Baby Girl

by Kathy Iandoli

  Everyone who spoke on Aaliyah’s passing had their own personal reference point to speak from. Sure, there was the mention of the bright future she had ahead of her, the unrealized potential, the stardom that she was just beginning to embrace in both the music and film worlds. But above all, the greatest takeaway they all made sure to impress upon was who Aaliyah was as a human being, and oftentimes that part of a lost celebrity’s persona gets removed from the grief cycle, though not here. The focus was on how kind she was, how she always managed to smile at anyone she met. How she lit up a room and made it her unspoken mission to brighten up people’s days.

  Tameka Foster, who styled Timbaland and other Blackground artists during Aaliyah’s time, described her as exuding an “angelic vibe,” even while on earth. “It’s funny, when you see people that have passed, you kind of realize like, ‘You know what? She was always different,’ ” Foster remembers. “I always believe that people who die young are angels. I think that they’re just on earth for that limited time. Aaliyah always had that spirit, that aura.” Above all, Foster remembers Aaliyah’s smile. The loss was compounded by the fact that she was so bright and never known to be foul to anyone. Plus, she was just so young.

  Aaliyah’s family and both of her record labels each released statements announcing her passing to the public. While they honored Aaliyah’s life, they also referenced the various team members who also passed during the plane crash. “Aaliyah’s family is devastated at the loss of their loving daughter & sister,” the official Haughton family statement read. “Their hearts go out to those families who also lost their loved ones in this tragic accident.” Blackground wrote: “Blackground is devastated with the loss of our Queen. The example she showed young people will be sorely missed and we hope her short time on earth will be an inspiration to young people all over the world. We are equally distraught by the passing of our Blackground family members Gina Smith and Keith Wallace. Their hard work and dedication were an invaluable contribution to the success of Aaliyah and Blackground. Our prayers go out to all the families.”

  Virgin Records also chimed in with a statement, saying: “The worldwide Virgin family is devastated by the news of this terrible and tragic accident and our hearts and thoughts go out to all those families who lost loved ones. Aaliyah, one of the world’s brightest and most talented stars, will be mourned by all who loved her and loved her music. Her depth and versatility as an artist was matched by the passion and devotion she had for her craft. We extend our deepest sympathies to the family of Virgin staff member Doug Kratz. Doug was an extremely dedicated and talented professional, whose enthusiasm, energy and spirit will be missed by everyone who worked alongside him every day.”

  On August 31, 2001, Aaliyah was laid to rest. The funeral took place at the Frank E. Campbell funeral home, located on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. It’s known as the Funeral Home to the Stars,” where everyone from The Notorious B.I.G. to Joan Rivers, Prodigy of Mobb Deep, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, Robert F. Kennedy, and even Greta Garbo had their respective services held. Hundreds of fans surrounded the funeral home that day to honor Baby Girl. Celebrities in attendance included Jay-Z, Sean “Puffy” Combs, Lil’ Kim, Mike Tyson, Busta Rhymes, and many others.

  Rashad Haughton’s eulogy for Aaliyah at her funeral was beautiful and poignant. He spoke about losing his sister but also the other passengers who were on board the flight. He compared life to the pages of a book, where collectively they make up a person’s whole journey, yet it’s through the individual chapters where anything can happen—from happiness to sadness, pain, love, all of it. We can reread those pages as our memories. “God has decided that Aaliyah’s book is done,” he said, “and now she can sit by his side and enjoy flipping through the pages of her life and finally learn the meaning of the mystery we are all still living here on earth.” The two were inseparable. Where you saw Aaliyah, you saw Rashad. They were more than siblings; they were confidants, best friends; and as her brother bravely addressed the congregation, he spoke of the hope that his angel will visit him in many ways throughout his days.

  “Baby Girl, I will see your smile in every sunrise and feel the warmth of your touch in its rays. I will remember how your tears cleansed my soul in every raindrop and your kiss like the wind on my face,” he continued. “When the birds sing I’ll hear your angelic voice resonate through the sky. I’ll look at the moon and stars and see the twinkle in your eye, I’ll walk the earth knowing that you are everywhere. Looking down from heaven, waiting for your big brother to get there. Hold her for me, God. Amen.”

  Aaliyah’s mother, Diane, released twenty-two doves into the air outside of the funeral home; each dove represented one year of Aaliyah’s life. Aaliyah’s dove tattoo on her lower back in honor of her late grandmother meant even more now, since she was joining her in heaven. Aaliyah’s casket was brought by carriage to the St. Ignatius Loyola Roman Catholic church. The repast was held in Midtown’s Cipriani, where thousands of fans showed up outside, flooding the streets. Concurrently, fans on the West Coast in Los Angeles held their own memorial under the billboard for Aaliyah’s Aaliyah album that sat on Sunset Boulevard. Other pocket cities across the country held their own tiny ceremonies to honor Aaliyah’s life, including back home in Detroit where her high school was filled with flowers, photos, and stuffed animals. Her final resting place is in the mausoleum at the Ferncliff Cemetery in Hartsdale, New York. To date, fans still gather every year on both her birthday and the anniversary of her passing to remember a life cut short.

  At the MTV VMAs a week later—the event where Aaliyah was scheduled to appear—a short memorial took place during the ceremony. Janet Jackson opened, reiterating what Aaliyah said when her grandmother passed: “One day we will be together again.” A fan’s letter was read, and then Missy, Timbaland, and Ginuwine took to the stage to honor Aaliyah. Ginuwine called her “one in a million,” as Timbaland advised, “Your music will always live on through me.” Missy, still in shock, said, “I love you, Aaliyah, and you’re forever missed.” Rashad, near tears, closed out the moment. Other artists honored Aaliyah throughout the night, including Usher, who wore an Aaliyah T-shirt to present Destiny’s Child with the VMA for Best R&B Video.

  Even though nearly two weeks had gone by, everyone was still shaken and so confused as to what had happened. Plane crashes are a semi-frequent occurrence in the stories of superstars, but again something with Aaliyah’s felt even more inconclusive and open-ended. She was later honored at the BET Awards in 2002, alongside Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes of TLC, who died tragically in a van accident in Honduras on April 25, 2002.

  Investigations for the plane crash continued on for years, coupled with various lawsuits that arose in connection to the disaster. With every new dissection of the days/hours/minutes leading up to the crash, new information surfaced that only added to the devastation and confusion. Within days of the crash, it was revealed that the pilot had a criminal record of drug possession in the past. In fact, it was within two weeks of his piloting the plane that Luis Morales III brought a plea of no contest in a Broward County, Florida, court for four felonies, one of which included the possession of crack cocaine. Because there was no guilty plea but an acceptance of sentence, he was sentenced to three years’ probation without conviction. A conviction would have inevitably suspended his pilot’s license, though despite the license not yet being revoked under the rules of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), he was not authorized to pilot the plane. The charter plane company, Blackhawk International Airways, issues certificates for each flight, where a single pilot’s name is listed. The certificate for Aaliyah’s flight did not list Morales as the authorized pilot. In addition, an autopsy report almost a year later revealed that Morales had cocaine in his urine and alcohol in his stomach when he took flight.

  There were a series of misfires in scheduling this trip altogether that left many bewildered when later putting the pieces together to get a clearer picture. To start, the gear, war
drobe, video equipment, and luggage that was flown from Miami to the Bahamas already came with a major warning that there was a weight overload on flight. In addition, the plane that they were using to deliver the cargo was far bigger than the one they attempted to return the passengers and cargo in.

  Scheduling the shoot was also done haphazardly. Prior to the Bahamas being chosen as the location for the shoot, Jamaica was also on the short list, along with a different location in the Bahamas outside of Abaco. The clear weather in the forecast led to the hasty decision to move forward with Abaco. Plans weren’t even finalized until a week before the shoot was scheduled. Hype Williams’s production company, Instinct Productions, worked with Atlantic Flight Group to handle the travel arrangements, which included brokering the other flights that would carry the cargo as well as flights for the team/talent. Atlantic was working with a company called Sky Limo to charter their planes and Pro-Freight Cargo Service to organize the cargo shipments to the Bahamas for the “Rock the Boat” shoot to continue after the Miami footage was filmed.

  In the midst of the hastiness, there was a reckless desperation to cut corners wherever possible. It became clearer and clearer that none of this should have happened at all, right down to the change in location for the video shoot and ultimately right down to the plane taking flight against the aviation guidelines. “These people didn’t need to die,” Eddie Golson, owner of Pro-Freight Cargo Service, told the New York Times in 2001. “This all could have been avoided if they had just followed the rules.” During the process for securing the cargo, Golson wasn’t given clear calculations as to how much cargo would be packed on one flight, and he was coerced into allowing for some overloading, despite regulations. Once the weight of the cargo came in at 15,000 pounds, it was obvious that multiple flights had to be chartered. After delays in the cargo arriving at the correct destination (they were incorrectly scheduled to arrive in North Eleuthera, over one hundred miles away), everything eventually reached Treasure Cay, the part of Abaco where they were supposed to be. Sky Limo was then advised last minute that the plane scheduled to bring Aaliyah and her team back would not be needed until a day later. The plane Sky Limo had could safely bring everyone back and they were planning to do so until plans had changed. Enter Blackhawk, who was then called to fill in for the newly scheduled Saturday flight. Instinct Productions later alleged that they had no idea who Blackhawk was or who called upon them for the replacement.

  The owner of Blackhawk, Gilbert Chacon, had a criminal record for fraud—including bankruptcy fraud, where he was a player in a $400 million insurance scam with another charter company. A company called Skystream was named as the owner of the Cessna 402-B, with the address of Skystream being listed as Chacon’s home address in Pembroke Pines, Florida. Chacon was also known as a reckless pilot (and could have possibly originally been listed on the certificate). Morales started working for Blackhawk a few days before the flight. He had very little previous experience and this flight would be his first… and last. An FAA representative later advised that there was no record of this aircraft (with its tail number N-8097W) being scheduled for flights within ten days of the crash.

  Three weeks following Aaliyah’s plane crash, the FAA inspector responsible for clearing the flight committed suicide.

  After the August 25 crash, Gilbert Chacon vanished. He popped up in September to pay back rent to the airport where he rented space for Blackhawk, out in Lantana, Florida. He told the airport manager all about the crash and in the midst of the conversation made claims that Morales was qualified to fly the plane. When the lawsuits inevitably arrived, Chacon was represented by a Fort Lauderdale attorney named Michael Moulis, who was a former FAA prosecutor known for defending charter companies that had violated rules and even caused more crashes comparable to the one involving Aaliyah and her team. Moulis died in 2020. The pieces to the puzzle remained scattered.

  Speculations still arose as to why Blackhawk was even chosen for the rescheduled flight and who made that call, considering another company had already been chosen to take the team home. The belief they landed on was that Blackhawk was less expensive, so in an effort to cut costs someone went with a cheap, disreputable company, which ended the lives of nine individuals, the real precious cargo on the flight. Fighting to jam-pack people and luggage into a smaller and cheaper plane was a move that resulted in catastrophe. Virgin Records was taken to task for cutting those costs when it involved safety, yet again, no one knows who made that final call.

  This wasn’t the last time there would be money-related issues with Virgin attached to this disaster.

  A mortuary located in Nassau, Butlers’ Funeral Home & Crematorium, was hired to prepare Aaliyah’s body as well as those of the other passengers to be sent back to the States rather quickly. Virgin Records executives Ken and Nancy Berry requested that due to Aaliyah’s celebrity status, her preparation be prioritized. Within three days of her death, her body was already prepared and flown on a private jet back to New York City. The cost to prepare Aaliyah and the rest of the bodies was in excess of $68,000. It was a verbal deal but a deal nonetheless. Weeks had gone by and no payments were made. Then, Mariah Carey’s film Glitter was released in September and was a box office failure. Virgin Records took a financial hit and both Ken and Nancy Berry were cut from the label. The label then decided that since neither Ken nor Nancy was still working at the label, Virgin was no longer responsible for the incredibly costly funeral home bill. The Haughtons, as well as the families of the other fallen passengers, all claimed that the financial responsibility was supposed to fall on the label, as agreed upon. The label denied that responsibility, perhaps in an added effort to recoup from Glitter in the most dishonorable way possible. After a year, the funeral home was still fighting for their payments.

  It was R&B singer Maxwell who reportedly paid for Aaliyah’s funeral.

  In November 2001, a criminal investigation was begun by the U.S. Department of Transportation, where records were taken from Blackhawk’s offices as well as from the home of Chacon—his home address being listed as the same location as Skystream’s offices.

  In 2002, the Haughton family filed a multi-defendant lawsuit for wrongful death and negligence. The family named everyone from Instinct Productions to Hype Williams, Gilbert Chacon, Blackhawk, Skystream, Atlantic Flight Group, and Virgin Records among others. The only company not named was Blackground. Other suits followed involving Scott Gallin’s family, as well as Anthony Dodd’s and Eric Foreman’s. The attorney in the latter suits described the charter company as “fly-by-night” and said Virgin Records “put profits over people.” He posed the question: “Do you think that type of transportation would have been provided for Madonna?”

  Other artists even spoke out about the nature of the crash, speculating that Aaliyah’s team was partially responsible. Singer Mary J. Blige was very vocal about her speculations surrounding the crash. “I don’t even know what to say,” she told 106 & Park years later. “I just know that, that was a murder.” She went on to specify that it was a “spiritual” murder, saying, “I could go deeper. For a lot of people I would really have to bring proof.” She also expressed to Oprah for O, the Oprah Magazine in 2006 her suspicions about whom Aaliyah surrounded herself with and related to the fogginess. “She was surrounded by people who weren’t telling her the real deal,” Blige advised. “We weren’t close friends, but I’d talked with her a couple of times. I very well could’ve been the woman on that plane.” It had many questioning their own mortality but also the notion that a simple switch involving luggage could have ensured that everyone would have survived.

  In essence, Aaliyah would still be here.

  Aaliyah’s wrongful death suit lasted for years in conjunction with the criminal investigation. In September 2003, the Haughton family settled their lawsuit with Chacon, Blackhawk, and Skystream for an undisclosed amount. They also agreed on both sides to keep the details of the settlement completely confidential. By November, a coroner�
��s inquest was opened where the devastating details of how Aaliyah died were revealed by the coroner, Dr. Giovander Raju.

  Within two months of the Haughtons settling, Blackground Entertainment opened their own wrongful death lawsuit against Instinct Productions. The suit goes into detail, stating that the relationship between Blackground and Instinct was “long, close, trusting, and professional” and that Blackground had faith that they would keep Aaliyah safe. The complaint was amended to reflect that there was a breach of contract on Instinct’s behalf, where neither Aaliyah nor Blackground failed on their part of the agreement and that there was no misconduct. However, there was on Instinct’s end, as part of the agreement involves transporting Aaliyah safely and accordingly. Blackground also highlighted the damages they faced following Aaliyah’s death. Instinct attempted to have the suit dropped, stating that Aaliyah was an employee of Blackground and therefore they couldn’t sue for negligence from a third party when it involved injuring (or in this case killing) an employee. However, in 2004 the courts ruled that Blackground could, in fact, sue. Aaliyah owned 10 percent of Blackground Entertainment and per the judge was its “chief asset,” stating “growth and prosperity were primarily the result of its efforts to successfully develop and nurture Aaliyah’s career.” The following year, however, the tune had changed when the lawsuit was unanimously dismissed by a panel of judges in the Manhattan appeals court. “The concept that a person is a property asset of another is, of course, abhorrent to modern-day thinking,” wrote the judges in their dismissal. “Courts almost universally reject the antiquated proprietary view of the master/servant relationship.”

  In the state of New York, only the next of kin can sue for wrongful death, and since Aaliyah’s family had reached their settlement back in 2003, Blackground jumping in to sue for their own damages was nothing short of “frivolous.”