5 Mar 2015

'The day the music died'

8:39 pm on 5 March 2015

It is, in Don McLean's famous lyrics "the day the music died".

And now US investigators are considering reopening the investigation into the plane crash which killed Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and JP "The Big Bopper" Richardson.

The trio chartered a small plane on 3 February 1959, after trouble with their tour bus. At the time, Holly was just 22, Valens, 17, and Richardson 28.

Richardson, suffering from the flu, had swapped places with Waylon Jennings and Valens won his place on the plane in a coin toss. The pilot, Roger Peterson, 21, was also killed.

The original investigation concluded a combination of poor weather and pilot error resulted in Peterson losing control of the plane.

The US National Transportation Board said today it had received a request from a New England pilot to review the original decision, Reuters reported.

He was adamant Peterson had done all he could and was pointing to a possible weight imbalance in the plane.

Buddy Holly

Buddy Holly Photo: Brunswick Records / Wikimedia