Dame Dash Recalls Aaliyah’s Final Text Before Fatal Flight

One text has stayed with Dame Dash for 25 years. Aaliyah told him she did not like the plane she was about to board in the Bahamas, and his response was immediate. He told her not to get on it.

Dash revisited that exchange while speaking with Us Weekly for a feature marking 25 years since Aaliyah’s death. The singer had finished filming the “Rock the Boat” video and was preparing to leave the Bahamas on Aug. 25, 2001, when Dash says she contacted him about the aircraft. “She texted me saying, ‘I don’t like the plane,’” he recalled. Dash said he warned her against boarding, but Aaliyah told him she needed to complete the trip connected to the video shoot.

Her concern about that particular plane was compounded by what Dash remembers as a broader fear of flying. He told Us that Aaliyah was frightened whenever she traveled by air and that she carried a satin pillow for comfort. According to Dash, she had also told him she intended to finish the video and return home to him.

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Dash has recounted versions of that conversation before. During a 2016 appearance on The Real, he remembered receiving a message from Aaliyah saying she did not like the plane, and he believed things would have unfolded differently had he been in the Bahamas with her. He maintained that he would not have allowed her to board.

The concerns carry a grim weight in light of what investigators later found. The Cessna 402B crashed shortly after takeoff from Marsh Harbour International Airport, killing Aaliyah and the eight other people aboard. Investigators determined that the aircraft exceeded its maximum takeoff weight and was improperly balanced. Pilot Luis Antonio Morales was also not qualified to operate the aircraft under the required commercial standards and had falsified portions of his flight record.

Aaliyah was 22 when she died. Dash, who was dating her at the time, told Us Weekly that he still considers her his soulmate. His latest comments came as loved ones and fans marked the 25th anniversary of the crash and revisited the final days leading up to a loss that remains closely tied to the making of “Rock the Boat.”