Onboard the aircraft, all members of the Flight Crew worked solely on their problem. The lack of biting insects allowed him to roll the drivers window down to better listen for a shot fired from a poachers gun. Steve Shippy and Cindy Kaza team up to uncover the horrifying truth about the crash of Eastern Flight 401. 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. With the $250,000 legal settlement, Micale thought he had it made. Pilots of Eastern Airline Flight 401 Don Repo and Bob Loft. 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. ----------------------------------------------. Captain Bob Loft survived the impact but was so severely injured that he died during the rescue efforts. Minor, Miami Herald) Below, Right, Mrs Leona Levine on March 15, 1973 (Joe Elbert, Miami Herald). The Department of Technology, Management and Budget supports the business operations of the state agencies through a variety of services including Information Technology project delivery, maintenance and support. Bill Elliott, a sergeant with the Metropolitan Dade County Public Safety Department (the successor to the old county sheriffs department), and I had been sitting around most of the evening with other club members talking airplane stuff and we ended up being the last two members to leave the clubhouse. Bud no longer worked as a game warden - his day job was laying carpet. But one other very important thing we learn from Serling's history of Eastern Air Lines is that the central claim of Fuller's book that ghosts accompanied the salvaged pieces of Flight 401 installed in other planes is false. Gas gangrene attacked his lungs. However, we had one advantage that members of the general public didn't have - we had access to airplanes. 200110850. 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. Leonhard discovered a hole in the bushes, roughly circular in shape and a little larger than the mouth of a culvert pipe. The area I was about to go in was uncharted territory for me, Leonhard said. 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. During a rare moment of calm after the rescue helicopter had departed for Miami, he heard the faint tune of a Christmas carol. Rose Marie Cillis - Mark Paternoster May 15, 2021, 11:07 pm. Let them not be forgotten. Flight Nurse jobs I saw a husband who couldn't find his wife or his children." Luis Bancroft 10/10/48 The idea that a large, boxy, relatively delicate component like an oven or an elevator could have survived undamaged is immediately ludicrous at face value. Unborn son of Rochelle and Stefan Rubin Stefan Jay Rubin 3/21/49 The most accurate account of the crash of Flight 401 was authored by a journalist from the Miami Herald, Rob Elder. 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. Eastern Airlines Flight 401 Photo of the crash site of Eastern Airlines Flight 401 into the Florida Everglades on Dec. 29, 1972. Viewers who enter The Ghost of Flight 401 looking for shivers and thrills might be disappointed. The ultimate "yes sir, no sir" man, Bud shuffles reluctantly onto the porch, blinking furiously in the sunlight, wondering what's up. 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. Repo, Donald Louis | His last prospect, Teresa Trapnell, listened to his pitch, didn't buy, but told her insurance executive husband, Bob, what a swell salesman she had met that day. However, by the time the pilots realized their situation it was too late; flight 401 impacted the Everglades in a left turn and began to disintegrate, the wreckage being strewn over an area of 50 square kilometers. It was closing in on midnight on Dec. 29, 1972. The sightings apparently stopped once this was all done. Surely, pilots and air crew would never make up such stories, would they? Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute | Whenever either Loft or Repo make an appearance, they tend to be life-like and look like just another person. The left wingtip hit first. Thirty minutes later, Leonhard and his passengers suddenly burst out of a thick patch of 12-foot-high sawgrass. Even at 78, Marquis is an old-fashioned country boy. Varujan Eskihanci 9/7/25 The strange tales of the ghostly airmen of Flight of 401 circulated in the airline community. "I could empathize with what Ron was going through. "It's 100 degrees in the house, honey," Nancy says, joining him on the porch. I have lost contact with Bill Elliott. Folks from South Florida's sporting community, mostly hunters, fishers and airboaters, heard, many for the first time, about Bud. She was so worried about his appearance that she summoned an attendant to investigate further. The haunted aircraft components that harbored the flight engineer's benevolent ghost entered the hall of fame of 1970s urban legends. One day, late in 1973, I got a phone call from James telling me to come over to his house; he had something for me. "This is way in the past.". Eastern Air Lines Flight 401, crashed on 29 December 1972. I saw young couples broken up. That's why Hansel wanted me to fly; it would be my license that got revoked if we got caught, not his! An Eastern flight attendant posted this scan (below) from his L-1011 FA manual. 490-492. It was only then that it had hit him. Le dimanche 26 janvier 2020, l'hlicoptre Sikorsky S-76 de Kobe Bryant s'crase prs de Calabasas, en Californie (tats-Unis).Les neuf occupants de l'appareil sont tus sur le coup. The explanation soon became clear: the apparitions were always on aircraft that contained equipment salvaged from Flight 401. Surprisingly, he found that there were large pieces of wreckage still out in the glades. We could also see a few other aircraft flying into the restricted airspace. He'd launch his airboat at the Miccosukee Indian Reservation on the Tamiami Trail and race north into the river of grass. In the hospital, a nine-inch steel rod was inserted into the bone. Were still at 2,000, right? the first officer asked. Jonathan Adam Kaminer 8/22/70 New York: Berkeley Publishing Corp, 1976. Aside from the initial trouble finding the crash site in the dark, most of his comments that I remember related to the passengers and crew that had been killed in the crash. Fortunately, Bud was an expert. Before a bad back forced an early retirement, Bud laid carpet, grew avocados and worked as a game warden in the Everglades. No roar of unmuffled high-horsepower engines. The flying club was also a de facto social club with members having the common bonds of flying and aircraft ownership. The Senior Architecture Analyst provides architecture . In its first three hours aloft, Flight 401 had been uneventful. Tower, this is Eastern 401, it looks like were going to have to circle. I don't see any reason to worry about what fate has brought. The man vanished before their very eyes and those of several other passengers. Hey, whats happening here? the captain shouted. . Talk to anyone about ghosts or hauntings, and invariably images of abandoned old houses with dilapidated features or conditions will spring to mind. He had scarcely recovered from a bad auto accident when 401 crashed. What was so strange was that it was there in the first place. No thanks She had nothing. 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. Work toward erecting a permanent memorial for Flight 401 at the Curtiss Mansion in Miami continues under the leadership of survivors Ron Infantino and Beverly Raposa. Rons eyes blinked open upon hearing the engines roar to full power. Worse, none of them noticed that the jet had been steadily losing altitude. More than a single person has often been present at the time, whether by accident or design. Ever the good Catholic, she crossed herself in the dark and silently prayed, Oh God, please let that be true.. 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. He retired from the Metro-Dade police department and moved to Brooksville, Florida many years ago. Reigler, P. "Lessons Learnt from the Crash of Eastern 401." Flight 401 crash-landed into the Everglades at over 200 mph. Instead, he would witness the first jumbo jet crash in U.S. history. A glance out a window, after all, would have shown nothing but the black Everglades below. "The temperature is in the low 70s, and it's beautiful out there tonight." 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 (99 initial crash fatalities, two died shortly afterward). The crew members, however, were focused on fixing the wheel-light indicator. 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. Ann Connell, Barry Connell, 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. In fact, do a Google image search for "flight 401 wreckage" and you'll see at a glance that the aircraft was completely destroyed. Jesus Lorenzo 4/26/37 The plane descended out of the sky as pilots were distracted over a landing gear warning light. Raposa popped the release buckle and fell into the marsh, landing on her hands and knees. Pick up your airboat and meet me at the Twenty Mile Boat Ramp. Well launch from there.. 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. The cruel facts of this disaster only reinforced my observation that you won't die unless it's your time to die. His required surgery. Diane Carol Greenblatt 5/5/52 Exactly fifty years ago, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 mysteriously . Raposa smiled cheerfully while she collected empty drink cups and dishes from the passengers. Loft and Repo have never been reported on the same flight, by the same witnesses, at the same time. at 12:30 pm, December 30th) How about we start with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?. Eastern Airlines Flight 401 on the tarmac before takeoff on Dec. 29, 1972; Photography by Jon Proctor, I called out to a Coast Guardsman who was working nearby to come and help me out, Leonhard said. He was mentioned in a book, The Crash of Flight 401, later made into a B-movie, and helped a Hollywood writer with the awful Ghosts of Flight 401, about commercial jets haunted by the dead pilots. This guy had been hurled from the plane like a human cannonball. Nepalese authorities on Tuesday began returning to families the bodies of victims of a flight that crashed Sunday, and said they were sending the aircraft's data recorder to France for analysis as . The movie is fairly innacurate and over-dramitized. About Flight 401 | At first, witnesses reported nothing more severe than standing in the aisles, occupying the galley and cockpit. Feel the warmth going down.. Aviation Safety Network. Above (L to R): Martin Siminerio in hospital, two file photos from the Miami Herald of survivor Xiomara Casada at Palmetto General with her infant, Christina, in a Miami hospital. 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. Dunning, B. An orange glow suddenly lit up out in the marsh toward Miami, he recalled. He had lost contact with his frogging helper, Ray, too. Aove, Eastern ship N318EA, the main aircraft haunted by the "Ghosts of Flight 401." Trudy Smith - Douglas November 6, 2021, 12:23 pm. Rob and Sarah Elder, 20 Aug. 2010. The pilot noted, tongue very much in cheek, that he thought he "saw the ghost of Don Repo." When word of this reached the only engineer on board of that particular flight, he denied ever fixing the oven and went as far to say that it didnt even need fixing in the first place. A pale glow lightened the sky above Miami more than 40 miles away. May Albury, Verena Bieri, Carl Bolufe, Rigoberto Bolufe, Sandra Burt, Gustavo Cassado, Mrs Xeimara Casado, Miss Christina Casado, Ann Connell, Barry Connell, 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, Allen Weiss, Lorenzo Zetlin. He lost interest in his job and just wanted to be alone. Her face burned from the jet fuel. 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. Raposa, Beverly | I dont know this for sure, but I seem to remember he was the last survivor rescued.. Another link between the sightings and the aircraft involved could be the corporate decision to use undamaged parts of Flight 401 on other jets in the fleet. His wife Nancy - they married when she was 15 - could always tell when it was on his mind, though. Robert L. Marquis - "Bud" to friends - wanted to eat frogs' legs. He shut down the engine again to listen. Beverly Raposa doesn't mind flying. '," she says now. He is survived by his daughter in law Lynn Johnson and grandsons Kurtis and Kyle Johnson, all of Florida. 21 Mar 2017. She worked only briefly as a flight attendant after the crash. You know what would make Bud Marquis happy? It looked like a piece of the wreckage, or something, had been propelled on a near horizontal trajectory, traveling just a foot or two above the waters surface, and rocketed into the willows with tremendous force., Bent at the waist, the two men waded into the hole, following a ragged debris trail of damaged vegetation. Picture that in your mind. Photo credit: Don Boyd of Sun Bird Photos. His hunting escapades on his air boat meant that he was very familiar with the area where Flight 401 crashed in the Everglades. 1972 was drawing to a close when a routine flight from JFK, New York to Miami departed at 9:20 p.m. with 30-year veteran pilot Captain Bob Loft at the controls. It infamously crashed in Florida's Everglades swamp just before midnight, killing 101 of the 176 people on board. Were not going to leave you.. 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. James Yandolino 3/7/52 Two days later, Lilly Infantino was found trapped beneath one of the wings. Sharon Norene Gatti 3/2/48 Donald Stanley Casadona 7/16/38 Eastern used the Bowmar/Calrod brand. Old and sick now, he lives in near poverty on the edge of the Everglades. Top Left: The girls of Flight 401. 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. Retired Air Force Col. Frank Bormana former astronaut, vice president of Eastern Airlines and now a first respondercame to escort her into a helicopter hovering at ground level a short distance away. One of the flight attendants happened to glance at the window of an oven in the galley, and saw the face of a man looking back at her! Web. Seventy-five miraculously survived. Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute. There was just one problem: Bob Loft had been dead for months. 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). The following is a list of survivors and victims of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401. Cancel at any time: Anyway, the statute of limitations has long since passed. Then a sudden jolt rattled the aircraft. They were all the pieces that had been salvaged from Flight 401, including the oven and elevator, but many other pieces as well. Two tours in Southeast Asia had hardened him. Each year on December 29th, I spend a little time thinking about that silhouetted L1011 heading west over Opa locka Airport. The guy laughed and said "Scary. Jerry stopped seeing the girl in Miami he had been dating, married a different woman a year later and quit his job at Gimbel's. 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