It would have been his 77th birthday today had not fate taken him from us, great talent.
Wasn’t fate. i lived on NSU campus and heard the commotion that night from the dorm.
The cops had warned the band not to ‘imbibe’ the maryjane, but they did... so they were told NOT to go back to the hotel in town from the campus auditorium where they were playing, but had to leave town in the middle of that nite or be arrested.
They contacted their private pilot in the downtown hotel ~5 miles away and he had to rush to the Natchitoches airport which is right of campus across from a small lake. Stories i heard was that the pilot was ‘older’ and was in a panic and might have even ran some if not all the way to get the airplane ready.
The takeoff never got over the pecan trees about a few hundred yards from the landing strip. The considered thinking was the pilot died of a heart attack. The ‘official’ record IIRC was ‘fog’...
Allot of this story (and more) was buried due to liability and even Croce’s wife came to the local pub a year or so later asking for witnesses, etc.
i never heard what became of her investigation. But i do know they just plowed the plane into a spot by a two lane field road where i actually was able to see the inside, which was NOT for the faint of heart. Allot of ‘evidence’ was there to see/take.
Didn’t have to happen... i wasn’t at the concert that nite, wasn’t a big fan at the time. But roommates said the concert was fab.