Paula Abdul plane crash??????

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Pop singer and dancer Paula Abdul is "opening up" about her 1992 plane crash:

“It all happened when I boarded a seven-seater plane and an hour into the flight one of the engines blew up and the right wing caught fire and everything went black,” she told the crowd (via PEOPLE). “I woke up in the hospital only to find that I had crushed my cervical spine, leaving me partially paralyzed.”

https://www.iheart.com/content/2019...92-plane-crash-during-vegas-residency-opener/

There is a problem with her story.
"Paula Abdul Keeps Talking About Surviving a Plane Crash for Which No Record Exists"

https://jezebel.com/paula-abdul-keeps-talking-about-surviving-a-plane-crash-1835445212

I figured if anyone could get to the bottom of the story it is the POA crowd. Furthermore, we have enough issues in general aviation and we don't need celebrities inventing stories about 7 seater planes catching on fire and crashing into corn fields.
 
A web search turned up this post from 15 years ago. Most of the other hits were from entertainment sites.
 
Little known fact: It happened while Brian Willams interviewed her.








Not sure why aviation seems to create those false memories. We have a news anchor and multiple presidential candidates who have either made up or altered aviation stories to make them the hero.

Like so many fish stories there is often a kernel of truth to them: 'I cracked my neck in a turbulence encounter because I didn't wear my seatbelt and ended up an addict from the pain meds' sounds a lot less heroic than her tale.
 
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It's impossible for a celebrity to lie about something that has happened to them, so it must be true. Certain details may have been forgotten, of course. And then re-created from whole cloth. The true story could have been "I fell out of bed whilst high on drugs and destroyed my spine", which could easily have been mistaken for a flaming-engine plane crash.
 
why would everything go black with an engine fire in a twin engined plane?
 
I'm guessing she has a new album out or is promoting something. if you notice, actors, musicians, etc always seem to get arrested or end up in the news right around the same time they are promoting something new. it's a tactic they use to get publicity.
 
eman1200 said:
I'm guessing she has a new album out or is promoting something. if you notice, actors, musicians, etc always seem to get arrested or end up in the news right around the same time they are promoting something new. it's a tactic they use to get publicity.
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For these type of folks there is no such thing as bad publicity.
 
She probably didn't realize that aircraft accidents are things that can easily be looked up and facts verified. Had she said she was in a car crash no one would have doubted her a moment. But even celeb journalists know how to query the NTSB accident database.
I'm guessing she hit some turbulence on a Beech 1900 and finished the tale in her own drug induced imagination.
 
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weilke said:
Not sure why aviation seems to create those false memories. We have a news anchor and multiple presidential candidates who have either made up or altered aviation stories to make them the hero.

Like so many fish stories there is often a kernel of truth to them: 'I cracked my neck in a turbulence encounter because I didn't wear my seatbelt and ended up an addict from the pain meds' sounds a lot less heroic than her tale.
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A family member had to bail out while flying a B-25 over Burma during World War 2. He told family members that he was shot down, but I got a copy of his official report years after he passed away, and there was no mention of being shot down, only an engine failure.
 
TIL Paula Abdul is a garbage person. I'll need to find my highschool mixtapes and crush them now.
 
Did you read the part in the NTSB document that said he smoked three packs of cigarettes a day? That's some heavy puffing.

The pressurization system of the plane was found to be heavily contaminated with tobacco tar. Ugh.

Dead at 57 from cancer.

From a news story:

On April 19, 2009, doctors informed Swayze that the cancer had again metastasized to his liver. Swayze had been a heavy smoker for forty years, and he once admitted to smoking 60 cigarettes a day. He stated that his chain smoking probably "had something to do with" the development of his disease. Photos taken of a gaunt Swayze in the months before his death showed him continuing to smoke.
 
SixPapaCharlie said:
I remember hearing a rumor years back that he got drunk and crashed a plane.
Sounds like that might be true based on this report.
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Maybe. Plus possible interaction to his smoking and the potential for a pressurization problem possibly caused by contamination from cigarette smoke and other mechanical issues.

edit: @3393RP beat me to it.


edit edit:

Here's the final report:
https://app.ntsb.gov/pdfgenerator/R...tID=20001212X21252&AKey=1&RType=HTML&IType=FA

Probable cause:

>>>
The National Transportation Safety Board determines the probable cause(s) of this accident to be:
The pilot's physical impairment due to the cumulative effects of carbon monoxide from engine exhaust by-products, carbon monoxide from heavy tobacco use, and the loss of an undetermined amount of cabin pressurization. A factor in the loss of pressurization was a fractured clamp.
<<<
 
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SixPapaCharlie said:
I remember hearing a rumor years back that he got drunk and crashed a plane.
Sounds like that might be true based on this report.
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It was true and he did something that law enforcement hates. He was drinking when in front of witnesses after the crash. If fact, it was told he was chugging the bottle of wine. They were never able to prove he was drunk when flying. Same thing happens during DWI accidents. They get out and start drinking in front of everyone.
 
It must have been an eight seater if there were seven other (unidentified) souls on board as she claims in this interview, where she says the injuries occurred from hitting her head when the plane "plummeted":

“You know what? It's like, there are seven other people that were on the plane, who were in that plane accident with me. So, I really don't care what people have to say. I don't,” Abdul asserts. “It's like, you learn and grow through wisdom and experience of being in this business, especially with the internet. You can't take things personally, and the things that resonate with you that can help you become better, the best version of yourself, you hold onto and you work through that. If there's something that you know you can actually work on that can improve who you are as a performer or as a professional or as a human being, I resonate with that. And the other stuff isn't my business.”
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https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment...want-to-talk-too-much-about-it-182841961.html

And she doesn't care what you think, even though she's going to keep talking about it.
 
Not surprising. The couple episodes I watched of the talent contest she used to judge (American Idol maybe), she was a completely empty-headed bimbo.
 
Kenny Phillips said:
Or hypoxic.
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That’s the story I got from a mutual friend, he was a very heavy smoker and even in a pressurized airplane like his 414A, you can get a 8-12,000 foot cabin altitude if you go high enough, of the system isn’t fully pressurizing. He was a VFR pilot when he bought the airplane, I don’t know if he ever got his IR.
 
N747JB said:
That’s the story I got from a mutual friend, he was a very heavy smoker and even in a pressurized airplane like his 414A, you can get a 8-12,000 foot cabin altitude if you go high enough, of the system isn’t fully pressurizing. He was a VFR pilot when he bought the airplane, I don’t know if he ever got his IR.
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upload_2020-3-25_11-48-50.png
 
Kenny Phillips said:
View attachment 83919
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It was in 1994 when I spoke with him, and I believe at that time he was VFR. He was very nice on the phone, we had matching airplanes and he joked about me not flying west Of the Mississippi, so we wouldn’t be on the same ramp! I had a picture of our planes side by side, but I can’t find it.

 
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N747JB said:
It was in 1994 when I spoke with him, and I believe at that time he was VFR. He was very nice on the phone, we had matching airplanes and he joked about me not flying west Of the Mississippi, so we wouldn’t be on the same ramp! I had a picture of our planes side by side, but I can’t find it.

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Looks like the one I took in 2003 at LVS. I got out there a lot 2003-2007 and saw him a few times at the airport, never really talked with him.

test 013.jpg
 
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Possum said:
Pop singer and dancer Paula Abdul is "opening up" about her 1992 plane crash:

“It all happened when I boarded a seven-seater plane and an hour into the flight one of the engines blew up and the right wing caught fire and everything went black,” she told the crowd (via PEOPLE). “I woke up in the hospital only to find that I had crushed my cervical spine, leaving me partially paralyzed.”

https://www.iheart.com/content/2019...92-plane-crash-during-vegas-residency-opener/

There is a problem with her story.
"Paula Abdul Keeps Talking About Surviving a Plane Crash for Which No Record Exists"

https://jezebel.com/paula-abdul-keeps-talking-about-surviving-a-plane-crash-1835445212

I figured if anyone could get to the bottom of the story it is the POA crowd. Furthermore, we have enough issues in general aviation and we don't need celebrities inventing stories about 7 seater planes catching on fire and crashing into corn fields.
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Is her name something else than "Paula Adul"? Perhaps the incident is under a different name. A lot of 7 seaters out there and many have a...... crashed.
 
Both Swayze and his wife were IR. In fact, she's a CMEL and flew him to his cancer treatment.
 
Sorry to bump an old thread, but this little "story" has somewhat mystified me for years, since it was never ever reported in the 90s, especially for someone as high profile as she was.

Seems to me that fans of hers and/or media never bothered to review her schedule back then, to cross check the credibility of such a claim.

Aviation experts, generally had no reason to give a damn about her schedule or her in general, so no connection has ever been made in terms of the veracity of the statement.

The P.I. in me did notice from myself piecing stuff together is, her 1992 tour schedule could somewhat weirdly echo the claims she made, particularly between the month of June 1992. She claims it was on a flight between St. Louis and Denver, where the crash allegedly happened.

Something definitely happened to her after her June 8, 1992 concert in Phoenix. She had a Denver, CO area concert on June 10th in Greenwood Village and then mysteriously cancelled 4 or 5 tour dates from June 11th through June 18th. The next show was June 23, 1992 in Spokane Washington and kept consistent until the tour's conclusion on August 7, 1992.

At that point, she stopped traveling and settled in LA and began intermittently recording an ill-fated 3rd album (released 1995).

The details don't make sense, as why would someone already in Phoenix on June 8-9th, be in St. Louis for any reason, when a show is scheduled for June 10th is near Denver? Yet magically perform in Denver on the evening of June 10th, after a plane crash (on the way to Denver) and then abruptly cancel all their shows after that show for 2 weeks?

Did something else happen, such as a drunken fall instead? There are no NTSB records in June 1992 I imagine of this incident.

She claims it was during "touring", so it totally rules out any other year entirely. I've heard 1993, but very false, as she wasn't working in a touring capacity at any time in 1993.

The only date possible for this "crash" is around June 8-10, 1992, which resulted in various tour dates of hers being cancelled with no explanation. Anyone able to verify that better?
 
CuriousWanderer said:
The only date possible for this "crash" is around June 8-10, 1992, which resulted in various tour dates of hers being cancelled with no explanation. Anyone able to verify that better?
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Back in the day when the NTSB had a searchable database, you could have gone on their website and pulled all the reports for that timeframe to narrow down whether any of them fits the nebulous description.
 
What is she promoting now?

In another 5 years or so, when she needs to promote something else yet again, she will be coming out with a story about how she was raped or something. These infamous people ( I don't consider her famous ) stories keep getting more and more outrageous.

Wait until I tell you all about the time I had to land a fully loaded 777, when the pilots passed out drunk, both engines were on fire, and the stewardess decided that was the time to give me a lap dance...its a great story, just wait for me to tell it.
 
YKA said:
Wait until I tell you all about the time I had to land a fully loaded 777, when the pilots passed out drunk, both engines were on fire, and the stewardess decided that was the time to give me a lap dance...its a great story, just wait for me to tell it.
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Meh. Those things land themselves.
 
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weilke said:
Back in the day when the NTSB had a searchable database, you could have gone on their website and pulled all the reports for that timeframe to narrow down whether any of them fits the nebulous description.
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It's quasi-searchable now, but several of us went looking when this store resurfaced for the hundredth or so time, and found nothing.
 
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