Patsy Cline Plane Crash 1963 Story

welcome aboard welcome to today's tour we are in missouri we are at the kansas city international airport which has the airport code kmci on today's tour we are talking about the 1963 crash of a piper pa-24 comanche aircraft that took the lives of four of country music's biggest stars of that era we will try to find some of the locations associated with these country music legends and the events leading up to this awful tragedy for those involved and the country music community this crash occurred in 1963 after three prominent country music stars were returning from a charity event in kansas city kansas the day following this benefit concert the three country music artists as well as the pilot were attempting to return from kansas city to nashville tennessee in a small private aircraft the crash on march 5th 1963 took the lives of four individuals and is considered one of country music's darkest days the plane we are talking about today was registered as n700p the aircraft was a three-year-old pa 24 250 comanche a four-seat light single-engine airplane manufactured by the piper aircraft company here in the flight simulator the closest aircraft i could find to that is the piper pa-28 r201 arrow 3. the first pa-28 model was introduced in 1960 and the series remains in production to this day current models are the warrior the arrow and the archer the arrow 3 is also a four-seat piston engine aircraft equipped with a retractable tricycle landing gear and constant speed propeller today we are more interested in finding the locations of interest and discussing the events and not specifically replicating the flight you can find more in-depth aviation based videos that do that sort of thing let's get the plane started we'll take a look around the airport and we will get the plane in the air taking a look at our flight plan today we will depart the kansas city international airport and make our way south finding the fairfax municipal airport which is where this flight departed from but is no longer active then heading south to rogers municipal airport in rogers arkansas then to dyersburg regional airport in dyersburg tennessee we will pass over camden tennessee where this crash occurred and finally on to what would have been the final destination for this flight if it had made it the cornelia fort air park in east nashville the plane has started the cockpit is set up so let's taxi out to the runway and get the plane in the air [Music] short if this is your first tour with us welcome what we do is we find interesting places or events to talk about and we fly to them here in microsoft flight simulator hello this is fancy klein of decker records did you know that the week of november 4th to november the 10th has been officially designated as national country music week well it has and by proclamation of the united states congress too so why don't you join me in helping to celebrate that wonderful week of song when people from coast to coast will pay tribute to your favorite kind of music and mine we are at the whole short line we are ready for departure we have a lot to talk about as we make our way south and east from this location to find out a bit more about the victims and the events that led up to this crash [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] well we have departed and are airborne there were four people aboard that piper pa24 comanche in 1963. the aircraft itself again was a four-seater single-engine aircraft and aboard that aircraft that day were country music stars patsy cline lloyd kopis known as cowboy copus harold hawkins known as hawk shaw hawkins and randy hughes who was patsy's manager as well as cowboy copis's son-in-law randy hughes was also the owner and the pilot of the aircraft they were flying in the piper that randy had purchased was a 1960 piper pa24 this was the high performance version of the comanche powered by a 540 cubic inch engine that produced 250 horsepower and was introduced in 1958 although patsy cline was experiencing the most recent rise in fame and popularity she was by no means the biggest country star at the time to be lost in this crash it may seem that way based on today's recollection and remembrance of the tragedy but not necessarily the case cowboy coppis was a very popular country music star who had been popular since the 1940s he gained fame in 1943 when he became the vocalist for a band on the grand old opry he would then go on to have solo hits in the 1940s and early 1950s he came back to prominence with his biggest hit in 1960 alabama i'm going back [Music] shaw hawkins was very popular in country music in the 1950s and 60s his musical career actually started as early as the 1940s when he traveled the country with his band in 1943 he joined the army and while stationed in texas he continued to perform at the local clubs and eventually was stationed in france he would end up fighting in the battle of the bulge during world war ii after the war he would return to music full-time and would go on to sign record deals with king columbia and rca records his first two recordings with king pan american and dog house boogie were top 10 country hits he would join the grand old opry in the 1950s and would record his biggest hit lonesome 77203 in 1962 and he would make the charts on march 2nd 1963 just three days before he died [Music] fairfax municipal airport this is the airport in 1963 the flight departed from it is no longer an active airport and the last flight departed here on march 31st 1985. on april 1st of 1985 the land was added to what is known as the fairfax district industrial area the general motors fairfax assembly plant was completed in 1985 on the location of the former runways and we can see that plant below and we can also see what is left of the runways randy hughes his actual name was ramsey but was called randy was the pilot and was also patsy klein's manager at the time randy was also the son-in-law of cowboy coppus randy was a well-known recording session guitarist playing for several country music artists including cowboy copis he would then marry cowboy copus's daughter kathy he eventually went into managing artists and in 1959 patsy became one of his clients after taking basic flying lessons he purchased the yellow piper pa24 comanche to fly his clients from one show to another he thought that purchasing the plane would be an advantage for his clients since they would arrive faster for their events and not have to depend on cars for their transportation as we continue through downtown you can see below us the hotel the group that was aboard this flight stayed at after the performance that they held here in kansas city the building is known as cross lines tower and is a 15 story 175 foot tall building that from 1951 to 1969 was the tallest building here in kansas city but in 1963 it housed the townhouse hotel which opened on august 6 1951 and was later renamed to the townhouse motor hotel and just a couple blocks south of the hotel is the venue where the performance took place it's the memorial hall or the soldiers and sailors memorial building and it's an auditorium located here in kansas city it is a 3500 seat auditorium it was constructed starting in 1923 and opened in 1925. patsy cline born virginia patterson-hensley in winchester virginia was a country music vocalist that is considered one of the most influential vocalists of the 20th century by the 1950s patsy cline was performing regularly at local venues and clubs and was asked to join band leader bill pierce group bill pierce melody boys and girls this was a group that played local shows it was pier who suggested that she get a more appropriate stage name hence she became patsy cline in 1954 she signed her first record contract with four star records she recorded a variety of styles for the record label between 1955 and 56 although none of them would go on to become hits patsy left four-star records to sign with deca records in 1956 patsy received a call to perform on the arthur godfrey's talent scouts a national television show she had auditioned for several months prior she accepted the offer using her mother hilda hensley to act as her talent scout for the show according to the show's rules these talent scouts could not be family members patsy's mother lied to appear on the show with her and when author godfrey asked her if she knew patsy her entire life she simply replied yes just about patsy had planned on performing the song a poor man's roses but the show's producer preferred another song she'd record it walking after midnight patsy initially refused but ultimately agreed to it the producer also suggested that patsy wear a cocktail dress instead of the cowgirl outfit created by her mother which had been her normal style until then she performed walking after midnight and won the program's contest that night ahead of us now is roger's executive airport it has the airport code krog also known as carter field it's a city-owned public use airport located about two miles 3.2 kilometers north of rogers arkansas the flight landed here and made a 15-minute fuel stop before taking off again and heading for nashville and here through your kindness is pepsi klein [Music] [Applause] the song walking after midnight had not been released as a single yet to keep up with public demand after this performance deca records rush released the song as a single the song ultimately became patsy's breakthrough hit peaking at number two on the billboard hut country in western charts the song also reached number 12 on the billboard pop music chart the song has since been considered a classic in country music since its release and it was the first to cross over between country and pop changing country music as it was at the time in the early 1960s patsy enjoyed great success on both the country and pop charts she also became a member of the grand old opry in nashville tennessee solidifying her place in country music now with deca records she released some of her greatest hits i fall to pieces hit the top of the country charts in 1961 and it also became a top 20 single on the pop charts followed by another chart success with a song written by willie nelson crazy so all three country music artists that were on the aircraft that day were very successful one of the factors in this crash was indeed the weather wind rain and clouds all affected things such as the visibility randy hughes was a pilot qualified in vfr visual flight rules so visibility was important for him to navigate and operate the aircraft safely here in the simulator just for a bit let's change the weather just to get a feel for what it might be for flying a small aircraft in inclement weather the events that led up to this crash would center around a charity concert that was held in kansas city kansas saturday night march 2nd 1963 patsy cline played three shows in birmingham alabama patsy and some other artists agreed to perform at the charity event for the family of a well-known dj who had died from injuries sustained in an automobile accident patsy harold aka hawkshaw and lloyd aka cowboy were to perform at the benefit it was at the soldiers and sailors memorial hall in kansas city kansas the following day this was for the family of a disc jockey cactus jack call who had left behind a wife and two young sons the next morning she and charlie dick her husband would fly to nashville's cornelia fort airpark in randy uses plane cowboy and hawkshaw who had played the grand old opry that saturday night would meet them at the airport that sunday morning patsy and charlie and randy flew to nashville hawkshaw and cowboy took the short ride to cornelia and met randy's plane there charlie was then heading home the flight to kansas city proceeded without incident other than patsy's complaints about how cold the plane was and the performers arrived in time for the first of the day's three shows at 2pm despite having a cold patsy gave three performances at 2 o'clock 5 15 and 8 15. all of the shows were standing room only her final song was the last one she had recorded the previous month i'll sail my ship alone patsy and hawkshaw in particular were reluctant to make this trip and were eager to return home patsy was exhausted she had spent much of the past year doing four shows per day at the mint in las vegas and hawkshaw had a baby at home and his wife was also an opry member and was soon to give birth to their second son opry star billy walker who had gathered most of this talent for the kansas city show was originally planning to fly back to nashville on randy's plane hawkshaw on the other hand was scheduled to be on a 6 a.m commercial flight billy received an urgent message sunday night that his wife's father had suffered a heart attack in texas and he needed to rush back home knowing that this commercial flight would get billy home faster than the private plane hawkshaw gave billy his airline ticket and agreed to fly with randy patsy and cowboy the location we are approaching now is dyersburg regional airport that has the airport code kdyr and is two miles south of dyersburg in dire county tennessee and it was formerly dyersburg municipal airport the flight landed here after departing rogers and was the last stop the aircraft would make departing here the flight had another 170 miles or 273 kilometers to make it to nashville unfortunately on that monday march 4th it was clear that they were in for another long day storms had halted all private flights out of kansas city's fairfax airport billy walker was already back in nashville by 9 am to care for his children while his wife went to texas and randy hawkshaw patsy and cowboy had to burn a day in kansas city dottie west another performer had asked patsy to ride in her car with her and her husband bill back to nashville a 16 hour drive but patsy refused saying don't worry about me haas when it's my time to go it's my time tuesday morning march 5th the weather wasn't much better and their impatience was heightened the plane randy had purchased for convenience was proving less convenient randy decided to get back to nashville by hopping from small airport to small airport waiting for the storms to clear the area between the short hops before taking off for the next airport at 12 30 pm march 5th 1963 patsy cline checks out of the townhouse hotel in kansas city kansas and calls her mother before heading to the airport the group traveled the short distance to the airport and boarded the piper pa-24 comanche with aircraft registration number n700p at 2 pm randy hughes at the controls takes off from the fairfax municipal airport in kansas city with passengers cowboy copis hawkshaw hawkins and virginia patsy cline the aircraft would stop once to refuel mid-afternoon the plane lands at rogers municipal airport in rogers arkansas to refuel the aircraft departs that airport about 15 minutes later and heads towards dyersburg municipal airport in dyersburg tennessee at 5 05 pm after making contact with the dyersburg regional airport dyersburg pilot randy hughes lands there for a weather briefing for the remaining 174 miles 280 kilometers to the cornelia fort airpark in nashville when the aircraft taxied up to the terminal mr william brazy the manager and operator of the airport greeted the passengers randy then proceeded to the flight service station fss while patsy hawk shaw and cowboy went to the airport restaurant randy requested a weather briefing for the remainder of the flight to nashville the faa person on duty was mr leroy neal and leroy neal advised him that the conditions were marginal for visual flight in the faa accident report later would describe them as turbulent randy hughes was only qualified to fly under conditions in which it was possible to navigate by sight rather than solely by instruments known as visual flight rules vfr leroy neal said that randy stated that he was usually concerned with the 2049 foot tv tower north of the city of nashville but that he was familiar with the terrain and obstructions along the intended route of the flight leroy neal reminded randy that darkness would come early due to the cloudiness at that point randy asked if the dyersburg runways were lighted at night in case he had to return and leroy told him they were randy then went to the airport restaurant and discussed the matter with the three others randy then returned to the weather office to inform leroy that he had decided to continue the flight to nashville the airfield manager suggested that they stay the night because of the high winds in the clouds offering them free rooms and meals but randy who was again not trained in instrument flying said i've already come this far we'll be there before you know it randy called his wife from the airport and asked her about the weather in nashville she said it appears to have stopped raining and it looks like i can see the sun trying to set he told her do me a favor call cornelia fort and tell them to turn the lights on we're going to make it there in probably about an hour she called cornelia fort airpark in nashville with her husband's request and asked them to turn on the runway lights for his expected arrival when the airport manager reminded randy that he'd be flying over a sparsely settled area where there's no lights that would be visible for vfr flying randy stated that when he made the tennessee river he would be familiar with the terrain beyond that point and he would have no trouble this proved to be a fatal assumption on his part he told both the airport manager and the faa individual that he would attempt the flight but would return for the night if the weather worsened enroute about 10 minutes before takeoff the airport manager william brazy overheard patsy cline standing in front of the flight service station remarked to randy hughes if you want to stay we will stay and if you want to go we will go but randy was adamant that he could get them home safely so patsy got in the plane first sitting down in the left rear seat then hawk shaw hawkins got in next as they settled in and hung up clothes randy hughes and cowboy copis chatted briefly then randy took the pilot's position and cowboy copus climbed in last the engine was started randy turned the aircraft sat there for three or four minutes while receiving another weather briefing by radio and then the yellow piper comanche with green stripes taxied into position and took off at 607 pm after takeoff no further radio contact was made with the aircraft the reported weather at that time was a flight ceiling of 500 feet 150 meters a visibility of 5 miles 8 kilometers a temperature of 43 degrees fahrenheit 6 degrees celsius gusty and turbulent winds from the east at 20 miles per hour 17 knots and cloudy we are about to arrive at the site of this tragic plane crash as we approach the crash site let's set the time of day back a little bit here in the simulator so we have better visibility the crash occurred approximately 90 miles 140 kilometers from its nashville destination in a forest outside of camden tennessee this is a wooded swampy area about one mile 1.6 kilometers north of u.s route 70 and five miles eight kilometers west of camden there's a fairly simple memorial located here the site which is located fairly deep in the woods is marked with a cement walkway leading to a boulder with the names of the crash victims inscribed into the top of it there's also a small gazebo with an informational collage a short time later mr sc ward himself a pilot was in his office about four miles west of camden tennessee when he heard a low-flying aircraft on a northerly course pass over his building he thought the plane must be lost and trying to orientate by the lights of camden and the highway ward was so concerned he immediately went outside he could hear but not see the aircraft and said it sounded like it was just above treetops not more than 300 feet above the ground as he continued to look for the aircraft he heard the engine noise increase in seconds later white light appeared from the overcast clouds and descended towards the ground at about a 45 degree angle the engine stopped and there was a dull crash then complete silence at 6 29 pm the aircraft crashed into a wooded swampy area about one mile 1.6 kilometers north of u.s route 70 in five miles west of camden the aircraft was destroyed on impact and all four occupants were killed witnesses described hearing the dell sounding crash followed by complete silence this tragic flight had now crashed in heavy weather on the evening of march 5th 1963. patsy cline's recovered wristwatch had stopped at 6 20 p.m forensic examination concluded that everyone aboard had been killed instantly until the wreckage was discovered following dawn and reported on the radio friends and family had not given up hope endless calls had tied up the local telephone exchanges to such a degree that other emergency calls had trouble getting through the lights at their destination cornelia fort airpark were kept on throughout the night as reports of the missing plane were broadcast on radio and tv early the next morning singer-songwriter roger miller and a friend went searching for survivors after learning that the flight never made it back to nashville he got in his car and drove west towards dyersburg hoping to be able to help in the search he said as fast as i could i ran through those woods screaming their names through the brush and the trees and i came up over this little rise and oh my god they were there it was ghastly the plane had crashed and nose down he would be among the first to find the wreckage at 6 10 a.m about five miles west eight kilometers of the tennessee river investigators believe that randy hughes entered an area of deteriorating weather with low visibility and lost his visual reference with the ground this induced spatial disorientation and eventually led to what is known as a graveyard spiral with the aircraft entering into a right-hand diving turn with the nose down altitude of 25 degrees when the aircraft cleared the clouds randy attempted to correct the high descent rate by pulling the nose up and applying full power but it was too late the faa investigators later found evidence that the propeller was at maximum speed when they crashed the plane's single engine lay at the bottom of a large crater suggesting that the aircraft had plunged to the earth at full speed parts of the yellow plane were scattered over a 60-yard area the plane struck a large tree before hitting the ground pieces of the aircraft were hanging in the tree and a three-foot hole marked the spot where the main part of the fuselage impacted the ground the terrain in the area was extremely rugged unfortunately in addition to the rescuers souvenir hunters had also arrived to scavenge the scene patsy's money and her dress from her last performance were never recovered her cigarette lighter was found and only later donated to the country music hall of fame her wrist watch was on display at the patsy climb museum in winchester virginia as we continue towards the last part of our tour today we are now just about to nashville let's quickly find a few places in nashville that are iconic to the country music community and of course that means the grand old aubry the grand old opry is a weekly american country music concert founded on november 28 1925 as a one-hour radio barn dance style program on wsm am radio downtown and below us is the ryman auditorium which was the home of the grand old opry at the time of the crash in october 1934 the op moved from the wsm radio station into the suburban hillsborough theater followed by a move to the dixie tabernacle in east nashville the opry then moved to the war memorial auditorium a downtown venue and in june 1943 the opry moved to this location the ryman auditorium this move was necessitated by the show's popularity which took off at an unexpected rate lines would wrap around the entire venue to get into this 2 300 seat auditorium the grand old opry show was also broadcast from this downtown venue which came to be known as the mother church of country music until march 15 1974. ahead of us now on the left is cornelia fort airpark this was the final destination for the flight in 1963 and where they would have landed had they made it to nashville the airport was established in 1945 and it's named after cornelia fort who was the first female pilot to die on war duty in american history it was built in 1945 near her family farm this is the small airfield that randy hughes had his wife call to turn the runway lights on and will be our final destination today and where we will be landing and this small airport has not been active since 2011. and not too far from here we can find the current location of the grand old opry and this was the first venue that was built specifically as a home for the show the grand old opry house opened on march 16 1974 with a capacity larger than any of the opry's previous homes having 4 400 seats and that is a little info about the tragedy that occurred in 1963 even after all these years it's apparent how sad this was for the families friends and the music industry and fans we are left to wonder what would each of these great artists have gone on to accomplish thanks for joining us today one quick request if you could just reach down and hit that subscribe button it really helps the channel and i greatly appreciate it now to land at the small airfield that was cornelia fort airpark we will be on the ground shortly and we will take a look around the airport once we are parked welcome once again to our grand ole opry show we'd like for you folks to meet our first guest on this program he is known as the oklahoma cowboy and he's going to sing filipino baby here's cowboy coppus [Music] right now our very special guest one of the finest entertainers and showmen around the country anywhere he makes some fine records and does some fine singing hawkshaw hawkins yeah hello hulk it's real nice to have you with us and to take time out and come by and entertain us thank you very much i don't know how much of that i'll do but i'm going to try my best but first of all i want you all to know that i'm real proud to be here and i don't believe that i could start a show or put on a show unless i've done my theme song i don't believe i'd be right let's do about a verse in the course of one we recorded twice called the sunny side of the mountain [Music] well we're going to keep things rolling right along here with the young lady who sings with the best of them she's one of my favorites patsy cline [Applause] [Music] of tonight things we used to do there's laughter all around my heart so we are on the ground it's a small field so we will quickly find a spot to park and take a look around the airfield this is where they would have landed had that flight in 1963 been successful in navigating that storm [Music] so thank you for joining us today and i will see you the next time [Music] foreign

Channel: Dude Tours

Views: 331,442

Keywords: Patsy Cline, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Cowboy Copas, Randy Hughes, Plane Crash, Microsoft Flight Simulator, 1963 Camden PA-24 crash, Registered as N7000P, Patsy Cline plane crash, Patsy cline death, Country music, grand ole opry

Id: GlQQ37FnpQE

Length: 31min 33sec (1893 seconds)

Published: Tue Jan 18 2022