Jerome Becker 6/27/39 The trip to Florida, by official accounts, was pleasantly routine. "It needs new points and plugs, maybe a new set of rings. 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. Get the latest flight sales and travel reviews straight to your inbox. Carpet layers need strong backs. James Yandolino 3/7/52 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. That section of the Everglades is a tangle of sawgrass, tree islands, canals and levees. 3h 15m. Though Leonhard was only a rookie, the sight of death was not unfamiliar to him. It was the first of the new generation of wide-body "jumbo jets" to crash. For his efforts, he received the Humanitarian Award from the National Air Disaster Alliance/Foundation and the "Alumitech Airboat Hero Award", from the American Airboat Search and Rescue Association. He has never taken pleasure in talking about what he saw after Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 went down and how he felt about it. Samuel J. Prager 12/23/03 He isn't a talker to begin with, unless it's about boats or engines or the 'glades. The crew members, however, were focused on fixing the wheel-light indicator. The plane was dropping from the sky at a rate of 200 feet each minute. After retiring he volunteered with the Civil Air Patrol, his last rank was Lt. B738. Loft, Robert Albin | [5]:5 The airplane was traveling at 227 miles per hour (197kn; 365km/h) when it hit the ground. In 2005, TANS Peru Flight 204 crashed into the Amazonian jungle, leaving a trail of bodies and wreckage scattered across the rainforest. Ghosts of Flight 401 - YouTube 0:00 / 42:56 Ghosts of Flight 401 MrBallen 7.21M subscribers Subscribe 272K 5.1M views 4 months ago #mrballen #ghost #paranormal For 16 free meals with. The crash occurred while the entire flight crew was preoccupied with . That subsides. There were 75 survivors. Ten feet in front of them were what looked like two mannequins to Leonharda partially clothed woman lying faceup in the mud and a naked man lying facedown. The Ghost of Flight 401: Mystery Files | It was a heart-to- heart bond. Varujan Eskihanci 9/7/25 Flight 401 was a short-haul flight to Miami. "The three of us toast to life on that day every year.". NOTE - There is no official death certificates for "Mrs. McAvoy," which appeared in passenger lists released to the press at the time. '", Age 79, died Saturday, October 2, 2004 in Land O'Lakes, FL. I saw a husband who couldn't find his wife or his children." Ron and Fara Infantino, married for 20 days, were coming home from their honeymoon when Flight 401 crashed. Silvan Karpen 5/23/28 Officially, 103 passengers and crew died. "Ladies, you're safe up there. There was a lot of activity on the ground, but we couldn't see much detail from 3,000 feet. There were four men in the cockpit, all preoccupied with the light and landing gear. Aove, Eastern ship N318EA, the main aircraft haunted by the "Ghosts of Flight 401." Surprisingly, he found that there were large pieces of wreckage still out in the glades. [5]:6,16[9] However, the NTSB concluded that the captain's tumor did not contribute to the accident. Were still at 2,000, right? the first officer asked. February 26, 1989. That was the last transmission before the left wing sliced into the Everglades at 225 mph. It looked like someone had poured gasoline on a campfire, and poof, up it went. Curiously, Leonhard never heard the impact. Donadeo was back at work three months after the crash, took a transfer from Miami to Atlanta in 1978 and retired in 1983. The largest recognizable pieces of wreckage were the cockpit section and the center engine intake and attached fuselage section. When they began to gather up the 132 bodies from USAir Flight 427 today, officials realized there were so many pieces that the grisly task would take days, perhaps weeks. The Sun Flying Club wasn't really a "flying" club. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 AIRBOYD 487K subscribers 284K views 13 years ago #AIRBOYD #AvGeek Video Courtesy: FAA via Lessons Learned From Transport Airplane Accidents. Forty-five years ago, when Officer Gray Leonhard of the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission began a solo night patrol in the Everglades, he was on the lookout for poachers, drug smugglers and maybe even a bullet-riddled corpse. Help., Then a big, bold female voice reverberated somewhere out of the gloom, Dont anyone light a match! A few minutes later, If you can hear my voice, come to me! 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. Three of the four cockpit crew members, two of the 10 flight attendants, and 96 of the 163 passengers were killed; 75 people survived. [6]:110 Visually, since it was nighttime and the aircraft was flying over the darkened terrain of the Everglades, no ground lights or other visual signs indicated the TriStar was slowly descending. Chapter II - OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (AVIATION PROCEEDINGS) Subchapter A - ECONOMIC REGULATIONS. Below is a list of those on board, according . Eastern Airlines Flight #401 (L1011 N310EA) crashed in the Everglades on December 29, 1972. Luis Bancroft 10/10/48 [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. Solomon Fisher 7/18/11 Only their bedroom has an air conditioner. Five hours after the crash, the welcome sounds of voices and legs sloshing through water, labored breathing and flashlight beams probing the dark broke the silence. 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. Email subscription; Email subscription; . Also in attendance was Ron Infantino, David Kaplan and the Casado family. There were 176 people aboard the state-of-the-art Lockheed L-1011, which was nicknamed the. Lloyd Irving Bearman 1/16/23 His doctor warned him not to travel alone, not with his weak heart and lungs and aching back. He was a retired aircraft Engineer with Eastern Airlines in Miami, a survivor of the December 1972 crash of the L-1011 in the Everglades, and a Navy veteran of WWII. Then, it dropped 100ft (30m), and then again flew level for two more minutes, after which it began a descent so gradual it could not be perceived by the crew. At 11:42 p.m., the first officer said, We did something to the altitude.. [16], While Eastern Air Lines publicly denied their planes were haunted, they reportedly removed all the salvaged parts from their L-1011 fleet. 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. 103 passengers and crew members died in the crash or shortly thereafter and 75 passengers/crew survived. Darrylle Becker 3/16/43 [22] Eastern considered suing for libel, based on assertions of a cover-up by Eastern executives, but Borman opted not to, feeling a lawsuit would merely provide more publicity for the book. We could also see a few other aircraft flying into the restricted airspace. They were heading his way. (Deer in south Florida are almost anemic compared to deer in other parts of the country.) In a weak voice, one of them asked, What about the alligators?, Raposa didnt hesitate: We made such a loud noise when we hit. Combined with numerous anonymous witnesses and countless tales, the rumors spread throughout the aviation community. I really do think I can gig some frogs if I had to. Photos of the 35th anniversary memorial gathering at the crash site, December 29, 2007. It crashed into the Everglades 18.7 miles northwest of the airport, eight miles north of Tamiami Trail, about 100 yards east of the L-67 canal levee. Ron Infantino woke up in a chill, heart pounding, breath erratic. Instead of landing in . The unintentional jar apparently caused the planes nose to tilt down a few degrees. Afterward, folks hope to take the old man into the Everglades, in his own airboat, if he wants. Dr. Aftabuddin Chowdhury 1/1/43 Stefan Jay Rubin 3/21/49 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. "You couldn't even say goodbye to each . Good for me! Based on Fuller's book, it emphasized the ghost sightings. [5]:4 Fifty seconds after reaching their assigned altitude, Captain Loft instructed First Officer Stockstill to put the L-1011 on autopilot. The breakup of the fuselage had freed it from its stowage and activated its inflation mechanism. However, in the years that followed, two of the pilots on that fatal flight, Bob Loft and Don Repo, would begin appearing on other Eastern Airlines flights. A dramatization of the jetliner crash into the Florida Everglades in December 1972, and the rescue of seventy-three passengers (103 died), made up primarily of recognizable TV personalities plus famed bandleader Artie Shaw in his TV-movie debut. About a year after the crash of Flight 401, she told me that one of the flight attendants who had survived the crash had come back to work at Eastern, but was assigned to the executive secretarial pool while she recovered from her physical injuries and tried to cope with her mental anguish. Bud saw bodies strapped into seats upside down in the water. 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. From his vantage point atop the levee, Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission Officer Gray Leonhard, then 24 years old, had a commanding view across the vast darkened marsh. Boom. His wife Nancy - they married when she was 15 - could always tell when it was on his mind, though. During its descent, the Boeing jet airliner was in a "nose up deck approach" which meant that it was almost next to impossible for its flight crew to see the small Cessna flying directly below it.39 The overhead position of the climbing Cessna 172 Skyhawk's cantilevered wing would have restricted Boswell and Kazy's rear view.40 Investigators believe the autopilot switched modes when the captain accidentally leaned against the yoke while turning to speak to the flight engineer, who was sitting behind and to the right of him. Two others did not want to be reminded. Refresh the page,. He has fallen backwards and his arms are spread apart. Flight 401 flew into the ground on Friday night, Dec. 29, 1972, at 13 seconds past 11:42 p.m. The death toll per the final accident report was 99. [5]:3, The flight was routine until 23:32, when the airplane began its approach into Miami International Airport. What caused Flight 401 crash? Front row: Sue Tebbs, Dottie Warnock, Beverly Raposa and Stephanie Stanich. Although there is no factual evidence to support the claim, legend has it that after the crash investigation, surviving avionics and galley equipment was salvaged from the crash site, returned to the manufacturers and overhauled to help relieve equipment shortages on Lockheed's growing production line. It looked as though the L1011 was in a shallow left turn and dragged the left wing tip in the swamp. 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. Lights in the Darkness: The crash of Eastern Air Lines flight 401 | by Admiral Cloudberg | Medium 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. Shock had taken over. Picture that in your mind. It crashed into the Everglades 18.7 miles northwest of the airport, eight miles north of Tamiami. Copyright 2017 by the author and reprinted with permission of the University Press of Florida. On a moonless night, in the beam of his head lamp, the frog eyes would glow like rubies. Hansel owned a single engine Piper Comanche 250, registered as N7510P, that held four people, including the pilot. The memories don't. A light in the Sky Loose chunks of lime rock cracked and popped under the tires as he crawled ahead. Tennessee's Music City combines country, bluegrass, rock, pop, Americana, gospel, classical, jazz, and bluesall in perfect harmonyto create one of the best places in the world to remember music's greatest performers, see today's top artists, and maybe discover the next big thing. Those words guided Leonhard as his 14-foot patrol airboat bulldozed through dense walls of water-anchored grass. "He's one of us," says John Canti, a firefighter, paramedic and outdoorsman. A pale glow lightened the sky above Miami more than 40 miles away. Eastern Flight 401: A survivor's story Before ValuJet there was Eastern Flight 401. A trio of newly minted Rolls-Royce turbofan jet engines made a rumble that could barely be heard by the 163 passengers and 13 crew members seated inside the spacious cabin and reconfigured cockpit. 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. Why dont we sing to help warm ourselves up? she suggested. 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. Robert A. Loft, then 55 years old, with 30 years experience and 29,700 flight hours under his belt, attempted to lower the landing gear. I'm pretty sure that Tom Roche and Bob Crews were two of the "lucky" ones that got aboard, but I couldn't swear to it now. 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. 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. Ron closed his eyes, crossed his arms comfortably over his chest and let the gentle engine thrum lull him into a light sleep. All of us realized that many people had lost their lives and that there was a bit of mystery surrounding why a relatively new L1011 crashed into the Everglades on a clear, dark night. [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". The last thing Raposa remembered seeing before she was knocked out was a waterfall of colors. His book was later adapted into a made-for-tv movie starring William Shatner as an NTSB investigator. Two survivors died later as a result of . Marquis, Robert | As I sit writing this 34 years later in December 2006, I can still visualize the events of that night just as if they had occurred yesterday. The flight attendant, Mercy Ruiz, was badly injured, with a broken pelvis and a severe laceration on her forehead. To those who survived, the scene must have had an eerie end-of-the-earth feel, with wisps of gray mist swirling, a baby wailing, the groans from the injured and the dying. He put his arm around her, and they began slogging through knee-deep muck and water. Silvia Crespo 11/30/32 Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 left New York's JFK airport, bound for Miami International Airport, on December 29, 1972. Bill Elliott had a much more eventful night. Richard J. Schulleri 1/3/43 Title 14 - Aeronautics and Space. Pick up your airboat and meet me at the Twenty Mile Boat Ramp. The Ghost of Flight 401 TV Movie 1978 1 h 40 m IMDb RATING 5.7 /10 617 YOUR RATING Rate Drama Mystery Thriller An aircraft crashes in the Florida Everglades, killing 103 passengers. Raposa was struggling for ideas to keep her group occupied. His friend, of course, envisioned a Piper Cub or something small going down in a summer thunderstorm, not a state-of-the-art L-1011 carrying 200 passengers on a perfect winter night. Muriel J. Ames 11/30/40 itinerary data, aircraft/flight or vessel/ voyage data, and personal identification information, including name, gender, date of birth, citizenship, travel document data, and status onboard the vessel or aircraft. Three women on the jetliner's tail, about 20 feet above the water, begged Bud to save them. Mildred Katz 1/8/34 Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 401: This was a Scandinavian Airlines System commercial flight that crashed into the North Sea on August 13, 1951, killing all 22 people on board. Once you become stuck in the glades, you could be there for a long, long, time.. Flight 401 Survivors, Years After the Crash and Memorial Efforts. [5]:4 For the next 80 seconds, the airplane maintained level flight. She dug down into the black muck, cupped a double handful to her face and smeared it all over the affected areas. [8], In all, 75 survived the crash67 of the 163 passengers and eight of the 10 flight attendants. . The aircraft was destroyed. The flying safety was even more compromised because it was slightly hazy which reduced visibility to seven to ten miles over the Everglades. 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. This guy had been hurled from the plane like a human cannonball. "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. He was more than 25 miles away. Less than three hours later the aircraft reached Florida. At 11:32 p.m., Capt. He wants to show them how to gig frogs. of 401 King Street, London, W6 9NJ, United Kingdom (+612 9691 0176). No complete cross-section of the passenger cabin remained, and both the port wing and tailplane were demolished to fragments. Of Florida Press of Florida was 99 flight crew was preoccupied with and a laceration. Airplane began its approach into Miami International Airport the restricted airspace approach into Miami Airport. 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And Stephanie Stanich largest recognizable pieces of wreckage were the cockpit, all preoccupied with and Stanich. Last thing Raposa remembered seeing before she was knocked out was a short-haul flight to Miami in own...
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