Ski Slope Mishaps

Statistics say that fewer than forty Americans a year are killed in skiing accidents. Sadly, that hasn't prevented some high-profile celebrities from dying on or near the slopes.

When singer and politician SONNY BONO was killed in 1998 while skiing at the ironically-named Heavenly Ski Resort in California, it was called a freak accident. At age 62, Bono apparently lost control before crashing into a tree at the South Lake Tahoe resort.

Bono's death was doubly freakish, having come just five days after a similar skiing accident killed MICHAEL KENNEDY in Aspen, Colorado. Kennedy (the son of the late senator Robert F. Kennedy) also crashed into a tree. He was killed while playing a game popular with his family: tossing a football as they sped down the slopes.

Kennedy's accidental death in Aspen has another strange connection. Aspen was the home of popular singer JOHN DENVER, who had been killed just a few months earlier, on 12 October 1997, while flying his homemade airplane over the Pacific Ocean.

In turn, Denver had been friends with singer CLAUDINE LONGET, reportedly even letting her stay in his house the night she accidentally shot and killed her boyfriend, Olympic skier Vladimir "Spider" Sabich in 1976. The same night, Longet accidentally killed whatever performing career she had, as the subsequent trial publicity left many people thinking she got away with murder.

Actress NATASHA RICHARDSON had a sad and very strange skiing accident in 2009 at Mont Tremblant, a resort north of Montreal, Canada. Richardson took what seemed like an minor fall during a lesson on the beginner slope. She returned to her hotel, but an hour later developed a headache and was taken to a hospital, where her health quickly failed. She died two days later after her family (including her husband, actor Liam Neeson) removed her from life support. It has been speculated that she was a victim of so-called "talk and die" syndrome, where a brain injury that is not immediately apparent turns fatal a few hours later.

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