On Dec. 29, 1972, Eastern Flight 401 from New York to Miami took off from JFK Airport at 9:20 pm. I guess their clothes got blown off them.". They also told me that Bill had been called shortly after he got home by the police department helicopter unit to come back to the airport (the police helicopter unit was based at Opa locka) for emergency flight duty. [25] A television movie of the same name was broadcast in October 1978. Trudy Smith didn't return to flying. 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. That's where the helicopters, one after another, landed that night, and where ambulances arrived to load the dead and injured. His left knee was dislocated, wrenched sideways at a vicious right angle. He'd get that look. Soon after, ghosts from Flight 401 began to haunt the land and other. Though Leonhard was only a rookie, the sight of death was not unfamiliar to him. Raposa was struggling for ideas to keep her group occupied. Both pilots and the flight engineer died, along with 2 out of 10 flight attendants and 96 of the 163 passengers on board. Effectively, we turned the clubhouse into the European equivalent of a weekend pub. I don't question what the Lord does.". On December 29, 1972, Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was the first jumbo jet to crash and the second worst single-plane disaster in America up to that time. At 820ft (250m) along the wreckage trail, the outer section of the starboard wing tore off, gouging a 59-foot-long (18m) crater in the soft ground as it did so. On May 11, 1996, the ValuJet Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-9 operating the route crashed into the Everglades about 10 minutes after taking off from Miami as a result of a fire in the cargo compartment caused by mislabeled and improperly stored hazardous cargo. Mama, heat up the frying pan. Mildred Katz 1/8/34 Ex-FBI agent: I saw angels at Flight 93 site. It didn't light. Only small fragments of metal marked the wingtip's first contact, followed 49ft (15m) further on by three massive 115ft (35m) swaths cut through the mud and sawgrass by the aircraft's extended undercarriage before two of the legs were sheared off. 09:23AM EST Miami Intl - MIA. He saw a man standing, shocked, in knee-deep water. Marc Leshay 11/28/51 Bud asks his wife to look for his scrapbooks. . My guess is that the L1011 essentially did a flat or horizontal cartwheel and tore itself apart. There were 75 survivors. Combined with numerous anonymous witnesses and countless tales, the rumors spread throughout the aviation community. "You couldn't even say goodbye to each . I saw young couples broken up. [26], Flight 401 is mentioned in the TV show Supernatural Season 1 Episode 4 named Phantom Traveler's. "Your body could be stripped naked if you're thrown out through an opening, or your body could be relatively intact if you were in part of the aircraft that 'fluttered' down to the surface" because. Below Right - Gatherers take a moment to honor Robert 'Bud' Marquis. Follow my voice!. Then, on Saturday, December 29, a fleet of over 100 airboats carried survivors, their families and others to the crash site for a special memorial. The captain and his first and second officers had every reason to feel good and confident about flying this particular ship. He sold 13 in a month. 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. It promised to be an exciting week in Miami, especially for people who had bucks for a meal at Joe's Stone Crabs and a night at the Fontainebleau Hotel, where the sexy dancer Ann-Margret was headlining. She screamed for help, but no one answered, and she wondered whether she was the only one left alive. 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. Little did I expect to see what he actually had. [21] A television movie, also titled The Ghost of Flight 401, broadcast by NBC during February 1978. The cruel facts of this disaster only reinforced my observation that you won't die unless it's your time to die. Pick up your airboat and meet me at the Twenty Mile Boat Ramp. They were both 26 years old. Ron Infantino and his late wife, Lilly, on their wedding day; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. Flight 401 Survivors, Years After the Crash and Memorial Efforts. 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. Before a bad back forced an early retirement, Bud laid carpet, grew avocados and worked as a game warden in the Everglades. When I was learning to fly in the mid-1960s at Sun Line Helicopters, one of the fixed base operators (FBO) tied into the Miami-Dade Junior College aviation program at the Opa locka Airport, I worked as a line boy refueling aircraft and doing minor line maintenance. The accident in a nutshell According to the Aviation Safety Network, Eastern Air Lines had 163 passengers and 13 members of crew onboard, totaling 176 occupants altogether. Below: The Casado family tour the crash site. 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. Picture that in your mind. There were bodies that were naked, which we all figured occurred because they had been flung out of the protected environmental cocoon of the L1011 into 200 mph winds when the fuselage broke up. Flight 401 - Flight Log | Richard L. Marquis, a carpet-layer, saw it too. In another 50 seconds, the plane was at half its assigned altitude. [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". Based on the book, it dramatized the crash, rescue efforts, and NTSB investigation. I wish I had that kind of money today instead of 20 years ago. 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. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew blew the roof of the house across the street through his front windows. 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. Ron and Fara Infantino, married for 20 days, were coming home from their honeymoon when Flight 401 crashed. Braulio Corretjer 1/5/28 Beverly Raposa doesn't mind flying. A jumbo jet crashed in the Everglades north of the Tamiami Trial, his sergeant said. Renee Joaquin Albert 8/3/36 A pale glow lightened the sky above Miami more than 40 miles away. [6]:107108 Donadeo, the lone survivor of the four flight-deck occupants, recovered from his injuries. Above: A piece of wreckage from Flight 401 still visible in the Everglades. The wheels were down, locked in position for landing, but the pilot wasn't sure about the forward wheel under the plane's nose. Those words guided Leonhard as his 14-foot patrol airboat bulldozed through dense walls of water-anchored grass. ValuJet Flight 592 was a domestic passenger flight between Miami International Airport, Miami, Florida, and William B. Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta, Georgia that crashed into the Everglades on May 11, 1996 as a result of a fire in the cargo compartment caused by improperly stored cargo, killing all 110 people on board. She choked on the acrid fumes from the 43,000 pounds of aviation gas that had spilled from the plane and screamed, Dont light any matches!. I mean, I was a single person with no family. The largest recognizable pieces of wreckage were the cockpit section and the center engine intake and attached fuselage section. An adviser to Ukraine's Interior Minister wrote on Facebook that the plane was shot down, the Associated Press reports. [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. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401, crashed on 29 December 1972. Now 41, he lives alone in Titusville, on a disability pension. The court citing, among other reasons, that the claimants were found to be actors or participants in newsworthy stories or events, that the book a nonfictionalized account based on the authors own investigationfell under the legitimate public interest exception. Develop, execute, and document the system verification plan for flight and representative hardware at the system level and validate the as-built system prior to launch. Anyway, the pilots couldn't tell if the wheels were down. Muriel J. Ames 11/30/40 He ended up making numerous trips out to the levee where the rescue operation base was located. "He swore that Frank Borman had paid him to come to Miami and perform an exorcism on #318. Charles Camichel 9/9/1899 (we assume this is the "C. Carmichael" on In the photograph below, here is the listing of who is who. The plane was a new Lockheed L-1011, pride of the Eastern fleet. In fact, she told my mother that she cringed in fear every time she drove down Le Jeune Road (the eastern boundary of Miami International Airport) just because of all the jet noise when planes were landing and taking off. However, we had one advantage that members of the general public didn't have - we had access to airplanes. He rescued some terrified folks - he doesn't know how many - before the regular cavalry of official rescuers arrived in helicopters, directed to the carnage by his head lamp. In every direction, there was nothing but dead silence and incredible darkness. Patricia George was on top of the coat closet. Of course, hearing them from the porch isn't the same as being in the middle of them armed with a gig, taking a long breath of Everglades air, feeling utterly alive. The time was 9:20 p.m. Back row: Pat Ghyssels, Trudy Smith, Adrianne Hamilton and Mercy Ruiz. [12][13] The training is designed to make problem solving in a cockpit much more efficient, thus causing less distraction for the crew. Not shown, Sharon Transue (she was taking the photo). Ethel L. Jackson 3/8/08 Ruiz, 63, of West Miami-Dade, still has aches and pains but returned to flying until Eastern folded in 1991. Late in the evening of Friday, December 29, 1972, I was at the old Sun Flying Club tie-down area located on the east side of Opa locka Airport in metropolitan Miami, Florida. There were also other artifacts such as yellow airline life preservers and panes of plastic passenger windows. That simple piece of plastic represents a tie between me and what happened to the passengers and crew on Flight 401 on December 29, 1972. 3h 15m. No gunshots. 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. Rons eyes blinked open upon hearing the engines roar to full power. Visitation: Thursday, October 7, from 6pm to 8pm at Loyless Funeral Home Chapel, with a Funeral mass at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church on Friday at 10am. Startled, and now fully awake, he wondered, Whats going on here? A former crew chief on a B-52 in Vietnam, he had a keener sense than most passengers about a plane in trouble. View history. [4] It was also the first hull loss and fatal crash of a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar. Burning jet fuel engulfed the aircraft as it plowed through the swamp. Dr. Aftabuddin Chowdhury 1/1/43 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. "I was engaged and my fiance was killed in a drunk-driving accident two months before the wedding," she said. Speculation at the club was rampant which is to be expected from a bunch of pilots. 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! Ghosts of Flight 401 - 6 | An orange glow suddenly lit up out in the marsh toward Miami, he recalled. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The Ghost of Flight 401 (TV Movie 1978) - IMDb, Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute, The Ghost of Flight 401 (TV 1978) - YouTube, Flight 401 - Flight Crew Fatal Photograph, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 - Crash Investigation, Findings and Passenger List - Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute. The flight was routine until 23:32 when the plane began its approach into Miami International Airport. 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. "[5]:2324, In response to this and other accidents during the 1970s, many airlines started crew resource management training for their pilots. The Ghost of Flight 401 (TV 1978) - YouTube | The plane, a new "Whisperliner," could transport 229 passengers. [22] Loft's widow and children did sue Fuller, for infringement of Loft's right of publicity, for invasion of privacy, and for intentional infliction of emotional distress, but the lawsuit was dismissed and the dismissal upheld by the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal. Email subscription; Email subscription; . There was a lot of activity on the ground, but we couldn't see much detail from 3,000 feet. It was closing in on midnight on Dec. 29, 1972. What was so strange was that it was there in the first place. The NTSB classified the injuries of one nonrevenue passenger and one other passenger as nonfatal, as their deaths occurred more than seven days after the accident. He accompanied 3 survivors on the helicopter to a hospital including a flight attendant and passenger who lost her baby in the crash. It happened 40 years ago today on a cold dark night in the Everglades, a brand new "Whisperliner" jumbo jet. That was an unsurvivable crash, but we made it out," she said. The death toll per the final accident report was 99. No complete cross-section of the passenger cabin remained, and both the port wing and tailplane were demolished to fragments. That was a miracle that is probably attributable to three factors: (1) the crash site was a soft, wet swamp; (2) there was no significant post-crash fire; and (3) the force of disintegration was directed horizontally and not vertically, flinging many survivors out into the swamp instead of subjecting them to fatal blunt force trauma which is characteristic of most airplane crashes. He retired from the Metro-Dade police department and moved to Brooksville, Florida many years ago. The flying club was also a de facto social club with members having the common bonds of flying and aircraft ownership. The two girls in the photograph that are having the bunny ears (Patricia Ghyssels) and the one jokingly being choked (Stephanie Stanich) were the only two flight attendants who did not survive the crash. 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 2023-Feb-14. 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 felt a sense of mission as he looked out into the black swamp, knowing that his job required cunning and stealth. On December 3rd 2007, survivors of Eastern Air Lines flight 401 gathered at the Metro-Dade Firefighters' Memorial Building in Miami to honor Robert "Bud" Marquis, and to remember those who lost their lives in the crash nearly 35 years ago. The crew of Flight 401 taken aboard the jet earlier on the day of the crash: the flight attendants had gathered at the tail of the plane. We had him out by 5:30 in the morning. The left wingtip hit first. "We consider it the day our second life began," Christina Casado-Acorn, said of Dec. 29, 1972. Lourdes Albert 2/20/50 I told Hansel that we needed to check, before we got into the air, whether there were any flight restrictions over the crash site which seemed pretty logical to me. "I consider the survivors 75 miracles. He looks at the photo of the primitive camp he built in the cypress trees so many years ago when he was young and strong and could hunt and gig frogs and look at the stars. [16], While Eastern Air Lines publicly denied their planes were haunted, they reportedly removed all the salvaged parts from their L-1011 fleet. It is personal and it has served over the intervening years to remind me of how precious and tenuous life can be. In December 1972, there was a deadly | by Verity Partington | The Mystery Box | Medium 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. If you hear my voice, come toward me. They have two sons and live in Dade City now, near Tampa. Flight 401 Crash Site Hauntings |. [6]:108 The most common injuries were fractures of ribs, spines, pelvises, and lower extremities. Ernest F. Bloodgood 4/1/16 His right arm was three-quarters severed and barely attached by tendons, skin and strings of muscle. 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. Aground. Contained Within. Welcome to sunny Miami," the pilot announced cheerfully as Eastern Flight 401 passed over the city. I don't recall any large scorched patches of saw grass, but I remember a few small burned areas. The Ghost of Flight 401 was based on the tragic Eastern Air Lines airplane crash in December 1972, and the alleged supernatural events which followed; it was eventually turned into a popular 1978 made-for-television movie. Adapted from Bad Guys, Bullets, and Boat Chases by Bob H. Lee. [15][16][17], These stories speculated that parts of the crashed aircraft were salvaged after the investigation and refitted into other L-1011s. The Ghost of Flight 401 (TV Movie 1978) - IMDb | 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. An Eastern flight attendant posted this scan (below) from his L-1011 FA manual. He was left wearing nothing but a necktie and belt pushed up under his armpits. These and other requirements are imposed for the purpose of meeting the collective objectives of the Aviation and An Eastern Air Lines Lockheed L-1011 crashed at 2342 eastern standard time, December 29, 1972, 18.7 miles west-northwest of Miami International Airport, Miami Florida. She was killed. Passenger List: TWA Flight 800. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 3 | 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. Loise Shackelford attended. He had logged 280 hours in the L-1011. [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. Lets sing Christmas carols, Raposa replied. Raposa, Beverly | The flight had 163 passengers and 13 crew members. 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. John G. Fuller, the best-selling author of The Ghost of Flight 401, carried out an investigation into the hauntings with the aid of several cautious airline personnel. Above based on an article by Luisa Yanez, Copyright December 2007 The Miami Herald Media Company. No flicker from an air boaters headlamp. AlanNachmias 5/16/50 The crash occurred while the entire flight crew were preoccupied with a burnt-out landing gear indicator light. Two survivors died later as a result of . Someone had seen his frogging light. 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. His doctor warned him not to travel alone, not with his weak heart and lungs and aching back. She left Eastern and worked in the travel agency industry. The crew members, however, were focused on fixing the wheel-light indicator. (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 . I probably did too, I'm sure." In the narrow beam of his head lamp he now saw enormous strips of torn metal. Shock had taken over. Alina Junco 5/2/44 I was then almost 26 years old and had recently graduated from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. [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. After retiring he volunteered with the Civil Air Patrol, his last rank was Lt. He carried survivors to safety and made them as comfortable as he could. [5]:3, Loft, who was working the radio during this leg of the flight, told the tower that they would discontinue their approach to their airport and requested to enter a holding pattern. 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. A similar situation appeared in the Thai movie Dark Flight, directed by Kongkiat Khomsiri, produced in 2012. No roar of unmuffled high-horsepower engines. Marquis received burns to his face, arms, and legsa result of spilled jet fuel from the crashed TriStarbut continued shuttling people in and out of the crash site that night and the next day. N310EA, the aircraft involved in the accident. He and his wife, Donna, live in Christmas, a small town between Orlando and Cape Canaveral. The Ghost of Flight 401. The crash occurred while the entire flight crew was preoccupied with . 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. Patricia A. Ghyssels 3/31/45 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. Robert L. Marquis - "Bud" to friends - wanted to eat frogs' legs. Kenneth Michael Mazonne 3/27/44 Surprisingly, he found that there were large pieces of wreckage still out in the glades. "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. We dont have a light on our nose gear yet.. 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