This guy deserves his own thread. Stewart was a pretty good golfer - he won the US Open in 1991 and 1999. He had career earnings over $12M at the time of his death. His death is one of the strangest in the history of American civil aviation.
On Oct 25/99, Payne was an occupant on a Learjet that left Orlando at 9:19am. Three associates of Payne accompanied him along with the two pilots. Last contact with the pilot was at 9:27am - the pilot did not indicate any problem onboard. At 9:33am, all contact was lost with the plane and all hell broke loose. The plane was on autopilot and continued on a northwest trajectory ( also continued to ascend - reaching a height of 48,900 ft). A number of Air Force planes were vectored to make contact with the jet, getting close enough to see condensation on the cockpit windows. At 12:10pm, one of the Air Force pilots saw the jet enter into a severe downward spiral. The jet crashed near Aberdeen, South Dakota.
The damage was so extensive that NTSB could not determine what caused the loss of cabin pressure. It could not determine if there was an adequate supply of oxygen onboard and could not determine if anyone onboard had received supplemental oxygen.
Cause of crash: incapacitation of flight crew as a result of their failure to receive supplemental oxygen. This led to hypoxia and incapacitation.
http://www.ntsb.gov/publictn/2000/aab0001.htm
gravesite:
http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=18550
note: one of the pilots was a woman, 27, named Stephanie Bellegarrigue.
She had last contact with air traffic control. here is a picture of her:
http://slam.canoe.ca/SlamGolfPayneStewart/stewart_55.html
death could have taken only 8 seconds.