Music’s Aviation Tragedies: Chuck Mangione Band

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This is not in alphabetical order because I really couldn’t decide HOW to handle it. My initial thought was to highlight the more famous of the two victims of the same crash, then I thought they were both known for the same band, so why not include them as band members. Confused? Me too. Here are today’s victims of musical aviation disasters. Chuck Mangione’s Band: Coleman Mellett and Gerry Niewood The confusion came from the fact that guitarist Coleman Mellett had a documentary made about his career, Sing You a Brand New Song, which won a “best documentary” award at the New Jersey Film Festival. Not that saxophonist Gerry Niewood was a nobody: he played with Simon & Garfunkel in their legendary Central Park concert and did session work with people as diverse as Peggy Lee and Sinéad O’Connor. Both men had careers apart from Chuck Mangione, the great jazz flügelhorn player known for his 1977 hit “Feels So Good.” But it was that association that Mangione that brought them together in tragedy. On Thursday, February 12, 2009, Mellett (who was married to Dizzy Gillespie’s “love child” daughter Jeanie Bryson) and Niewood met at the Newark, New Jersey airport to fly to Buffalo, where they would perform with Mangione the next night with the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra. Everything in the flight was routine until final clearance was given to land in Buffalo. The NTSB investigation discovered that the “stick shaker” (an automatic stall warning device) activated — because it had been improperly set initially — which caused the pilots to believe there was something wrong. The plane went into a stall, and the pilots overcorrected, sending the plane straight into a house. The plane hit one house on Long Street in a Buffalo suburb called Clarence Center, killing only one person inside. Consider the size of airplanes in comparison to houses and that in itself is a miracle. But there was no luck for the 49 on board, as they were all killed on impact (after, according to reports/estimations from the investigation, being subjected to a force of 2G in their final moments as the plane headed downward). The resulting investigation considered factors like the weather (snowing, meaning that de-icing had to be performed on the wings), but in the end ruled the primary fault of the crash was pilot fatigue. As a result (sadly, we never get changes in rules and regulations without loss of life), the FAA instituted new, stricter rules for pilot hours to lessen the chance for fatigue. Mangione canceled his appearance with the Buffalo Philharmonic. Other performers still played, however. The concert began with a minute of silence for Mangione’s two band members. A sad footnote: a memorial was erected on the property where the plane crashed. I read that, last month, the township government announced the memorial was going to be moved from the actual site of the crash to the town center. I suppose the neighbors will appreciate not having the memorial in their back yards (I’ve been to a plane crash memorial in a neighborhood [near Cannelton, Indiana], and I imagine it could be disruptive on days like anniversaries of the crash and individuals’ birthdays as people come to remember), but that seems to be a slap in the face to the people who lost loved ones that day. But hey, what’s one more condo, even if it is built on a crash site. Chuck Mangione’s Band Coleman Mellett (May 24, 1974 - February 12, 2009) (age 34) Gerry Niewood (born Gerard Joseph Nevidosky, April 6, 1943 - February 12, 2009) (age 65) Place of crash: 6038 Long Street, Clarence Center (Buffalo), New York Commercial airline: Colgan Air flight 3407, intended route Newark, New Jersey - Buffalo, New York Here’s Chuck Mangione’s “big pop hit,” “Feels So Good”: