The Day the Mucic DIed...

[OneHungLow]

Why aviation and the sometimes "irregular" nature of a musician's life are sometimes not a safe mix. The statistician in me just says, musicians fly more often than most, and often with rogue outfits.

Lynard Skynard





If somebody posts, I will attest to my own experience of this "rogue outift" thesis...

[Karearea]

A very moving account, especially about the flowers...

[PHXPhlyer]

Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J. P. Richardson (The Big Bopper)
Ricky Nelson
Montana
John Denver
Jim Croce, Maury Muehleisen
Patsy Cline
Will Rogers

Just a few that I can think of off the top of my head.

PP

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

Pretty much all of the accidents can be put down to profiteering managers hiring cheap outfits that no one else would touch, and who would always say yes whatever the weather.
There again, the kind of attitude most rich/famous types have to their flight crews means pretty much only dodgy outfits are prepared to fly them.
So it wasn't really the plane crashes that killed them, it was their own egos.

John Denver being the exception - he didn't learn the fuel system before takeoff.

[OneHungLow]

Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, J. P. Richardson (The Big Bopper)
Ricky Nelson
Montana
John Denver
Jim Croce, Maury Muehleisen
Patsy Cline
Will Rogers

Just a few that I can think of off the top of my head.

PP

We could add

John Denver
Jim Reeves...
Stevie Ray Vaughan...

Like John Denver, Jim Reeves was a pilot...

[tango15]

Ray Charles almost met the same fate:

https://www.wrtv.com/lifestyle/history/ ... lane-crash

[Fox3WheresMyBanana]

I guess Ray can be forgiven for not seeing it coming

[OneHungLow]

In 1993, I flew jump seat in U2's aircraft from Cardiff Wales to a maintenance shop in Bournemouth. The band had a concert in Cardiff, and the aircraft was scheduled for some maintenance, prior to their departure later that week, in Bournemouth, a short hop from Cardiff, but one I will never forget. The Captain was clearly distracted, I noticed he had a twitch, and in an irregular departure from CRM best practice, asked me to monitor to the approach as the FO seemed to be almost asleep. Suffice it to say, he came in way above tolerance on the ILS and I suggested he go around, but hell, he ignored me and we made it down with less 50 feet from the end of the more than ample runway!

I will say no more...

[tango15]

I guess Ray can be forgiven for not seeing it coming

I was tempted to post something similar, but refrained I read the full story elsewhere, and I gather they had great difficulty in guiding him off the remains of the aircraft.

[tango15]

As a slight aside, many years ago, whilst in transit between somewhere in the Caribbean and Miami, I overheard the following conversation on Miami Center frequency:
Miami Center, thees ees YV.....We are in transeet from Caracas to Miami - we are lost.
YV say your full callsign, altitude and transmit for DF
YV blah blah blah
We have you identified 36 miles south of Nassau. Maintain present altitude and take up a heading of 280 degrees
(YV repeats instructions)
YV, say souls on board and aircraft type
We have four souls on board, and aircraft type ees Bonanza
Quick as a flash, American accent, 'Ain't that the aircraft Buddy Holly died in?'

[unifoxos]

And Glen Miller - now thought to be the victim of icing rather than a rogue pilot, though.

[Karearea]

And Glen Miller ...

- well-remembered.

[G-CPTN]

I lived in a village close to the airfield from which Glenn Miller took off on his fateful flight.

RAF Twin Woods.

The local hall used to hold dances of Miller music.

Bedford Corn Exchange.

[tango15]

I live not far from Twinwood Farm, and I understand that they still hold Glenn Miller evenings there in the summer:

https://twinwoodevents.com/museums/

[G-CPTN]

Thanks for that, tango15 - it seems to have developed after I left in 1977.

I would like to visit the Fire Service museum - my father served in the Fire Service (NFS) on Tyneside during the War, and we had much of his regalia (including uniform, axes, helmets, canvas bucket and stirrup pump).
After the War he transferred to Tynedale as an officer in the civvy brigade (AFS).
One of my early memories was being taken to Newcastle Pilgrim Street Fire Station to play with a turntable ladder appliance.