Did You Know That Jimmy Buffett and Bono Almost Had Their Plane Shot Down: Read Full Story

Did You Know That Jimmy Buffett and Bono Almost Had Their Plane Shot Down: Read Full Story 

In early 1996, Jimmy Buffett was solidly one of the most successful and identifiable artists in the world of music. After two full decades of mixing rock with country and island themes, Buffett had created a genre and world all his own. He could go anywhere around the world and get recognised, playing his signature songs for appreciative audiences of all cultures. But when he took a plane ride around Jamaica that year, he nearly got shot out of the sky.

That’s because Jamaican authorities took one look at Buffett’s personal Grumman HU-16 Albatross plane, the Hemisphere Dancer, and deduced that it was smuggling drugs. Buffett might have been the leader of the Coral Reefers, but he wasn’t carrying anything with him that day. The only precious cargo was the people on board: U2 singer Bono, his family, and Island Records president Chris Blackwell.

When Buffett and his compatriots landed in the waters just outside of Negril, they were greeted with the sound of gunshots. A few bullets managed to pierce the plane’s body, with one even shattering the windshield of the plane. Buffett had managed to calm things down, but Bono and the rest of his family were scared out of their minds.

“These boys were shooting all over the place. I felt as if we were in the middle of a James Bond movie — only this was real. It was absolutely terrifying, and I honestly thought we were all going to die,” Bono told the Belfast Telegraph. “Thank God we were safe and sound. My only concern was for their safety. It was very scary, let me tell you. You can’t believe the relief I felt when I saw the kids were okay.”

Bono was so rattled that he and his family found the first flight out of Jamaica to Miami, Florida. Authorities apologised to Buffett following the incident, hoping that the mix-up wouldn’t affect his patronage of the country. Buffett took it all in stride, but not before penning an ode to the incident, ‘Jamaica Mistaica’.

Appearing on his 1996 album Banana Wind, ‘Jamaica Mistaica’ is more-or-less a direct retelling of the incident, including the part where the authorities hoped he would return to the country following the shooting. Buffett managed to find humour in the incident, summarising the experience in the lines, “Some thought me crazy for bein’ way too nice / But it’s just another shitty day in paradise.”