Thirty years ago today (March 16, 1991), seven of Reba McEntire s band members, along with her tour manager, were tragically killed in a plane crash near San Diego, Calif. The aircraft was en route from a private concert that McEntire had played just a few hours earlier.
On March 15, McEntire and her band performed for IBM executives and were next scheduled to perform in Ft. Wayne, Ind. The singer, her then-husband, Narvel Blackstock, and her stylist, Sandy Spika, elected to spend the night in California, as McEntire was recovering from a case of bronchitis; the rest of her crew, however, headed to Ft. Wayne.