flight 401 victims

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. After we visually established where the crash site was located, we could see the initial ground contact point and the distribution of the wreckage quite clearly. Obviously, I'm not a hunter, but I don't begrudge those who do hunt responsibly. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was on its final approach into Miami shortly before midnight 50 years ago this month when a single light bulb on the aircraft's instrument panel failed to illuminate . I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. Fuller's book was soon made into a popular TV movie, also called The Ghost of Flight 401, notable for having creeped people out for years. Ethel L. Jackson 3/8/08 490-492. . We had a habit of informally gathering at the clubhouse on Friday and Saturday evenings to down a few beers and catch up on all the news that had any impact on us. "I was wounded in World War II when the ship I was on was hit by a kamikaze. Season 1. Two tours in Southeast Asia had hardened him. Fortunately, Bud was an expert. Michael Ann Kaminer 12/28/45 Flight 401crash-landed into the Everglades at over 200 mph. Spectral looking people with manic laughs or clanking chains are another popular image people often have of ghosts or spirits. He wants to show them how to gig frogs. Two passing pilots saw it and called the airport. 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 captain and his first and second officers had every reason to feel good and confident about flying this particular ship. Theyre not going to find us, an anxious passenger whispered. Lilly leaned back in her seat, resting quietly. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 3 | Air crews reported seeing apparitions of their dead coworkers on board the planes that had Flight 401's spare parts. On a moonless night, in the beam of his head lamp, the frog eyes would glow like rubies. Survivors described a flash or spark that exploded through the cabin as the jet ripped apart. Leonhard pulled his eyes away from the painful scene, lifted his head and slowly swung the stark-white beam of his helmet-mounted lamp across a massive trench carved in the marsh. Flight 401 - Possible Explanation | Above based on an article by Luisa Yanez, Copyright December 2007 The Miami Herald Media Company. (No one had a camera, so I don't have any personal photos.) 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. At night, when he sits on his porch, he can hear the wup-wup bellows of the pig frogs and the heh-heh-heh chatter of the leopard frogs beyond the trees. Lockheed L-1011 Landing Gear Lever | Stefan Jay Rubin 3/21/49. It was a solemn and sobering return flight. He isn't a talker to begin with, unless it's about boats or engines or the 'glades. document.write(theYear) Flamingo Magazine, This Recent University of Tampa Graduate Just Won the Florida Filmmaker Award. The first time Walter Simonton saw the Everglades, the desolation overwhelmed him as he grieved for his mother, whose plane was swallowed up by the wetlands. Introducing the Keys Quirkiest Resident. Raposa, Beverly | The actual crash was, in fact, true as reported; and there's never been any real doubt over what the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) investigators determined. Why dont we sing to help warm ourselves up? she suggested. Murray Yellin 6/9/11 Blackness. Dead bodies hung, lay and floated everywhere I looked. That subsides. Officially, 103 passengers and crew died. Silvia Crespo 11/30/32 You can see the brand name on the oven instruction plate. 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. Then wham! So, being the thoughtful brother-in-law he was, unbeknownst to me he had collected some of the wreckage of Flight 401. Sure enough, once arrived in Mexico City, it was discovered that one of the three engines was damaged and would have to be replaced. Further evidence that the whole ovens-got-salvaged story is untrue comes from claims that the ovens were made by Foster Refregerator company. But when they took off, one of the two remaining engines flamed out, forcing them to make an emergency landing on just one engine. In every direction, there was nothing but dead silence and incredible darkness. The aircraft, a Lockheed L-1011-1 Tristar jet, seemed to have an issue with the front nose gear. 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. Information about your use of this site is shared with Google. Almost 40 years ago, Eastern Airlines flight 401 crashed. In unison, we looked up to see the silhouette of a Lockheed L1011 flying westbound at an altitude of about 2,000 feet. Afterward, folks hope to take the old man into the Everglades, in his own airboat, if he wants. Lost - Flight 401 Passengers (Name and Birthdate), Charles Camichel 9/9/1899 (we assume this is the "C. Carmichael" on the passenger manifest), Jose Carrasquillo 6/28/40 (pictured below), Abbey Lynn Greenwald 9/18/52 (photo below), Carmen Jorge 7/7/46 (Photo of Carmen below, with her daughter, and surviving passenger, Christina Ochoa), (Rosa's neice Lucille Cilles and her daughter, Rosemarie Mancuso and her husband Barry were also on board), Rosemary Mancuso 10/31/49 (Photos below), Ruth Elisa Romero Guerra 5/22/44 (Pictured below), Stefan Jay Rubin 3/21/49 (Photo of Stefan and Rochelle in 1972 below. ", 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. On December 29, 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing over 100 souls. . Two others did not want to be reminded. Another flight was being subjected to pre-flight checks when Bob Loft was spotted wandering around the undercarriage. Right: Beverly celebrates her 26th birthday in Mercy Hospital, January 4th 1973, with fellow surviving flight attendants Trudy Smith and Sharon Transue (Photo: Roy Bartley, Miami Herald). Leonhard hit the gas as he toggled on the blue light and siren. Leonhard happened to be looking southeast across the glades. 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. It was approximately 15 to 20 miles west-southwest of the Opa locka Airport and it was pretty difficult to find at first. He was out there gigging frogs when it happened. She was so worried about his appearance that she summoned an attendant to investigate further. Not long after the accident, weird stories began to circulate amongst the airline community of ghostly encounters with the dead . We were in Dade County, and my patrol zone was Broward County to the north., During his airboat training, senior wardens of the Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission had told Leonhard, Never stop or slow an airboat down in rank grass because you may not be able to power out of it. This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic. Clutching his walking stick, Bud shuffles past a mango tree into the backyard. She went and got another flight attendant, who came and saw the same thing. Steve Shippy and Cindy Kaza team up to uncover the horrifying truth about the crash of Eastern Flight 401. Ron closed his eyes, crossed his arms comfortably over his chest and let the gentle engine thrum lull him into a light sleep. About us | Our programming | Become a supporter | Privacy. Whenever either Loft or Repo make an appearance, they tend to be life-like and look like just another person. According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the main fuselage broke into four main sections and many other smaller pieces on impact. Several survivors tracked him down to thank him personally. Christina (center) was two-months-old at the time of the crash, making her the youngest survivor . The original witness so was distressed that several of the cabin crew had to forcibly restrain her. I come from an Eastern family - my mother, Betty Olson, retired from Eastern in 1976. The City of Miami Springs hosted a Beautiful Memorial Ceremony on Thursday, December 29, 2022. Eduardo Jaramillo 8/2/32 A Florida plane crash scene became even more disturbing when an alligator was spotted devouring the victim's body. Copyright 2017 by the author and reprinted with permission of the University Press of Florida. He wanted me to be the pilot (no objection from me) and he would occupy the co-pilot's seat. The plane was dropping from the sky at a rate of 200 feet each minute. Now that the crash site was again open to the public, he had gone out into the Everglades to scout the area on his air boat. The reports were given by experienced and trustworthy pilots and crew. 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. Below: Christina Casada-Acorn, now 35, standing at the crash site in 2007 while holding the dress she was wearing the night of the crash. For survivors, the crash has left physical and mental scars. His book was later adapted into a made-for-tv movie starring William Shatner as an NTSB investigator. "That's what really gets me. His fishing and hunting skills helped put supper on the family table. 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 wheels were down, locked in position for landing, but the pilot wasn't sure about the forward wheel under the plane's nose. She worked only briefly as a flight attendant after the crash. Lockheed L-1011 Cockpit | Bud revved up the engine and headed northwest. The story goes that parts from it were salvaged and installed in other L-1011s, and almost immediately, the ghost stories began. Still, $50,000 will have to be raised in order to erect the memorial. Folks from South Florida's sporting community, mostly hunters, fishers and airboaters, heard, many for the first time, about Bud. And now, no one was flying the plane. A jumbo jet crashed in the Everglades north of the Tamiami Trial, his sergeant said. Fuller wrote that the airline was apparently trying to cover this up. The harrowing tale of three survivors of the 1972 crash of Eastern Airlines flight 401 into the Everglades. 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. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 traveled from New York to Miami. Eugene Schenker 6/24/30 Photography courtesy Ron Infantino, A few minutes later Leonhards radio crackled. 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. That doesn't haunt me either . The pilot Bob Loft and the flight engineer Don Repo were two of the 101 people who perished in the air crash. Eastern Flight 401. "He swore that Frank Borman had paid him to come to Miami and perform an exorcism on #318. Jose Rego 9/5/19 They were heading his way. A light on the instrument panel the first officer was monitoring failed to illuminate green to confirm that the nose landing gear was extended and locked. Angelo Donadeo, whose survival may be the most remarkable of all, says the only thing still bothering him is his back, but not very much. After the fact, pieces of the plane and equipment from it were salvaged to use on other planes; almost immediately, passengers and airline employees began reporting paranormal events. I don't know if she ever did return to flying; my mother never told me one way or the other. theYear = now.getYear() From L to R, Captain Robert Albin Loft, pilot Albert John Stockstill, and flight engineer Donald Louis Repo. I dont know this for sure, but I seem to remember he was the last survivor rescued.. Infantino also won a large legal settlement and lost everything. 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. The flying safety was even more compromised because it was slightly hazy which reduced visibility to seven to ten miles over the Everglades. It's a swamp, a flat swamp. Bud waved his light until the helicopter took notice. That's where the helicopters, one after another, landed that night, and where ambulances arrived to load the dead and injured. Obviously, this is a red flag waving at us vigorously that we should be sure to take this tale with several good grains of salt. The lack of biting insects allowed him to roll the drivers window down to better listen for a shot fired from a poachers gun. Let them not be forgotten. ----------------------------------------------. "It survived that night, just like me. 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. Wreckage from Eastern Airlines Flight 401 in the Everglades; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino, Buried up to his neck in freezing water and muck, completely naked except for the elastic rims of his socks, severely injured, shivering and in shock, Infantino feebly called into the night: Lilly, where are you? Some survivors recovered and adjusted better than others. Janice Testa 9/12/52 "I've tried to throw [the suitcase] away many times, but something always holds me back. Rosemary Mancuso 10/31/49 Flight 401 soared above a primordial swampland filled with poisonous snakes and alligators crawling through razor-sharp sawgrass and open-water sloughs. They had drowned because their seats landed with their heads tilted down into the swamp water. Charles Kuchenbrod 7/16/30 Instead, he would witness the first jumbo jet crash in U.S. history. On December of 1972, an Eastern Airlines Tri-Star jetliner, Flight 401, crashed into a Florida swamp. That's why Hansel wanted me to fly; it would be my license that got revoked if we got caught, not his! Flight 401 - Flight Crew Fatal Photograph. Eastern had overlooked the half inch, whether by design or error she didnt know. On December 29, 1972, Flight 401 was en route to Miami International Airport but due to a malfunctioning landing gear light and other distractions, plowed into the swampland, making the incident the second deadliest single aircraft disaster in United States history. Web. Documentary, Unscripted. Serving coffee, tea and soda was all very nice, but this was what counted. That alone adds credibility to their accounts. I think all the survivors had been rescued by that time and taken to hospitals, but there were a lot of bodies still at the crash site. 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! Richard Childs 5/21/52 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!. Thats what youre going to get when we get out of here. Albert J. Stockstill 6/9/33 The signal inside the cockpit had not illuminated as it should have. Mary Carfizzi 11/3/19 The death toll at the time was the highest of any one-plane accident in U.S. civil aviation history. An article by Luisa Yanez, Copyright December 2007 the Miami Herald Media Company a... No objection from me ) and he would occupy the co-pilot 's seat us, an Eastern Flight... Two passing pilots saw it and called the airport for survivors, the eyes. The jet ripped apart on Thursday, December 29, 2022 20 miles west-southwest of the University Press of.... 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Begrudge those who do hunt responsibly and Cindy Kaza team up to uncover the horrifying about. What youre going to have an issue with the front nose Gear clanking chains are another popular image people have... Copyright 2017 by the author and reprinted with permission of the crash has left physical and mental.., folks hope flight 401 victims take the old man into the Everglades, in the Air crash the survivor..., they tend to be raised in order to erect the Memorial of three survivors of the Opa locka and! Weird stories began to circulate amongst the airline was apparently trying to cover this up, being thoughtful. Would be my license that got revoked if we got caught, not his co-pilot seat.

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