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Holy ++++
I just watched a random movie called 1000 heroes about a plane crash in Sioux City. In that true story on film there was a scene where a police chief found a banjo and placed it in its case. Im sure this is known by everyone over the age of 50, but I just discovered Pete Wernick was on that flight and it was his banjo!
So does anyone know what happened to that banjo? It should be in 2 or 3 museums. Pete is amazing.
Edited by - NotABanjoYoda on 01/22/2025 13:07:48
If I remember correctly, in an interview with Pete concerning this, the banjo came out of its case and went skidding down the runway, or ground, and messed up the resonator. When he finished the tour he was on, he sent it back to Gibson to be repaired or replaced, it never sounded as good to him as it did previously. What went with it after that I don't remember him saying, if he did.
Bobby
I think I read in an interview that he still has it (or did at the time), played it once after the crash, and put it in a closet.
I once met the pilot of that flight at a play about (of all things) plane crashes, with dialogues taken directly from the plane black boxes. He was sitting next to me in the theater. We talked briefly after the show. He seemed very humble about what he did, and felt responsible for those he couldn't save. That fact that so many were saved is a testament to him, his crew, and the people on the ground who provided the assistance to land the plane.
That banjo is the banjo that Pete still plays today. It’s a 1988 Gibson Granada. The neck was damaged beyond repair in the crash so it was replaced with the current neck. The pot assembly, including the resonator, is original and was in the crash. You can still see some of the damage on the resonator. It’s a really great banjo and I believe the only banjo Pete has played professionally since.
Edited by - banjo1930 on 01/22/2025 13:30:29
My recollection is that Pete had bought the banjo, an 80s Greg Rich Granada, as a stock instrument and ordered a replacement neck because he wanted the style 1 inlays that he had on his previous banjo (if you've seen the cover of his Oak Publications book "Bluegrass Banjo", that's his previous banjo. He was flying in to play at the Winterhawk festival in New York, with the original neck on the banjo, when the plane crashed in Sioux City. I don't recall if he made the gig or not, although I was at the festival, but if he did he clearly played a different banjo because the neck on his was broken in half from the crash.
It's possible this next part was embellishment to the legend, but I had heard that his custom neck was waiting for him when he got home. Gibson did some restoration work on the resonator, mainly to stabilize it, but the scars of the crash are visible on it to this day, and it is indeed the only banjo he has played professionally since. And it is a hoss.
I ran into Pete at a small festival a couple of weeks after the crash. I asked him how he got to his next job, thinking he couldn't just get on another plane, but Pete said that was just what he did. I told him I'd be scared to flay after being in a crash. Pete said he wasn't afraid at all. What were the odds of being in two crashes in a row.
Hi all,
Gabe Hirshfeld got it exactly right. √√ Good variations remembered by others, and I've heard some doozies (e.g., the banjo fell out of a plane over South America...). Here's more of the story....
To my great surprise, I got the banjo back from United a week after the crash. The peghead (with 4 new gold-plated Keith tuners) had broken off and was missing. But I was pretty thrilled to get the rest of it back -- it was only a year old at the time. And yes, the neck was replaced by Gibson. They'd made me another neck previously and put it on pronto, in time for my gigs the following weekend. They replaced the damaged resonator too, but when I played the banjo I asked for it back, and it turned out to sound better, so that's the one I still use -- with that 1989 damage still showing. They offered to clean it up but I chose to keep it as-is, as a keepsake of sorts.
The movie mentioned by the first poster was a made-for-TV movie with Charlton Heston as the pilot (!) based on what happened before and after the crash, mostly on the ground in Sioux City starting with the impending approach of the badly disabled DC-10 (full -- 296 on board) which landed unevenly at 200+ mph and broke apart as it flipped over in flames. (It was the first commercial plane crash ever filmed, and was played endlessly on TV.) The good people of Sioux City and environs were ready and did a major rescue effort. Amazingly, 184 of us lived, thanks to the historically resourceful pilot and team, and my banjo was among the relatively few pieces of luggage that survived at all.
Many people who saw the movie asked "Was that your banjo in the final scene?", where the actor who played John Boy on the Waltons put a banjo into its case, sorta symbolizing "life goes on". The banjo in the scene was *not* mine, but a cheapie. But that scene, I was told, was *inspired* by the sight of my beautiful but damaged banjo on the runway, with nothing else anywhere near it... not even the case that it had come out of.
That sight was preserved in a National Guard video taken the day after the crash -- that I later received a copy of from the airport manager (a new banjo player learning from my first instructional video -- crazy coincidence). He'd wondered when viewing the wreckage, "Whose banjo that could be?").
I recently had a still photo taken from the Guard's video -- fuzzy but there's the peghead next to the instrument. The photo is on my website next the lyrics of a song I wrote about the experience.
At IBMA last September I saw Greg Rich, who made my banjo, and showed him that 35 year-old specimen that's still my #1 instrument. He was stoked to see it again, took photos and made a post about it on Facebook, which I've not seen. Look that up if interested. I don't know how to put my post-crash photo up on this forum, but anyone who can is welcome to do it.
Edited by - Pete Wernick on 01/22/2025 15:28:15
Rich Stillman got it almost all right, but for the record...
He said:
(if you've seen the cover of his Oak Publications book "Bluegrass Banjo", that's his previous banjo.)
No, that's not my banjo, that's "our own" Jack Baker (back when he played righty) and *his* banjo on the over of the book-- 50 years old now and still being sold, amazingly. There's a photo *in* the book of me playing the RB-1, my main banjo from 1966-88.
I did play 4 sets with Hot Rize at that Winterhawk Festival, the first one 48 hours after the crash. Hot Rize's road manager, Frank Edmonson, broke into my house the day after the crash to get my RB-1, and took it there for me to play... I think that first set or part of it is on YouTube, with me in my new, replacement clothes!
To be completely nitpickily accurate about it, the old neck did not break in half (I still have it, minus only the broken-off/missing peghead). The new neck was installed on the pot by Gibson at their factory, not sent to my home, and the banjo was then flown to the Reno airport, near where my next gig was. I gladly got to play it "like new" at that festival in CA. The original resonator was later returned as-is (as I requested), no work at all done on it. Looked and still looks bad (it had been quite beautiful), but it's a "battle" scar of sorts.
One thing that still stands out -- I got a lot of sympathy for being in a bad *accident*... but it made me think of all the people (like in wars) who experience awful things because someone is *trying* to hurt them. It's one of the things hard to think about these days.
Edited by - Pete Wernick on 01/22/2025 16:00:14
I don't think it's been mentioned yet on this thread, but Pete's wife Joan and their (then) very young son Will were also among the survivors of that crash.
bluegrasstoday.com/pete-and-jo...iversary/
What is amazing is that Pete's banjo fared better than what goes through baggage handlers today. They seem to take a special pride and destroying luggage.
When I am forced to gate check a bag I always get it back wet, or covered in black grease (I can't figure this one out), or cut up/gouged. I'd skip a flight rather than check a banjo.
Edited by - Joel Hooks on 01/23/2025 07:39:41
I was at that Winterhawk, and being out camping and jamming and the like, very few of us at the festival heard about the crash at the time. I saw Hot Rize do their shows. When I got home I caught up on the news about the crash. Word slowly filtered around through my network of friends about Pete and his family being survivors of the crash, and his banjo's damage. It seemed COMPLETELY unreal.
quote:
Originally posted by FooteI ran into Pete at a small festival a couple of weeks after the crash. I asked him how he got to his next job, thinking he couldn't just get on another plane, but Pete said that was just what he did. I told him I'd be scared to flay after being in a crash. Pete said he wasn't afraid at all. What were the odds of being in two crashes in a row.
I had a similar encounter with the good Doctor at a bluegrass festival in Oregon shortly after it had happened, I asked him if he felt he'd been given a "second lease" on life of sorts or if it changed his perspective on life in any way. He responded with that same comment of the odds of being in two crashes, he also remarked on the professionalism of the flight crew, and it seemed like no big deal at all, just one of those things...
I am a 5-string banjo player and also a career synthetic organic chemist. I remember hearing about this tragedy and then learning that both Pete Wernick and John Stille (a prominant organic chemist from Colorado State University) were both on that flight. Dr. Stille, unfortunately, did not survive the crash. I remember thinking how odd it was that two people I had seen either perform or lecture numerous times were both on that flight.
quote:
Originally posted by The Old TimerI was at that Winterhawk, and being out camping and jamming and the like, very few of us at the festival heard about the crash at the time. I saw Hot Rize do their shows. When I got home I caught up on the news about the crash. Word slowly filtered around through my network of friends about Pete and his family being survivors of the crash, and his banjo's damage. It seemed COMPLETELY unreal.
I was there, too. I was among those who had heard about the crash before Pete got there. IIRC, he got a standing ovation just for walking onto the stage.
wow, i hadnt heard of this. its a miracle the banjo and the doctor survived ! This video shows the crash https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qd_GHqOVlDU&t=1s
banjohangout.org/forum/attachm...ID=310364
Here's a screenshot from the National Guard video of the runway, just to complete the photo study.--John David
Edited by - findthepocket on 01/24/2025 09:15:00
That's the photo I mentioned, thanks for posting it, John. Note the peghead near the top of the photo, stayed near probably due to the strings still holding it. But the peghead was never returned.
A recent poster whom I spoke with at our band's 3rd festival following the crash said about my assessment:
<< it seemed like no big deal at all, just one of those things...>>
It was certainly a very big deal. I guess I gave that impression because it was maybe the 100th conversation I'd had about the accident and it was wearing me down, though of course I understood that people wanted to talk about it, ask me about it. No doubt that at age 43 I was more glad than I could convey that thanks to the pilots' amazing resourcefulness I and my family and another 181 people got to stay alive. For the first week after, I tried to stop thinking about what happened to my banjo, since it was only an "object" and not a human victim trying to survive. When I heard the banjo was going to be sent back to me, it seemed like a stroke of great luck.
Edited by - Pete Wernick on 01/24/2025 10:35:23
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