(Credits: Far Out / Tom Corcoran / Steve Kalinsky)
Thu 25 December 2025 8:32, UK
In early 1996, Jimmy Buffett was solidly one of the most successful and identifiable artists in the world of music. The gaudy-shirted singer was approaching the 20 million records sold mark, and you could spot his grin from a mile off.
After two full decades of mixing rock with country and island themes, Buffett had created a genre and world all his own, and it was finding a hefty audience in any place that enjoyed a Margarita. 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. The authorities had acted hastily, anticipating a heavily-armed cartel. Buffett quickly 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. He’s had ropey receptions in his time, but this was really taking he biscuit.
The now eternally relieved singer added, “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, shortly after the unfortunate smuggling escapade. 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, comically titled ‘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.”
Presumably, it was Bono who found his calmness bemusing. The late Buffett’s song makes no reference, however, to the oft-touted conspiracy theory that the police simply were the armed inverse of ‘U2 fans’. But it did at least come pretty close to Buffett’s philosophy, “One of the inescapable encumbrances of leading an interesting life is that there have to be moments when you almost lose it.”
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