The Retroscope: 19 March

19 March 1982: Ozzy Osbourne’s rhythm guitarist and former Quiet Riot member Randy Rhoads was killed in a plane crash. After driving much of the night, the band had stopped at a small airstrip where the tour bus driver, Andrew Aycock, coaxed the band’s keyboardist Don Airey, into taking a test flight in a ’55 Beechcraft Bonanza. The joyride ended safely though but then Aycock took Rhoads and Rachel Youngblood on another flight and attempts were made to alert the tour bus. The left wing had clipped the bus, which sent the plane spiraling into a nearby house and burst into flames. All three bodies were burned beyond recognition.
19 March 1988: Michael Jackson began construction on his 2800 acre ranch and private amusement park in Santa Barbara, CA, later named “Neverland” after a fantasy location in his favourite book, Peter Pan