The Weight Of Evidence

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When they fly, most people don't count among their carry-ons video-production equipment--or 300-lb. bodyguards. Though the investigation into the crash of the plane carrying R.-and-B. star Aaliyah is not complete, one thing is becoming certain: the twin-engine Cessna 402B was too heavy to fly. With a maximum weight limit of 6,300 lbs. for takeoff, the loaded plane minus the passengers weighed in, officials estimate, at 5,495 lbs., leaving just 805 lbs. of capacity for the pilot and eight others. One of them, Aaliyah's bodyguard, Scott Gallin, weighed 300 lbs. Unless the others weighed less than 63 lbs. each, their chances were slim.

--Reported by Jeanne DeQuine