Aaliyah traveled to the Bahamas in August 2001 to film the "Rock the Boat" video with director Hype Williams. On August 25, 2001, at 6:45 pm, just after filming was completed, Aaliyah and 7 friends boarded a Cessna 402 small aircraft en route to Miami, Florida. The journey would have taken approximately 1 hour travel time. Instead, the plane nosedived while taking off and crashed in a marsh on the south side of the departure end of runway 27. All nine people aboard, including Aaliyah, the pilot and the other seven passengers, were killed.

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Investigators determined the plane was over its total gross weight by several hundred pounds. Although those responsible claimed that the passengers had been asked to leave some luggage behind and had refused, it was later discovered that the passengers, including Aaliyah, had not been informed of the excess weight. Furthermore, an autopsy of the pilot revealed cocaine and alcohol in his blood. Reports have also suggested the pilot of the plane falsely obtained his licence from Black Hawk Airways by showing hundreds of hours never flown, suggesting he was not qualified to pilot the plane in the first place.

As a result of the accident, Barry & Sons, Inc., a corporation formed in 1992 to develop, promote and capitalize on the musical talents of Aaliyah and to oversee the production and distribution of her records, tapes and music videos, brought an unsuccessful lawsuit in the Supreme Court of the State of New York against Instinct Productions LLC, (a company hired by Barry & Sons, Inc. in August, 2001 to produce the "Rock the Boat" music video). The case was dismissed since New York State's wrongful death statute only permits certain people to recover damages for wrongful death.

"Rock the Boat" went on to become a posthumous hit on radio (reaching number two on Billboard's Hot R&B Singles charts and number 14 on the Hot 100) and video channels, and the news of Aaliyah's death gave her album a notable sales boost, pushing it to number one on the Billboard 200. The album's two subsequent singles, "More than A Woman" reached number seven on Billboard's Hot R&B singles chart and number 25 on Hot 100. "I Care 4 U" reached number three on Billboard's Hot R&B singles chart and number 13 on the Hot 100, the latter attaining success even without the promotional push of a music video. the Aaliyah album went on to reach 3X platinum status, with sales of 3.0 million in the U.S. and six million worldwide.


Queen of the Damned was released in early 2002. Before its release, Aaliyah's brother Rashad was called upon to re-dub several of his sister's lines during the post-production ADR process. Upon its release, the film debuted at number one.


In 2002, a posthumous greatest hits collection, I Care 4 You, was released in Aaliyah's name. In addition to well-known hits, it also included six previously unreleased songs from the Blackground vaults Aaliyah had recorded over the course of her career, including "Miss You," which became the album's lead single. Its video features Missy Elliott, [[Toni Braxton, AJ, Free, Tweet, U-God (of the Wu-Tang Clan) and DMX, among others, paying tribute to Aaliyah.


Aaliyah was to have had a supporting role as the wife of Harold Perrineau Jr.'s character, Link, in the two sequels to The Matrix; her role was ultimately filled by Nona Gaye. Other films in which Aaliyah was signed to star in were Honey (which instead was filmed with Jessica Alba as the star), and a Whitney Houston-produced remake of the 1976 film Sparkle. In addition, Aaliyah and one of her agents had pitched and inked a deal with Fox Searchlight Pictures for her to star in a film based upon a true story about interracial love.


Aaliyah is interred in the Ferncliff Cemetery and Mausoleum in Hartsdale, New York.