Payne Stewart's Last Flight

October 25, 1999 - Payne Stewart died on this day. He was a professional golfer whose career was on the rise when his life was cut short by a bizarre plane crash.

Just four months after winning his third major, Stewart chartered a Learjet to fly from Orlando to Dallas. He was en route to the Tour Championship. The last communication with the pilots was at 9:27 AM, shortly before the plane turned right. A request from ground control to change frequencies at 9:33 received no response.

The plane was apparently on auto-pilot and it began to angle off course. After many unsuccessful attempts to contact the pilots, the Air Force scrambled fighter planes to get a visual on the wayward flight. When they intercepted the Learjet, the Air Force pilots could see frost on its windows. They were unable to see any movement inside Stewart's plane.

The Air Force escorted the plane for an hour and a half until it ran out of fuel and crashed in rural South Dakota.

Investigators concluded that the Learjet had lost cabin pressure and that the pilots and all passengers had been incapacitated by the rapid depressurization. The plane had been serviced several times in the months before the accident for pressurization-related problems.

The others who died with Stewart that day included his agents, Robert Fraley and Van Ardan. Also on board was Bruce Borland, a golf course architect. The pilots names were Michael Kling and Stephanie Bellegarrigue.