The tragic death of Roberto Clemente, the Pirates' star, was caused by the plane crash.

Roberto Clemente, a future Hall of Fame baseball player, is killed along with four others when a cargo plane crashes off the coast of Puerto Rico.He was going to deliver relief supplies to Nicaragua after the earthquake there.

In the final game of the season, Clemente got his 3,000th hit for the Pirates.He spent most of the off-season doing charity work in Puerto Rico, where he was a hero.When he learned that very little aid was getting to the victims of the December 23 earthquake in Managua, he was very distressed.

He decided to personally deliver the supplies.The plan went awry when Arthur Rivera's plane was chosen for the mission.Rivera bought an old DC-7 propeller plane and used it to haul cargo in the Caribbean.Others wondered why Rivera had bothered to purchase a plane that was in such bad shape.The DC-7 had to be ferried from Miami to Puerto Rico.

Rivera did not do much work to the engine.It was no surprise that Rivera had been cited for safety violations in the past.On December 2, Rivera put the DC-7 into a drainage ditch after forgetting to close the pump on the engine.The propeller blades bent and the landing gear was damaged.Some of the damages were fixed before the December 31 flight.

On the previous day, Clemente was at San Juan International Airport helping to load relief supplies when he discovered there were far more than he could fit in his plane.Rivera didn't tell Clemente he had no crew for the plane and offered to fly the supplies to Nicaragua for $4,000.Rivera tried to find a pilot.He found Jerry Hill and began to load the plane.Rivera loaded the plane over its maximum capacity.A person at the airport warned Clemente that the plane looked too heavy when he was about to board.

The sounds of engine failure could be heard as the plane went down the runway.It exploded and plunged into the ocean after reaching an altitude of 200 feet.Rescue workers were sent out immediately, but the task was impossible in the dark.The bodies were never found.One of Clemente's friends described the news as the night that happiness died.

The investigation found that the plane never should have been put in the air and the pilot over-boosted the engines.

The Baseball Hall of Fame inducted Clemente in 1973.He received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2002.

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