According to a new book on the life of legendary singer Aaliyah, the artist had taken a pill and needed assistance getting onto the aircraft before the fatal 2001 crash in the Bahamas. The report comes from a witness who revealed the details in the book Baby Girl: Better Known as Aaliyah by music journalist Kathy Landoli, the Daily Mail reported.

“They took her out of the van; she didn’t even know she was getting boarded on a plane,” Kingsley Russell, who saw Aaliyah shortly before the fateful flight, said. “She went on the airplane asleep.”

At the time of the tragedy, Russell's family ran a taxi company in the Abaco Islands. Russell, who was 13 years old at the time, was in the cab as his mom drove the five-time Grammy winner and her team to the airport for their return flight to Miami.

Aaliyah, who just finished shooting the music video for her hit single “Rock the Boat,” was apprehensive about boarding the overloaded plane as the team prepared to depart the island. Russell said the star chose to go back to sleep in the cab his mother was driving. Aaliyah also complained about a headache, according to the witness. That's when members of the singer's team provided her with a pill, Russell said. 

After the artist passed out in the back of the cab, her team helped her onto the plane, according to the book. A few hours later, the Brooklyn native and eight members of her entourage died in the crash.

Investigators later said the small aircraft exceeded its allotted weight by several hundred pounds and carried one more passenger than it was certified for. According to Landoli's book, the pilot advised that the plane was overweight, but proceeded with the flight after arguing with the entourage. Another report in 2002 concluded that the inexperienced pilot had cocaine and alcohol in his system, according to Entertainment Weekly. 

"I remember when Aaliyah passed away, I was really upset," Landoli told The Daily Beast. "The story kept saying that she was adamant about getting on the plane. I was almost upset with her. Why did you want to get on that plane so badly?"

But the newest information is serving as closure for the author.

“In learning that she did not want to get on the plane, for someone like myself and so many other people, I think that’s closure for us,” she said. “It’s an unfortunate closure, but I needed to hear she didn’t want to get on that plane; I needed to know that. The person who I thought had the most common sense in the world had common sense to not get on the plane. The fact that she was so adamant, staying in the cab, refusing—these are things we never knew.”

Correction: an earlier version of this story stated Aaliyah had taken sleeping pills and had to be carried to a plane but per a Rolling Stone interview with journalist and author Kathy Iandoli, it's not clear exactly what kind of pills the late singer took. And while the singer needed aid to get to the plane, whether she had to be carried is also uncertain.