Monday, January 30, 2023

the Buddy Holly crash....part 3

 


It's February 3rd, 1959, within a few minutes of 1:00 a.m. Young pilot Peterson takes off
from the Mason City Airport in very wintry conditions, with a new weather front coming 
his way from the Northwest.....




The short flight and the crash..


The crash site….

Unfortunately the Beechcraft with Buddy Holly and three others had not gone far.
In less than five minutes and traveling under six miles, the aircraft impacted the terrain
at high speed, descending into a steep bank, hitting the right tip of the wing and leaving
a trail of debris 450 feet long, the remainder of the fuselage rolling into a ball and stopping
at a fence line. Here was an eerie scene for those who arrived the next morning. Four young men with great potential lying around a shattered airplane in a field.

There were no witnesses to the crash. Upon exam, the instruments in the plane read as follows: fuel pressure, oil temperature and pressure gauges were stuck in the green or normal range.
The attitude gyro indicator was stopped in a reading indicating a 90 degree angle.
Also, the rate of climb indicator was stopped at 3,000 feet per minute descent.
The airspeed indicator was stopped showing between 165-170 mph. (At this speed
and rate of descent from 800 feet…it would only take about 15 seconds to impact)
The seat belts had all suffered failures either in their attachment points or buckles.
The violent force of the crash itself resulted in Holly, Richardson and Valens all being
thrown from the aircraft. The bodies of Holly and Valens were within twenty feet of the
fuselage, Richardson’s body was thrown across the fence line some forty feet and onto the
property of Oscar Moffitt. The pilot Peterson’s body was trapped in the cockpit. The deceased were all covered in light snow which had accumulated overnight. The aircraft did
 not catch fire,(with 39 gallons of fuel supposedly on board, it’s kind of unusual that
there was no fire, or even mention of any fuel residue being noticed at the site during
the investigation) the landing gear was retracted at the time of the crash. The propeller hub gave evidence that the engine was under power when hitting the ground. County coroner Ralph Smiley certified that all victims died instantly, cause of death ‘gross trauma to brain’ for the
three recording artists and brain damage for pilot Peterson. The bodies were removed
from the site that morning. The only autopsy performed was that on the pilot
Peterson. Only macroscopic physical exams noting injuries to substantiate cause of death were
performed on Holly, Richardson and Valens.  

Next up part 4;  the pistol found and the years later exhumation of the Big Bopper. 


parts 1 and 2 are found below...

Saturday, January 28, 2023

The Buddy Holly crash....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)

Friday, January 27, 2023

the Buddy Holly crash, part 1

 



 If you are over 60...you'll remember this mishap..if under 60
 you will at least recall the music made famous by these folks.
 This is a five part series that will be updated every couple of 
 days...so please come back for it.  

Buddy Holly, J.P. Richardson, Ritchie Valens and pilot Roger
Peterson....all in a Beechcraft Bonanza airplane, with luggage
and laundry stowed in the back. Within minutes after takeoff
all four would be part of rock and roll history. Here is their 
story............

So much has been written over the years concerning the death of
Buddy Holly.  Volumes of information; accident and investigation
reports, coroner’s notes, published books and articles that seem
to grow year after year.
There  were even rumors as late as 2005 that the NTSB might
re-open the crash investigation of the Holly crash in Feb. of 1959.,
but it didn’t happen.  This author has even made attempts to
reach family members to learn of where the aircraft remains are
now located…even after 63 years….but no responses have been
received  to my inquiries.

All the information in theses next few postings were taken from
public files, documents, police and coroners notes, etc.  And I write
about the event as a tribute to the young men who perished that
February 3rd. Whether you liked his music or not, Buddy Holly was
a rising star, up there with Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis himself.

So let’s remember these young people, their music, their families
and their legacies….and kind of imagine…what could have been. 

Part 1, the Pilot, Roger Peterson


The pilot, Roger Peterson.  Age age 21, was young, having been licensed in 1954, Roger had accumulated 711 hours of flying experience, 128 of those hours in the Beechcraft  Bonanza, an aircraft with a strange v shaped tail assembly.  It was known as the ‘Dr. killer’ because it had many crashes involving amateur pilots, many of them physicians. The aircraft’s top speed
was 165-175 miles per hour, and this version of the aircraft seated the pilot, three passengers
and their luggage. (As I side note, I had flown in this aircraft configuration a couple of times
years ago. We used to fly from the old Palmyra airport to Syracuse and back. I remember
the cockpit being quite tight with not a lot of room.)

Roger’s boss Hubert Dwyer was owner of Dwyer’ flying service, owner of the aircraft which
was designated N3794N. On the evening of the incident, Monday Feb. 2nd, both Dwyer and
Peterson had made several stops at the weather control center at the Mason City
airport.  The weather was wintry, light snow, winds from the south at 20 mph, ceiling
of 6,000 feet. Dwyer I’m sure was a bit concerned for the flight because of the three famous
people being transported later that night. But it’s quite evident he had confidence in Peterson who had accumulated his hours on charter flights. The flight was going to be 311 miles as the
‘crow flies’, from Mason City to Fargo, N.D.  Fargo’s airport was the closest to their next
gig to be held the following day in Moorhead, Minnesota.
And so it was that evening that pilot Peterson and his passengers of Holly, J.P. Richardson
and Ritchie Valens started on their fateful journey.

Was Peterson qualified for this evening’s flight? His boss Hubert Dwyer thought so…
even with the ‘famous’ people as his cargo, Dwyer had great confidence in young
Peterson and had sent him on many previous missions before.

As a note; pilot Peterson only had his visual flight rules certification. He had taken 9 months
before, his instrument rating exam and had failed it. So what did this mean? Well,
he would be flying by sight only, landmarks, horizon, lights. Using a compass and the on board
Sperry attitude gyro. Now that was another challenge. Peterson was used to flying with the
traditional horizontal horizon gyro….and not the Sperry gyro. This is a bit complicated, but
basically, incorrect readings can be taken if not totally familiar with the instrument.

There will be more about young Peterson in the final investigation report; that will be
in part five of this story in a few days.

The aircraft was loaded with the luggage and personals and Buddy Holly took the seat
in the front next to pilot Peterson, with Valens and Richardson sitting behind. A last check
and it was off to Fargo, N. Dakota and then to Moorhead for more rock and roll.



Next up: part 2; the takeoff, the short flight, the crash will be posted soon. 

Thursday, January 12, 2023

It's only a number......

 


Do you believe in a lucky, or perhaps and unlucky number? Joshua Cobb's number was

3.  But why a 3? Most of us are born with a number attached to us in some manner.

The story below is number 10, in Tales Unleashed.



The Haunted Belfry
The church near Berkley Creek, Pennsylvania has been closed many years ago. It’s pastor who had been loved by all, had been dismissed by the elders after engaging in an affair with a woman on the church’s finance committee.
And so it was that the church sat idle, entangled by the yearly growth of weeds and invasive vines which choked at its very shingles, decade after decade. The glorious Sunday morning worships which echoed the organ and choir sounds down the hollow were now silenced, replaced by the calls of wayward crows looking to roost. An occasional passerby walking on the dirt road out front would stop, give pause and try to imagine the building when it was king of the hill. It was now indeed a lonely place. The building had witnessed the baptisms, marriages and funerals of hundreds of its followers…..but now only silence, except for the occasional thrice ringing of the church bell. It was not a regular alarm in the tower….it only happened about three times a year, and it was usually on the third of the month, and it was always at 3:00 a.m., when all men and beasts within its range were nestled into their beds.
A bit unsettling to say the least, especially for neighbors who lived within the half mile separated only by the tall pines and sugar maples which buffeted the sound.
It had been rumored for years that the church was haunted…haunted by its organist Joshua P. Cobb, an elderly man in his 70’s who had played and maintained the pump organ for over sixty years. Joshua had met an untimely death in the church while practicing for a recital late in the fall of 1940. The custodian who discovered Joshua was stunned to find him face down, heading down the set of steps which numbered twelve. But Joshua had only made it part way down, his foot breaking thru the old board on step number three, his foot still lodged there… his body dangling down the remaining steps causing his demise.
The number three was Joshua’s number indeed.
Church records showed that he had been born on March 3rd, 1873, and was one of three children.
So when that bell tolls three times at that ghastly hour, people think little of it….. they know that Joshua is still there, kind of a perpetual caretaker. But on that 3:00 a.m. ringing, people have a tendency to pull the covers up a little tighter and hope for early daylight.