Tragedy struck just outside Charlotte, North Carolina, on Thursday when a plane crash claimed the lives of all seven people on board, including retired NASCAR driver Greg Biffle. This unfortunate event adds Biffle’s name to the list of athletes who have perished in aviation accidents, a list that includes fellow NASCAR drivers Alan Kulwicki and Davey Allison, who both met their untimely ends in separate incidents in 1993. Below, we remember some of the sports figures who lost their lives in similar tragedies.

Alan Kulwicki
Alan Kulwicki, a native of Wisconsin, was recognized as NASCAR’s 1986 Rookie of the Year and, in 1992, became the first Northern-born driver and college graduate to clinch the drivers’ championship. He narrowly defeated Bill Elliott in a historic finish. Kulwicki, along with two Hooters executives and the pilot, died in April 1993 when their small jet crashed during its landing approach in Tennessee. The National Transportation Safety Board concluded that the pilot failed to remove ice from the engine inlet, which led to the crash. Kulwicki was 38 years old.

Davey Allison
Davey Allison, who won the 1992 Daytona 500 and was the son of 1983 Cup champion Bobby Allison, is commemorated in the NASCAR Hall of Fame alongside his father. Tragically, the younger Allison was flying a helicopter when it crashed in the infield of Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway. The National Transportation Safety Board attributed the July 1993 accident to the 32-year-old pilot’s lack of experience.

In honor of Kulwicki and Allison, fellow drivers Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace performed a “Polish victory lap” at the conclusion of the 1993 season. This tribute involved a clockwise lap around the track, hoisting flags bearing the numbers of the two late drivers.

Payne Stewart
Payne Stewart, a celebrated golfer and three-time major tournament winner, was the reigning U.S. Open champion in 1999 when he died in a plane accident. His private jet lost cabin pressure, resulting in the deaths of all four passengers and both pilots on board. The aircraft, destined for a season-ending tournament in Dallas, continued on autopilot until it exhausted its fuel and crashed in South Dakota. Stewart was 42 years old at the time of his passing.

The PGA Tour presents an award in his name to the golfer who best exemplifies Stewart’s character, sportsmanship and commitment to charity.

Roberto Clemente
The Pittsburgh right fielder and humanitarian was bringing emergency supplies to the survivors of a Nicaraguan earthquake when the overloaded and poorly maintained plane crashed on takeoff from Puerto Rico on New Year’s Eve, 1972.

At 38, he was a 15-time All-Star, four-time National League batting champion regular-season and 1966 NL MVP who led the Pirates to two World Series titles. The Baseball Hall of Fame waived its five-year eligibility waiting period to induct him the next summer. Major League Baseball’s named its award for character and sportsmanship after him.

Thurman Munson
The 1970 AL Rookie of the Year and the league’s 1976 Most Valuable Player, the New York Yankees catcher was the team’s first captain since Lou Gehrig. Having bought a plane so he could fly home to his family in Ohio on off-days, Munson was practicing landings when he clipped a tree on approach to Akron-Canton Regional Airport. Two others aboard survived the 1979 crash, but the 32-year-old ballplayer was paralyzed on impact and suffocated in the ensuing fire.

Emiliano Sala
The Argentinian striker was the top scorer for Nantes in three straight Ligue 1 seasons before he was sent to Cardiff City for a 15 million pound ($19 million) transfer fee. He was on his way to his new team when his plane crashed in the English Channel in 2019. Sala, 28, was found three weeks later.

Kobe Bryant
The five-time NBA champion, two-time Olympic gold medalist and 2018 Academy Award winner was traveling with his 13-year-old daughter and seven others to a girls’ basketball tournament when their helicopter crashed outside of Los Angeles in January 2020. He was 41.

The Lakers retired both numbers he wore during the career in which he was the team’s all-time leading scorer. The NBA named its All-Star Game MVP award after him, and the WNBA presents the Kobe & Gigi Bryant Advocacy Award for contributions to women’s and girls’ basketball.

Rocky Marciano
The only world heavyweight champion to retire undefeated, Marciano held the title from 1952-56. After his boxing career made him a celebrity and an Italian-American icon, he had appeared in films and television and was friends with Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin. He died at 45 when an inexperienced pilot crashed into a tree in bad weather three miles from an Iowa airfield in August 1969. The title character in Sylvester Stallone’s “Rocky” franchise was partially inspired by Marciano.

Roy Halladay
The Toronto Blue Jays and Philadelphia Phillies All-Star was a two-time winner of the Cy Young Award who threw a perfect game in the 2010 regular season and a no-hitter that postseason. He was 40 in 2017 when he crashed a sport plane he had purchased a month earlier into the Gulf of Mexico. The NTSB found that he was impaired by high levels of amphetamines and was attempting extreme aerobatic stunts when he lost control of the aircraft.