The day the music died: Buddy Holly plane crash probe may be reopened
The day the music died: Buddy Holly plane crash probe may be reopened
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Buddy Holly in the 1950s.
Image: AP Photo/File/Associated Press
By Tim Chester
2015-03-05 12:09:45 UTC
It's a full 56 years since the famous airplane crash that killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper and soon we could know exactly what caused it.
On February 3, 1959, a six seater, single engine Beechcraft Bonanza airplane carrying the three musicians plunged into an Iowa cornfield at 270 km/h in awful winter conditions minutes after taking off, killing everyone on board.
Buddy Holly, just a couple of years into his stratospheric career, was 22 years old. Ritchie Valens, who had dropped "La Bamba" on the world less than four months previously, was 17. The Big Bopper, aka JP Richardson, was also at the start of a promising career; "Chantilly Lace" had been released the year before.
The cause of the crash was blamed on pilot error and the wintery conditions but the fact that three promising musicians were silenced so early by such a mundane tragedy has demanded a fuller explanation.
Now it looks like the case it going to be opened all over again.
A pilot named LJ Coon believes that the prevailing explanation for the crash does an injustice to the original pilot, 21-year-old Roger Peterson, and has asked the National Transportation Safety Board's cold case unit to have another look. Safety investigators are considering the request.
Image: Charlie Neibergall/Associated Press
This is not the first time the case has been re-examined. The fact that Buddy Holly's pistol was found in the cornfield two months after the crash has long led to speculation that a firearm discharge caused the plane to come down, and in 2007 Richardson's son had his body exhumed and subjected to an autopsy to prove he had died in the initial impact. There have been many other theories and books on the topic.
However, Coon reckons he has several lines of investigation that haven't been considered fully. One is that the plane wasn't carrying enough fuel, another questions the weight balance of the passengers (Valens and Richardson were considerably heavier than the others), and a third points a finger at some of the technical specifications of the aircraft.
Essentially, he finds it hard to believe that an experienced pilot with local knowledge could have caused the crash.
"Roger would have flown out and about this airport at night, under multiple different conditions," he said. "He had to be very familiar with all directions of this airport in and out."
The musicians were on their way to Fargo, North Dakota. Several other members of the band had lucky escapes . The bassist for the tour, Waylon Jennings, gave up his seat to Richardson, who was sick and needed to get to a doctor fast, while guitarist Tommy Allsup lost a coin toss with Valens for the final seat.
The incident is famously referenced in Don McLean's "American Pie" from 1971.