Inside Aaliyah's tragic plane crash that caused the singer's death 23 years ago

R&B and pop star Aaliyah died in a plane crash 23 years ago .

Aaliyah took the music industry by storm with her successful 1994 debut album Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number and went on to have chart-topping singles such as Back & Forth and At Your Best (You Are Love). Her sultry voice, stylish hip-hop street look and swaggy demeanor are what pushed her into stardom in the 1990s and early 2000s before her untimely death.

Two months after the release of her self-titled album, On August 25, 2001, Aaliyah died in a plane crash .

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The Rome Must Die leading woman died on the plane ride back from the Bahamas following the completion of filming for her final music video Rock The Boat. Aaliyah was flying on a small twin-engine Cessna 402B, which crashed not long after it took off.

Seven others were on the plane with the Queen of the Damned star, including her hairdresser, bodyguard, a record executive and the plane’s pilot, according to The New York Times.

The plane ’s wings “shattered on impact”. The landing gear was also ripped off. Aaliyah was one of the five passengers who died instantly. Three others succumbed to their injuries and died the next day.

The official cause of death for Aaliyah was “severe burns and a blow to the head,” according to a pathologist who performed autopsies testified in court, per CBS News. The pathologist also added that the autopsy report for pilot, Luis Antonio Morales, revealed that he had “cocaine in his urine and traces of alcohol in his stomach.”

Additionally, Luis wasn’t certified to fly the Cessna 402B, getting hired by the charter company just a few days before the crash, per The New York Times.

Luis had been sentenced to probation for cocaine possession a couple of weeks before the accident. The New York Times also reported that in the days before the plane ride there was much confusion and mistakes, such as overweight cargo for Aaliyah’s music video being sent to the wrong Bahamian island.

Along with multiple changes of which charter company would be flying Aaliyah and her group back to America. Following the investigations into the cause of the crash, officials “believed that the small twin-engine plane was 700 pounds overloaded when it took off from the airport on the Bahamian island of Abaco,” per People.