If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. They headed for the flash. If you hear my voice, come toward me. Leonhard happened to be looking southeast across the glades. Flight 401 may refer to: Iberia Airlines Flight 401, crashed on 5 May 1965. Miami International Airport Sighting | On December 29, 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing over 100 souls. [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. [5]:4 For the next 80 seconds, the airplane maintained level flight. A light in the Sky It was a routine trip for Flight 401 until 11:32 p.m. when the plane began its approach to Miami International Airport, and an indicator light for the nose landing gear had not lit up. On September 4, 1954, Santiago Airlines Flight 513 departed from Aachen, West Germany, destined for Porto Alegre, Brazil. It is 12 feet long and 7 feet across. The middle engine and tail section had broken away from the main fuselage, coming to a rest on their sides in a remote area far from the main crash site, which was located 18.7 miles northwest of Miami International Airport. "Hey, what's happening here?" Something was wrong with the landing gear or the landing-gear light on the control panel. She was very scared, having never been in the Everglades before. [5]:30[6]:99 The aircraft was fleet number 310, and the 10th TriStar delivered to the carrier. On December 29, 1972, Eastern Air Lines flight 401 left New York's JFK airport and crashed on its approach to Miami, killing 101 of the 176 people on board. [5]:6,16[9] However, the NTSB concluded that the captain's tumor did not contribute to the accident. "That wasn't my first brush with death," he said. Those words guided Leonhard as his 14-foot patrol airboat bulldozed through dense walls of water-anchored grass. He wants to show them how to gig frogs. He cranked up the engine and moved toward the sound. Theyre not going to find us, an anxious passenger whispered. Bud Marquis had experienced better nights of frogging. I guess their clothes got blown off them.". But we idled back around to double-check on them just in case.. Flight 401 - Flight Crew Fatal Photograph | We exited the area and returned to Opa locka Airport, but our conversations were subdued. 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. The crew of Flight 401, taken aboard Flight 26 while on the ground in Miami earlier the day of the crash. I told Hansel that we needed to check, before we got into the air, whether there were any flight restrictions over the crash site which seemed pretty logical to me. I don't remember the take-off or the landing that day, but I vividly remember the meteorological conditions and the crash site. The left wingtip banked into the marsh at 227 miles per hour. All photos by Southern Airboat, who coordinated the event. During its flight from New York to Miami, an aircraft operating Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 crashed into the Everglades after the cockpit became so distracted by a burnt-out landing gear indicator light, they neglected to notice the autopilot had disengaged, and that the plane was slowly losing altitude. Possible Curse of Seminole Indians | "He's an airboater.". His right arm was three-quarters severed and barely attached by tendons, skin and strings of muscle. By the time I got to the clubhouse, there must have been 10 to 15 members milling about, all discussing the crash. Afterward, folks hope to take the old man into the Everglades, in his own airboat, if he wants. Flight 401 Normal - Faulty Auto Pilot | February 26, 1989. If cities had soundtracks, none would sound quite like Nashville. I was then almost 26 years old and had recently graduated from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. At approximately 2340R 29 December 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401, a Lockheed 1011, with 178 persons on board, crashed in the Everglades 18 miles west of Miami International Airport. Blackness. May Albury, Verena Bieri, Carl Bolufe, Rigoberto Bolufe, Sandra Burt, Gustavo Cassado, Mrs Xeimara Casado, Miss Christina Casado, Mariel Diegeriez, Gerald W Eskow, Sylvia Fisher, Ms. F. Frankin, Herbert Fresko, Molly Fresko, Alicia Garcia, Julia Garcia, Kathryn F.Gaudiello, George Gaudiello, Kenneth Glassman, Kuniko Goldfuss, Milton Hoffman, Ronald Infantino, Miguel Angel Junco Jr., David Kaplan, Franklin Kent, Anita Kent, Helen Kupiec, Jessie LaRusso, James Laurie, Mrs. Leone Levine, Cornelia Leya, Thomas McAvoy, Joseph Mazur, Rose Mazur, Luis Mejia, Richard N. Micale, Albert J Morris, Janice Minguzzi, Christina Ochoa, Allen Okanawsky, Oneida Pares, Aristides Pares, Martha Pares, Carlos Polanco, Lucino Polanco, Joseph Popson, Richard Pragluski, Goldez Quinico, Evelyn Ragalia, Marie Rego, Glen Remkus*, Francoise Riette, Thomas Rothenberg, Martin Siminerio, Bonnie Silverman, Donna Smith, Millie Soberon, Jerald Solomon, Larry Sumpkins, Marilyn Taylor, Edward Ulrich, Jesse C. Walker, Alan Weiss, Lorenzo Zetlin. The state of decomposition of these bodies was very advanced, to the point where they were practically skeletons. Chapter II - OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (AVIATION PROCEEDINGS) Subchapter A - ECONOMIC REGULATIONS. There would be plenty of time for body recovery, Leonhard said. Well launch from there.. The underside of the L1011 was reflecting the ground lighting from the airport and the surrounding city which made it easy to identify the aircraft type although we couldn't identify the airline. What songs will we sing? one passenger asked. "When I tried to prop him up it felt like every bone in his body was broken.". Of the 176 passengers and crew members aboard Flight 401, 77 survived the initial crash. Jose Garcia 6/4/47 Jerome Becker 6/27/39 [6]:101 The pilots cycled the landing gear, but still failed to get the confirmation light. The plane climbed to 2,000 feet, and the captain ordered the first officer to turn the autopilot on. Sir, dont worry, he said. Stick with the book. It wouldn't take much.". The pilot Bob Loft and the flight engineer Don Repo were two of the 101 people who perished in the air crash. Grand Canyon Disaster + . Huge gouts of mud and aquatic vegetation shot high into the air as 185 tons of screeching metal ripped into the muck and grass. I had first, second and third-degree burns all over my body. He and his wife, Donna, live in Christmas, a small town between Orlando and Cape Canaveral. It was approximately 15 to 20 miles west-southwest of the Opa locka Airport and it was pretty difficult to find at first. Solomon Fisher 7/18/11 Someone had seen his frogging light. According to my late mother, she wanted to get back to flying, but she was petrified every time she heard jet noise. With no one flying the plane or noticing its steady descent at flight speed, it flew itself into the ground. These and other requirements are imposed for the purpose of meeting the collective objectives of the Aviation and With the aircraft in mid-turn, the left wingtip hit the surface first, then the left engine and the left landing gear,[5]:8 making three trails through the sawgrass, each 5ft (1.5m) wide and more than 100ft (30m) long. [5]:4 Fifty seconds after reaching their assigned altitude, Captain Loft instructed First Officer Stockstill to put the L-1011 on autopilot. Robert Albin Loft 3/17/17 The government considered him totally disabled. Eastern's L-1011's came equipped with six Bowmar ovens (Lockheed Part Number 671878-115). Indeed, they said, some . There were 75 survivors. Anyway, the pilots couldn't tell if the wheels were down. They had drowned because their seats landed with their heads tilted down into the swamp water. The petite brunette stood just 5 feet 1.5 inches tall. They rushed to rescue survivors. Patricia A. Ghyssels 3/31/45 "He was naked. Visitation: Thursday, October 7, from 6pm to 8pm at Loyless Funeral Home Chapel, with a Funeral mass at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church on Friday at 10am. "I could empathize with what Ron was going through. Only their bedroom has an air conditioner. [21] A television movie, also titled The Ghost of Flight 401, broadcast by NBC during February 1978. [5]:2729, A company employeetechnical officer Angelo Donadeo, 47, returning to Miami from an assignment in New Yorkaccompanied the flight crew for the journey, but was officially an off-duty, "nonrevenue passenger". He also attacked his other daughter, who luckily survived the attack. Fortunately, Bud was an expert. Instead, he would witness the first jumbo jet crash in U.S. history. Of five survivors The Herald located this week, three talked freely about Flight 401. Leonhard hit the gas as he toggled on the blue light and siren. Rochelle Rubin 1/5/48 (she was the first victim discovered by the search team It's truly amazing how the mind works for, at the time, I had no idea of the significance of what I saw that night nor did I intend to store it away in my memory banks. [5]:4 The engineer (Repo) had gone below, and no indication was heard of the pilots' voices recorded on the CVR that they heard the chime. He retired from the Metro-Dade police department and moved to Brooksville, Florida many years ago. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The Ghost of Flight 401 (TV Movie 1978) - IMDb, Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute, The Ghost of Flight 401 (TV 1978) - YouTube, Flight 401 - Flight Crew Fatal Photograph, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 - Crash Investigation, Findings and Passenger List - Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute. Survivors - Crew and Eastern Employees Dummett hopes that the event will inspire a permanent memorial to Eastern Flight 401, similar to the ValuJet Memorial off the Tamiami Trail in the Everglades. After about an hour, he saw the first helicopter. Off I went to check with the FAA Flight Service Station. The temperature is in the low 70s, and its beautiful out there tonight.. Skeptic Brian Dunning claims that the origin for the ghost sightings was a joke made by an Eastern Air Lines captain after an emergency landing in which he quipped that he "thought [Don] Repo's ghost was on the plane."[22][24]. Donadeo was back at work three months after the crash, took a transfer from Miami to Atlanta in 1978 and retired in 1983. Of course, hearing them from the porch isn't the same as being in the middle of them armed with a gig, taking a long breath of Everglades air, feeling utterly alive. Ever the good Catholic, she crossed herself in the dark and silently prayed, Oh God, please let that be true.. The captain, along with one of two flight crew members, two of 10 flight attendants, and 97 of 163 passengers, died; 75 . Flight 401 soared above a primordial swampland filled with poisonous snakes and alligators crawling through razor-sharp sawgrass and open-water sloughs. [6]:108 The most common injuries were fractures of ribs, spines, pelvises, and lower extremities. The pilot noted, tongue very much in cheek, that he thought he "saw the ghost of Don Repo." His foot pressed lightly against the accelerator pedal as he inched down the south levee on the L-28 canal with his headlights off. "I couldn't understand why I lived and they didn't. "I'm going to send some flowers to Miami and have them put on the grave of my first wife," said Ronald Infantino, who lost his bride of 20 days in the crash. No gunshots. That subsides. Startled, and now fully awake, he wondered, Whats going on here? A former crew chief on a B-52 in Vietnam, he had a keener sense than most passengers about a plane in trouble. Bud's heroics were featured prominently a few days later in the Miami Herald. Around 4:30 a.m., Leonhard waded up to a willow heada thick tangle of weepy trees with brittle limbs draping into the water. Luis Bancroft 10/10/48 Refresh the page, check Medium 's site. "There are is so much friction, so many arguments. [5]:4 This altitude alert, designed to warn the pilots of an inadvertent deviation from the selected altitude, went unnoticed by the crew. Jose Rego 9/5/19 She put in 11 more years with United before retiring. Once in a while I ask Teresa, 'How come you never bought a vacuum cleaner if you thought I was so good? On a moonless night, in the beam of his head lamp, the frog eyes would glow like rubies. The time was 9:20 p.m. What made it so hard was trying to manhandle him up and over the broken willows. "He was just a guy out there frogging and minding his own business who knew he had to help people in trouble. HONOLULU, FEB. 25 -- As investigators questioned the pilots and ground crew today, Coast Guard and Navy rescue workers recovered from the Pacific two seats and a 4-by-6-foot . [6]:107109, Robert "Bud" Marquis (19292008),[7] an airboat pilot, was out frog gigging with Ray Dickinsin (19291988) when they witnessed the crash. The plane descended out of the sky as pilots were distracted over a landing gear warning light. Temperature is in the Everglades before flying the plane or noticing its steady descent at Flight,. The event double-check on them just in case 's L-1011 's came equipped with six ovens! Prayed, Oh God, please let that be true third-degree burns all over my.! With brittle limbs draping into the muck and grass state of decomposition of bodies! Captain ordered the first jumbo jet crash in U.S. history injuries were fractures of ribs spines... 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