The legend goes that the heater on the tour bus had failed and some of the performers were spreading a cold. The plane trip was to try to avoid a long ride in a freezing bus.
Legend also has it that when Jennings lost his seat to Holly, he teasingly said to him “well, I hope your plane crashes” which haunted him for the rest of his life.
More Info Here: http://www.classicwisconsin.com/features/buddyholly.html
The group started the 340-mile trip from Duluth to Appleton on U.S. Highway 2, a concrete thread winding through the heart of the remote Chequamegon National Forest, an area on the razor’s edge of the Artic front slashing down across Lake Superior. Wind chills were estimated at minus 40 or worse.
Turning south on U.S. 51 shortly after midnight, Feb. 1, the bus approached a hill fifteen miles south of Hurley when disaster struck. The bus died.
“We didn’t know enough to be afraid, or what a mid-winter night by the side of the road meant,” Dion said in his autobiography.
Unprepared and sickly, members of the tour party were trapped in the worst possible predicament. The temperature inside the bus was roughly the same as outdoors, with pounding winds sending drafts through the windows. Frozen tree limbs were snapping like twigs in the wind, crashing to the ground in the forest surrounding the group.
The group began burning newspapers in the aisle for heat, which provided only a few fleeting moments of relief. Carl Bunch was unable to move his legs at all.
One backup musician began to panic. “We can’t stay in this bus,” he begged the others. “They’ll read about us in the paper tomorrow.”
Some of the musicians stepped outside hoping to flag down a vehicle. At that time of night in remote Iron County with conditions being what they were -- not a soul was traveling.
“I’m looking for traffic,” road manager recounted in an interview. “Nothing. I’m worried about it. The kids in the back were freezing.”
The group was in serious danger. With no other option, the men grabbed their instruments and began a jam session in the bus to stay active. Carl Bunch prayed for deliverance.
After an hour, the group saw the headlights of a semi-truck approaching through the darkness. They hurried off the bus and into the middle of the road. The trucker slowed enough to maneuver around the men but never stopped. Dejected, the musicians filed back on the bus.
“We just sat there and froze,” Tommy Allsup said. Holly and Dion told their life stories to one another under a blanket, passing time “through the dark hours while we waited for something to happen,” according to Dion.
After two hours on the roadside, the Iron County sheriff arrived. The trucker had notified the police when he reached town. The group was shuttled, a few people at a time, back to Hurley’s Club Carnival Café, a strip joint on notorious Silver Street, where they were fed breakfast – except for the group’s black bus driver, who had to eat in the county garage.