Retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle was believed to be on the plane that crashed outside of Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday, killing all seven people aboard. He joins a somber roll of athletes who died in plane or helicopter crashes, including fellow race car drivers Alan Kulwicki and Davey Allison, who died in separate accidents in 1993. Here are some of the sports figures who died in aviation accidents:
Alan Kulwicki
The Wisconsin native was NASCAR’s 1986 Rookie of the Year in 1992 became the first Northerner and first college graduate to win the drivers’ championship, edging Bill Elliott in the standings in what was then the closest finish in the circuit’s history. Kulwicki, 38, two executives from Hooters, his sponsor, and the pilot died in April 1993 with their small jet crashed on approach to landing in Tennessee. The ºÃÉ«tv Transportation Safety Board ruled that the pilot failed to clear the engine inlet of ice.
Davey Allison
The 1992 Daytona 500 winner and son of ’83 Cup champion Bobby Allison is a member of the NASCAR Hall of Fame, like his father. The younger Allison was piloting a helicopter that crashed in the infield at the Talladega Superspeedway in Alabama. An NTSB investigation blamed the July 1993 crash on the 32-year-old pilot's inexperience.
After the 1993 season, Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace completed a “Polish victory lap†— Kulwicki's celebration in which he circled the track clockwise — holding up flags with the numbers of the two deceased drivers.
Payne Stewart
The winner of three major golf tournaments and the reigning U.S. Open champion at the time, Stewart died in 1999 when his private plane lost cabin pressure, killing all four passengers and both pilots. The plane, which was supposed to take him to the season-ending tournament in Dallas, continued on autopilot until it ran out of fuel and crashed into a field in South Dakota. He was 42.
The PGA Tour presents an award in his name to the golfer who best exemplifies Stewart’s character, sportsmanship and commitment to charity.
Roberto Clemente
The Pittsburgh right fielder and humanitarian was bringing emergency supplies to the survivors of a Nicaraguan earthquake when the overloaded and poorly maintained plane crashed on takeoff from Puerto Rico on New Year’s Eve, 1972.
At 38, he was a 15-time All-Star, four-time ºÃÉ«tv League batting champion regular-season and 1966 NL MVP who led the Pirates to two World Series titles. The Baseball Hall of Fame waived its five-year eligibility waiting period to induct him the next summer. Major League Baseball’s named its award for character and sportsmanship after him.
Thurman Munson
The 1970 AL Rookie of the Year and the league’s 1976 Most Valuable Player, the New York Yankees catcher was the team’s first captain since Lou Gehrig. Having bought a plane so he could fly home to his family in Ohio on off-days, Munson was practicing landings when he clipped a tree on approach to Akron-Canton Regional Airport. Two others aboard survived the 1979 crash, but the 32-year-old ballplayer was paralyzed on impact and suffocated in the ensuing fire.
Emiliano Sala
The Argentinian striker was the top scorer for Nantes in three straight Ligue 1 seasons before he was sent to Cardiff City for a 15 million pound ($19 million) transfer fee. He was on his way to his new team when his plane crashed in the English Channel in 2019. Sala, 28, was found three weeks later.
Kobe Bryant
The five-time NBA champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist and 2018 Academy Award winner was traveling with his 13-year-old daughter and seven others to a girls' basketball tournament when their helicopter crashed outside of Los Angeles in January 2020. He was 41.
The Lakers retired both numbers he wore during the career in which he was the team's all-time leading scorer. The NBA named its All-Star Game MVP award after him, and the WNBA presents the Kobe & Gigi Bryant Advocacy Award for contributions to women's and girls' basketball.
Rocky Marciano
The only world heavyweight champion to retire undefeated, Marciano held the title from 1952-56. After his boxing career made him a celebrity and an Italian-American icon, he had appeared in films and television and was friends with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. He died at 45 when an inexperienced pilot crashed into a tree in bad weather three miles from an Iowa airfield in August 1969. The title character in Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky†franchise was partially inspired by Marciano.
Roy Halladay
The Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies All-Star was a two-time winner of the Cy Young Award who threw a perfect game in the 2010 regular season and a no-hitter that postseason. He was 40 in 2017 when he crashed a sport plane he had purchased a month earlier into the Gulf of Mexico. The NTSB found that he was impaired by high levels of amphetamines and was attempting extreme aerobic stunts when he lost control of the aircraft.
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