By October 15, 1977, Lynyrd Skynyrd was skyrocketing to fame and had several new members when they set out on a three-month tour. Two days later their fifth album, Street Survivors, debuted. The album cover featured the entire band (except for their background singers) standing together. Guitarist and vocalist Steve Gaines was in the center, standing with his eyes closed, mouth open. That image was selected for the cover, with flames superimposed all around the group against a city backdrop. It was a bit eerie, to say the least.

According to Check Six, the plane the band chose for the tour was a 1948 Convair 240, a twin-engine plane that had already accumulated over 29,000 flight hours. The aircraft was old; earlier that year, members of Aerosmith's flight crew had declined to use it because they felt it wasn't up to snuff. One of the Aerosmith's crew later recalled that pilots Walter McCreary and William Gray shared a bottle of Jack Daniels as the plane was inspected for that band.

Although at least one band member, Cassie Gaines, expressed doubts about flying on the Convair, Van Zant talked everyone into using it. "If it's your time to go, it's your time to go," he quipped just before boarding. Thus the entire band — Allen Collins, Steve and Cassie Gaines, Leslie Hawkins, Billy Powell, Artimus Pyle, Gary Rossington, Leon Wilkerson, and Van Zant — boarded the plane along with eighteen other crew members, and prepared for takeoff.

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