February 4, 2019

On Feb. 3, 1959, 60 years ago yesterday, a plane crash in the Midwestern state of Iowa took the lives of young rock and roll music stars Buddy Holly, J.P. Richardson (known as the “Big Bopper”), and Ritchie Valens. All three stars had achieved quick success, and their deaths at the early heights of popularity shocked the American public. The lasting impact of the tragedy led singer Don McLean to pen the 1971 hit song “American Pie,” which remembers the rockers’ deaths as “the day the music died.”

Buddy Holly was the most famous of the artists killed in an Iowa plane crash 60 years ago on Feb. 3, 1959. He was 22 years old. Credit: © Pictorial Press Ltd/Alamy Images

Buddy Holly was born in Texas in 1936. He began playing the piano when he was 11 years old but soon turned to playing the guitar. He performed as a country singer during the early 1950′s. In 1957, he and his his band The Crickets gained fame with the song “That’ll Be the Day.” That same year, Holly recorded his first solo hit, “Peggy Sue.” His other hits with the Crickets included “Oh, Boy!,” “Maybe Baby,” and “Rave On.” As a solo artist, Holly recorded the 1959 hits “It Doesn’t Matter Anymore” and “Raining in My Heart.” Holly was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. The Crickets were inducted in 2012.

Rising star Ritchie Valens was just 17 years old when he died in a plane crash on Feb. 3, 1959. Credit: © Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Ritchie Valens was born Richard Valenzuela in Los Angeles, California, in 1941. He taught himself to play guitar and other instruments as a youth, and was influenced musically by his family’s Latin culture. He recorded his first hit song, “Come On, Let’s Go,” while still in high school. His most famous song, the Spanish-language hit “La Bamba,” was the B-side of the hit ballad “Donna.” Valens’s life was dramatized in the 1987 motion picture La Bamba starring Lou Diamond Phillips. Valens was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2001.

J. P. Richardson, better known as the Big Bopper, was the oldest of the young artists killed in the 1959 Iowa plane crash: he was 28 years old. Credit: © General Artists Corporation

J. P. Richardson was born in Texas in 1930. Richardson served in the United States Army and worked as a disc jockey at a radio station (where he was known on air as the Big Bopper). He started his music career writing songs for such artists as George Jones and Johnny Preston. In 1958, Richardson recorded the hit song “Chantilly Lace” and became a full-time musician.

In January 1959, Holly, Valens, and Richardson joined the “Winter Dance Party” tour through the northern Midwest. After performing at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, on February 2, the three boarded an overnight plane bound for their next show in Minnesota. The plane crashed in bad weather, killing the pilot and all three musicians. Notable members of the tour who took the long cold bus ride safely to Minnesota instead of the risky flight included guitarist and future country music star Waylon Jennings (a member of Holly’s band at the time) and the group Dion and the Belmonts.

November 4, 2014

Today, the government of the United Kingdom suspended all flights between Britain and the Egyptian beach resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. Prime Minister David Cameron’s government stated that it had received intelligence reports that the Russian plane that crashed in Sinai last Saturday, October 31, was brought down by a terrorist bomb. There are currently between 10,000 and 20,000 British citizens in the Egyptian resort who may be affected by the flight ban. Talks that were scheduled before this latest intelligence information came in are due to begin this evening between Cameron and Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi.

Most of the passengers on the downed Russian flight were families that had been vacationing on the Red Sea. The Airbus A321-200 was traveling between Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt’s southern Sinai Peninsula and Pulkovo Airport in Saint Petersburg, Russia, when it crashed 23 minutes into the flight. The airplane used for the flight, charter flight 9268, was leased by Metrojet, a Russian airline. The aircraft was at an altitude of around 30,000 feet (9,144 meters) when, according to aviation officials, it broke apart in mid-air. At the crash site, fragments of the plane and debris cover some 7.5 square miles (around 20 square kilometers).

Soon after the crash, the terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS) claimed it had shot down the plane. Some military analysts discounted this, claiming that  ISIS does not have the ground-based weapons necessary to shoot down a plane at such a high altitude. The flight downed over Ukraine in 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, was hit at about 30,000 feet with a Russian Buk missile system, but most terrorism experts felt fairly certain such weapons were not currently under ISIS’s control. If terrorism were to blame for the crash, most experts thought a bomb placed on the plane before takeoff was more likely.

Other Behind the Headlines articles

• 224 Killed in Russian Plane Crash (Nov. 2, 2015)
• Malaysian Airliner Shot Down Over Ukraine (July 18, 2014)
• Missiles Down More Military Jets Over Eastern Ukraine (July 24, 2014)
• The Downing of MH17, One Year Later (July 17, 2015)
• A Dutch Report on a Tragedy (October 14, 2015)

November 2, 2015

Yesterday, Russia observed a day of mourning for 224 people killed in a plane crash in Egypt on Saturday, October 31. Most of the passengers were families that had been vacationing in Sharm el-Sheikh, a resort area on the Red Sea.

The Airbus A321-200 was traveling between Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt’s southern Sinai Peninsula and Pulkovo Airport in Saint Petersburg, Russia, when it crashed 23 minutes into the flight. The airplane used for the flight, charter flight 9268, was leased by Metrojet, a Russian airline. The aircraft was at an altitude of around 30,000 feet (9,144 meters) when, according to aviation officials, it broke apart in mid-air. At the crash site, fragments of the plane and debris cover some 7.5 square miles (around 20 square kilometers).

Soon after the crash, the terrorist group Islamic State (ISIS) claimed it had shot down the plane. Some military analysts discounted this, claiming that Islamic State does not have the ground-based weapons necessary to shoot down a plane at such a high altitude. The flight downed over Ukraine in 2014, Malaysia Airlines Flight 17, was hit at about 30,000 feet with a Russian Buk missile system, but most terrorism experts felt fairly certain such weapons were not currently under ISIS’s control. As a precaution, the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom all issued overflight warnings (warnings advising against flying over a region or country) to airlines. If terrorism was to blame for the crash, some experts believed a bomb placed on the plane before takeoff would have been more likely.

Early reports stated the plane had sent a distress call to air-traffic controllers and had requested permission to land at a nearby Egyptian airport. Later reports denied that such a call had been made. Until the flight data recorder (sometimes called a black box) and the cockpit voice recorder can be analyzed, the cause of the crash will remain unknown.

Other Behind the Headlines articles

• Malaysian Airliner Shot Down Over Ukraine (July 18, 2014)
• Missiles Down More Military Jets Over Eastern Ukraine (July 24, 2014)
• The Downing of MH17, One Year Later (July 17, 2015)
• A Dutch Report on a Tragedy (October 14, 2015)

August 10, 2015

Aviation experts confirmed last week that a piece of an airplane wing that washed up on a beach at remote island in the Indian Ocean is from Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. The fragment represents the first physical evidence of the missing Boeing 777 aircraft yet found. The disappearance of Flight 370 more than one year ago has been one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of modern aviation.

Flight MH370 was flown in a Boeing 777-300, a large twin-engine passenger jet. The airliner can fly about a fourth of the way around the world without refueling. (The Boeing Company)

The fragment, a six-foot (2 meter) portion of a wing flap, washed ashore on July 29 at a beach on Réunion, a remote volcanic island about 400 miles (640 kilometers) east of Madagascar. Investigators quickly determined that it came from a Boeing 777, the same kind of aircraft as Flight 370.

On March 8, 2014, Malaysia Airlines flight 370 took off from Malaysia’s capital, Kuala Lumpur on a flight to Beijing with 227 passengers and 12 crew members. About 2 hours into the routine flight, all contact with the aircraft was lost. The mysterious disappearance of the flight led to a massive international search effort. This, in turn, triggered a massive media frenzy with “experts” endlessly speculating on what might have gone wrong. Clues from satellite data showed the aircraft made a controlled turn mid-flight and it then flew along the southern corridor towards the middle of the Indian Ocean. Experts believe the airplane crashed in the ocean somewhere west of Perth, Australia. But no wreckage or other remains of the airplane or passengers has been found in more than a year.

A check of records of aircraft and replacement parts found that Flight 370 was the only plane of that model missing in the world. By the weekend, the fragment was flown to Toulouse, France, for closer inspection by aeronautical engineers at a test facility run by the French military. Aviation experts think that a close examination of the wing flap could provide clues about the moment when the plane hit the water. By examining how the wing flap broke off, they can tell the direction and attitude of the airplane when it hit the water. However, the sole fragment will not likely answer the question of exactly what went wrong on the ill-fated flight. Meanwhile, the search continues for more evidence that can finally solve the mystery of Flight 370.

Other World Book articles:

• Aviation (2014) – A Back in Time article
• Disasters (2014) – A Back in Time article
• Flight MH370 Went Down in the Southern Indian Ocean, Analysts Conclude (March 24, 2014) – A Behind the Headlines article
• Vessels Search for MH370 Detect Signals off Australia (April 7, 2014) – A Behind the Headlines article

July 17, 2015

Today is the one-year anniversary of the downing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 17. Commemorative services are being held in Australia, the Netherlands, and Ukraine for the 298 people killed on July 17, 2014, when their plane was shot down in a war zone over eastern Ukraine. Of the passengers who died, nearly 200 were Dutch (the plane had taken off from Amsterdam), and nearly 40 were Australian.

Beginning in early 2014, Ukraine’s Western-backed central government and eastern separatists allied with Russia were in an armed conflict. Separatists had threatened Ukrainian planes that flew over the air space they considered to be theirs. In the week before MH17 was shot down, separatists had used missiles to attack Ukrainian military jets. Almost immediately after MH17 was downed,  social media accounts linked to the rebels showed posts claiming they had shot down a Ukrainian plane. These posts were quickly deleted.

Members of the Ukrainian Emergency Ministry carry a body at the crash site of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 on July 19, 2014. Ukraine accused Russia and pro-Moscow rebels of destroying evidence of “international crimes” from the wreckage of the Malaysian airliner.
Credit: © Maxim Zmeyev, Reuters/Landov

Within days of the incident, American intelligence officials blamed pro-Russian separatists for downing the plane with advanced antiaircraft missiles supplied by Russia. Most international experts now feel the evidence does point in that direction. Russia and the separatists deny attacking the plane. Originally, Russia claimed that the Ukrainian government had fired missiles downing the plane. Later, Russia claimed that a Ukrainian military jet was responsible. However, the satellite images that supported both of these claims were publicly shown to have been doctored. 

It has been difficult for family members of those who died on Flight MH17 to obtain justice for their loved ones. In the initial days following the crash, Russian separatists refused to allow investigators into the site. Consequently, the crime site was never handled properly.

This week, the government of Malaysia requested that the United Nations (UN) form an international tribunal to prosecute those responsible for shooting MH17 down. Australia supported this request. However, Russia is a permanent member of the UN security council, and the nation’s veto blocks proposals with which it disagrees.

Other World Book articles: 

• Aviation (2014-a Back in time article)
• Malaysia (2014-a Back in time article)
• Ukraine (2014-a Back in time article)

March 25, 2015

On March 24, 2015, 150 people were killed when a German airliner crashed in the Alps mountains of southeastern France. The Germanwings Airbus A320 passenger plane was flying from Barcelona, Spain, to Düsseldorf, Germany. Germanwings is a budget airline owned by Lufthansa, Germany’s largest airline. French emergency crews arrived quickly on the scene, but determined there was little or no chance that anyone survived the crash. Investigators soon suspected that the crash was not accidental, and that the Germanwings copilot apparently had intentionally flown the airplane into the mountain.

A Germanwings A320 passenger jet, similar to the one shown in this picture, crashed in the French Alps on March 20, 2015, killing all 150 people onboard. Officials soon suspected that the crash was not an accident and that the copilot had deliberately flown the plane into the mountain. Credit: © Nicolas Economou, Shutterstock

Germanwings flight 9525 left Barcelona just after 10 a.m. local time. About 30 minutes later, air traffic controllers lost contact with the flight, which had veered from its flight path and begun to descend. Ten minutes later, the aircraft disappeared from radar. Before long, observers on the ground confirmed that the plane had crashed into a mountainside near the remote French village of Prads-Haute-Bléone.

The plane’s cockpit voice recorder was recovered from the crash site, and investigators were shocked and horrified by what they heard. According to officials, the captain left the cockpit while in flight. The copilot took control of the plane and locked the captain out of the cockpit. The copilot silently ignored inquiries from air traffic controllers as the plane began its rapid descent. He also ignored the increasingly frantic pleas of the captain to let him back into the cockpit. In the voice recorder’s final seconds, screaming can be heard coming from the cabin, as well as the sound of the captain trying to break down the cockpit door.

Officials did not suspect any links with terrorism, but they soon learned that the copilot, a 27-year-old German citizen, suffered from depression. The victims of the crash were mostly German and Spanish, including 16 high school students returning from an exchange program in Spain. The Airbus A320 has an excellent service and safety record, as does Germanwings.

July 18, 2014

Tension in eastern Europe escalated dramatically yesterday when a Malaysian commercial airliner carrying 298 people crashed in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, near the Russian border. Flight MH17 was heading from Amsterdam to the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur, crossing Ukrainian airspace at an altitude of around 33,000 feet (10,000 meters). Yesterday, The Wall Street Journal reported that U.S. intelligence agencies had evidence that MH17 had been struck by a ground-to-air missile.

A Malaysian commercial airliner is believed to have been shot down in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine yesterday (World Book map; map data © MapQuest.com, Inc.).

The witness accounts of the crash bear out a missile attack. Witnesses state they heard explosions and saw the plane break apart while it was still in the air. Debris and bodies are scattered on the ground over several miles.

Weapons experts noted that the altitude at which flight MH17 was operating seemed to rule out the possibility that the plane had been hit by a missile fired from a hand-held launcher. Such devices have a range of about 10,000 feet (3,000 meters). Beyond that range, a missile that can shoot a jet out of the air must be much more sophisticated. Military experts felt the most likely candidate for the downing of the Malaysian plane was the Russian SA-11. Such a weapon, however, requires several vehicles for the launch and radar trajectory and highly trained personnel.

Flight MH17 is the third plane this week shot down over eastern Ukraine.  On July 14, a Ukrainian military transport plane flying at 21,000 feet (6,400 meters) was hit by a missile; two of the crew members died. On July 16, pro-Russian separatists (or perhaps Russian armed forces) are believed to have shot down a Ukrainian Sukhoi SU-25 fighter jet also flying at a high altitude; the pilot ejected to safety.

All three instances this week led to the conclusion that it was weapons supplied by Russia to pro-Russian separatists in Eastern Ukraine that were used to shoot down the Malaysian airliner. U.S. President Barack Obama today stated that the pro-Russian rebels most experts believed to be responsible for the tragedy would be unable to take such an action “without sophisticated equipment and sophisticated training, and that is coming from Russia.”

No passengers survived the crash; more than half of the flight’s passengers were from the Netherlands. A number of passengers on the flight were AIDS activists and researchers traveling to a conference on the subject in Melbourne, Australia, including a famous Dutch scientist, AIDS researcher Joep Lange.

Additional World Book articles:

• In Poland, President Obama Affirms U.S. Committment to European Security (Behind the Headlines)
• Ukrainian Forces Attempt to Retake Control in East (Behind the Headlines)