Buddy Holly plane crash probe may be re-opened

US transportation safety investigators have said they are reviewing a request to re-open a probe into the 1959 airplane crash that killed musicians Buddy Holly, JP Richardson, better known as ’The Big Bopper,’ Ritchie Valens, and their pilot.

The original investigation 56 years ago conducted by the Civil Aeronautics Board blamed the crash on the pilot’s decision to embark on an instrument-guided flight he was not certified for and, secondarily, on poor weather briefing.

Numerous conspiracy theories have sought to explain why Holly’s Beechcraft Bonanza 35 crashed in February 1959 – including a suggestion a shot from Holly’s handgun killed pilot Roger Peterson.