Aaliyah Angel - AP News Release of Aaliyah Haughton's Death

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The First AP Report on the Death of Aaliyah (Continued from home page)
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... One critically injured survivor was flown to Florida for treatment, author-ities said.

Aaliyah, of Detroit, was to begin shooting the video for "Rock The Boat" this month in Miami, according to her Web site. It was not clear whether she filmed that video while in the Bahamas.

The singer was born Aaliyah Haughton on Jan. 16, 1979, in New York. She began performing at the young age of 11 when she sang on stage with Gladys Knight's troupe in Las Vegas. Her first album, "Age Ain't Nothing But A Number," came out when she was 15 years old. By age 18, Aaliyah had two hit records to her name.

Aaliyah's song "Try Again" earned her a Grammy nomination this year for best female R&B vocalist. She made her feature acting debut in the film "Romeo Must Die." She also had signed on to appear in two sequels to the high-tech thriller "The Matrix."

Bahamian police Superintendent Basil Rahming said the other passengers killed included Scott Gallin, 41; Keith Wallace, 49; Douglas Kratz, 28; Eric Foreman, 29; Gina Smith, 29; and Christopher Maldonado, 32. The plane's pilot, L. Marael, also died.The survivor was identified by police as Anthony Dodd, 34, of Los Angeles.

The private plane was leaving the Marsh Harbour airport on a trip to Opa-locka when it went down Saturday evening, said police spokesman Marvin Dames. Marsh Harbour is about 100 miles north of Nassau.

After the crash, the mangled twin-engine plane rested about 75 yards from the end of the runway in a marshy area. Workers carried away badly burned bodies and laid them nearby. Pieces of the plane were strewn about the crash site.

Abaco Island Chief Councilor Silbert Mills said those killed included two women and six men. He said he happened to be at the airport and saw the plane taxi out. The next thing he knew, the plane was on the ground. He said he helped rescue the injured.

"I pulled one from the aircraft, and he was screaming," Mills said. "He said he was in a lot of pain."

The cause of the crash was unclear. Kathleen Bergen, a spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration in Atlanta, said the plane was a Cessna 402 owned by Skystream, a company based in Pembroke Pines. She said the plane crashed at the end of the airport's runway at 6:50 p.m.

11/18/03 Update Report: Coroner's Inquest Opens Into Aaliyah Crash

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) - Singer and actress Aaliyah died of severe burns and a blow to the head after her plane crashed in the Bahamas in 2001, a pathologist testified Monday at the
opening of a coroner's inquest.

Dr. Giovander Raju, who performed autopsies on Aaliyah and some of the eight others killed in the Aug. 25, 2001, plane crash, also said the 22-year-old singer "suffered generally from a weak heart."

"Aaliyah went into such a state of shock, even if she had survived the crash, recovery would have been near impossible," Raju said during the inquest, which was held on Abaco Island, where the crash occurred.

The twin-engine Cessna 402B carrying Aaliyah and the others crashed shortly after takeoff from Marsh Harbor in the Bahamas en route to Florida.

The inquest is to examine the crash and the deaths to rule on causes.

Aaliyah's parents filed court papers in September saying they had reached an undisclosed cash settlement in a negligence lawsuit against the plane's operator Blackhawk International Airways Corp., owners Skystream Inc. and Gilbert Chacon and the flight broker Atlantic Flight Group.

Investigators have said they believe the plane was as much as 700 pounds overloaded.

The singer had just finished filming a video for "Rock the Boat" before her death. Aaliya