1969 Newton Cessna 172 crash observed the airplane reverse its course and then heard a loud sound as it crashed. Iowa had two other air accidents involving celebrities during the 1950s and 1960s: the 3 February 1959 crash near Clear Lake that took the lives of rock and roll stars Ritchie Valens, Buddy Holly, and the Big Bopper (plus their pilot), and an incident involving the Minneapolis Lakers (NBA basketball team) on 18 January 1960, when their DC-3 aircraft crash-landed in a cornfield near Carroll, with no injuries. 1969 Newton Cessna 172 crash On August 31, 1969, a Cessna 172 crashed in Newton, Iowa, killing
American Pie (song) of the other lyrics has long been debated, and for decades, McLean declined to explain the symbolism behind the many characters and events mentioned. However, the overall theme of the song is the loss of innocence of the early rock and roll generation as symbolized by the plane crash which claimed the lives of three of its heroes. In 2017, McLean's original recording was selected for preservation in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or artistically significant". While it has been claimed that Don McLean began writing the song in upstate Saratoga Springs,