Engine failure blamed for Aaliyah air crash

Police believe engine failure caused a light plane carrying R&B singer Aaliyah and eight others to crash shortly after take-off from the Bahamas.

Investigators have searched through the wreckage of the Cessna 402 which crashed about 200ft from the end of the runway at Marsh Harbour airport, killing all of the occupants.

Although authorities said initially they weren't sure what caused the crash, police Superintendent Basil Rahming says one of the Cessna's engines "apparently failed".

Aaliyah's song Try Again earned her a Grammy nomination this year for best female R&B vocalist.

In 1996, she released her second album and the single If Your Girl Only Knew went double platinum.

She made her film debut in last year's movie Romeo Must Die, and was also due to appear in two sequels to the high-tech thriller The Matrix.

The singer was born Aaliyah Haughton on January 16, 1979, in Brooklyn, New York, and made her stage debut as an orphan in a production of Annie at the age of 6.

Her uncle, Barry Hankerson, was married to soul singer Gladys Knight, who invited Aaliyah to perform with her during a five-night stint in Las Vegas at the age of 11.

Aaliyah struck a licensing deal as a teenager after her uncle formed Blackground Records. She went gold with her debut album Age Ain't Nothing But Number in 1994, when she was 15, and worked closely with hip-hop artist R Kelly.

Grammy-winning producer, arranger and composer Quincy Jones says: "She was like one of my daughters, she was one of the sweetest girls in the world. She vacationed with me and my family together in Fiji. I loved her and respected her and I am absolutely devastated."

The other passengers killed were Scott Gallin, 41; Keith Wallace, 49, of Los Angeles; Douglas Kratz, 28, a representative for Virgin Records, and makeup artist Eric Foreman, 29, both of Hollywood, California; Gina Smith, 29, of New Jersey; Christopher Maldonado, 32, of New York; and Anthony Dodd, 34, of Los Angeles. The plane's pilot, identified only as L Marael, also died.