Aaliyah Remembered One Year Later

By Stephen M. Silverman

Monday August 26, 2002 01:15 PM EDT

• Facebook
• Twitter
• Yahoo Buzz
• E-mail

Fans of the late R&B singer-actress Aaliyah were expected to gather in New York's Times Square Sunday night to honor the star with a candlelight vigil on the first anniversary of her death, BET.com reports. A moment of silence was due to follow. Event organizers Ron Hall and Quinn Mallory suggested that those who were unable to make it to New York simply stand outside their homes with a candle in tribute. As Hall anticipated to BET.com: "I think it's something that will continue to grow in the coming years. I think that the Aaliyah fans are going to share in a lot of what John Lennon fans and Elvis fans share in. The John Lennon fans make their pilgrimage every year, and Elvis fans made theirs through the rain last week. " Aaliyah, 22, was killed along with seven other passengers and the pilot when a small, Florida-bound Cessna 402-B carrying them crashed in the Bahamas during takeoff, after the star had shot her latest video there. In the year since, investigators have found that the plane was severely overloaded and that the pilot, Luis Antonio Morales Blanes, may have had cocaine and alcohol in his system. In May, Aaliyah's parents, Michael and Diane Haughton, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit against the singer's label, Virgin Records, as well as several video-production companies and the owner of the Cessna, accusing them of negligence in the crash.