Death and Aftermath
On the night of November 24, 2001, Thornton died in the crash of Crossair Flight 3597 near Bassersdorf near Zürich in Switzerland. Thornton had given her final performance in Leipzig and afterwards taken the ill-fated plane from Berlin to Zürich for radio and TV appearances (among others, the broadcast "Die Bar" on TV3, which was cancelled) to promote her new single "Wonderful Dream (Holidays Are Coming)" (a Christmas ballad recorded for a German Coca-Cola TV commercial) and her album Ready To Fly (New Edition). The flight departed Berlin Tegel Airport at 21:01 CET with 28 passengers, 3 flight attendants, and a two-man cockpit crew (33 in all). Upon arrival in Zurich about an hour later, it was cleared to approach runway 28 in poor visibility conditions due to low clouds. At 22:07 CET, the plane crashed into a wooded range of hills near the small town of Bassersdorf, around 4 km (2.5 miles) short of the runway, where it broke apart and went up in flames. Of the 33 people on board, 24 died, while 9 survived. Two members of the pop band Passion Fruit died on the plane. The story of the disaster was featured on the tenth season of a Canadian Discovery Channel Documentary Program, but with no mention of Thornton.
Although Thornton's death occurred practically on the eve of that year's Christmas season, Coca-Cola decided to stick with the commercial as planned. It has also been used in Christmas Coca-Cola TV commercials in Germany, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. The original commercial has been aired in Germany every year since 2001 around Christmas time, and the song has been in the German single charts every year since.
On November 25, 2002 the single "In Your Life" was released to commemorate the first anniversary of her death. Included is an "in memory" dedication from Lane McCray and SonyBmg/X-Cell Records.
Thornton is buried in Mount Pleasant Memorial Gardens, Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
Read more about this topic: Melanie Thornton
Famous quotes containing the words death and, death and/or aftermath:
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