Overloading Investigated in Crash of Aaliyah’s Airplane

The plane carrying singing star Aaliyah and eight other people, six from Los Angeles, may have been overloaded when it took off and crashed, killing all those on board, a Bahamian aviation investigator said Monday.

“It’s one of the many possibilities we’re investigating,” Randy Butler told reporters after two local newspapers, the Tribune and the Freeport News, quoted an unidentified baggage handler as warning the pilot that the plane was too heavy.

The popular, twin-engine aircraft usually is configured to carry one pilot and eight or nine passengers. Weighing about 4,000 pounds and topped off with 1,200 pounds of fuel, the Cessna 402 can carry a net payload of about 1,600 pounds.

Assuming full fuel tanks and an average passenger weight of 175 pounds, the propeller-driven plane probably would not have been capable of carrying much of the additional baggage that the R&B; entourage had. Witnesses said the group brought a truckload of baggage along.

Early, unconfirmed reports from the Bahamas indicated that the plane may have lost an engine as it accelerated down the runway at Marsh Harbour Airport on Abaco Island for a flight to Opa-locka, Fla.

Like all modern twin-engine aircraft, the Cessna 402 is certified to take off and climb out safely on one engine while carrying a full load. However, flying on one engine requires diligent adherence to approved pilot procedures, and overloading can make one-engine takeoffs and climb-outs extremely precarious, if not impossible.

One witness said the plane veered sharply to the left--indicating possible failure of the left engine--before it plummeted to the ground and burst into flames a few hundred feet beyond the end of the runway.

Ted Lopatkiewicz, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board, stressed Monday that the investigation was just getting underway and that it probably was much too early to make assumptions about what caused the accident.

Lopatkiewicz said that at the request of the Bahamian government, the NTSB had sent one accredited representative to help in the Bahamian investigation.

Aaliyah, a 22-year-old rising star who had amassed several hit singles, a platinum album and some high-profile movie roles, was in the Bahamas to shoot a music video.

Officials said she and her associates apparently had finished their work and were heading home when the crash occurred at midafternoon Saturday.

On Monday, the Hollywood community mourned Aaliyah’s death and grappled with its impact on one of the industry’s most anticipated film projects: the second and third installments of the 1999 blockbuster “The Matrix,” starring Keanu Reeves.

Aaliyah was to star in both films, although she was not scheduled to go before the cameras until late fall in Australia, said producer Joel Silver. The first sequel, “Matrix Reloaded,” won’t be released until 2003.

“This is a horrible, horrible tragedy,” Silver said. “We are all really devastated. She was all part of our world, and she had a great impact on everybody she met.”

More than 1,000 people gathered Monday night at Leimert Park in South Los Angeles to mourn Aaliyah’s death and celebrate her short life. People carried candles and waved pictures of her. Speakers prayed and paid homage to Aaliyah and to the other people killed in the crash.

“I came tonight to pay my respects,” said Leighana Lightfoot, 16, one of the many young women at the park. “There’s not one song of hers that I haven’t liked.”

Tiesha Crane said, “She died way too young. But she still touched many people with her music.”

Earlier in the day, a billboard in West Hollywood became an impromptu memorial where mourners wrote poems and messages of love and appreciation.

Dorothy Shuler called her poem “The Newest Angel.”

It read:

Too beautiful,

Too talented,

Too young,

Too soon.

Potential lost,

A sadder moon.

For Dame Lee, 29, the message was short: “4EVER”.

Among those who died with Aaliyah were six support personnel from Los Angeles: Douglas Kratz, 28; Eric Forman, 29; Anthony Dodd, 34; Keith Wallace, 49; Gina Smith, 29, and Christopher Maldonado, 32.

Also killed was Scott Galin, 41, of Florida, said to be the singer’s bodyguard, and the pilot, identified as Luis Fernando Morales of Longwood, near Miami.

FAA records show that the plane, one of more than 650 Cessna 402Bs manufactured from 1973 to 1978, was owned by Skystream Inc., of Pembroke Pines, Fla. Attempts to contact company officials were not successful.

Times staff writer John L. Mitchell and the Associated Press contributed to this story.