Video: 'buddy holly plane crash footage and photos sept 7th 1936- feb 3rd 1959 WARNING GRAPHIC!!!'

(Tuesday, February 3, 1959, approximately 1:00 a.m. CST) — American rock and roll musicians Buddy Holly, 22, Ritchie Valens, 17, and J. P. “The Big Bopper” Richardson, 28, were killed in a plane crash early this morning near Clear Lake, Iowa, together with pilot Roger Peterson, an event that later became known as “The Day the Music Died.”

At the time, Holly and his band, consisting of Waylon Jennings, Tommy Allsup, and Carl Bunch, were playing on the “Winter Dance Party” tour across the Midwest. Rising artists Valens, Richardson and Dion and the Belmonts had joined the tour as well.

Video: 'Behind The Music: The Day The Music Died'

The long journeys between venues on board the cold, uncomfortable tour buses adversely affected the performers, with cases of flu and even frostbite. After stopping at Clear Lake to perform, and frustrated by such conditions, Holly chose to charter a plane to reach their next venue in Moorhead, Minnesota. Richardson, who had the flu, swapped places with Jennings, taking his seat on the plane, while Allsup lost his seat to Valens on a coin toss.

Soon after takeoff, late at night and in poor, wintry weather conditions, the pilot lost control of the light aircraft, a Beechcraft Bonanza, which subsequently crashed into a cornfield. Everyone on board was killed.

Video: 'The Real Buddy Holly Story (Parts 1-10)'