On October 12,1997 : John Denver dies
at the age of 53.
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 PACIFIC GROVE, California (AP) -- A pilot
was killed Sunday in the crash of a single-engine plane owned
by singer John Denver, a Coast Guard spokesman said.
The identity of the pilot, recovered
by a lifeguard in the Monterey Bay, was not immediately known.
However, Denver himself is a licensed pilot.
Jeanie Tomlinson, managing director
of Windstar, the environmental group co-founded by Denver, said
the singer hadn't returned her phone calls Sunday night.
"We wait and see and we
keep the most good thoughts we possibly can that he's okay," she said, adding the singer also owns a home in the Monterey-Carmel
area of California.
Messages left at Denver's Aspen,
Colorado, home by The Associated Press were not immediately returned
Sunday night.
Coast Guard Petty Officer Steve
Aitkins said identifying the victim would be difficult as the
body was unrecognizable due to fatal injuries caused by the crash.
The Coast Guard completed its search for debris for the night,
but planned to resume at daybreak.
"We'll search tomorrow
for more clues," Aitkins said. "But at this point it's
almost like a John Doe case. We have a body but it's unrecognizable.
We won't know right away unless someone comes forward and says
they know who was on that plane."
Lt. Dave Allard, spokesman for
the Monterey County sheriff's department, said an autopsy would
be conducted Monday, including a check of dental records and fingerprints.
Toxicology tests, standard for fatal crashes, also will be conducted,
he said.
Allard would also not comment
on the identity of the victim, but said "there has been contact
with people who are either knowledgeable about or related to the
individual."
The plane, made of fiberglass
with a single engine and two seats, was considered an "experimental" aircraft, and was possibly home-built, said Pacific Grove police
Lt. Carl Miller. It took off from Monterey Airport shortly after
5 p.m., with the first reports of a crash at 5:27 p.m. Its destination
was unknown.
The plane was flying about 500
feet in the air "when it just sort of dropped unexpectedly
into the ocean," Miller said. "When it hit the water
it broke into numerous parts."
One witness told KCBA-TV that
she saw a puff and heard a "popping" sound prior to
the crash.
"(The plane) kind of went
up a little bit and absolutely straight down, not spiraling, just
absolutely straight down," said Carolyn Pearl. "I thought
it was doing some kind of acrobatic move, or something, and then
realized it wasn't."
The plane crashed about 100
yards off rocky shoreline in the bay just north of Monterey, and
near a jut in the land known as Lover's Point.
Denver established himself as
a star in the 1970s with his melodic, light folk-pop with hits
like "Take Me Home, Country Roads," "Rocky Mountain
High," "Sunshine on My Shoulders" and "Thank
God I'm a Country Boy."
He was named Country Music Entertainer
of the Year in 1975.
Denver was in a previous plane
accident in April 1989. He walked away uninjured after the 1931
biplane he was piloting spun around while taxiing at an airport
in northern Arizona.
In 1995, a flight instructor
sued Denver for a runway run-in at Jackson Hole Airport in Wyoming.
The instructor alleged the singer was piloting his Christen Eagle
in 1994 when the airplane taxied into the flight instructor's
Cessna.
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