Then zip, the light was out.". The bent, white-haired man in the mirror has a bad heart and breathes from an oxygen machine, hasn't been frogging in a coon's age, and hasn't been in his airboat since, well, he can't remember. Those pilots probably didn't even know there was a NOTAM prohibiting flight immediately above the crash site. The television movie The Ghost of Flight 401, which was broadcast on NBC during February 1978, offers a fictionalized depiction of the crash and alleged ghost sightings. Unfortunately it did so as a scattered wreck over the marshes of Florida's Everglades. He was left wearing nothing but a necktie and belt pushed up under his armpits. [11] The swamp absorbed much of the energy of the crash, lessening the impact on the aircraft. The most accurate account of the crash of Flight 401 was authored by a journalist from the Miami Herald, Rob Elder. The three major sections of the fuselagethe most intact of which was the tail assemblylay in the mud towards the end of the wreckage trail. Photos: AL DIAZ | MIAMI HERALD. I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. [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. theYear = theYear + 1900 Above based on an article by Luisa Yanez, Copyright December 2007 The Miami Herald Media Company. She screamed for help, but no one answered, and she wondered whether she was the only one left alive. To me, it seemed as though the wreckage, still covered in Everglades muck and debris, was part of the humanity that had suffered because of that crash. The strange tales of the ghostly airmen of Flight of 401 circulated in the airline community. The other 101 people on Eastern Airlines Flight 401 died quite horribly -- 98 in the Everglades where the airplane crashed, three later in hospitals. Front row: Sue Tebbs, Dottie Warnock, Beverly Raposa and Stephanie Stanich. Back row: Pat Ghyssels, Trudy Smith, Adrianne Hamilton and Mercy Ruiz. Around 4:30 a.m., Leonhard waded up to a willow heada thick tangle of weepy trees with brittle limbs draping into the water. While the Flight Crew tried to troubleshoot the faulty indicator, the steering yoke was accidentally nudged, causing a function of the autopilot to begin a . On the crews instrument panel, one of the three green lights confirming the planes landing gear is down and locked . 35 Years after an Eastern Air Lines jet crashed into the Everglades, a rescuer looks back. I mean, I was a single person with no family. On the clear, moonless night of Dec. 29, 1972, a young rookie game warden sat behind the steering wheel of a light-green 1969 Plymouth four-door sedan with a blue gumball emergency light mounted on the rooftop. Still, $50,000 will have to be raised in order to erect the memorial. Above Left - Ron Infantino stands among survivors. She left Eastern and worked in the travel agency industry. The bronze plaques are being donated as well as the granite base. ----------------------------------------------. [6]:108 The most common injuries were fractures of ribs, spines, pelvises, and lower extremities. But Infantino couldnt follow the voice. 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. A glance out a window, after all, would have shown nothing but the black Everglades below. After retiring he volunteered with the Civil Air Patrol, his last rank was Lt. 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. "Welcome to Miami," the pilot announced during the descent at 11:30. 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. Last edited on 22 February 2023, at 02:18, intentional infliction of emotional distress, "Airliner carrying 167 crashes in Everglades", "Giant jetliner goes down in 'gator infested swamp", "Eastern Airlines, Inc. L-1011, N310EA, Miami, Florida, December 29, 1972", "Robert "Bud" Marquis's Obituary on San Francisco Chronicle", "PART TWO: THE CRASH "It felt like a wild rollercoaster ride", "A Lesson on the Importance of Crew Resource Management", "Lessons Learnt from the Crash of Eastern 401", Eastern Flight 401 The Story of the Crash, The Crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401-Epilogue, ASN Aircraft accident Lockheed L-1011-385-1 TriStar 1 N310EA Everglades, FL, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eastern_Air_Lines_Flight_401&oldid=1140849286, This page was last edited on 22 February 2023, at 02:18. She put in 11 more years with United before retiring. Sadly, she did not survive. Repo was evacuated to a hospital, but later died from his injuries. This quote, which was obviously a joke, was presented in the Ghost of Flight 401 as fact. Ernest F. Bloodgood 4/1/16 With an injured back and a cut foot, she slogged through sucking muck, shredded saw grass and plane wreckage. Muriel J. Ames 11/30/40 The petite brunette stood just 5 feet 1.5 inches tall. I was coping with someone who was disabled. Refresh the page, check Medium 's site. His flight crew included First Officer . The wheels were down, locked in position for landing, but the pilot wasn't sure about the forward wheel under the plane's nose. Evelyn De Salazar 11/6/08 "I still love to fly; I get on planes and fall asleep like a baby," jokes Raposa. [5]:30[6]:99 The aircraft was fleet number 310, and the 10th TriStar delivered to the carrier. Solomon Fisher 7/18/11 Almost 40 years ago, Eastern Airlines flight 401 crashed. Braulio Corretjer 1/5/28 And now, no one was flying the plane. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401, crashed on 29 December 1972. It didnt sound like they were in midair anymore. 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. Raposa did not have any blankets. Now 41, he lives alone in Titusville, on a disability pension. They even made cheesy movie about it. They died. There were 75 survivors. His 1977 book, Crash, tells the story of many of the passengers, the investigation and aftermath of Flight 401. Refresh the page,. I don't know if she ever did return to flying; my mother never told me one way or the other. A Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 298 passengers crashed in eastern Ukraine on Thursday while traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. Standing by the open door, he carefully scanned the unbroken horizon with a pair of wide-lens binoculars. Preoccupation with a malfunction of the nose landing gear position indicating system distracted the crew's attention from the instruments and allowed the descent to go unnoticed. About Flight 401 | Feel the warmth going down.. Jana Dedek 6/24/53 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. The apparitions of Loft and Repo were invariably described as being extremely lifelike. Funny how people scream for God at a time like that. Grand Canyon Disaster + . The four-month-old L-1011 TriStar jet crashed into the Florida Everglades on December 29, 1972 at 11:42 p.m., caused . 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. Photography courtesy Ron Infantino, A few minutes later Leonhards radio crackled. On his 1979 album Three Hearts, musician Bob Welch also recorded a song titled "The Ghost of Flight 401". Theyll find us eventually., Raposa had the survivors scoot together, sitting back to back so they could stay warm. It was approximately 15 to 20 miles west-southwest of the Opa locka Airport and it was pretty difficult to find at first. Raposas survivors became upset. Varujan Eskihanci 9/7/25 At the time, the decision to change seats carried no meaning. Silvia Crespo 11/30/32 "It needs new points and plugs, maybe a new set of rings. Lilly leaned back in her seat, resting quietly. Moe Lustig 7/16/23 Christina (center) was two-months-old at the time of the crash, making her the youngest survivor . 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. Though Leonhard was only a rookie, the sight of death was not unfamiliar to him. 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. The Ghost of Flight 401 (TV 1978) - YouTube | There would be plenty of time for body recovery, Leonhard said. 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. Im sure they all ran away. She spit the words out quickly, doing her best to sound convincing. In the narrow beam of his head lamp he now saw enormous strips of torn metal. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew blew the roof of the house across the street through his front windows. Jerrold Solomon, who had walked away from the crash unscathed, flew home to New York three days later. Then he tells the story the best he can. Stick with the book. In fact we all were troubled because, by the luck of the draw or fate, some passengers survived while others in similar situations who looked as though they should have survived, were killed. "They gave us six months off and then we were expected to be 'over it. The hours passed, and still no rescuers had arrived. That was a godsend because I got to meet and befriend many of the club members, most of whom were successful small business owners enjoying the fruits of their labor by owning and operating private aircraft (something that is almost cost prohibitive in today's aviation, regulatory and business environments). document.write(theYear) Flamingo Magazine, 8 Black Floridians Who Are an Absolute Force in Their Industry, Calling All Readers (and Writers): 13 Favorite Florida Indie Bookstores, The Wackiest Florida News Stories of 2022. How about we start with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?. The flight had 163 passengers and 13 crew members. On Dec. 29, 1972, Eastern Flight 401 from New York to Miami took off from JFK Airport at 9:20 pm. Now take a sip. After the wreckage is removed, salvageable parts from the plane are used to repair other aircraft. He had promised to show a slight acquaintance, Ray Dickinson, how to gig frogs. One retired Eastern L-1011 pilot I spoke to said that he had a second officer flying with him on a B-727 for several months in the Spring of '73 who was a self-ordained preacher. Tower, this is Eastern 401, it looks like were going to have to circle. You know what would make Bud Marquis happy? [15][16] Gossip regarding the sighting of the spirits of Don Repo and Bob Loft spread throughout Eastern Air Lines to the extent that Eastern's management warned employees that they could be dismissed if caught spreading ghost stories. My log book shows that our flight lasted 1.2 hours. 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