Jimmy Buffett is an experienced pilot, but an unpredictable circumstance caused the singer to crash his seaplane in Nantucket, Mass., on April 25, 1994.
According to United Press International, the then-47-year-old entertainer, whose laid-back music has had a massive influence on contemporary country music, was taking off from the resort island alone at about 3PM when his plane's pontoons struck a wave. That caused the Grumman HU-16 Albatross, which Buffett named the Hemisphere Dancer, to nosedive into four feet of water at the west end of the island, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Buffett punched through one of the plane's windows and climbed out, and two fishermen passing by in a motorboat rescued him. After a visit to a local hospital for minor injuries, Buffett was back in the air later that evening — this time on a charter flight. His plane had to be retrieved by a giant crane.
"The weather was good, and he's very fortunate," FAA spokeswoman Mary Culver said of Buffett's accident.
It's not the only close call Buffett has had on an airplane. On January 16, 1996, while in Jamaica, Buffett's plane was shot at by Jamaican police. In addition to Buffett, the plane was carrying U2 singer Bono, Bono's wife Ali and their children Jordan and Eve and Chris Blackwell from Island Records at the time. It later turned out that Jamaican police had mistaken the plane for one belonging to drug runners. Nobody was hurt, thought the plane sustained damage from a few bullet holes. Buffett recounted the incident with humor in a song called "Jamaica Mistaica," from his 1996 album Banana Wind.
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