Reba McEntire knows what it’s like to go through sadness and loss. In 1991, the country star lost seven of her band members and her tour manager in a plane crash while they were on tour.
On March 16, 1991, Reba McEntire and her band played at a private event in San Diego. After the show, two planes were waiting at Brown Field Municipal Airport to fly the band members to their next concert in Fort Wayne, Indiana.
The band and tour manager left on one of the planes, while McEntire stayed in San Diego for the night with her then-husband and manager, Narvel Blackstock, and her stylist, Sandi Spika.
In a sad interview with Oprah Winfrey in 2012, McEntire remembered what happened next. The second plane took off and landed safely, but the first plane, carrying the band and tour manager, crashed just 10 miles from the airport.
“The tip of the plane’s wing hit a boulder on Otay Mountain, and it killed everyone on board,” McEntire told Oprah. “When we found out, Narvel went to our pilot to tell him what happened.”
“Narvel came back to our hotel room around two or three in the morning and told me one of the planes had crashed. I asked, ‘Are they okay?’ He said, ‘I don’t think so.’ I asked, ‘But you’re not sure?’ He repeated, ‘I don’t think so.'”
McEntire said they were desperate to know exactly what happened. “Narvel was going from room to room with a phone, calling…,” she said, pausing as she started to cry. “I’m sorry, it’s been 20 years, but it still hurts. I remember Narvel pacing back and forth in that room.”
Friends like Vince Gill and Dolly Parton offered their bands to help Reba McEntire finish her tour, but she turned them down. She dedicated her next album, For My Broken Heart, to her band members who died, and it reached No. 1 on the Billboard Top Country Albums chart, selling four million copies.
Every year on the anniversary of the tragedy, McEntire honors those who passed away. In 2014, she used Instagram to remember the crash. For the 25th anniversary in 2016, she went back to San Diego and shared the experience on social media.
McEntire wrote, “Today is the 25th anniversary of the plane crash. Last November, I went back to San Diego and took a helicopter to the crash site. I feel like they know how much we miss them. My heartfelt condolences and prayers go out to all the families and friends.”
