Jerry Lee Lewis, Rick Nelson, and the DC-3 He Died in-(TRAGIC)

The story of the Douglas DC-3 owned by Jerry Lee Lewis and later purchased by Ricky Nelson. This video contains an interview of Donnie Smither who worked at Memphis International Airport from 1967 until 1973 and worked with the airplane on a daily basis. His account includes the April 24, 1970 tornado that struck the Memphis airport destroying or damaging 33 private planes. He also discusses Lewis’s private pilot Les Long, Long’s opinion of the DC-3, and details of the crash that killed Rick Nelson on December 31, 1985 when the plane 711Y crashed in De Kalb, Texas due to a fire caused by a defective cabin heater. Nelson, his fiancée Helen Blair, and every member of the Stone Canyon Band all perished.

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