INSIDE THE PLANE CRASH THAT KILLED JOHN DENVER

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How Did John Denver Die? Inside the Fatal Plane Crash That Killed the Country Icon 27 Years Ago

John Denver died after the small plane he was piloting crashed into a California bay

By Emily Blackwood  Published on October 12, 2025 08:00AM EDT

 

It's been over 20 years since John Denver died in a tragic plane crash.

 

On Oct. 12, 1997, the "Take Me Home, Country Roads" singer's small, single-engine experimental aircraft plummeted into Monterey Bay in California. Denver, the pilot and sole passenger, died on impact.

 

"He loved flying," Teri Martell, sister of Denver's ex-wife Annie Martell, told SFGATE at the time. "He died doing something he loved."

 

The country icon and environmental activist rose to fame in the 1970s with hits like "Rocky Mountain High" and "Sunshine on My Shoulders." He also helped found a nonprofit environmental research center and served on the Presidential Commission on World and Domestic Hunger.

 

In addition to his hits, he also wrote the 1967 classic "Leaving on a Jet Plane" for Peter, Paul and Mary.

 

Aside from thousands of adoring fans, Denver left behind three children: Zachary, Anna Kate and Jesse Belle.

 

Here's everything to know about how John Denver died and what investigators believed caused his plane to crash.

 

How did John Denver die?

 

Two years after his death, the National Transportation Safety Board determined that several factors, including a lack of fuel and the poor placement of a critical fuel tank handle, caused the fatal crash.

 

CBS reported that the board blamed the builder of Denver's experimental Long E-Z aircraft for relocating the fuel-tank-selector handle, which allows the pilot to switch fuel tanks. Because the handle sat behind his left shoulder, the singer was forced to turn in his seat, which the NTSB determined caused him to lose control of the aircraft.

 

The singer purchased the plane two weeks before his death. His crash led the NTSB to urge other organizations to give new pilots formal training before flying experimental aircraft.

 

Where did John Denver die?

 

Denver died in Monterey Bay, a bay that sits on the edge of Pacific Grove, Calif. Witnesses told SFGATE in October 1997 that his plane was flying about 500 feet over the water when it suddenly nosedived into the ocean.

 

"I thought it was doing some kind of acrobatic move," Caroline Pearl, a spectator who was on a nearby beach, told the outlet. "And then, of course, I realized it wasn't."

 

Before he took off, Denver reportedly told other people at the airport that he only had enough fuel for about an hour. The country singer was an avid flyer and had been piloting planes for over 20 years.

 

How old was John Denver when he died?

 

Denver — born Henry John Deutschendorf Jr. — was 53 years old when he died. He grew up in Roswell, N.M., and learned to fly from his father, who was an Air Force pilot, according to the singer's obituary in The New York Times.

 

He survived a plane accident in 1989, when a 1931 biplane he was piloting spun while taxiing at an Arizona airport. Denver walked away from that incident uninjured.

 

What were John Denver’s last words?

 

According to the NTSB, Denver gave no sign that there was an emergency when he radioed the Monterey airport control tower seconds before his fatal crash.

 

"He was sending the transponder signal," George Petterson, a safety board investigator, told SFGATE in 1997. "And then his last words were, 'Do you have it now?' They saw it on the screen and tried to call him back, but his signal vanished ... There had been no indication of any trouble."

 

What was the public's reaction to John Denver’s death?

 

The singer's death prompted an outpouring of grief and shock from both Denver's fans and those who worked with him. Over 2,000 people attended a candlelight vigil in Aurora, Colo., the weekend he died, and some have continued to gather in Aspen, Colo., where he had lived since 1969, on the anniversary of his death.

 

According to The Aspen Times, Colorado legislators voted to make "Rocky Mountain High" a second state song in 2007.

 

Even President Bill Clinton paid tribute to the country icon at the time. The New York Times reported that the then-president said that Denver's "soaring music" touched millions of people and that his work as an activist "opened many doors to understanding among nations."