[Bonemaker]

The Day the Music Died. Kind of true. Take away: believe your instrunents.

[DIRTYSECRET]

What difference at this point does it make?

[ought-six]

The kid flying the plane was not qualified in instrument flight.

[Antihero101607]

The plane was vaxxed, I knew it!

[Jeff Chandler]

Free basing. Holly was a pioneer.

[P8riot]

The pilot wasn't instrument rated. He shouldn't have even been flying in that weather.

The Last Flight of Nine Four November

[Chode]

so what was it???

[GrandJediMasterYoda]

I read the autobio of Dion DiMucci of Dion and the Belmonts who was on that tour. He said the people in charge of that tour were complete morons. They gave them school buses meant for delivering school kids locally and used it to tour half the northern country in the dead of winter. And these were the buses that have a single heater by the driver. It got so cold their drummer had to be hospitalized for frost bite, plus he said the bus would constantly break down.

To me that’s what killed them, they would have never taken that plane if they had a tour planned by pros. My theory is they had no respect for rock and rollers back then, they saw them as stupid kids and easy marks to rip off. Ritchie Valens was only 17,

[telescope115]

There is a great documentary, The Day The Music Died, In which Don McClean relates his journey into writing the iconic song and what inspired him. I highly recommend it.

[citizen]

Gravity

[RckyRaCoCo]

I was first (or second) on the scene of a Bonanza crash just north of Orange County(went into a dumpster just behind an industrial building). I worked just down the road from there and was listening on my scanner before I left for work...as he was attempting to do an instrument approach, he did at least 1 missed approach, maybe more..before ATC lost contact.

SoCal coastal wx can change fast...inversion layers, coastal fog, smog...ugh.

Believe a V-tail crashed into a mobile home park the other day in Florida.

[DesertRhino]

Here’s the accident report. They knew the answer over 60 years ago when it happened.

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://media.al.com/entertainment_impact/other/Buddy%20Holly%20crash%20report.pdf

Pilot error in judgement. IMC in an aircraft with a system he was not familiar with.

[gunnut]

The guy that jokingly said, I hope your plane crashes has had to live with that all these years. Would not want that on me.

[jonrick46]

Now, what is the true cause of the John F. Kennedy Jr. plane crash?

[Brooklyn Attitude]

It took 65 years to discover the pilot wasn’t instrument rated? Why?

[PLMerite]

Somebody found Buddy Holly’s glasses in the field years later.

[Fiji Hill]

Three Stars--Tommy Dee with Carol Kay & the Teen-Aires (1959)

[Paal Gulli]

This hasn't been news since 1959. It's always been believed that the cause was pilot disorientation.

"Investigators point to quickly-changing wintry weather conditions that were not communicated to the inexperienced pilot as the cause of the crash that left such a tragic mark on music history."

Completely irrelevant. It is the responsibility of the Pilot-in-Command to learn everything pertinent to the safe execution of his flight, especially weather.

It's also a bit cynical to brand a pilot as "inexperienced" when he's already earned his commercial ticket.

[norwaypinesavage]

"Investigators point to quickly-changing wintry weather conditions that were not communicated to the inexperienced pilot as the cause of the crash"

Balderdash! The kid could have simply looked around as he walked to the plane. He crashed only 7 miles from the airport. He was simply too inexperienced to fly an airplane at night in a snowstorm. As soon as he was airborne, he couldn't see the ground and lost control. It only takes seconds when you're not instrument rated.

[newfreep]

I’ll take a wild guess and say...GRAVITY.

[EVO X]

Get there itis is still a problem today.