Paul David Wellstone was an American politician and two-term U.S. Senator from Minnesota. He was a member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party and was a professor of political science at Carleton College before being elected to the Senate in 1990. Wellstone was a liberal and a leading spokesman for the progressive wing of the national Democratic Party. He served in the Senate from 1991 until his death in a plane crash on 25 October, 2002, in the 102nd, 103rd, 104th, 105th, …

Roberto Clemente Walker (August 18, 1934 - December 31, 1972) was a Major League Baseball right fielder and right-handed batter. He was elected to the Hall of Fame posthumously in 1973 as the first Hispanic American to be selected, and the only exception to the mandatory five-year post-retirement waiting period since it was instituted in 1954. Clemente was born in Carolina, Puerto Rico, the youngest of four children. He played 18 seasons in the majors from 1955 to 1972, …

Ronald Wayne "Ronnie" Van Zant (January 15 1948 - October 20 1977) was the lead vocalist, primary lyricist, and a founding member of the Southern rock band Lynyrd Skynyrd. He was the older brother of .38 Special founder and vocalist Donnie Van Zant and current Lynyrd Skynyrd lead vocalist Johnny Van Zant. Born and raised in Jacksonville, Florida, Van Zant aspired to be many things before finding his love for music.

Thomas Hale Boggs, Sr., was an American Democratic politician and a member of the United States House of Representatives for Louisiana. He was the House Majority Leader. In 1972, while he was still Majority Leader, the twin engine airplane in which Boggs was traveling over a remote section of Alaska disappeared. The plane presumably crashed and was never found. Congressman Nick Begich was also presumed killed in the same accident.

Aaliyah Dana Haughton (January 16, 1979 – August 25, 2001), best known as Aaliyah, was an American singer, dancer, model and actress. Introduced to audiences by R&B singer R. Kelly, Aaliyah became famous during the mid-1990s with several hit records from the songwriting/production team of Missy Elliott & Timbaland and their associate Steve "Static" Garrett. Aaliyah soon joined Timbaland's R&B and hip hop collective, the Superfriends Clique.

George Thomas Leland, better known as Mickey Leland, was a spokesman for the hungry and poor, and later became a congressman from the Texas 18th District and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus. He was a Democrat. Born in Lubbock, Texas, Leland attended Wheatley High School in Houston, Texas and obtained a bachelor's and Doctorate of Pharmacy at Texas Southern University in Houston.

Nicholas Joseph (Nick) Begich, Sr. was a Democratic Party member of the United States House of Representatives from Alaska. He disappeared after his plane crashed in 1972.

David Oswald Nelson (born 24 October 1936 in New York City) is an actor, director, producer, and son of famed bandleader/TV actor Ozzie Nelson and singer Harriet Hilliard. David was the brother of singer Ricky Nelson and they both appeared on the family TV show "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet" in the 1950s and 1960s; he is currently the last surviving original cast member of the series.

Donald Dedmon (August 13, 1931 - February 13, 1998) was born in Missouri. He received his undergraduate degree at Southwestern Missouri State College, and later, an M.A. and doctorate degree in oral education from University of Iowa. He taught at high school and college levels before entering administration positions at Colorado State University. After serving at Colorado State University he became vice president at Marshall University, …

Leslie Allen Jordan (according to his biography born April 29, 1955) is an Emmy Award-winning American actor. Hailing from Chattanooga, Tennessee and at a height of just 4 ft 11 in (1.50 m), Jordan has become an instantly recognizable face in film and television. He is most well known for his television work - including guest appearances on "Lois & Clark: The New Adventures of Superman", "Star Trek: Voyager", "Reba", "Boston Public", …

Michael "Mickey" Kantor (born August 7, 1939 in Nashville, Tennessee) is an American politician and lawyer. After serving as the Clinton-Gore campaign chair in 1992, Kantor was appointed United States Trade Representative, holding that office from 1993 to 1997. He was, in 1996 and 1997, United States Secretary of Commerce.

Johnny Preston (born John Preston Courville, August 18 1939, Port Arthur, Texas) is an American singer. Of Cajun ancestry, Preston sang in high school choral contests throughout the state of Texas. He formed a rock and roll band called 'The Shades', before recording his No. 1 hit single "Running Bear." The song was written by J. P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson, who had died the previous year in the same plane crash that killed Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens.

Brook Warren Berringer (July 9, 1973 - April 18, 1996) was a quarterback for the University of Nebraska football team in the mid-1990s. Berringer came to Nebraska from Goodland, Kansas and played a back-up role to Tommie Frazier. He is best known for replacing an injured Tommie Frazier during the 1994 season and leading the Cornhuskers to seven consecutive wins and to the Orange Bowl national championship game against the University of Miami Hurricanes.

Leo Mustonen was a Finnish-American World War II Army Air Corps cadet who was reported missing after a plane crash on November 18, 1942 until his frozen remains were found in October 2005 at the bottom of a glacier in the Sierra Nevada mountain range, 63 years later. He was 22 at the time of his death. Mustonen joined the Army during his senior high school year in Brainerd, Minnesota and was in training to become a navigator when he was reported missing.

Van (Van Zandt) Williams is a former American actor (born February 27, 1934, in Fort Worth, Texas) best known for his brief yet world famous television role as "Britt Reid" "aka" "The Green Hornet" with the late Bruce Lee as his sidekick Kato, in the 1966-1967 ABC "The Green Hornet" television series, and for his earlier leading role as Kenny Madison in both Warner Bros.

Phil Redmond CBE (born 1949 in Liverpool, brought up in Huyton, Merseyside) is an English television producer and scriptwriter. He is well-known for having created several popular television series such as "Grange Hill" (BBC One, 1978-present), "Brookside" (Channel 4, 1982-2003) and "Hollyoaks" (Channel 4, 1995-). For over twenty years he also ran his own independent production company, Mersey Television, before selling the company off in 2005.

Anna Jantar-Kukulska, name at birth: Anna Maria Szmeterling, (b. June 10, 1950, Poznań - d. March 14, 1980, Warsaw) was a Polish singer and the mother to Natalia Kukulska. She was born in a Polish family of Jewish descent. She debuted in 1973 at the Polish Song Festival in Opole with "Najtrudniejszy Pierwszy Krok". Her husband Jarosław Kukulski composed many of her songs that became hits. She died in a plane crash on March 14, 1980 near Okecie Airport in Warsaw.

Peter Snow CBE (born April 20, 1938 in Dublin, Ireland) is a British television and radio presenter. He is the cousin of Jon Snow, the main presenter of "Channel 4 News", and the brother-in-law of historian-writer Margaret MacMillan. He was educated at Wellington College and subsequently read Greats at Balliol College, University of Oxford, where he was taught by R.M. Hare. Snow was a newscaster for Independent Television News (ITN) from the 1960s, …

Tun Fuad Stephens, or Tun Haji Mohd. Fuad Stephens, or simply Donald Stephens, was the first Chief Minister of the state of Sabah in Malaysia. He played a fundamental role in bringing the state of Sabah into the Federation of Malaysia in 1963. He was the cheif minister post until 1964, and again in 1976. While being the chief minister the second time, he died in a plane crash on June 6, 1976, in Kota Kinabalu.

Dr. Leonard Michael Greene (1918 - Nov 30, 2006) was an inventor and engineer who holds more than 100 patents, 60 of which are in aviation technology. He was born in New York City, and after receiving his B.S. and M.S. in civil engineering at City University of New York went to work for Grumman Aircraft as an aerodynamics specialist and engineering test pilot. While working at Grumman he witnessed a plane crash caused by a stalled engine.

Merrill Womach (February 7, 1927 in Spokane, Washington) is an American undertaker, organist and gospel singer, notable both for founding National Music Service, which provides recorded music to funeral homes across America, and for surviving a October 26, 1961 plane crash in Beaver Marsh, Oregon that left him him disfigured with third degree burns over most of his body. Womach authorized an autobiography of his recovery titled "Tested by Fire", …

Louise Sara Linder Eastman (November 9, 1911 - March 1, 1962) was the wife of entertainment lawyer Lee Eastman, and heiress to the Linder Department Store fortune. She and husband Lee had four children including John Eastman, also an entertainment attorney, and Linda McCartney, a rock photographer, musician, animal rights activist, and the late wife of former Beatle Paul McCartney and Linda's younger sisters Laura and Louise.

Pasha Hristova (July 16, 1946 - December 21, 1971) was a Bulgarian singer, best known for performing one of Bulgaria's most popular songs "Edna balgarska roza" ("A Bulgarian Rose"). Some of her other hits were "Povei, vetre" ("Blow, oh Wind"), "Tozi diven sviat" ("This Wonderful World", a version of Czesław Niemen's "Dziwny jest ten świat") and "Yantra" ("Yantra"). Her brief but meteoric career started in the late 1960s.

Hans Alsér was a Swedish table tennis player and national coach. He was an international top level player. He was the European champion (singles) 1962 and 1966, World champion (doubles) 1967 and 1969 and European champion (doubles) 1966. He died in a plane crash (a schedued flight) near Stockholm 1977.

Ralph Frederick Beermann was a Nebraska Republican politician. Born near Dakota City, Nebraska, USA, he graduated from Morningside College in Sioux City, Iowa and then some Army specialist schools. During World War II he served in the African-European Theaters in the United States Army as part of the Six Hundred and First Ordnance Battalion and the Three Hundred and First Ordnance Regiment. After the war he partnered with his 6 brothers (the Beermann Brothers) in farming, …

José Carlos Schwarz was a Guinea-Bissauan poet and musician. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential musicians of Guinea-Bissau. He wrote in Portuguese and French, but sang in Creole. In 1970 he formed the "Cobiana Djazz" band with a group of friends. After the independence of Guinea-Bissau Schwarz became the director of the Department of Arts and Culture, and also the responsible for youth matters.

George Otto Emil Lignac (1891 - 1954) was a Dutch pathologist-anatomist. The disease Lignac-Fanconi syndrome is named for him. (later: Abderhalden etc. disease) Lignac was born in Passoeroean Java, Dutch East Indies where his father worked as a civil servant. He studied medicine at Leiden and then returned to the Dutch East Indies and was a teacher at the S.T.O.V.I.A.(School for Native Indies doctors) Batavia.