Having regard to the fact that it is 50 years (well, it was earlier in the week) since Buddy Holly died, can someone tell me the registration and the circumstances of the crash of the Beech Bonanza carrying Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper?
By: avion ancien - 6th February 2009 at 20:35
Or, there’s a long list of musicians that were killed in plane crashes….
Yes, but that’s another thread perhaps?
By: J Boyle - 6th February 2009 at 00:09
Time for a Top-Ten perharps Pop-pickers?…I’m leaving on a jet plane, hopefully not US Air 1549!
Or, there’s a long list of musicians that were killed in plane crashes….
By: Pondskater - 5th February 2009 at 23:31
Sounds like an urban legend to me….but I’d love to see proof. 😀
It is. Don McLean, in a press statement in 1999:
The growing urban legend that “American Pie” was the name of Buddy Holly’s plane the night it crashed, killing him, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper, is untrue. I created the term.
The quote is from Don McLean Online which also has his views on the meaning of the song.
He says the lyrics are poetry and he has never analysed them – but it doesn’t stop others from so doing.
By: chumpy - 5th February 2009 at 23:08
Time for a Top-Ten perharps Pop-pickers?…I’m leaving on a jet plane, hopefully not US Air 1549!
By: avion ancien - 5th February 2009 at 22:09
……and I read somewhere just last night that the aircraft was named…………………..’Miss American Pie’. If so, I NOW understand the song!!
That’ll be the day!
By: J Boyle - 5th February 2009 at 21:59
……and I read somewhere just last night that the aircraft was named…………………..’Miss American Pie’. If so, I NOW understand the song!!
Sounds like an urban legend to me….but I’d love to see proof. 😀
By: lotus72 - 5th February 2009 at 21:13
……and I read somewhere just last night that the aircraft was named…………………..’Miss American Pie’. If so, I NOW understand the song!!
By: J Boyle - 5th February 2009 at 20:36
…funny that the pilot was not qualified to fly at night but they let him anyway.
curlyboy
I find it very hard to accept that a commercial pilot was not qualified for night flight. IFR maybe (especially back then), night, no.
By: daveg4otu - 5th February 2009 at 20:07
That it is 50 years
And I can remember it like yesterday – we had a local youth club that met that next evening- was full of weeping girls!
By: stuart gowans - 5th February 2009 at 20:07
I believe the pilot was much the same age as the passengers, I seem to remember at that age, you still have faith in those around you.
By: SierraEchoFred - 5th February 2009 at 20:06
The concerned a/c was Beechcraft 35 Bonanza N3794N (c/n D-1019). I’ve wrote a pice a few years ago – http://lae.blogg.se/2006/january/the-day-the-music-died.html …try out google translation 😉
“It was also posible that the pilot was also unfamiliar with the instrument layout of the plane. Primarily with the newly installed Sperry F3 which he probably “understood backwards”. When Peterson believed to be climbing away from the airport in a slight turn, the case was on the contrary – he was in a descending turn…and without any external references, in snow and darkness…”
By: Arabella-Cox - 5th February 2009 at 19:59
There is more here on wiki,funny that the pilot was not qualified to fly at night but they let him anyway.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Day_the_Music_Died
curlyboy
By: Mondariz - 5th February 2009 at 19:35
Wrong report…sorry
By: YakRider - 5th February 2009 at 19:24
Thread here with more details
By: CSheppardholedi - 5th February 2009 at 19:03
Saw it listed as “Pilot Error” and it was during a snowstorm, owned by a Jerry Dwyer, don’t know much else, will keep looking
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February 5, 2009 at 6:51 pm