Metallica guitar tech Aidan Mullen was trapped beneath the wreckage during the 1986 tour bus crash that killed former Metallica bassist Cliff Burton. He has now opened up about what really happened that night and recalled Burton’s final moments.
Mullen described the moment the bus lost control on icy roads, detailing how the vehicle flipped and how a design flaw in the coach’s construction contributed to the tragedy.
“Long story short, the bus hit some black ice, spun around and flipped on its side facing the opposite direction it was traveling in. It did a 180 [degree turn],” Mullen said. “I’m a light sleeper on buses more now than before that, but I woke up before the darn thing did what it did and I’ll never forget it for as long as I live.”
He went on to explain how the bus’s construction played a role in the outcome of the crash.
“Back then there were no laws on how tour coaches were designed, particularly on the inside,” Mullen continued. “And in this case they had started with a bus that had windows all the way down the sides and then they put plywood walls up against the windows … but when the bus flipped, I was in a bunk above Cliff and the force of the bus leaning over and hitting the ground not at speed, but it was moving when this happened, so there was more force to it than if it had just laid over on its side. So when it hit the ground, that window broke and the two of us went through the window holes.”
Mullen then recounted the harrowing moments immediately following the crash, when he and Burton ended up trapped together beneath the vehicle.
“The way it worked out was that Cliff was laying on my arm. And I was laying length wise within the rectangular window hole that was big enough to accommodate me…and Cliff was laying on me at an angle,” he said. “And he didn’t survive obviously because the bus came down on top of us.”
He described the terrifying sensation of being unable to breathe and believing he would not survive.
“I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t move. I barely knew at that point what had happened. I did not know what was going on with Cliff, who was next to me. I didn’t know who, what, where, when, how,” Mullen said. “I was struggling to breathe, couldn’t breathe, but I remember when it seemed like it dragged on for minutes and minutes but it was only probably 30 seconds or so, but I realized I’m not gonna make it out of this. I can’t breathe. I’m suffocating. I thought of my folks, my friends and thought what a shitty thing to happen. And then all of a sudden, things began moving around me. Things were being pulled off of me in a frantic way.”
Mullen then described the moment rescuers reached him and the realization of what had happened to Burton.
“Things were being pulled off of me and all of a sudden I could breathe and then more stuff got pulled off and I heard Bobby’s voice saying, ‘Take it easy. We got you. Hopefully you’re going to be okay.’ I couldn’t feel my arm. I couldn’t move my arm. And I looked over and I realized someone was laying across my arm next to me. And I realized after a minute, it was likely Cliff,” he said.
He recalled his own reaction upon realizing Burton was beside him, and the somber response he received.
“He wasn’t moving, but neither was I at that point. Bobby said, ‘Just take it easy, we’ll get you out of there.’ And I said, ‘Bobby, I’ll help Cliff. Help me get him out of here.’ And I just remember Bobby saying quietly, ‘Don’t worry about Cliff.’ It didn’t dawn on me. I didn’t understand what he meant by that,” Mullen said.
Mullen’s account offers a firsthand look at a night that has long been surrounded by conflicting details. It adds new weight to a story that has never been fully settled.
The official explanation for the crash has always centered on black ice, with the bus driver telling authorities he lost control after the tour coach hit a slick patch on the road outside Ljungby, Sweden. That explanation, however, has drawn scrutiny over the years. Neither the band nor investigators found physical evidence of ice at the scene. The temperature at the time of the crash was several degrees above freezing, raising doubts about whether the road conditions were truly to blame.
Despite the unresolved questions surrounding the cause, Swedish police cleared the driver of any wrongdoing following their investigation. He was released without charges, and the crash was officially attributed to the road conditions he described. Speculation about what really happened that morning has persisted among fans and band associates for decades.
The tragedy is also tied to one of the more haunting details of that night. Burton ended up in the bunk where he was fatally injured after he and guitarist Kirk Hammett reportedly played cards to decide who would sleep in a particular spot on the bus. Burton won the spot near the window, which would ultimately prove fatal when the vehicle flipped.
Burton died in the September 1986 crash while Metallica was touring in support of their album “Master of Puppets.” He was 24 years old.
