Questions about Aaliyah’s plane crash have resurfaced 25 years after the singer’s death, this time amid a bitter legal dispute within her own family. In a new court filing obtained by TMZ, Barry Hankerson, Aaliyah’s uncle and longtime manager, claims his son, Jomo Hankerson, failed to properly coordinate travel surrounding the 2001 Bahamas trip that ended in tragedy. The allegation appears in a lawsuit between father and son over money and music rights, bringing new attention to circumstances surrounding the singer’s death.
Aaliyah Plane Crash Becomes Part of Family Legal Battle
According to TMZ, Jomo filed a lawsuit against his father and Blackground Records over a previous settlement involving recording masters and publishing copyrights. Barry responded with allegations involving a far more painful chapter in their family’s history. He claims Jomo was paid to coordinate transportation for Aaliyah’s music video shoot in the Bahamas in August 2001.
Barry alleges his son “failed in his responsibility” to arrange the travel and that Aaliyah instead boarded the chartered plane that crashed shortly after takeoff, killing all nine people aboard. He claims the disaster “may have been avoided had [Jomo] followed through on his compensated task of travel coordination.” Barry also said his relationship with his son was never the same following Aaliyah’s death. The 22-year-old singer had just finished filming the music video for “Rock the Boat” in the Bahamas on Aug. 25, 2001, when she and eight others boarded a Cessna 402B headed for Miami.
Investigations by the Civil Aviation Department later found that the aircraft was overloaded by about 900 lbs. An informational report issued by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) showed that Luis Antonio Morales was not certified to fly the Cessna 402B. According to CBS News, a pathologist, Dr. Giovander Raju, later testified that Morales had “cocaine in his urine and traces of alcohol in his stomach.” PEOPLE reported that Aaliyah and five others died on impact, while three others later died from their injuries. Per Billboard, Coroner’s inquest determined that Aaliyah died from “severe burns and a blow to the head.”
Following Aaliyah’s death, her parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Instinct Productions, the company behind the “Rock the Boat” music video that coordinated transportation to and from the Bahamas, and other defendants. The family reached an undisclosed settlement in 2003.
Aaliyah’s Music Rights Fuel Dispute Between Her Relatives
The crash allegation is part of a broader financial fight between Barry and Jomo. Jomo claims his father violated a settlement concerning music assets tied to Aaliyah, Toni Braxton, DMX and Timbaland. According to TMZ, Jomo says he is entitled to 12% of the money Barry received from those assets. He accuses his father of using Blackground Records to conceal money and “manufacture expenses that have nothing to do with the music assets, all for the purpose of pressuring [him] into accepting less than what he is owed.” Jomo is seeking more than $1.2 million in damages.
Barry has denied wrongdoing and argues that the settlement at the center of the lawsuit is invalid because it was executed under fraud. He also claims Jomo previously threatened to release unreleased Aaliyah recordings if his financial demands were not satisfied. Jomo has denied wrongdoing. The dispute comes as the princess of R&B’s music and influence continue to reach new generations. Her brother, Rashad Haughton, told PEOPLE in January 2025 that he believed she would be “the biggest star in the world” today, adding that “her legacy continues on.”
“Her voice is so angelic. One of the most beautiful voices I have ever heard, still to this day,” Rashad said. “Her presence comes through in her music. Her presence comes through in these collaborations that we do.” The legal battle now places Aaliyah’s final trip at the center of a deeply personal dispute between two members of her family.
Beyond the Crash Claim: A Fight Over Millions in Aaliyah’s Music Rights
The crash allegation may be what’s making headlines, but the real stakes in this lawsuit go back further than 2001. Blackground Records, the label Barry founded and built around Aaliyah’s career, has controlled her master recordings since the beginning, and that control became a flashpoint long after her death.
For nearly two decades, Aaliyah’s catalog was largely unavailable on major streaming platforms, a gap that fans and industry observers often attributed to Blackground and Barry. It wasn’t until 2021, 20 years after her death, that her music finally arrived on those services, following a separate public rights dispute between the label and Aaliyah’s estate.
Now the lawsuit between Barry and Jomo puts that same infrastructure back in the spotlight. Jomo isn’t only alleging his father mishandled the 2001 travel arrangements. He also accuses him of using Blackground to obscure money owed from a settlement covering assets tied to Aaliyah, Toni Braxton, DMX and Timbaland. The plane-crash claim is one page in a longer story about who controls Aaliyah’s legacy, and whether her family can settle that question outside of court.
