Instead, it took 35 years. 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. Captain Loft was found during the autopsy to have an undetected brain tumor in an area that controls vision. Clutching his walking stick, Bud shuffles past a mango tree into the backyard. Less than three hours later the aircraft reached Florida. He felt a sense of mission as he looked out into the black swamp, knowing that his job required cunning and stealth. Inside the planes cockpit, the crew was trying to slide in a replacement bulb, a roughly two-square-inch all-in-one light assembly unit covered by a translucent green plastic lens, valued at $12 altogether. Donadeo, an Eastern Airlines technical specialist on L-1011 aircraft, was returning to Miami that night from a trouble- shooting assignment in New York. [4] It was also the first hull loss and fatal crash of a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar. 35 Years after an Eastern Air Lines jet crashed into the Everglades, a rescuer looks back. Eddie Albert featured as "Dunn", a fictionalized version of Captain Robert Loft. Frank Borman And Flight 401 #2505745 BY NIKV69 - Fri Feb 20, 2004 11:17 am Being a child from an Eastern Air Lines family I am shocked that my father never told me that Frank Borman who at the time was a new VP of EAL rushed to the scene of the crash of flight 401 in the Everglades in December of 72'. More than a quarter mile long, the cone-shaped debris field was filled with an apocalyptic jumble of human carnage, personal belongings and aircraft wreckage. The flying safety was even more compromised because it was slightly hazy which reduced visibility to seven to ten miles over the Everglades. The Ghost of Flight 401 (TV Movie 1978) - IMDb | Ex-FBI agent: I saw angels at Flight 93 site. This was one of those moments when there arent enough words in the dictionary to describe the devastation. Raposa sensed a different tone in the engines. The flight was under the command of Captain Robert Loft, 55, a veteran Eastern Airline plot. [25] A television movie of the same name was broadcast in October 1978. Almost 40 years ago, Eastern Airlines flight 401 crashed. 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. Bud waved the helicopter toward a nearby levee. Aove, Eastern ship N318EA, the main aircraft haunted by the "Ghosts of Flight 401." What caused Flight 401 crash? December 29, 2022 / 10:12 AM / CBS Miami. Roberto Palma 6/10/27 I was a kid, 21 years old. The crash is considered unique in aviation history because of where it occurred: in Florida's Everglades a sprawling . The jet bounced once, then hit again. Not long after, "ghosts" of Loft and Repo were seen on more than twenty occasions by crew members on other Eastern Tri-Stars, especially those planes which had been fitted with parts salvaged from the Flight 401 wreckage. He retired from the Metro-Dade police department and moved to Brooksville, Florida many years ago. He had promised to show a slight acquaintance, Ray Dickinson, how to gig frogs. Discretion was the better part of valor. 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 In the hospital, a nine-inch steel rod was inserted into the bone. . Ghosts of Flight 401 - 5 | She had no first-aid kit. His doctor warned him not to travel alone, not with his weak heart and lungs and aching back. If cities had soundtracks, none would sound quite like Nashville. An aerial view of the crash site; a swath of the Everglades; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. Donald Louis Repo 5/10/21 On the day of the crash, Flight 401 was operated using a Lockheed L-1011-1 TriStar (registration N310EA), which had been delivered to the airline on August 18, 1972. Effectively, we turned the clubhouse into the European equivalent of a weekend pub. She was killed. Join FlightAware View more flight history Purchase entire flight history for AAL401. Mary Carfizzi 11/3/19 A jumbo jet crashed in the Everglades north of the Tamiami Trial, his sergeant said. 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. They had drowned because their seats landed with their heads tilted down into the swamp water. Photography courtesy Ron Infantino, A few minutes later Leonhards radio crackled. From this point on, the breakup of the fuselage became more extensive, scattering metal fragments, cabin fittings, and passenger seats widely. He was out that night on his airboat, gigging frogs with a new friend, Ray Dickens. Caridad Fermina Hernandez 10/11/32 In 1972 he was a young carpenter who liked living fast. The problem had consumed all their mental energy. LOYLESS FUNERAL HOME, Land O'Lakes/Lutz Chapel. Eight minutes earlier, 401 had been descending on its landing approach after an uneventful flight from New York. Then a sudden jolt rattled the aircraft. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 6 | That left two seats open. The memories don't. Paquita Carrasquillo 10/4/40 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. Julia Lustig 5/30/25 He saw openings in the sawgrass created by sliding chunks of broken airplane. Bud's heroics were featured prominently a few days later in the Miami Herald. 12:38PM EST John F Kennedy Intl - JFK. employees and their immediate families of the Promoter and its related bodies corporate and registered travel companions of employees of the Promoter and its related bodies corporate. The night was a balmy 72 degrees, the mosquitoes surprisingly sparse. It turns out that the area I was flying over is the well-known stomping grounds for the crew of Eastern Airlines Flight 401: A plane that crashed in 1972 over the Everglades. Judy Ellenberg 2/27/53 Ghosts of Flight 401 - 3 | He was left wearing nothing but a necktie and belt pushed up under his armpits. Shock had taken over. Thats what youre going to get when we get out of here. Evidently, I wasn't so stupid as to put any regulatory violations in writing in my log book. He did well for a while -- had a big house in the Country Club of Miami and drove a Lincoln. It was a heart-to- heart bond. Lets sing Christmas carols, Raposa replied. He immediately drove to Eastern's Miami offices and decided to charter a helicopter to the crash site, as the swampy terrain made rescue difficult, and Eastern Airlines had not heard any news of progress in rescue efforts. Combined with numerous anonymous witnesses and countless tales, the rumors spread throughout the aviation community. Maria Elena Gonzalez 9/3/51 When Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed out of the sky over the Florida Everglades in December 1972 it was without a doubt one of the worst commercial air disasters in American history, with over 100 people losing their lives. [6], The flight was commanded by Captain Robert Albin (Bob) Loft, age 55, a veteran pilot ranked 50th in seniority at Eastern Air Lines. He cranked up the engine and moved toward the sound. I don't remember the take-off or the landing that day, but I vividly remember the meteorological conditions and the crash site. ", Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute. [9] All the survivors were injured; 60 received serious injuries and 17 suffered minor injuries that did not require hospitalization. Surprisingly, he found that there were large pieces of wreckage still out in the glades. Ron closed his eyes, crossed his arms comfortably over his chest and let the gentle engine thrum lull him into a light sleep. "I could empathize with what Ron was going through. They turned on the autopilot. This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Flight 401. He had logged 280 hours in the L-1011. Back to the clubhouse and armed with the airspace restrictions, I was ready to fly. The Ghosts of Flight 401, part of the Discovery+ series Shock Docs, emphasizes the supernatural legacy of the crash. She worked only briefly as a flight attendant after the crash. Let them not be forgotten. Theyre not going to find us, an anxious passenger whispered. Flight 401 - Possible Explanation | The pilot Bob Loft and the flight engineer Don Repo were two of the 101 people who perished in the air crash. No roar of unmuffled high-horsepower engines. Then came scattered parts from the number 1 (port) engine, and fragments from the port wing itself and the port tailplane. The crash was documented in Rob and Sarah Elder's 1977 book Crash. Elisa Ruth Romero 5/28/44 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 . With his left, he held onto the boat and walked beside it to the levee. About Flight 401 | [5]:6[a], The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation discovered that the autopilot had been inadvertently switched from altitude hold to control wheel steering (CWS) mode in pitch. Diane Carol Greenblatt 5/5/52 On December 29, 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing over 100 souls. Old and sick now, he lives in near poverty on the edge of the Everglades. [5]:23 Investigators believe this was due to the crew being distracted by the nose gear light, and because the flight engineer was not in his seat when it sounded, so would not have been able to hear it. Fortunately, Bud was an expert. Telephone number:0208 846 0502 . He had lost contact with his frogging helper, Ray, too. [16], While Eastern Air Lines publicly denied their planes were haunted, they reportedly removed all the salvaged parts from their L-1011 fleet. The TriStar's port outer wing structure struck the ground first, followed by the number1 engine and the port main undercarriage. [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. The mood was festive as people were leaving the coldness of New York to bring in 1973 on the beaches of Florida. Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute - Investigation Investigation Later that morning the world woke to news of the tragedy. [17] Over time, the reporting of ghost sightings stopped. His left knee was dislocated, wrenched sideways at a vicious right angle. He can't remember anyone's name now. I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. 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. Mr. Elder later became an Editor at the San Jose Mercury News. Rodas, meanwhile, is "badly burned" as well, the source says. Something was wrong with the landing gear or the landing-gear light on the control panel. His name showed up recently on a Web site (eastern401.googlepages.com) about the 35th anniversary of a tragedy that killed more than 100 passengers and traumatized dozens more. Even though I didn't own an airplane, the club members considered me one of their own, a privilege that I treasure and respect to this day, despite the fact that I haven't had any involvement with the club since the late 1970s. Flight 401 soared above a primordial swampland filled with poisonous snakes and alligators crawling through razor-sharp sawgrass and open-water sloughs. She found a section of the cabin with a stewardess still strapped into her seat-belt harness. 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. Mildred Katz 1/8/34 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. He probed it with his flashlight beam. Two years after the crash, Anita and Franklin Kent's lives were taken up by endless doctor visits. One was Micale, who they found alone on a clump of swamp muck, drenched in swamp water and jet fuel. Raposas survivors became upset. 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. Stephanie Rae Stanich 11/10/48 I was coping with someone who was disabled. She dug down into the black muck, cupped a double handful to her face and smeared it all over the affected areas. By that time, I had also earned a commercial pilot license with airplane single and multi-engine and instrument ratings. 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. Flight 401 Normal - Faulty Auto Pilot | 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. A Web forum, Southern Airboat, which attracts thousands of worldwide participants, plans to take care of the repairs. Mama, heat up the frying pan. The plane was crossing over the Everglades on Dec. 29, 1972 . It was broken in the crash and he avoids putting any strain on it -- good advice for anyone his age, 67. An interesting side show to the crash of Flight 401 was documented in the 1976 book The Ghost of Flight 401, by John G. Fuller. Eight passengers became infected; doctors used hyperbaric chambers to treat the infections. "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. The hours passed, and still no rescuers had arrived. Infantino also won a large legal settlement and lost everything. ", PHOTO of Mercy Ruiz and her Samsonite suitcase in May 2009. On Dec. 29, 1972, it carried 178, including crew. It is 12 feet long and 7 feet across. "Hey, what's happening here?" I was too young for that kind of stuff. By the time I got to the clubhouse, there must have been 10 to 15 members milling about, all discussing the crash. Anne Ponte 1/7/16 Charles Camichel 9/9/1899 (we assume this is the "C. Carmichael" on Flight 401 - Autopilot indicator | He carried survivors to safety and made them as comfortable as he could. One hundred and one lives were lost that late . As you may know, the mansion is an historic landmark in Miami, located just north of the airport it served as the location of the NTSB hearings into the crash. Why dont we sing to help warm ourselves up? she suggested. 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. 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. [5]:4 In the next 70 seconds, the airplane lost only 250ft (76m), but this was enough to trigger the altitude warning C-chord chime located under the engineer's workstation. Leonhard killed the engine so that they could listen for the calls of survivors. It seemed to help. 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]. The following conversation was recovered from the flight voice recorder later: Less than 10 seconds after this exchange, the jetliner crashed: The location was west-northwest of Miami, 18.7mi (30.1km) from the end of runway 9L. In the end, it appears that the source of the stories was an article in an issue of the Flight Safety Foundation. On December 29, 1972 pilot Robert "Bob" Loft and flight engineer Don Repo were piloting Eastern Airlines Flight 401 from JFK Airport (NY) to Miami, Florida. Ron and Fara Infantino, married for 20 days, were coming home from their honeymoon when Flight 401 crashed. (AP) PITTSBURGH - A former police officer who retired from the FBI due to post-traumatic stress disorder linked to her role in the aftermath of the . No complete cross-section of the passenger cabin remained, and both the port wing and tailplane were demolished to fragments. Isell Delgado 1/23/25 The four-month-old L-1011 TriStar jet crashed into the Florida Everglades on December 29, 1972 at 11:42 p.m., caused . Anyway, the statute of limitations has long since passed. Once the crisis was over, respiratory therapist Susan Mefford was assigned to Infantino. Colonel. It looked like someone had poured gasoline on a campfire, and poof, up it went. Curiously, Leonhard never heard the impact. There were also other artifacts such as yellow airline life preservers and panes of plastic passenger windows. I had first, second and third-degree burns all over my body. Huge gouts of mud and aquatic vegetation shot high into the air as 185 tons of screeching metal ripped into the muck and grass. The strange tales of the ghostly airmen of Flight of 401 circulated in the airline community. The ultimate "yes sir, no sir" man, Bud shuffles reluctantly onto the porch, blinking furiously in the sunlight, wondering what's up. The Ghosts of Eastern Flight 401. Richard J. Schulleri 1/3/43 Photos of the 35th anniversary memorial gathering at the crash site, December 29, 2007. 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. The only thing she was looking forward to on arrival in Miami was going to bed. 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