn't help but be struck by the following passage:"It therefore appears to the Safety Board that whether this lease was or was not adequate is not the primary safety problem, but how does the system in such a case protect a lessee who is uninformed either by design, by inadvertence, or by his own carelessness... In November 1977, FAA amended CFR 91.54 to require that lessees notify the nearest FAA office 48 hours prior to the first flight under a lease and provide information concerning (1) the departure airport, (2) time of departure, and (3) the registration number of the aircraft. In adopting the amendment, the FAA stated that the purpose of the new requirement was to give the FAA notice prior to the flight and thereby an opportunity to conduct preflight surveillance of lease and contract operations. This requirement should serve to protect innocent lessees if... the FAA office takes action to assure that there is a clear understanding by the lessee as to who is the operator and what responsibilities and obligations are thereby assumed."An FAA "advisory circular" (AC 91-37A) was updated a few months after the Lynyrd Skynyrd accident. It includes the following passage:"There have been instances wherein users of charter aircraft became the victims of certain operators. Illegal and unsafe operations have occurred which have developed into tragedies. A study of air charter operations was conducted and a report written which, among other things, recommended increasing the safety of operations involving U.S.-registered large civil aircraft that are being operated under a lease or contract of conditional sale arrangement."a. The report indicates that in many instances lessees and conditional buyers of aircraft did not realize that they were legally responsible for operational control of the aircraft as defined in Part 1 of the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs). In other cases, the report indicates that even if the lessee or conditional buyer did realize it, very few recognized their responsibilities for compliance with the FARs."b. The report also indicates that a number of owners of large airplanes have evaded compliance with the applicable certification and operating rules of FAR Part 121 governing air carriers and commercial operators, through the use of devious leases and conditional sales contracts. This evasion of compliance made it appear that the lessees and conditional buyers were responsible for operational control, when in fact they did not have that responsibility. This knowing or unknowing assumption of responsibility creates a serious problem in air safety and may involve legal liabilities."If you look at the above one way, you might get the impression that the aircraft's owner -- the L&J Company -- wanted to push off responsibility for anything bad that happened while the band had their aircraft under the lease onto the band itself. From another angle, it suggests that they were being pushed to provide services that their aircraft couldn't handle, and wanted it clearly on the record that if their pilots were pushed into trying to carry too much, it was the lessee's fault and not theirs.I honestly don't care either way. I'm kind of appalled that this kind of ambiguity even existed in aviation regulations of that era. These days, if you're flying this kind of operation for compensation or hire, it can't be conducted under "general flight rules" at all -- it's governed by 14 CFR Part 135 as a minimum. The question of who's responsible for the safety and regulatory compliance of the leased operation is simple: the certificate holder has operational control, period.Here's where I have to return to the hit parade of public figures who died in aircraft accidents mentioned early in my response. These were for the most part people used to getting their way, or perhaps were surrounded by people who would be jerks on their behalf. A depressing number of the accidents in which they perished involved dodgy weather or other factors -- like overloading -- that were duly laid at the feet of the pilots in the investigation reports. I also note the periodic involvement of fairly young/inexperienced pilots in such narratives... the kinds who can be pushed into doing things that defy good judgment or common sense.I've been subjected to pressure to get somebody somewhere right now more than once in the course of my flying career. Fortunately, I've always been hard-headed enough to want to save my own skin, and I've also had excellent backing from my chain of command when a given power broker has gotten testy about a delay, cancellation or re-routing. By the same token, I've never been put in the position of getting pressure from a paying customer to stick my neck out, and I've never been in a situation where rules that should be clear instead are nebulous.Nobody has ever come forward saying the Lynyrd Skynyrd crew was pressed in any way, at least as far as my research has uncovered. There was no cockpit voice recorder on the accident aircraft, so there's no way of knowing if they were getting distracted, pushed or needled once they were airborne. Still, something doesn't add up:The aircraft didn't fly anywhere near as far as it should have been able to go if it had the fuel load listed on its flight plan.The aircraft only flew about a half-hour farther than it could have flown if the only fuel aboard was what they took on after arriving at Greenville.The aircraft didn't make anywhere near the ground speed it should have made along its route of flight.The crew doesn't seem to have been minding the store and flew past countless airports they could have plunked down into to top off en route to Baton Rouge.So, what caused the plane to crash? Running out of gas.Why did it run out of gas? That's the $64,000 question, and likely is the one that'll never be answered.I just hope we don't continue to read about stuff like this in the deaths of present-day celebrities, but the wheel keeps turning. The cause of the Mexican crash that killed banda singer Jenni Rivera in December of 2012 could not be officially determined following investigation by the Dirección de Aeronáutica Civil de México. However, it featured a 78 year-old owner/operator flying a 43 year-old aircraft in reportedly dubious condition, with a 21 year-old co-pilot allegedly not licensed to fly outside the U.S.Rivera and her entourage finished a performance in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon well after midnight, held a press conference at the concert venue, and took off at 3:00 AM local headed toward Toluca, outside Mexico City. This was reportedly a last-minute decision made by Rivera, who wanted to leave town instead of spending the night in Monterrey. (10 <i>revelaciones</i> del fatal accidente de Jenni Rivera)So, from the heart:Please, famous people -- don't push your pilots. Yeah, the aircraft and its convenience are yours to command, but accommodating you might turn out badly.