Monday, January 27, 2020

The loss of Buddy Holly, part 2







The loss of Buddy Holly, part 2, the take off 

The take off and the very short flight…

At 12:55 a.m. on Tues. Feb. 3rd, pilot Roger Peterson eased the nose of the Beechcraft
Bonanza airplane out on runway 17 at the Mason City Airport. On board, Buddy Holly,
J.P. Richardson and Richie Valens. (Yes, Waylon Jennings gave up his seat to the Big
Bopper…Richardson was feeling ill with a cold or worse, so Jennings gave up his seat
to the Big Bopper. The actual famous ‘coin flip’ for one seat was between Tommy Allsup
and Richie Valens..the physical flip was made by local D.J. and M.C. Bob Hale.. and
Valens won the seat so he would be on board.) Holly was seated up front next to the
pilot Peterson, Valens and Richardson were seated directly behind them.

 The weather had down-graded a bit, but not significantly since the last weather check by Peterson and his boss Hubert Dwyer. The ceiling was now down to 3,000 feet from 6,000 feet, and a front was approaching with light snow, winds were 20 to 30 mph and visibility was 6 miles, the temperature was a frigid 18 degrees.
Unfortunately a ‘flash’ weather advisory issued a few minutes before 1:00 a.m. was
never received or passed on to the pilot.  A large mass of snow was moving in their
flight path from the Northwest, and visibility had been lowered to two miles. This would
be significant upon the post crash investigation later on. Remember, Peterson was flying VISUALLY, with no instrument ratings. The flight, only 311 miles would take about one
 and one half hours.

Hubert Dwyer watched as the airplane lifted off the runway, made an initial left turn
onto a northwesterly heading and started climbing to its’ designated flight level of 800 feet.
Dwyer watched the tail light of the aircraft as it disappeared out of view…. that was
just after 1:00 a.m. Peterson had planned to file a flight plan once in the air, and was
to radio Dwyer once settled in for the flight.  When Peterson had failed to make
contact, several attempts to communicate with the aircraft were made and all were
unsuccessful.

At daylight, Dwyer in another airplane, went to trace the route of Holly’s
plane…… and the wreckage was found less than 6 miles from the airport. It hadn’t gotten
far. Had there been a structure failure? Did Peterson quickly discover the weather was
worse than he thought and was he turning to go back? Did the plane have too much
weight with passengers and luggage? Was there an engine problem that
could have caused loss of power? All good questions which would eventually be
confronted.

Next up: the crash site 

(scroll down for part 1)

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