Witness Claims Aaliyah Took a Sleeping Pill And Was Carried To Plane Before Fatal 2001 Crash

Ahead of the 20-year anniversary of the tragic death of the singer Aaliyah, a new revelation has come out surrounding the details leading up to the fatal crash.

A man in the Bahamas, who was a teenager at the time and riding in Aaliyah’s taxi driven by his stepmom, claims the late singer was uncomfortable and reluctant to board the small Cessna aircraft, Daily Mail reports.

Aaliyah died on August 25th, 2001 while flying from the Bahamas to the US after shooting her “Rock The Boat” music video. Kingsley Russell was just 13 years old when he rode in a taxi with Aaliyah and claims to have witnessed the events leading up to the late singer getting on the plane that took her life.

In the new book Baby Girl: Better Known as Aaliyah, by music journalist Kathy Iandoli, Russell claims Aaliyah never wanted to get on the plane and was given a sleeping pill hours before that left her unconscious.

(Wikimedia)

Russell says Aaliyah was carried onto the plane by her staff after they argued for hours about getting on the plane after receiving warnings about it carrying too much cargo. Iandoli wrote the book due to suspicion of the events leading to Aaliyah getting on the plane.

With the “One In A Million” singer known to be nervous about flying, Iandoli wondered why Aaliyah would have gotten on such a small plane that was overloaded with luggage and equipment, despite there being a chartered jet that was scheduled to pick her up the following day.

“They took her out of the van; she didn’t even know she was getting boarded on a plane,’ Russell says in the book. “She went on the airplane asleep.”

The author and Aaliyah fan shared her takeaway from writing the book and the little bit of closure she’s gotten from Aaliyah’s passing.

‘The only thing I’ve taken with me is that after 20 years, I can finally say that Aaliyah didn’t want to get on the plane,’ Iandoli told The Daily Beast. “That makes me feel a little better, but not much. This didn’t have to happen. She should still be here, and I think that’s the saddest part about it. She deserved better.”