Rock ’n’ roll legend Buddy Holly was killed in a plane crash in 1959 on “the day the music died” — and now the National Transportation Safety Board may reopen an investigation into the crash, thanks to a request from an aviation enthusiast.
The Civil Aeronautics Board, the NTSB’s precursor, ruled on Sept. 23, 1959, that the pilot was to blame for the crash — which also claimed the lives of Ritchie Valens and J.P. Richardson, also known as “The Big Bopper” — because he wasn’t certified for an instrument-guided flight and his weather briefing was deficient.
L.J. Coon petitioned the NTSB to investigate possible contributing factors that may clear the name of 21-year-old pilot Roger Peterson, who died alongside the rock legends, the Des Moines Register reported.
The factors include the plane’s weight-and-balance calculations (for passengers, baggage and fuel), and possible carburetor icing and problems with the rudder pedals, Coon told CNN. He also is questioning fuel gauge readings.
“I believe that the NTSB will review pilot Peterson’s diagnostic actions in the aircraft during this 3.5-minute flight and realize the heroic efforts that took place in those 4.9 miles,” Coon said.
The NTSB wrote Coon on Feb. 19: “You have gotten our attention,” the Des Moines Register reported. A decision on whether to reopen the probe could take weeks.
The agency will reopen a case when new evidence is discovered or when its findings are erroneous.
After completing a concert in Clear Lake, Iowa, on Feb. 2, 1959, Holly and the others decided to charter a small plane to take them to Moorhead, Minnesota. It crashed shortly after taking off from Mason City, Iowa, early the next morning.
Dion DiMucci of Dion and the Belmonts said in 2009 that Holly told the others to flip a coin to see who would fly on the four-seat Beech Bonanza after the concert and who would take a bus, the newspaper reported.
Bass player and eventual country legend Waylon Jennings gave up his seat to a feverish Richardson — and he remained guilt-ridden until he died in 2002 at age 64.
Several books have been written about the accident that forever silenced the voice behind the classic hits “Peggy Sue” and “That’ll Be the Day.”
Don McLean memorialized the fateful day as “the day the music died” in a lyric in his 1971 song “American Pie.”