{"id":238396,"date":"2025-10-24T20:51:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T20:51:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/238396\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T20:51:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T20:51:11","slug":"today-in-history-october-25-millions-watch-ghost-flight-carry-sporting-superstar-and-friend-to-their-demise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/238396\/","title":{"rendered":"Today in History – October 25: Millions watch ‘ghost flight’ carry sporting superstar and friend to their demise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Superstar golfer Payne Stewart was among six people who died in a bizarre plane crash on October 25, 1999.<\/p>\n

The 42-year-old was one of the passengers flying from Orlando to Dallas on the Learjet when communication with the pilot was lost shortly after it departed that morning.<\/p>\n

The words “three nine zero bravo alpha” was the last transmission recorded by air traffic controllers.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Superstar American golfer Payne Stewart died in a bizarre plane crash on October 25, 1999. (AP)<\/p>\n

Military fighter jets were dispatched to tail the executive jet as frantic attempts to contact its pilot failed.<\/p>\n

They reported the jet’s windows fogged over or frozen, and no sign of life.\ufeff<\/p>\n

After its occupants apparently died, the plane began an aimless ghost flight, played out on national television.<\/p>\n

Millions of people watched as the aircraft flew aimlessly across 2400km for almost four hours until it ran out of fuel, hit the ground and exploded in South Dakota.<\/p>\n

Known for his flamboyant plus-four trousers and flat caps, Stewart was one of the most distinctive golf stars of the late 1980s and 1990s.<\/p>\n

He won three of golf’s major championships among his haul of tournament victories.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/A file photo of the Learjet Payne Stewart and five others were flying in before the fatal crash on October 25, 1999. (Public domain)<\/p>\n

Cruelly, at the time of his death Stewart had rediscovered his talent on the golf course.<\/p>\n

He won the US Open in June 1999 \u2013 a title he would never get a chance to defend \u2013 and was a member of the American Ryder Cup team that beat Europe just a few weeks before his death.<\/p>\n

Also aboard the doomed flight was Stewart’s agent and close friend Rob Fraley, a former college football star.\ufeff<\/p>\n

In the aftermath of the tragedy, there was speculation the US Air Force was planning to shoot down the plane as it flew aimlessly across the country’s Mid West. <\/p>\n

But officials have consistently denied the reports.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/A statue of golfer Payne Stewart stands at the Pinehurst course in North Carolina, the scene of his famous US Open victory in 1999, just months before his death. (Getty images)<\/p>\n

The flight voice recorder \u2013 recovered from the wreckage \u2013 revealed the sounds of a low pressure alarm which pointed to a disastrous loss of cabin pressure.<\/p>\n

An investigation by the US National Transportation Safety Board found the disaster was probably caused by loss of cabin pressure “for undetermined reasons”.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Superstar golfer Payne Stewart was among six people who died in a bizarre plane crash on October 25,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-238396","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238396","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}