Rising American rock stars Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P.
“The Big Bopper” Richardson, along with pilot Roger Peterson, 
were killed when their chartered Beechcraft Bonanza plane
crashed in Iowa a few minutes after takeoff from Mason City on
a flight headed for Moorhead, Minnesota.      

Investigators blamed the crash on bad weather and pilot error.

After mechanical difficulties with the tour bus, Holly had chartered
a plane for his band to fly between stops on the Winter Dance
Party Tour. However, Richardson, who had the flu, convinced
Holly’s band member Waylon Jennings to give up his seat, and
Ritchie Valens won a coin toss for another seat on the plane.

Singer Don McLean (above) memorialized Holly, Valens and
Richardson in the 1972 No. 1 hit “American Pie,” which
refers to February 3, 1959 as “the day the music died.”

Holly’s headstone in the City of Lubbock Cemetery.

     
CARLATA BRADLEY

A PSA Airlines Bombardier CRJ700 regional jetliner
(similar to above) operating as American Airlines
Flight 5342, was on final approach to Runway 33
at Reagan Washington National Airport in Arlington,
Virginia Wednesday evening when it collided with
an Army H-60 Sikorsky helicopter crashing into the
Potomac River Wednesday evening. 

This was the first commercial airline crash in the U.S.
since 2009.

A U.S. Army UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter.

On December 21, 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 from London to
New York exploded in midair over Lockerbie, Scotland,
killing all 243 passengers and 16 crew members aboard,
as well as 11 Lockerbie residents on the ground.

   
Alton Glen "Glenn" Miller
(March 1, 1904 – December 15, 1944)

After departing from an airfield outside London on December
15, 1944, a single-engine aircraft carrying trombonist and
bandleader Glenn Miller went missing over the English
Channel.

Miller was traveling to France for a congratulatory performance
for American troops that had recently helped to liberate Paris.

The wreckage of Miller’s plane was never found. His official
military status remains Missing in Action.

A U.S. Army Air Forces Noorduyn UC-64A Norseman
from the 3rd Air Commando Group.

 
Published in 1939.