A Bahamian music group is “still in shock” after their bandmate died in a small plane crash

Surviving members of popular Bahamian music group Da Pond Band are speaking out about their friends and bandmates who were killed in a small plane operated by Flamingo Air. crashed in the Bahamas on Friday, all 10 people on board died.

Da Pond Band, known for their sweet Caribbean music, and a famous DJ were going to perform at the Independence Day celebration on Andros Island. A flight that usually takes less than 20 minutes, the plane had taken off from Lynden Pindling International Airport in Nassau and was en route to San Andros when it crashed in North Andros, the Bahamian Aircraft Accident Investigation Authority said.

Earlier, Shenia Roberts, who sings Da Pond Band, had arrived at Andros Island and was waiting for the rest of the band to arrive. Roberts said that five members of their group died in the accident.

“They were people I was talking to in the morning, at night,” Roberts told CBS News. “They were my friends, my confidants. And I was waiting for them.”

He said he boarded the flight from Nassau, driven by the same pilot, at around 7am.

“You can see it was an old plane,” said Roberts. “But we had no problems.”

Bahamian investigators are looking into what led to the crash. Flamingo Air has grounded all flights after two emergency incidents occurred on the same day. Previously, the airline had burned a separate plane after landing in Nassau, according to Bahamian officials. No one died in that incident.

“I’m still in shock that they’re gone, I can’t believe it,” said Shaniese Miller, another surviving member of the group. “They are my family and I didn’t expect that to happen.”

Miller ended up having members of the group die last Friday at a weekly event they held in Nassau.

“It’s a hot spot, every Bahamian is there. International people fly to see Da Pond,” Miller told CBS News. “We were really excited, and after the second set, we were there, they were just saying how excited they were to go to Andros.”

The deceased band members were identified by Da Pond Band as Giovanni McKenzie, Mateo Winder, Rashad Storr, Tonique Gilot and Travis Johnson. Melvin Henfield, aka DJ Fresh, was also on the plane, according to the group.

The loss of these popular artists has hit the entertainment industry in the Bahamas hard.

“They meant a lot to a lot of people, this country is broken,” said Anishka Lewis, a famous Bahamian singer who often performs with the band Da Pond. “The last thing I said to them because we were in rehearsals until 1 a.m. I said, listen, I love you and I appreciate you, man. Thank you for putting the time and effort and energy into it, and I can’t wait to see you all on Saturday.”

Three other passengers who were not playing were on the plane. Officials have not released their names.

Anastasia Rolle told CBS News that she believes her 16-year-old son, Nicholas Oliver Jr., was among those killed Friday. He said he believed he was added to the flight at the last minute.

Rolle said his son was happy to visit the family and attend the festival. He was going to ride with his father in the morning but they arrived too late, he said. Dad then went to the airport to see if he could get him on the plane.

He was supposed to arrive around 12:30 at night, but as the planes kept arriving at San Andros, Rolle could not find his son. Hours passed.

“The question was where is Nicholas? Did he disappear?” Rolle said. “As time went on, I had to realize that my son was on that plane.”

A pilot on a Flamingo Air flight waited on the tarmac to fill extra seats two hours after the flight was originally scheduled to take off, according to Roberts, the star of Da Pond Band, who said he had been texting with McKenzie, one of the bandleaders who died in the crash.

“He told me they were getting ready to leave, and I reached out and asked him, so why are you taking so long? What happened? He said the pilot … He’s trying to get other people to fill the plane,” Roberts told CBS News.

McKenzie wrote at 12:01 p.m. Friday that the pilot was “waiting for more people to fill the plane,” according to a screenshot of the WhatsApp text exchange obtained by CBS News.

A Bahamian aviation source familiar with the matter told CBS News that it would be common practice in the Bahamas to wait until a plane is full before departure if the client is paying per seat, rather than chartering the entire plane.

This plane was supposed to be a chartered plane only for them to perform at the event, according to Roberts.

“That shouldn’t have been the situation, because it was a chartered flight,” said Roberts.

CBS News has reached out to Flamingo Air for comment.

When reached by phone, the airline’s owner told CBS News he had “no comment.”

The flight took off around 12:30 p.m., according to flight records. It crashed in a wooded area near the airport 18 minutes later.