Along with Croce, one of the greatest acoustic guitar players in pop history also died. Maury Muehleisen is the one playing those sweet, sweet licks on such songs as Operator (my favorite). Three other folks also died in that crash on September 20, 1973.
Their Beechcraft D-18 charter plane snagged the top of a pecan tree just past the end of the runway after a concert at Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana.