Plane in Aaliyah crash may have been overloaded

WASHINGTON - A plane that crashed in the Bahamas killing nine people, including the pop singer Aaliyah, may have been dangerously overloaded with luggage.

Just before the plane took off on Saturday night (Sunday morning NZT), the pilot is said to have argued with the singer's entourage over the amount of equipment they were carrying to Florida, having shot a video on the Bahamas.

Veteran Bahamian charter pilot Lewis Key, told the New York Post that he heard the argument before the plane took off.

Mr Key said: "With nine people and all the camera and sound equipment they were loading, the pilot kept saying, 'There's too much weight for a safe flight to Opa-Locka [airport in Miami]. He tried to convince them the plane was overloaded but they insisted they had chartered the plane and they had to be in Miami on Saturday night."

The crash happened moments after the twin-engined Cessna 402 took off from Marsh Harbour airport on Abaco Island.

New Yorker Aaliyah, 22, who had been nominated for a Grammy award, was killed instantly. Six others died at the scene, and the remaining two members of the group died later in hospital.

Crash investigators are examining the theory that one of the aircraft's engines failed and the extra weight may have caused the pilot to lose control.

"Several people have said they lost an engine on take-off," added Mr Key, "but I guess the only people who know that for sure were on the plane ­ and they're all gone now."

One of the investigators searching through the wreckage for clues, Police Superintendent Basil Rahming, said an engine "apparently failed".

A team of specialists from the US National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration arrived in the Bahamas today to join the investigation into the cause of the crash.

- INDEPENDENT