Did not know that, thanks!
I had always heard that, based on these opening lines:
Just yesterday mornin’, they let me know you were gone
Suzanne, the plans they made put an end to you
…plus the “Sweet dreams and flying machines in pieces on the ground” line, a myth was created that James Taylor was in a long distance relationship with a woman named Suzanne, and was moping around because he missed her. So his friends chipped in to buy her a plane ticket to come see him, and the plane crashed.
I knew that story wasn’t true, but I didn’t know about the band ‘Flying Machine’.