Elliott Leblanc

Oct 25, 1999: A private jet carrying golfer Payne Stewart flew across half the country with everyone on board unconscious, until it ran out of fuel and crashed in South Dakota. Stewart was one of the most popular players in golf, known for wearing old-fashioned knickers and flat caps on the course. That June he had won the US Open at Pinehurst by sinking a 15-foot putt on the final hole. In September he helped the US win the Ryder Cup. On Oct 25 he took off from Orlando in a Learjet headed for Dallas with five others. Shortly after takeoff the plane lost cabin pressure. Without oxygen at that altitude, everyone on board would have passed out within moments. When the plane stopped responding to air traffic controllers, the Air Force sent fighter jets to check on it. The pilots could see the windows frosted over and no movement inside. The Learjet kept flying on autopilot for about four hours, drifting northwest across the country, while the whole nation watched it on the news. It ran out of fuel and crashed into a field in South Dakota. Everyone on board was killed. Stewart was 42. There's a statue of him at Pinehurst, fist raised, frozen in the moment he made that putt to win the US Open.