[5]:4 Fifty seconds after reaching their assigned altitude, Captain Loft instructed First Officer Stockstill to put the L-1011 on autopilot. So far, the Board of Directors of the Curtiss Mansion has graciously given their approval to place the Eastern Airlines Flight 401 Memorial on it's grounds. Eastern Airlines Flight 401 was on its way from New York to Miami on December 29th, 1972, with 13 crew and 163 passengers onboard. There was an enormous flash of flame as two fuel tanks burst open. His foot pressed lightly against the accelerator pedal as he inched down the south levee on the L-28 canal with his headlights off. And now, no one was flying the plane. Everything else was in small pieces spread in a general southwest or south-by-southwest direction for 1,500 to 2,000 feet. But Infantino couldnt follow the voice. In December 1972, there was a deadly | by Verity Partington | The Mystery Box | Medium 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. | Then, on Saturday, December 29, a fleet of over 100 airboats carried survivors, their families and others to the crash site for a special memorial. The disintegration of the aircraft that followed scattered wreckage over an area 1,600ft (500m) long and 330ft (100m) wide in a southwesterly direction. Sure enough, I recall that the initial restricted area was posted in a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) and set out a no-fly zone that had a one mile radius from the crash site up to 2,000 feet above mean sea level. He saw mangled bodies and heard the pitiful moans of the dying. It's like it's a charm," she said. View history. Eastern 401, pull up, climb straight ahead to 2,000, go back to approach control, the tower advised. They claimed that the deceaseds name was being used for the commercial purpose of selling books about the fatal crash (and a movie based on the book) by referring to the decedent as a reappearing ghost. The family lost the suit, and subsequent appeals. by Gary Leff on December 29, 2022. My log book shows that our flight lasted 1.2 hours. The point of this entire story is to simply tell you that yes - planes can be haunted. I especially remember Bill describing passengers who apparently survived the crash impact, but were knocked unconscious and were still strapped into their seats. of 401 King Street, London, W6 9NJ, United Kingdom (+612 9691 0176). Some survivors recovered and adjusted better than others. [6]:107108 Donadeo, the lone survivor of the four flight-deck occupants, recovered from his injuries. Because of the magnitude of the rescue operation and of the medical emergency caused the study resulted in a . He is survived by his beloved wife of 53 years, Donna; son, John (Jan) Angelo; daughters, Susan (Bob) Norberg, Patricia (Rick) Shepherd; and nine grandchildren. Loretta E. Bloodgood 10/13/15 The captain guessed, correctly, that the wheel was all right and the light bad, but he called off the landing and flew away from airport traffic to make sure -- a responsible decision, after which everything else went wrong. Jose Rego 9/5/19 More than a quarter mile long, the cone-shaped debris field was filled with an apocalyptic jumble of human carnage, personal belongings and aircraft wreckage. [19] Pieces of Flight 401's wreckage can also be found in Ed and Lorraine Warren's Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut.[20]. I was amazed at the size of some of the pieces of wreckage he brought home on the air boat. Eight minutes earlier, 401 had been descending on its landing approach after an uneventful flight from New York. Barbara Ann Saal Unable to move and weak from severe loss of blood, his body hung suspended in the watery muck, still bent in the sitting position. (It was later expanded to a much larger area either later that same day or the next day.). 12:38PM EST John F Kennedy Intl - JFK. An account of the paranormal happenings even appeared in a 1974 issue of the US Flight Safety Foundation newsletter. On his 1979 album Three Hearts, musician Bob Welch also recorded a song titled "The Ghost of Flight 401". Contained Within. Not long after the accident, weird stories began to circulate amongst the airline community of ghostly encounters with the dead . He'd cruise up on the frog, spear the frog with the 3-pronged gig, knock the frog off the gig into a sack, all the while moving forward in the airboat while getting ready to gig another frog. A Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 298 passengers crashed in eastern Ukraine on Thursday while traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. . It was more accurately a "tie-down"club; the members owned their aircraft and joined the club to be able to tie-down their aircraft at reasonable costs and have access to a ramp area where they could perform routine maintenance on their planes. "That's what really gets me. I should add that Dorothy R. Loft and her two children, Kimberly and Robert, Jr sued Fuller for invasion of privacy over the book . I really do think I can gig some frogs if I had to. MIAMI - Thursday marks 50 years since Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed into the Florida Everglades. The unintentional jar apparently caused the planes nose to tilt down a few degrees. For survivors, the crash has left physical and mental scars. The temperature is in the low 70s, and its beautiful out there tonight.. All three pilots, two of 10 flight attendants, and 96 of 163 passengers died, while 75 passengers and crew survived. By 1 a.m., the rookie warden had launched his airboat. There was a lot of activity on the ground, but we couldn't see much detail from 3,000 feet. Robert Loft, 55; First Officer Albert Stockstill, 39, and Second Officer Donald Repo, 51, all of Miami-Dade. The FAA guy sitting closest to Leonhard yelled, Holy shit!, An airboat doesnt have brakes, Leonhard explained. Ron Infantino and his late wife, Lilly, on their wedding day; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. Develop, execute, and document the system verification plan for flight and representative hardware at the system level and validate the as-built system prior to launch. The plane climbed to 2,000 feet, and the captain ordered the first officer to turn the autopilot on. Rosemary Mancuso 10/31/49 Wait a minute, he said. The next morning, as was my usual Saturday routine, I drove to the Sun Flying club timing it to arrive at approximately 11am. Gas gangrene attacked his lungs. The fact that the tail assemblyrear fuselage, number2 tail-mounted engine, and remains of the empennagefinally came to rest substantially further forward than other major sections, was probably the result of the number 2 engine continuing to deliver thrust during the actual breakup of the aircraft. I'll forever believe that it was Eastern Flight 401, just minutes before it and its passengers and crew became part of aviation history and legend. According to the National Transportation Safety Board ( NTSB ), the main fuselage broke into four main sections and many other smaller pieces on impact. Solomon Fisher 7/18/11 Photo credit: Don Boyd of Sun Bird Photos. Beverly Raposa stumbled out of the nightmarish apocalypse, hurt, disheveled and covered in clumps of dripping swamp grasses. In 1972 he was a young carpenter who liked living fast. Game warden Gray Leonhard in the 70s; Photography courtesy of Gray Leonhard. [5]:3, The cockpit crew removed the light assembly,[6]:102 and Second Officer Repo was dispatched to the avionics bay beneath the flight deck to check via a small porthole whether the landing gear was indeed down. I didn't tell him that it felt really strange realizing that so much of the plane was still out in the glades. Rons eyes blinked open upon hearing the engines roar to full power. its related bodies corporate and their respective officers, employees, contractors and agents (Promotion Parties) will not . Abover right - Over 100 airboats participated in the evenet. The Ghost of Flight 401. The Nordskog were installed mostly on the L1011-500 series. Wrong. Theyre not going to find us, an anxious passenger whispered. "Hey, what's happening here?" He'd get that look. Fortunately, Bud was an expert. Entry . He cranked up the engine and moved toward the sound. [5]:3, The flight was routine until 23:32, when the airplane began its approach into Miami International Airport. B738. Frank Borman And Flight 401 #2505745 BY NIKV69 - Fri Feb 20, 2004 11:17 am Being a child from an Eastern Air Lines family I am shocked that my father never told me that Frank Borman who at the time was a new VP of EAL rushed to the scene of the crash of flight 401 in the Everglades in December of 72'. Captain Loft was found during the autopsy to have an undetected brain tumor in an area that controls vision. The most interesting story in The Ghost of Flight 401 revolves around the conflict between the employees and airline management in regards to the ghost sightings. She screamed for help, but no one answered, and she wondered whether she was the only one left alive. Below is a list of those on board, according . Little did I expect to see what he actually had. Aground. Eastern management must have taken the stories somewhat seriously, however. The flight attendant, Mercy Ruiz, was badly injured, with a broken pelvis and a severe laceration on her forehead. Raposa sensed a different tone in the engines. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was a Lockheed L-1011-1 Tristar jet that crashed into the Florida Everglades at 11:42 pm December 29, 1972, causing 101 fatalities. The slight forward pressure on the stick would have caused the aircraft to enter a slow descent, maintained by the CWS system. The aircraft was completely demolished, with wreckage, bodies, and survivors strewn over a wide area. Back in the day, when he spent so much time in the wilderness, only the airplanes overhead reminded him of civilization. We were like five bobbing bubble-head dolls because there were a lot - and I mean a lot - of other aircraft up in the air doing the same thing we set out to do. This photo taken in September 2009. Photos: AL DIAZ | MIAMI HERALD. Possible Curse of Seminole Indians | A team catalogues the mangled remains of the Eastern Airlines Flight 401 aircraft at the crash site in the Everglades. As you may know, the mansion is an historic landmark in Miami, located just north of the airport it served as the location of the NTSB hearings into the crash. Discretion was the better part of valor. Ruiz, 63, of West Miami-Dade, still has aches and pains but returned to flying until Eastern folded in 1991. employees and their immediate families of the Promoter and its related bodies corporate and registered travel companions of employees of the Promoter and its related bodies corporate. Serving coffee, tea and soda was all very nice, but this was what counted. On September 4, 1954, Santiago Airlines Flight 513 departed from Aachen, West Germany, destined for Porto Alegre, Brazil. After we visually established where the crash site was located, we could see the initial ground contact point and the distribution of the wreckage quite clearly. Moe Lustig 7/16/23 About 490 feet (150m) from the wingtip's initial contact with the ground, the massive fuselage had begun to break up, scattering components from the underfloor galley, the cargo compartments, and the cabin interior. He had promised to show a slight acquaintance, Ray Dickinson, how to gig frogs. Photography courtesy Ron Infantino, A few minutes later Leonhards radio crackled. The bronze plaques are being donated as well as the granite base. Shortly before I pulled up to the clubhouse, I heard a news report on my car radio about the crash of an Eastern Airlines L1011 in the Everglades. The last thing Raposa remembered seeing before she was knocked out was a waterfall of colors. It was broken in the crash and he avoids putting any strain on it -- good advice for anyone his age, 67. This killed the First Officer instantly. The flight was routine until 23:32 when the plane began its approach into Miami International Airport. The control tower at Opa locka shut down at 11pm each evening back then so the L1011 had to be in contact with Miami Approach Control, since we assumed it was ultimately being vectored for an approach to MIA. ", Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute. Instead, it took 35 years. Raposa smiled cheerfully while she collected empty drink cups and dishes from the passengers. Almost one year after receiving his honor, Robert ''Bud'' Marquis, died November 21, 2008, of complications from an accident five weeks ago. Sadie Yellin 1/9/15 In the days and weeks following the crash of Eastern Airlines Flight 401, recovery efforts captivated the nation, and perhaps because of its iconic, unforgiving, alligator-riddled crash site, the event has remained seared in the memories of Floridians for decades. I dont know this for sure, but I seem to remember he was the last survivor rescued.. It didn't look as if anyone could have possibly survived the crash, yet 75 people did. Marquis, Robert | [23], According to Robert J. Serling's 1980 book From the Captain to the Colonel: An Informal History of Eastern Airlines, the claim that wreckage from Flight 401 was installed and later removed from other Eastern aircraft was false, and no Eastern employees had ever claimed to have seen or believed in the alleged ghost sightings. The accident and the subsequent ghost story were mentioned by Dan Aykroyd during his appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on June 6, 1984. Shortly before midnight on December 29, 1972, the Lockheed L-1011-1 TriStar crashed into the Florida Everglades,[1][2][3] causing 101 total fatalities. With almost twice the area of Rhode Island, the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States has some of the most formidable terrain on Earth. This is the story about the night a jumbo jet landed among the pig frogs and alligators, the cottonmouth snakes and yellow-crowned night herons, in the Everglades. The apparitions of Loft and Repo were invariably described as being extremely lifelike. She had no first-aid kit. Folks from South Florida's sporting community, mostly hunters, fishers and airboaters, heard, many for the first time, about Bud. N310EA, the aircraft involved in the accident. The plane descended out of the sky as pilots were distracted over a landing gear warning light. Samuel J. Prager 12/23/03 Born in Arkansas, he grew up in South Florida when everybody seemed to be poor. Some of those he saved were there, including flight attendants Mercy Ruiz and Sue Tebbs, as well as Beverly Raposa, the flight attendant who rallied passengers to safety after the crash. He is completely burned. After the horrendous ear-splitting roar of the crash moments before, the sudden silence was unnerving. He also attacked his other daughter, who luckily survived the attack. Hey, whats happening here? the captain shouted. When the Coast Guard helicopter attempted a landing, the prop wash threw hunks of debris dangerously around. This guy had been hurled from the plane like a human cannonball. Refresh the page,. James Hall, Flight Operations and Safety, Miami office, had the task of notifying all the families of the crash victims. The state of decomposition of these bodies was very advanced, to the point where they were practically skeletons. Indeed, they said, some . "I couldn't understand why I lived and they didn't. With his left, he held onto the boat and walked beside it to the levee. On December 29, 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing over 100 souls. Greta Foye 3/19/45 Three women on the jetliner's tail, about 20 feet above the water, begged Bud to save them. His book was later adapted into a made-for-tv movie starring William Shatner as an NTSB investigator. High in the distant black sky, beyond the harsh glare cast by his headlamp, was a circling star: the searchlight of a Coast Guard helicopter hovering over the crash site eight miles away. Eastern Airlines Flight 401 is coming in for a landing in Miami. I was too young for that kind of stuff. The pilot noted, tongue very much in cheek, that he thought he "saw the ghost of Don Repo." Thus, the switching to CWS in channel A possibly did not occur in channel B, thus depriving the first officer of any indication the mode had changed (channel A provides the captain's instruments with data, while channel B provides the first officer's). in Electrical, Mechanical, Aerospace Engineering, or related subject area Stick with the book. We were standing outside the clubhouse on the ramp, getting ready to lock up the building before leaving, when we both noticed something unusual overhead. It looked as though the L1011 was in a shallow left turn and dragged the left wing tip in the swamp. 2023-Feb-14. Ground crew with Eastern Airlines Flight 401 before its fateful flight; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. The time was 9:20 p.m. A light on the instrument panel the first officer was monitoring failed to illuminate green to confirm that the nose landing gear was extended and locked. Jerome Becker 6/27/39 She dug down into the black muck, cupped a double handful to her face and smeared it all over the affected areas. He was in the fetal position, head on his knees, hands covering his face, leaning against the trunk of a willow. Leonhard pulled his eyes away from the painful scene, lifted his head and slowly swung the stark-white beam of his helmet-mounted lamp across a massive trench carved in the marsh. I saw a husband who couldn't find his wife or his children." With almost twice the area of Rhode Island, the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States has some of the most formidable terrain on Earth. December 29, 2022 / 10:12 AM / CBS Miami. Sharon Norene Gatti 3/2/48 (Deer in south Florida are almost anemic compared to deer in other parts of the country.) Eduardo Jaramillo 8/2/32 Were still at 2,000, right? the first officer asked. Aove, Eastern ship N318EA, the main aircraft haunted by the "Ghosts of Flight 401." I wouldnt be a bit surprised if the speed hed been traveling was well over a hundred miles an hour., Leonhard added, The guy weighed around 160, but it still took eight of us carrying a stretcher filled with his dead weight to carry him out. [12][13] The training is designed to make problem solving in a cockpit much more efficient, thus causing less distraction for the crew. Bud waved his light until the helicopter took notice. There were also other artifacts such as yellow airline life preservers and panes of plastic passenger windows. [16], While Eastern Air Lines publicly denied their planes were haunted, they reportedly removed all the salvaged parts from their L-1011 fleet. Trans World Airlines Flight 800 was carrying 230 people, including four cockpit crew members and 14 flight attendants. I had initially intended to fly a little above 2,000 feet to avoid the restrictions, but I ended up closer to 3,000 feet to avoid the other aircraft. theYear = theYear + 1900 The froggers spent most of the night taking doctors and paramedics to the injured, and the injured to the levee where the helicopters were landing. The four-month-old L-1011 TriStar jet crashed into the Florida Everglades on December 29, 1972 at 11:42 p.m., caused . Mom apparently worked closely with that flight attendant. At 11:32, they aborted the landing, climbed to 2,000 feet and swung west over the Everglades to work out the problem. They failed to notice that the autopilot had been disconnected inadvertently and, subsequently, the aircraft gradually lost altitude and crashed. Mary Carfizzi 11/3/19 "Life's played funny tricks on me," said Richard N. Micale, 41, not laughing. Eastern's L-1011's came equipped with six Bowmar ovens (Lockheed Part Number 671878-115). Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute - Investigation Investigation Later that morning the world woke to news of the tragedy. This was only about 12 hours after the L1011 crashed! [26], Flight 401 is mentioned in the TV show Supernatural Season 1 Episode 4 named Phantom Traveler's. In the hospital, a nine-inch steel rod was inserted into the bone. That was an unsurvivable crash, but we made it out," she said. "You couldn't even say goodbye to each . Photos of the 35th anniversary memorial gathering at the crash site, December 29, 2007. The Sun Flying Club wasn't really a "flying" club. Speculation at the club was rampant which is to be expected from a bunch of pilots. Loise Shackelford attended. I don't know if she ever did return to flying; my mother never told me one way or the other. Perhaps the most extraordinary and credible research into the ghost phenomenon ever documented is the so-called "Ghosts of Flight 401."On December of 1972, an Eastern Airlines Tri-Star jetliner, Flight 401, crashed into a Florida swamp.Read the accident report (PDF). Bound for Miami, Flight 401 took off from New York's JFK at 9:20 p.m. On December 29, 1972, Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was the first jumbo jet to crash and the second worst single-plane disaster in America up to that time. He lost interest in his job and just wanted to be alone. . I vaguely remember that we ended up taking a total of five people on that flight. We've been married going on 18 years now." As the plane descended on its final landing approach to Miami International Airport, a cheerful voice boomed over the cabins loudspeaker address system: Welcome to sunny Miami, the captain announced. The crew members, however, were focused on fixing the wheel-light indicator. She worked in the executive offices at Easterns Miami base. Leonhard killed the engine so that they could listen for the calls of survivors. Johnson, Charles | He rescued some terrified folks - he doesn't know how many - before the regular cavalry of official rescuers arrived in helicopters, directed to the carnage by his head lamp. Leonhard happened to be looking southeast across the glades. I was tired and hit the sack as soon as I got home. An adviser to Ukraine's Interior Minister wrote on Facebook that the plane was shot down, the Associated Press reports. A similar situation appeared in the Thai movie Dark Flight, directed by Kongkiat Khomsiri, produced in 2012. I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. Get the latest flight sales and travel reviews straight to your inbox. In the end, it appears that the source of the stories was an article in an issue of the Flight Safety Foundation. 103 passengers and crew members died in the crash or shortly thereafter and 75 passengers/crew survived. Incongruously, not far from the roofless fuselage center section with the inner portion of the starboard wing still attached, lay a large, undamaged and fully inflated rubber dinghy, one of a number carried on the TriStar in the event of an emergency water landing. Adapted from Bad Guys, Bullets, and Boat Chases by Bob H. Lee. Silvan Karpen 5/23/28 Eastern Flight 401: A survivor's story Before ValuJet there was Eastern Flight 401. Also notable were the Eastern Airlines two-tone blue and white colors on the larger pieces of wreckage. Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute | With the engine dangerously wide open - the boat slipped over the grass at 35 mph - he maneuvered around all obstacles. Eric Olson holding a piece of wreckage from Flight 401. The most accurate account of the crash of Flight 401 was authored by a journalist from the Miami Herald, Rob Elder. Bud asks his wife to look for his scrapbooks. [4] It was also the first hull loss and fatal crash of a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar. His 1977 book, Crash, tells the story of many of the passengers, the investigation and aftermath of Flight 401. [27]. The mud of the Everglades may have blocked wounds sustained by survivors, preventing them from bleeding to death. Beverly Raposa switched seats from her regular position in the galley for a flight from New York to Miami. That's where the helicopters, one after another, landed that night, and where ambulances arrived to load the dead and injured. About Flight 401 | The trip to Florida, by official accounts, was pleasantly routine. Judy Ellenberg 2/27/53 Janice Testa 9/12/52 Flight 401 flew into the ground on Friday night, Dec. 29, 1972, at 13 seconds past 11:42 p.m. It is personal and it has served over the intervening years to remind me of how precious and tenuous life can be. Shortly after I arrived, one of my friends, Hansel Meighen, practically dragged me to his airplane and loudly announced that we were going to go fly out to the Everglades crash site. He was one of those rare south Florida individuals who owned a ton of hunting rifles and lived for the deer hunting season so he could go out on his air boat and hunt scrawny deer in the Everglades. At night, when he sits on his porch, he can hear the wup-wup bellows of the pig frogs and the heh-heh-heh chatter of the leopard frogs beyond the trees. It out, '' said Richard N. Micale, 41, not laughing 10:12 AM / CBS.! 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