The reports were given by experienced and trustworthy pilots and crew. 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. Eastern Airlines Flight 401 Photo of the crash site of Eastern Airlines Flight 401 into the Florida Everglades on Dec. 29, 1972. Flight 401 - First Response | We went deeper and deeper, until wed gone about 50 yards. The Senior Architecture Analyst provides architecture . Please dont leave me! Infantino yelled. He had scarcely recovered from a bad auto accident when 401 crashed. His left knee was dislocated, wrenched sideways at a vicious right angle. Anne Ponte 1/7/16 Later that afternoon or evening, Bill Elliott came back to the clubhouse where we were all waiting for him so he could let us know what he did and saw. ", This pilot added, however, that he "flew 318 several times in the late 80s and never saw any unnatural apparitions - some weird looking people, but no ghosts. 40 were killed on United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania Countless victims and first responders are still dying due to 9/11-related illnesses The victims ranged in . 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. An account of the paranormal happenings even appeared in a 1974 issue of the US Flight Safety Foundation newsletter. A Coast Guard helicopter flew toward them, sweeping the marsh with a bright searchlight, and then turned away. Source: FAA. The pilot Bob Loft and the flight engineer Don Repo were two of the 101 people who perished in the air crash. Pin. AlanNachmias 5/16/50 At first, the VP just assumed that this was the Captain of the flight he was on. That alone adds credibility to their accounts. 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. | They were all the pieces that had been salvaged from Flight 401, including the oven and elevator, but many other pieces as well. To this day, more than four decades later, the survivors mark each December 29, and some still gather at the crash site to remember those who were lost. Top Left: The girls of Flight 401. As in other reports, the flight attendant selected Repos photo from a choice offered to her. Incredibly, we found a man sitting alone on a small tussock. The sightings apparently stopped once this was all done. Captain Bob Loft was also seen on a few occasions, but never as often as Repo. Eventually, the investigations were concluded and most, but not all, of the wreckage was removed or salvaged from the Everglades. Less than three hours later the aircraft . Meanwhile, 1,100 miles to the north, an Eastern Airlines jumbo jet lifted off in bitter cold weather from New Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport. Frightened, they called the flight deck, and the flight engineer came down to have a look for himself. Darrylle Becker 3/16/43 Bud waved his light until the helicopter took notice. It was a solemn and sobering return flight. He wanted me to be the pilot (no objection from me) and he would occupy the co-pilot's seat. 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. Huge gouts of mud and aquatic vegetation shot high into the air as 185 tons of screeching metal ripped into the muck and grass. Later on during the flight though, problems with the engine all stemmed from a fire that no-one knew about. This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Flight 401. Newsroom Ready: Canadian officials, families honour Flight PS752 victims on third anniversary Grieving friends and relatives of victims killed during the downing of Flight PS752 called for justice and accountability from the Iranian regime as Canadians from coast to coast marked three years since the country's military shot the plane down. That was the last transmission before the left wing sliced into the Everglades at 225 mph. Starring. Continue Reading: Survivor Stories and Memorial Efforts. Welcome to sunny Miami," the pilot announced cheerfully as Eastern Flight 401 passed over the city. Oddly, he felt no pain. The next morning, as was my usual Saturday routine, I drove to the Sun Flying club timing it to arrive at approximately 11am. "Hey, what's happening here?" I have chosen to list him as a survivor as he was alive at the time of the NTSB hearings. The flight, destined for Kyiv, Ukraine, took off on Jan. 8, 2020 from Tehran . Not a single usable part was salvaged from the wreckage, and not a single component that crashed with Flight 401 was ever installed in another aircraft. Obviously, he was home trying to get some rest at noon on Saturday, but he eventually came out to the clubhouse late in the afternoon or early evening. Follow my voice. Within minutes, six to eight passengers crawled out of the dark and were seated on the scrap of flooring, shivering, afraid and in shock. They go deep into the heart of the Florida Everglades to contact the victims' ghosts and find out what really happened that fateful night in 1972. It is now known that "Mrs. McAvoy" was Donna Smith, Thomas McAvoy's traveling companion. Ever the good Catholic, she crossed herself in the dark and silently prayed, Oh God, please let that be true.. At no time would officials of the company allow or condone any attempt to investigate the reports. Stewardess Beverly Raposa, then 25, noticed nothing unusual as the flight passed high over the Atlantic Ocean en route to Miami International Airport. That doesn't haunt me either . He had a broken arm and some cuts and scrapes, but no other visible wounds, Leonhard said. Outside of the aircraft, there wasnt much in the way of visual cues and city lights were non-existent. He usually wrote UFO books, and was best known for The Interrupted Journey about the Betty and Barney Hill case. Genres. The last thing Raposa remembered seeing before she was knocked out was a waterfall of colors. "I was wounded in World War II when the ship I was on was hit by a kamikaze. North Miami Beach, FL (PRWEB) December 7, 2007 On Monday, December 3, 2007 survivors of Eastern Airlines Flight 401, gathered at the Metro-Dade Firefighters Memorial Building, in Doral (Miami), Florida, to remember the 101 passengers and crew, who lost their lives in the fateful crash of a Lockheed L-1011, jumbo-jet in the Florida Everglades, December 29, 1972, while en route from New York to . My log book shows that our flight lasted 1.2 hours. 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. "It has always bothered me that there was nothing done with 401," said Dummett, a retired Miami-Dade firefighter and founder of the American Airboat Search and Rescue Association, now living in Lake Wales. The haunted aircraft components that harbored the flight engineer's benevolent ghost entered the hall of fame of 1970s urban legends. The aircraft disintegrated, scattering wreckage over an area approximately 1600 feet long by 300 feet wide (NTSB). Bud wants to. Caridad Fermina Hernandez 10/11/32 Julia Lustig 5/30/25 Solomon Fisher 7/18/11 Once you become stuck in the glades, you could be there for a long, long, time.. Well launch from there.. 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. It wouldn't take much.". In fact, do a Google image search for "flight 401 wreckage" and you'll see at a glance that the aircraft was completely destroyed. It turned out to be anything other than a routine Saturday! . Fuller, J. The wreckage was discovered Wednesday night in the Everglades four days afte Helen Marie Chestnut 4/17/39 She left Eastern and worked in the travel agency industry. Fear of Landing. Picture that in your mind. In addition to commemorating Flight 401, the creative talent behind the exhibit is seeking to help survivors raise the funding needed to create a permanent large-scale memorial to Flight 401's victims and survivors in the City of Miami Springs, once home to a thriving Eastern Air Lines community. Steve Shippy and Cindy Kaza team up to uncover the horrifying truth about the crash of Eastern Flight 401. Roberto Palma 6/10/27 . In short, it was a great place to eat (we used to have outstanding club Bar-B-Q, talk airplanes, perform minor maintenance and fly planes. Miguel Junco, being carried into a hospital by an attendant. When the Coast Guard helicopter attempted a landing, the prop wash threw hunks of debris dangerously around. Skeptoid Podcast It's a swamp, a flat swamp. Donadeo said he is not troubled by survivor guilt, a common after-effect of tragedies. Theyre not going to find us, an anxious passenger whispered. They didn't find each other until morning. Eastern used the Bowmar/Calrod brand. Raposas survivors became upset. "I couldn't understand why I lived and they didn't. People observe a candlelight vigil in memory of victims of a plane crash in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, Jan. 16, 2023. theYear = now.getYear() The jet bounced once, then hit again. The crew did finally notice the situation taking place, but nowhere near in time to prevent the inevitable. Below is a list of those on board, according to family, friends or officials . Repo was dead. I saw people burned in agony. It became his navigation beacon. Off I went to check with the FAA Flight Service Station. Above: A piece of wreckage from Flight 401 still visible in the Everglades. He was born in Pittsburgh, PA and was a 26 year resident of Christmas, FL. 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. He cranked up the engine and moved toward the sound. Leonhard, Raposa, and Infantino never connected during the rescue operation, except for one tenuous bond that drew them together in spirit: the sound of a distant Christmas carol drifting throughthe night. 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. "He's one of us," says John Canti, a firefighter, paramedic and outdoorsman. Bud no longer worked as a game warden - his day job was laying carpet. On Thursday the victims of that crash were honored with a memorial in Miami Springs. He found one, selling $500 vacuum cleaners in Tampa. The breakdown and subsequent emergency landing did in fact happen, and was covered in a tongue-in-cheek brief in the journal of the Flight Safety Foundation. It is almost a physical impossibility to find and remove every scrap of wreckage from a swamp. In the hospital, a nine-inch steel rod was inserted into the bone. The flight crew of 401. In the 1970s, searching for images on Google did not yet exist. Bill and I left for our respective homes after securing the clubhouse. Albert J. Stockstill 6/9/33 He shut down the engine again to listen. Whenever either Loft or Repo make an appearance, they tend to be life-like and look like just another person. The Lockheed L-1011-1 Tristar was the latest generation of wide-body commercial aircraft and had been put into service only four months before. The majority of this equipment was fitted into Eastern's L-1011 N318EA while it was being assembled in Palmdale. Perhaps that may not have made much difference. Eight minutes earlier, 401 had been descending on its landing approach after an uneventful flight from New York. But we knew our job was to rescue the survivors first. Flashlights became part of the standard equipment; flight attendants now have shoulder harnesses whether their seats face forward or backward; the acoustic alerts given to pilots to advise them of changes to the autopilot settings were dramatically improved; and the groundwork was laid for what later became the science of Cockpit Resource Management, which aims to minimize human error by codifying communication, leadership, and decision making in the cockpit. The night was a balmy 72 degrees, the mosquitoes surprisingly sparse. Sure enough, once arrived in Mexico City, it was discovered that one of the three engines was damaged and would have to be replaced. One time, a working flight attendant insisted that she saw an engineer working to repair an oven. Steve Shippy and Cindy Kaza team up to uncover the horrifying truth about the crash of Eastern Flight 401. They go deep into the heart of the Florida Everglades to contact the victims' ghosts and find out what really happened that fateful night in 1972. It was rare for commercial airliners to fly westbound directly overhead Opa locka Airport at such a relatively low altitude. Santiago Flight 513: A Fictional Time Warp. Flight 401 may refer to: Iberia Airlines Flight 401, crashed on 5 May 1965. Before a bad back forced an early retirement, Bud laid carpet, grew avocados and worked as a game warden in the Everglades. Edward graduated from Seymour High in 1947. We consider them significant. The unexpected facts behind this famous ghost story from the 1970s. In the end, it appears that the source of the stories was an article in an issue of the Flight Safety Foundation. Interment will follow at 2pm at Florida National Cemetery. Those pilots probably didn't even know there was a NOTAM prohibiting flight immediately above the crash site. 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. Angelo Donadeo, Patricia R Georgia, Adrianne Ann Hamilton, Jennifer Larsen, Thomas Mulcahy, Mercedes V Ruiz, Beverly Jean Raposa, Trudy J Smith, Sue F. Tibbs, Sharon R Transue, Dorothy M Warnock. She was whipped. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 5 | The appearance of the dead flight engineer was confirmed by the flight engineer. I vaguely remember that we ended up taking a total of five people on that flight. Like a lot of other aspiring commercial pilots, I had had a checkered aviation career, having worked, among other things, as the full-time chief pilot of a regional oil company while attending college. On December 29, 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing over 100 souls. At the time, the decision to change seats carried no meaning. Abover right - Over 100 airboats participated in the evenet. Books and TV movies frightened audiences, and this ghost story that had it all became a permanent fixture in great American tales of the paranormal. At 11:42 p.m., the first officer said, We did something to the altitude.. Were still at 2,000, right? the first officer asked. I don't see any reason to worry about what fate has brought. The death toll at the time was the highest of any one-plane accident in U.S. civil aviation history. Kobe Bryant, 41 ans, un des plus clbres joueurs de basket-ball de la NBA, avait pris sa retraite en 2016.. bord de l'hlicoptre se trouvaient galement sa fille de treize ans, Gianna, qui jouait . In the narrow beam of his head lamp he now saw enormous strips of torn metal. She had been turned down by Trans World Airlines for a job because she was a half inch under the 5-foot-2-inch minimum height required for all stewardesses. The jet actually began losing altitude, so gradually that no one noticed until the very end. I lost my boot., Well, Raposa said, Ill help you find it., Thats okay, Raposa said. However, we had one advantage that members of the general public didn't have - we had access to airplanes. Introducing the Keys Quirkiest Resident. Barbara Ann Saal. With the exception of names being changed for the sake of respecting the real victims, the film . The Sun Flying Club wasn't really a "flying" club. Bob Loft appeared before the Vice President of Eastern Air Lines in First Class. They never met again, never talked again, and never will: Ray died years ago in Arcadia. They were hospitalized for two months. Flight 401 was a short-haul flight to Miami. Web. 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