Source: Pope Lick Monster the Killer Goatman of Kentucky, Joyce Vincents Unsettling Death That Went Undiscovered for 3 Years, These Real Creepy Audio Recordings Will Give You Nightmares, The Case of Teresita BasaHow a Ghost Solved a Murder. An elevation of only eight feet felt like being on a hilltop in the Everglades. Jerrold Solomon, who had walked away from the crash unscathed, flew home to New York three days later. But we idled back around to double-check on them just in case.. It didn't light. Whenever either Loft or Repo make an appearance, they tend to be life-like and look like just another person. At the time, the decision to change seats carried no meaning. Ever the good Catholic, she crossed herself in the dark and silently prayed, Oh God, please let that be true.. ", Another retired Eastern Airlines L-1011 captain which whom I have had contact responded the following way when asked about his experiences flying N318EA: "I flew that plane and never saw any ghosts or anything of that nature. "That's what really gets me. Viewers who enter The Ghost of Flight 401 looking for shivers and thrills might be disappointed. Loft and Repo have never been reported on the same flight, by the same witnesses, at the same time. 2017. Born in Arkansas, he grew up in South Florida when everybody seemed to be poor. Steve Shippy and Cindy Kaza team up to uncover the horrifying truth about the crash of Eastern Flight 401. Some would rather not remember. Dummett hopes that the event will inspire a permanent memorial to Eastern Flight 401, similar to the ValuJet Memorial off the Tamiami Trail in the Everglades. Murray Yellin 6/9/11 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. . Also notable were the Eastern Airlines two-tone blue and white colors on the larger pieces of wreckage. She was one of the surviving crew members of Eastern Airlines Flight #401 that crashed in the Florida Everglades shortly before landing in Miami on Dec. 29, 1972. At some point the captain inadvertently bumped the control wheel, knocking the autopilot partially off. Branches had been recently snapped off all the way around the opening, all pointing inward. Instead, he would witness the first jumbo jet crash in U.S. history. 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. After retiring he volunteered with the Civil Air Patrol, his last rank was Lt. Before a bad back forced an early retirement, Bud laid carpet, grew avocados and worked as a game warden in the Everglades. Mama, heat up the frying pan. Flight 401 - First Response | Ron Infantino woke up in a chill, heart pounding, breath erratic. Other than those observations, I don't recall much more from that flight. Fortunately, Bud was an expert. He isn't a talker to begin with, unless it's about boats or engines or the 'glades. He and his first wife traveled extensively in their RV throughout the United States and Canada. And before I had time to even let off the throttle or do anything else, I ran over those two people, who I knew were both dead. Outside of the aircraft, there wasnt much in the way of visual cues and city lights were non-existent. I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute | We were standing outside the clubhouse on the ramp, getting ready to lock up the building before leaving, when we both noticed something unusual overhead. In the hospital, a nine-inch steel rod was inserted into the bone. "I guess I was always on the edge without knowing it." "I could empathize with what Ron was going through. He wanted me to be the pilot (no objection from me) and he would occupy the co-pilot's seat. She was born on August 24, 1947, to Jefferson Truett Smith and S. Margeria Jeffus in Lake Charles, Louisiana. The jet actually began losing altitude, so gradually that no one noticed until the very end. Flight Safety Foundation, 29 Dec. 1972. Flight 401 - Flight Crew Fatal Photograph. He also ran his own gun store in Seymour, Conn. During this time, he divorced and later met Alexandra (Sandra) Burt. They go deep into the heart of the Florida Everglades to contact the victims' ghosts and find out what really happened that fateful night in 1972. Web. This photo was taken hours before the crash on December 29th while on board Flight 26 in Miami. Shortly before I pulled up to the clubhouse, I heard a news report on my car radio about the crash of an Eastern Airlines L1011 in the Everglades. By that time, I had also earned a commercial pilot license with airplane single and multi-engine and instrument ratings. AlanNachmias 5/16/50 When the Coast Guard helicopter attempted a landing, the prop wash threw hunks of debris dangerously around. Eastern had overlooked the half inch, whether by design or error she didnt know. "Hey! Riding with him were two Federal Aviation Administration officials. Fear of Landing. Tower, this is Eastern 401, it looks like were going to have to circle. 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. HistoryMiami. The night was a balmy 72 degrees, the mosquitoes surprisingly sparse. The cloak of black was made all the more intense by the surreal stillness. Trudy Smith - Douglas November 6, 2021, 12:23 pm. Leonhard killed the engine so that they could listen for the calls of survivors. Now take a sip. He also likes not to think about those days. 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. Mysterious Universe "He swore that Frank Borman had paid him to come to Miami and perform an exorcism on #318. Feel the warmth going down.. "Accident Description." LOYLESS FUNERAL HOME, Land O'Lakes/Lutz Chapel. Flight 401 - Autopilot indicator | A ferry crew was assigned to fly it back home empty for repairs. She was killed. Marquis is also survived by a son, Donald Marquis of Altamonte Springs; a daughter, Terri Mabie of Tucson; 10 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. She had nothing. Were still at 2,000, right? the first officer asked. Then a sudden jolt rattled the aircraft. Henry Nunez 8/18/23 Ron and Fara Infantino, married for 20 days, were coming home from their honeymoon when Flight 401 crashed. My former brother-in-law, James Anderson, was an avid air boat owner and hunting enthusiast. As I sit writing this 34 years later in December 2006, I can still visualize the events of that night just as if they had occurred yesterday. Web. The other flight crew members were First Officer John Stockhill, a flight engineer, and Donald Luis Repo, an aircraft mechanic, and flight engineer. From an aviation perspective, this was no small feat. Barbara Ann Saal. The movie is fairly innacurate and over-dramitized. Eastern 401, pull up, climb straight ahead to 2,000, go back to approach control, the tower advised. I mean, I was a single person with no family. Albert J. Stockstill 6/9/33 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. No thanks I checked my log book entry for Dec. 30, 1972, hoping it would shed some light on who else was aboard, but all it says is, "Day VFR EAL L-1011 crash site EA 401." But, to play it safe, she always wore an add-on hairpiece and teased her hair up into a bouffant to make herself look taller. PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Farrell - Miami Herald Staff. My log book shows that our flight lasted 1.2 hours. Theyd been married only 20 days and were returning from their honeymoon. A friend once warned him: "One day you'll work a plane crash out there." In unison, we looked up to see the silhouette of a Lockheed L1011 flying westbound at an altitude of about 2,000 feet. The area I was about to go in was uncharted territory for me, Leonhard said. He saw mangled bodies and heard the pitiful moans of the dying. The aircraft disintegrated, scattering wreckage over an area approximately 1600 feet long by 300 feet wide (NTSB). Jose Carrasquillo 6/28/40 That section of the Everglades is a tangle of sawgrass, tree islands, canals and levees. Rosemary Mancuso 10/31/49 Donadeo is still active in aviation, as state vice commander of the Civil Air Patrol. Nery Palma 7/12/34 Let us email you a link to each week's new episode. He was born in Pittsburgh, PA and was a 26 year resident of Christmas, FL. The other house is gone; his still requires repairs. I lost my boot., Well, Raposa said, Ill help you find it., Thats okay, Raposa said. Delta pilot pay varies depending on schedule, aircraft and other factors, but current flight pay can range from an average of $75,000 a year for a starting first officer to more than $300,000 a . The majority of this equipment was fitted into Eastern's L-1011 N318EA while it was being assembled in Palmdale. Evidently, I wasn't so stupid as to put any regulatory violations in writing in my log book. To this day, more than four decades later, the survivors mark each December 29, and some still gather at the crash site to remember those who were lost. Barbara Ann Saal Below Right - Gatherers take a moment to honor Robert 'Bud' Marquis. They were all the pieces that had been salvaged from Flight 401, including the oven and elevator, but many other pieces as well. Reigler, P. "Lessons Learnt from the Crash of Eastern 401." Stefan Jay Rubin 3/21/49. It's a swamp, a flat swamp. Two years after the crash, a book called The Ghost of Flight 401 was published, claiming that there were many reported sightings of the pilot, who had most likely accidentally switched off the autopilot, and the flight engineer, who had missed the warning chime because he left his seat to investigate the issue with the landing gear light. Ali Asgar Dhirani was 74 years old when he died on Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, along with 175 others. There would be plenty of time for body recovery, Leonhard said. Bud waved the helicopter toward a nearby levee. Photography courtesy Ron Infantino, A few minutes later Leonhards radio crackled. Boom. at 12:30 pm, December 30th) Maureen I. Chesler 10/12/47 His hunting escapades on his air boat meant that he was very familiar with the area where Flight 401 crashed in the Everglades. Thanks to Jim Kalafus for the corrected names of Flight 401 victims drawn from Dade Country death certificate files and his continued research and participation in this effort. 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. Hey! Eugene Schenker 6/24/30 "I couldn't understand why I lived and they didn't. The disaster of this flight still remains as one of the worst in American aviation history. It was quite possible that the landing gear was in the correct configuration. This crux of the story was completely made up out of whole cloth. Sure enough, I recall that the initial restricted area was posted in a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) and set out a no-fly zone that had a one mile radius from the crash site up to 2,000 feet above mean sea level. I'd be able to do the right thing today.". One was Micale, who they found alone on a clump of swamp muck, drenched in swamp water and jet fuel. (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. Aground. Raposa was struggling for ideas to keep her group occupied. Flight 401 Crash Site Hauntings |. They turned on the autopilot. They married in 1974. Author John G. Fuller claimed the whole book was true . According to the National Transportation Safety Board ( NTSB ), the main fuselage broke into four main sections and many other smaller pieces on impact. Bud helped the man into the airboat and poured him coffee from the thermos. She had been recovering from a heartbreak of her own for a year and a half. 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 . "The temperature is in the low 70s, and it's beautiful out there tonight." It was only then that it had hit him. Forgotten about him, actually. Silvia Crespo 11/30/32 It is almost a physical impossibility to find and remove every scrap of wreckage from a swamp. Flight 401 Survivors, Years After the Crash and Memorial Efforts. A crawlspace beneath a cockpit is one thing, a galley oven is quite another. Dale Ann Mazzone 5/19/51 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. Beverly Raposa was a bubbly, 25-year-old flight attendant onboard Eastern Airlines Flight 401 from New York to Miami when the plane slammed into the Everglades at 225 miles per hour near midnight . She left Eastern and worked in the travel agency industry. The Ghost of Flight 401 was a book of nearly pure fiction, as was the TV movie that followed it. References: Edward E. Ulrich died at home on May 25, 2021. For over thirty years Charlie worked with the FAA as an Air Traffic Controller. An aerial view of the crash site; a swath of the Everglades; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. I had first, second and third-degree burns all over my body. 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. One time, a working flight attendant insisted that she saw an engineer working to repair an oven. Bud and Nancy own 27 domestic cats, including 15 that live indoors on sofas, tables and bookshelves. Now 41, he lives alone in Titusville, on a disability pension. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 5 | It was approximately 15 to 20 miles west-southwest of the Opa locka Airport and it was pretty difficult to find at first. By 1 a.m., the rookie warden had launched his airboat. This was only about 12 hours after the L1011 crashed! You know what would make Bud Marquis happy? His 1977 book, Crash, tells the story of many of the passengers, the investigation and aftermath of Flight 401. 2023 Skeptoid Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. It was a heart-to- heart bond. 2017. This becomes less surprising when you look at Fuller's publishing history. Bill was a career police officer who had been exposed to death and trauma, but his comments really reflected an attitude of both wonder and sadness. 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. Charles H. Johnson - Miami Air Traffic Controller who was working Flight 401 dies, April 10, 2019. "I've tried to throw [the suitcase] away many times, but something always holds me back. What was so strange was that it was there in the first place. Though Leonhard was only a rookie, the sight of death was not unfamiliar to him. New York: Berkeley Publishing Corp, 1976. The wheels were down, locked in position for landing, but the pilot wasn't sure about the forward wheel under the plane's nose. According to all present, Repo then warned them about a fire on board. That subsides. We had him out by 5:30 in the morning. Most of what we talked about on the return to the airport was speculation on our part as to how the plane crashed, not why it crashed. He not only saw the face too, but recognized it as none other than Don Repo, the engineer who died on Flight 401. Mr. Elder later became an Editor at the San Jose Mercury News. "I was wounded in World War II when the ship I was on was hit by a kamikaze. She worked in the executive offices at Easterns Miami base. 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. It was somewhere between 11:30 pm and 11:35 pm, a fact that I specifically remember because I took the time to look at my wristwatch and comment to Bill. Susan Deutsch 10/21/42 In 1972 he was a young carpenter who liked living fast. In recent months Canti and others have made pilgrimages to Bud's screened door to hear his story. Jose Rego 9/5/19 For survivors, the crash has left physical and mental scars. The crew did finally notice the situation taking place, but nowhere near in time to prevent the inevitable. 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. Dr. Aftabuddin Chowdhury 1/1/43 They never met again, never talked again, and never will: Ray died years ago in Arcadia. But the passengers were her peopleher responsibilityand it was still her job to help them. If this was true, then perhaps they recycled more than just aircraft parts. "Ladies, you're safe up there. On Dec. 3, Southern Airboat and other organizations also plan to honor Bud and the victims and survivors of Eastern Flight 401 with a service and a barbecue in Miami. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. The third, Repo, used a porthole to try and get a visual on the gear. Lloyd Irving Bearman 1/16/23 As the plane descended on its final landing approach to Miami International Airport, a cheerful voice boomed over the cabins loudspeaker address system: Welcome to sunny Miami, the captain announced. (It was later expanded to a much larger area either later that same day or the next day.). As other reviewers note, this is the nonfiction story of Eastern Flight 401, which crashed in the Everglades back in 1972. It looked as though the L1011 was in a shallow left turn and dragged the left wing tip in the swamp. The government considered him totally disabled. All photos by Southern Airboat, who coordinated the event. An account of the paranormal happenings even appeared in a 1974 issue of the US Flight Safety Foundation newsletter. You could hear the cry of death. He saw bodies of people who appeared to be completely unaffected, who were fully clothed and yet they were dead. In its first three hours aloft, Flight 401 had been uneventful. Sara Escobar 8/ 7/31 Eric Olson holding a piece of wreckage from Flight 401. 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. Operated by a Lockheed L-1011-385-1 TriStar (N310EA), the aircraft crashed into the Florida Everglades on a nighttime approach to Miami International Airport (MIA) on December 29, 1972. At home, waiting sometimes fearfully, was Nancy, a pretty barefoot country girl in a cotton dress. Theyre not going to find us, an anxious passenger whispered. Robert L. Marquis - "Bud" to friends - wanted to eat frogs' legs. She was the first victim, along with her unborn son, discovered by the search team at 12:30 pm, December 30th), Patricia Renee Shackelford 12/9/52 (Pictured below). It was shortly after the May 11, 1996 . Bud wants to. Paquita Carrasquillo 10/4/40 Trudy Smith didn't return to flying. Exactly fifty years ago, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 mysteriously . He had a broken arm and some cuts and scrapes, but no other visible wounds, Leonhard said. Ronald Jaye March 27, 1940 Information about your use of this site is shared with Google. The pair conversed briefly before Loft faded from sight. Bernard A. Goldfuss 11/2/22 At first, witnesses reported nothing more severe than standing in the aisles, occupying the galley and cockpit. For those who haven't seen the images: In her initial report from the crash site a large Ukrainian wheat field "dotted with purple flowers and Queen Anne's lace" the New York Times . Roberto Palma 6/10/27 They were heading his way. The breakdown and subsequent emergency landing did in fact happen, and was covered in a tongue-in-cheek brief in the journal of the Flight Safety Foundation. 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. The flight, destined for Kyiv, Ukraine, took off on Jan. 8, 2020 from Tehran . Loft abandoned the landing and informed Air Traffic Control of the issue. 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. Bud revved up the engine and headed northwest. 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. (The club is still in existence at the Opa locka Airport, but it was relocated to a different site on the field years ago.) Angelo was a friend to all who know him, generous with his time to anyone who needed him and a devoted husband and father. NTSB Crash Report (Flight 401) | Flight 401 may refer to: Iberia Airlines Flight 401, crashed on 5 May 1965. His right arm was badly hurt. Gas gangrene attacked his lungs. In a weak voice, one of them asked, What about the alligators?, Raposa didnt hesitate: We made such a loud noise when we hit. The FAA guy sitting closest to Leonhard yelled, Holy shit!, An airboat doesnt have brakes, Leonhard explained. Skeptoid Media, Marquis waved his headlamp in circles, guiding the pilots to the crash. Pilot Bob Loft, copilot Bert Stockstill, and flight engineer Don Repo were bringing the plane in to land at Miami International Airport. Trans World Airlines Flight 800 was carrying 230 people, including four cockpit crew members and 14 flight attendants. 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. He was a devoted husband of sixty-two years to his first wife Martha (nee Regan) and beloved husband of his second wife Sue Johnson.Charlie was a loving son to the late Junius and Rachel Johnson, much loved father of the late Tracy Johnson and dear brother to the late Jeane Johnson Stanfield. I dont know this for sure, but I seem to remember he was the last survivor rescued.. The ultimate "yes sir, no sir" man, Bud shuffles reluctantly onto the porch, blinking furiously in the sunlight, wondering what's up. Their marriage spanned 47 years. "The one accurate quote in the book," Borman comments, "was made by Jim Ashlock when he called the whole story 'a bunch of crap.'". Documentary, Unscripted. According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the main fuselage broke into four main sections and many other smaller pieces on impact. Back in the day, when he spent so much time in the wilderness, only the airplanes overhead reminded him of civilization. But we knew our job was to rescue the survivors first. Song - The Ghost of Flight 401 - Lyrics | 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. Flipping through the pages, Bud smiles for the first time in hours. They had drowned because their seats landed with their heads tilted down into the swamp water. With determination born of her Portuguese grandparents work ethic and her work on a 160-acre dairy farm as a young girl growing up in Rhode Island, the former Girl Scout troop leader shouted, Im a stewardess. What happened next must have happened very quickly. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 traveled from New York to Miami. Eastern Airlines Flight #401 (L1011 N310EA) . Read the accident report (PDF). Two others did not want to be reminded. New York: Atheneum, 1977. ExpandAutoplay. He was an aviation business student at Miami-Dade Community College then, and used some of his money to start a commuter airline. ", 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. At least he lives near his precious Everglades. The flight engineer on duty during this flight was a personal friend to Repo and instantly recognized the face as that of his deceased friend. The old airboat, the airboat in which he carried injured passengers, waits on a rusty trailer with flat tires.
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