Damon Dash Says He Could Have Prevented Aailyah’s Death [VIDEO]

Business mogul Damon Dash visits “The Real” and opens up about the untimely death of his former girlfriend, the late singer Aaliyah.

On August 25, 2001, at 6:50 p.m. (EDT), Aaliyah and the members of the record company boarded a twin-engine Cessna 402B at the Marsh Harbour Airport in Abaco Islands, The Bahamas, to travel to the Opa-locka Airport in Florida, after they completed filming the music video for “Rock the Boat”. They had a flight scheduled the following day, but with filming finishing early, Aaliyah and her entourage were eager to return to the United States and made the decision to leave immediately. The designated airplane was smaller than the Cessna 404 on which they had originally arrived, but the whole party and all of the equipment were accommodated on board. The plane crashed shortly after takeoff, about 200 feet (60 m) from the end of the runway and exploded. Aaliyah and the eight others on board—pilot Luis Morales III, hair stylist Eric Forman, Anthony Dodd, security guard Scott Gallin, family friend Keith Wallace, make-up stylist Christopher Maldonado, and Blackground Records employees Douglas Kratz and Gina Smith—were all killed.

Of the plane crash that ultimately took her life he says, he believes he could have prevented the situation if he was present.

There is no chance that, if I was there, we would have been on that plane. So it would have never happened that way. She told me she was going to the Bahamas and I was against it, like, ‘Yo, don’t go.’ And then down to the last — we had the Blackberry — down to the last Blackberry that we had, before she went there, she was like, ‘Yo, I don’t like that plane.’ And I was like, ‘Don’t get on it.’ And she was just like, ‘You know, I gotta do it.’ You know, it was a complicated situation, but she had to go do that video.”

He adds,

If I was there, I would have made sure that that jet that was supposed to be for her … she would have been on that,” Dash continued. “I wouldn’t have got on that plane, you know what I’m saying? So it probably would have been different. But you know um, everything happens for a reason. You know, and what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger and you just gotta deal with the cards that life deals you.

See the clip.

[YouTube, Billboard]

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