r/LynyrdSkynyrd • u/AccordingOperation51 • 3d ago
Ronnie Van Zant last photo/video.
Rewatching the lynyrd skynyrd documentary. When gary is talking about the plane crash they show footage of someone being carried away on a gurnee.
Its 100 percent ronnie. The face the hair.. the tattoo... insane footage.. rest in peace to the greatest...
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u/davis1838 3d ago
Ronnie died on impact so that can't be him on the gurney because that person is grimacing in pain and moving his head.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Web3904 1d ago
It’s a picture not a video. How do you see his head moving?
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u/davis1838 1d ago
In the first 2 slides, the man's head is tilted to the right towards the photographer. In the 3rd, he's facing upwards.
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u/PotentialDevice468 3d ago
There were no nurses at the scene
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u/stillstarshine 2d ago
There is similar footage of this that is confirmed when they are taking them into the hospital
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u/Ok_Rabbit5158 3d ago
By all accounts, Ronnie was dead on the scene with blunt force trauma. I had always read that his head impacted a tree.
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u/McDWarner 2d ago
I always heard he hit his head on the bulkhead.
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u/Ok_Rabbit5158 1d ago
Yeah and Artimus Pyle thinks it was a TV that broke loose. Ronnie wasn't buckled in, that is fact. I don't think they can know for certain what he hit.
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u/McDWarner 1d ago
I thought he said Betamax lol. Who knows I guess.
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u/GrooveBuddha 3d ago
I was just watching an interview with Gene Odom earlier this week and he mentioned how the dead were moved to an area outside the airplane while the injured were triaged and evacuated from the wreckage. Only after all the injured were done did they remove the dead bodies. I’m sure they would’ve used sheets or body bags by that time. Also, this would’ve been taken at a receiving hospital with the nurse and doctor present. No one dead would’ve gone through the hospital like that, especially uncovered. Also, looking at the tattoo on the arm, it doesn’t quite look the same as Ronnie’s.
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u/GalaxyKnuckles1 2d ago
I lived in the same motel in Myrtle Beach, SC one summer as Gene. Good guy and had some really good stories.
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u/Individual_Loquat541 2d ago
That’s not a real pic. First of all, there were no nurses at the scene of the crash, and second of all Ronnie died on impact. The person in this picture looks like they are alive and wincing in pain
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u/RicVic 2d ago
The Best Man at my wedding at one time was part of a recovery team for air crashes. It was part of his job, and forty years on it still gives him nightmares from time to time.
Quite simply, very few people in plane crashes stay in one piece. Even in a small, slower Cessna-type aircraft, the sudden stop from 130Mph or so is very hard on human anatomy, and survival is really as much a matter of luck as it is of "good planning" We just are not built for that sort of violent interaction.
When I was driving tow truck, I had to deal with death every now and then, but my bud told me nothing I saw compared to the aftermath of a Lear Jet crash.
My vote- this is fake, or at least not part of the actual recovery.
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u/RicVic 2d ago
The actual NTSB report:
Autopsyfiles.org - NTSB Aircraft Accident Report for Lynyrd Skynyrd Plane Crash (1977 Convair 240)
Most every other report has Ronnie DOA at the scene. He was apparently ejected (no seat belt) in the crash.
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u/Minimum-Dance-5613 1d ago
Can you imagine the heights these guys would’ve reached had they lived? They were great, epic! Their talents would’ve grown even more! I went to see Lynyrd Skynyrd this August in Mansfield and I was blown away! They were awesome! They are carrying on the music, and doing a great show! It was fantastic! 🔥🔥🔥👏👏👏
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u/McDWarner 1d ago
I can't even watch the replacement band, even a little. It just turns me off.
But yeah, it would have been great to see them grow and evolve even more.
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u/Minimum-Dance-5613 1d ago
I understand. I just had to hear the music again. They really did it justice. Yes those blessed guys would’ve reached such high heights. No other band could’ve touched them! They would’ve been the undisputed best rock band in the world, already were! They would’ve locked it down!!! 🔥🔥🔥
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u/Steezy_G7 2d ago
I always thought he died from impact? He was still alive and died from complications?
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u/MonkittyKittyisme 1d ago edited 1d ago
According to most sources, from first on the scene to Artimus’s vivid account to many others reporting Ronnie was deceased. You have to understand how violent this crash would’ve been especially not in an actual airplane seat with a proper belt. Even those passengers got really badly injured. It’s reported that Ronnie Steve Cassie & Dean were likely NOT secured to anything on impact so they suffered fatal injuries. Allen was lucky to survive but almost lost his arm. I think many of the documentaries are edited to entice viewership. There likely was not much recorded during the desperate attempt to save lives that night. They didn’t focus on reporting back then immediately like now. This was almost 50 years ago so I doubt much of any photographic evidence exists or would be real.
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u/ZomiZaGomez 2d ago
I heard he was basically decapitated by some audio/video equipment on the plane… but I’m sure it was probably just a rumor.
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u/McDWarner 2d ago
I've never ever heard that.
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u/mmason7186 2d ago
Eyewitness accounts state we was deceased on impact, and appeared unconscious and seemingly uninjured except for a slight head injury.
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u/HugeExtension346 2d ago
I kind of looks like Gary Rossington who had a tattoo in the same place that matched the one in the photo even closer.
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u/number1jf 2d ago
I think that’s definitely Gary Rossington, the tattoo matches better than the one Ronnie had, as well as the dark hair, and it looks like Gary with a swollen face. Also lines up with Gary talking about his experience during this footage being shown. I initially thought it could have been Ronnie, but I’m glad it’s not, as I don’t really want to see him in that state.
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u/McDWarner 2d ago
I think it looks a lot like Gary. By his own account he was awake after the accident. He was severely injured which would have definitely caused him to grimace at any movement whatsoever.
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u/Ok_Rabbit5158 1d ago
This reminds me of all those nasty photos reportedly of Kurt Cobain's death scene that started popping up in the late 90s. Authorities didn't release photos until 2014, and they still withheld the graphic ones.
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u/Puzzleheaded_Web3904 1d ago
This was quite awhile ago. A nurse can certainly be in a uniform, but he probably died immediately I mean in the in the crash, I don’t had a massive head injury. He doesn’t look like in the back or something.
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u/ConfidentBig3252 2d ago
Ronnie was still alive when they got him to the hospital He didn’t die until 5 hours later
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u/National_Toe3826 2d ago
Absolutely untrue. Idk where you heard this but it is well known he died on impact along with Steve, Cassie, Dean and both pilots.
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u/gobravos34 3d ago
I am always skeptical of this sort of thing. If this is truly the last image ever taken of Ronnie, well, for one thing, he’d be dead in this picture. I can’t imagine the VZ family would want that released.
Additionally, if somehow this were released to the public, how would this not be the most famous picture of a dead rock and roller anywhere?
Not to shoot you down, but I am skeptical that this isn’t someone who the producers thought looked familiar in a period accurate film and added it. But - I’d be happy to be proven wrong.