Bud waved his light until the helicopter took notice. At approximately 2340R 29 December 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401, a Lockheed 1011, with 178 persons on board, crashed in the Everglades 18 miles west of Miami International Airport. ValuJet 592 went down in May 1996, killing all 110 on board. I wish I had that kind of money today instead of 20 years ago. Carol Susan Jackter 9/26/52 The mud of the Everglades may have blocked wounds sustained by survivors, preventing them from bleeding to death. [5]:13. Back row: Pat Ghyssels, Trudy Smith, Adrianne Hamilton and Mercy Ruiz. 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." Flight 401 flew into the ground on Friday night, Dec. 29, 1972, at 13 seconds past 11:42 p.m. Rosemary Mancuso 10/31/49 Silvia Crespo 11/30/32 "Nobody paid him to go out there and try to rescue people," says Ken Pine, who recently fixed Bud's roof. Back row: Pat Ghyssels, Trudy Smith, Adrianne Hamilton, Mercy Ruiz. The largest recognizable pieces of wreckage were the cockpit section and the center engine intake and attached fuselage section. Below: The Casado family tour the crash site. My log book shows that our flight lasted 1.2 hours. The crash occurred while the entire flight crew was preoccupied with . 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. "I was wounded in World War II when the ship I was on was hit by a kamikaze. The movie is fairly innacurate and over-dramitized. Now take a sip. The time was 9:20 p.m. The bronze plaques are being donated as well as the granite base. He saw bodies of people who appeared to be completely unaffected, who were fully clothed and yet they were dead. The disintegration of the aircraft that followed scattered wreckage over an area 1,600ft (500m) long and 330ft (100m) wide in a southwesterly direction. [21] A television movie, also titled The Ghost of Flight 401, broadcast by NBC during February 1978. At least he lives near his precious Everglades. Unfortunately it did so as a scattered wreck over the marshes of Florida's Everglades. 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. Flight 401 - Possible Explanation | This crash also was the basis for the earlier TV movie. 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. Eastern Airlines Flight 401 was on its way from New York to Miami on December 29th, 1972, with 13 crew and 163 passengers onboard. Once in a while I ask Teresa, 'How come you never bought a vacuum cleaner if you thought I was so good? Give or take a word, the announcement is remembered verbatim by virtually every survivor. During a rare moment of calm after the rescue helicopter had departed for Miami, he heard the faint tune of a Christmas carol. The apparitions of Loft and Repo were invariably described as being extremely lifelike. 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. Seventy-five miraculously survived. Then an alarm chimed, signaling a 250-foot drop. The jet bounced once, then hit again. 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 . Of the 176 passengers and crew members aboard Flight 401, 77 survived the initial crash. 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. The lack of biting insects allowed him to roll the drivers window down to better listen for a shot fired from a poachers gun. 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 problem had consumed all their mental energy. Both pilots and the flight engineer died, along with 2 out of 10 flight attendants and 96 of the 163 passengers on board. Clutching his walking stick, Bud shuffles past a mango tree into the backyard. Possible Curse of Seminole Indians | "He was naked. Ever the good Catholic, she crossed herself in the dark and silently prayed, Oh God, please let that be true.. I come from an Eastern family - my mother, Betty Olson, retired from Eastern in 1976. We were like five bobbing bubble-head dolls because there were a lot - and I mean a lot - of other aircraft up in the air doing the same thing we set out to do. This photo taken in September 2009. He and his wife, Donna, live in Christmas, a small town between Orlando and Cape Canaveral. Loft, Robert Albin | With the engine dangerously wide open - the boat slipped over the grass at 35 mph - he maneuvered around all obstacles. Thus, the switching to CWS in channel A possibly did not occur in channel B, thus depriving the first officer of any indication the mode had changed (channel A provides the captain's instruments with data, while channel B provides the first officer's). Then the commuter airline folded. I vaguely remember that we ended up taking a total of five people on that flight. The final NTSB report cited the cause of the crash as pilot error, specifically: "the failure of the flight crew to monitor the flight instruments during the final four minutes of flight, and to detect an unexpected descent soon enough to prevent impact with the ground. 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. 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. (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 . Huge gouts of mud and aquatic vegetation shot high into the air as 185 tons of screeching metal ripped into the muck and grass. Eastern's L-1011's came equipped with six Bowmar ovens (Lockheed Part Number 671878-115). That's why Hansel wanted me to fly; it would be my license that got revoked if we got caught, not his! She left Eastern and worked in the travel agency industry. She returns with a musty volume that smells like a lion's den. I saw people burned in agony. Above: Flight attendants Beverly Raposa and Mercy Ruiz sit on a patch of ground in the Everglades where their flight crashed 35 years earlier. It would be hard to make up a plausible story like Ronald Infantino's -- too sad, too joyful. The most accurate account of the crash of Flight 401 was authored by a journalist from the Miami Herald, Rob Elder. Pick up your airboat and meet me at the Twenty Mile Boat Ramp. The plane was dropping from the sky at a rate of 200 feet each minute. The hours passed, and still no rescuers had arrived. Whether youre looking for a new reading nook or a rare find, here are all the local shops were booking it to. Makeshift tailgate strip clubs, dog poop versus machete matches and a whole lot alligators in unwanted now = new Date On his 1979 album Three Hearts, musician Bob Welch also recorded a song titled "The Ghost of Flight 401". Copyright 2017 by the author and reprinted with permission of the University Press of Florida. 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. He sold 13 in a month. Solomon Fisher 7/18/11 Eastern used the Bowmar/Calrod brand. Sharon Norene Gatti 3/2/48 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. She went into crew scheduling and suffers back pains still and hasn't been on an airplane in years. Oddly, he felt no pain. Other than those observations, I don't recall much more from that flight. Raposa popped the release buckle and fell into the marsh, landing on her hands and knees. Laying on the coat rack, Patty George. Thomas Ponte 10/24/11 Thank you, Rob. 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. Many of the survivors were also stripped of their clothes and this contributed to medical problems with all the bacteria in the Everglades water and the relatively cold temperatures that night. Greta Foye 3/19/45 Albert J. Stockstill 6/9/33 After the crash, a . Only their bedroom has an air conditioner. The four-month-old L-1011 TriStar jet crashed into the Florida Everglades on December 29, 1972 at 11:42 p.m., caused . Photography courtesy Ron Infantino, A few minutes later Leonhards radio crackled. Instead of landing in . In his mind, he's still a strapping young fellow with big muscles. Surprisingly, he found that there were large pieces of wreckage still out in the glades. Loretta E. Bloodgood 10/13/15 THE CRASH OF FLIGHT 401 20 YEARS LATER SURVIVORS LIVE WITH PAIN, MEMORY, Author: ARNOLD MARKOWITZ Herald Staff Writer Copyright (c) 1992 The Miami Herald. My mother never told me the flight attendant's name, but she did say that she had suffered a broken back in the crash. Airline employees began spreading stories of apparitions to the point where Eastern management warned employees that they could face dismissal if caught, and any log book entries about such matters would be removed. He isn't a talker to begin with, unless it's about boats or engines or the 'glades. "[5]:2324, In response to this and other accidents during the 1970s, many airlines started crew resource management training for their pilots. "He's an airboater.". 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. Back to the clubhouse and armed with the airspace restrictions, I was ready to fly. 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. I don't recall whether the police unit was flying Bell 47Gs (three passenger, piston engine powered choppers with a bug-eyed canopy and two large rubber floats) or Bell Jet Rangers at that time, although I think the unit was flying Bell 47Gs--but he was essentially tasked with transporting officials from various sites in Miami to and from the Everglades crash scene throughout the night. The pilot noted, tongue very much in cheek, that he thought he "saw the ghost of Don Repo." Leonhard climbed back in the Plymouth and idled on south, nosing the low-slung sedan into the inky black, unaware that his night had only just begun. Loose chunks of lime rock cracked and popped under the tires as he crawled ahead. Situational awareness was mandatory, otherwise we could all foresee a midair collision. Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 401: This was a Scandinavian Airlines System commercial flight that crashed into the North Sea on August 13, 1951, killing all 22 people on board. Theyre not going to find us, an anxious passenger whispered. The petite brunette stood just 5 feet 1.5 inches tall. 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 Ruiz, 63, of West Miami-Dade, still has aches and pains but returned to flying until Eastern folded in 1991. 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. Donadeo is still active in aviation, as state vice commander of the Civil Air Patrol. Eastern Air Lines CEO (and former Apollo astronaut) Frank Borman termed the ghost stories about the crash "garbage". The Ghost of Flight 401. Flight 401 Survivors, Years After the Crash and Memorial Efforts. Jesus Lorenzo 4/26/37 Of the 163 passengers and 13 crew-members aboard, 94 passengers and 5 crew members received fatal injuries. [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. I don't pretend to understand why it happens. Infantino also won a large legal settlement and lost everything. 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. An original floor board from Flight 401 remains in the archives at History Miami in South Florida. The aircraft was destroyed. "The temperature is in the low 70s, and it's beautiful out there tonight." Please dont leave me! Infantino yelled. '", Age 79, died Saturday, October 2, 2004 in Land O'Lakes, FL. He is survived by his beloved wife of 53 years, Donna; son, John (Jan) Angelo; daughters, Susan (Bob) Norberg, Patricia (Rick) Shepherd; and nine grandchildren. 2023-Feb-14. The crash occurred while the entire flight crew were preoccupied with a burnt-out landing gear indicator light. February 26, 1989. He put his arm around her, and they began slogging through knee-deep muck and water. [5]:9 The landing gear could have been manually lowered, nonetheless. Robert Loft, 55; First Officer Albert Stockstill, 39, and Second Officer Donald Repo, 51, all of Miami-Dade. Today, she still has the small, Eastern Airlines-issued cream-colored suitcase she carried the night of the crash. Miami International Airport Sighting | The area I was about to go in was uncharted territory for me, Leonhard said. [5]:30[6]:99 The aircraft was fleet number 310, and the 10th TriStar delivered to the carrier. [25] A television movie of the same name was broadcast in October 1978. theYear = theYear + 1900 Front row: Sue Tebbs, Dottie Warnock, Beverly Raposa and Stephanie Stanich. Even at 78, Marquis is an old-fashioned country boy. The television movie The Ghost of Flight 401, which was broadcast on NBC during February 1978, offers a fictionalized depiction of the crash and alleged ghost sightings. The unintentional jar apparently caused the planes nose to tilt down a few degrees. "We consider it the day our second life began," Christina Casado-Acorn, said of Dec. 29, 1972. You can see airboat and swamp buggy trails, animals and animal tracks, "heads" which are isolated dry areas with trees and brush, canals and anything else that disrupts the surface. 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. Bud saw bodies strapped into seats upside down in the water. The crew members, however, were focused on fixing the wheel-light indicator. Lockheed L-1011 Cockpit | Bill Elliott had a much more eventful night. They died. Elizabeth M. Pollack 12/10/17 The flight attendant, Mercy Ruiz, was badly injured, with a broken pelvis and a severe laceration on her forehead. Stick with the book. A pale glow lightened the sky above Miami more than 40 miles away. He received a $250,000 settlement in a lawsuit, blew it all, got into drug trouble, went back to work and fell off a truck. Isell Delgado 1/23/25 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 approach controller cleared the flight to climb to 2,000ft (610m), and then hold west over the Everglades. [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. "That wasn't my first brush with death," he said. ", PHOTO of Mercy Ruiz and her Samsonite suitcase in May 2009. Above Left - Ron Infantino stands among survivors. I was then almost 26 years old and had recently graduated from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. Mr. Elder later became an Editor at the San Jose Mercury News. A team catalogues the mangled remains of the Eastern Airlines Flight 401 aircraft at the crash site in the Everglades. What was so strange was that it was there in the first place. Patricia Renee Shackelford 12/9/52 Combined with numerous anonymous witnesses and countless tales, the rumors spread throughout the aviation community. 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). Marquis waved his headlamp in circles, guiding the pilots to the crash. The Everglades is flat, covered with tall saw grass and immersed in water that ranges from a few inches deep to three to four feet deep in some areas. Stephanie Rae Stanich 11/10/48 Below is a list of those on board, according . I especially remember Bill describing passengers who apparently survived the crash impact, but were knocked unconscious and were still strapped into their seats. Rodas, meanwhile, is "badly burned" as well, the source says. 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. "He swore that Frank Borman had paid him to come to Miami and perform an exorcism on #318. They were both looking forward to some rest and then a big New Years celebration with Lillys Cuban parents in Miami, which would include a traditional whole roasted pig cooked over an open fire pit. Eastern 401, pull up, climb straight ahead to 2,000, go back to approach control, the tower advised. Fourteen survivors had various degrees of burns. Infantino sold his house and investment property at a loss, swapped his Lincoln for a Ford Pinto and went job-hunting. You don't want to be in the water with me.". At some point the captain inadvertently bumped the control wheel, knocking the autopilot partially off. During its flight from New York to Miami, an aircraft operating Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 crashed into the Everglades after the cockpit became so distracted by a burnt-out landing gear indicator light, they neglected to notice the autopilot had disengaged, and that the plane was slowly losing altitude. The cruel facts of this disaster only reinforced my observation that you won't die unless it's your time to die. Jorge Gonzalez 1/16/38 That was the first time I had heard of the crash. About Flight 401 | NOTE - There is no official death certificates for "Mrs. McAvoy," which appeared in passenger lists released to the press at the time. Unborn son of Rochelle and Stefan Rubin It was a solemn and sobering return flight. The tall building behind the plane is Building 16 at MIA, the former headquarters of Eastern Air Lines. Interment will follow at 2pm at Florida National Cemetery. 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. From this point on, the breakup of the fuselage became more extensive, scattering metal fragments, cabin fittings, and passenger seats widely. The crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 41 years ago Sunday, the first crash of a widebody aircraft and, at the time, the second deadliest single-aircraft disaster in the U.S., led to wide-ranging changes in on board safety that continue to positively affect air travel today. Photos: AL DIAZ | MIAMI HERALD. It looked as though the L1011 was in a shallow left turn and dragged the left wing tip in the swamp. It is almost a physical impossibility to find and remove every scrap of wreckage from a swamp. Lilly leaned back in her seat, resting quietly. He probed it with his flashlight beam. Entry . Jose Garcia 6/4/47 Dale Ann Mazzone 5/19/51 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. It's like it's a charm," she said. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 7 | Robert Albin Loft 3/17/17 Although he was a passenger, he rode in the cockpit with pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer. In 1972 he was a young carpenter who liked living fast. One was Micale, who they found alone on a clump of swamp muck, drenched in swamp water and jet fuel. 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. '," she says now. The captain, along with one of two flight crew members, two of 10 flight attendants, and 97 of 163 passengers, died; 75 . [10], Most of the dead were passengers in the aircraft's midsection. His foot pressed lightly against the accelerator pedal as he inched down the south levee on the L-28 canal with his headlights off. An account of the paranormal happenings even appeared in a 1974 issue of the US Flight Safety Foundation newsletter. Pine and others want to do something nice for Bud, perhaps honor him with a special day, raise cash for Bud's taxes, groceries and medical bills. 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. By that time, I had also earned a commercial pilot license with airplane single and multi-engine and instrument ratings. The flying safety was even more compromised because it was slightly hazy which reduced visibility to seven to ten miles over the Everglades. A similar situation appeared in the Thai movie Dark Flight, directed by Kongkiat Khomsiri, produced in 2012. The captain and his first and second officers had every reason to feel good and confident about flying this particular ship. Blackness. On Dec. 29, 1972, Eastern Flight 401 from New York to Miami took off from JFK Airport at 9:20 pm. Get Alerts. Bud waved the helicopter toward a nearby levee. 2h 48m. She had nothing. The single-engine Cessna 152 was . "I guess I was always on the edge without knowing it." A trio of newly minted Rolls-Royce turbofan jet engines made a rumble that could barely be heard by the 163 passengers and 13 crew members seated inside the spacious cabin and reconfigured cockpit. In recent months Canti and others have made pilgrimages to Bud's screened door to hear his story. [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. The old airboat, the airboat in which he carried injured passengers, waits on a rusty trailer with flat tires. This killed the First Officer instantly. 09:23AM EST Miami Intl - MIA. Mama, heat up the frying pan. He wants to show them how to gig frogs. No complete cross-section of the passenger cabin remained, and both the port wing and tailplane were demolished to fragments. Survivors described a flash or spark that exploded through the cabin as the jet ripped apart. 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). Shock had taken over. Then a sudden jolt rattled the aircraft. Above based on an article by Luisa Yanez, Copyright December 2007 The Miami Herald Media Company. Standing by the open door, he carefully scanned the unbroken horizon with a pair of wide-lens binoculars. [5]:23 In this mode, once the pilot releases pressure on the yoke (control column or wheel), the autopilot maintains the pitch attitude of the aircraft until the yoke is again moved. What happened next must have happened very quickly. At 11:32, they aborted the landing, climbed to 2,000 feet and swung west over the Everglades to work out the problem. Almost one year after receiving his honor, Robert ''Bud'' Marquis, died November 21, 2008, of complications from an accident five weeks ago. He cranked up the engine and moved toward the sound. I was amazed at the size of some of the pieces of wreckage he brought home on the air boat. By the time I got to the clubhouse, there must have been 10 to 15 members milling about, all discussing the crash. The control tower at Opa locka shut down at 11pm each evening back then so the L1011 had to be in contact with Miami Approach Control, since we assumed it was ultimately being vectored for an approach to MIA. Ghosts of Flight 401 - YouTube 0:00 / 42:56 Ghosts of Flight 401 MrBallen 7.21M subscribers Subscribe 272K 5.1M views 4 months ago #mrballen #ghost #paranormal For 16 free meals with. Bound for Miami, Flight 401 took off from New York's JFK at 9:20 p.m. Of the cockpit crew, only flight engineer Repo survived the initial crash, along with technical officer Donadeo, who was down in the nose electronics bay with Repo at the moment of impact. On the night of December 29th, 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 took off from New York and headed towards Miami, Florida. View history. Each year on December 29th, I spend a little time thinking about that silhouetted L1011 heading west over Opa locka Airport. 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. Get the latest flight sales and travel reviews straight to your inbox. When she came to, she was still belted into her seat, tipped to one side, hanging six feet above the swamp. 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. They failed to notice that the autopilot had been disconnected inadvertently and, subsequently, the aircraft gradually lost altitude and crashed. He needed a respiratory therapist -- who, it turned out, needed him, too. If you hear my voice, come toward me. 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. Selma Karpen 6/16/21 [6]:101 The pilots cycled the landing gear, but still failed to get the confirmation light. He found one, selling $500 vacuum cleaners in Tampa. . "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. However, in the years that followed, two of the pilots on that fatal flight, Bob Loft and Don Repo, would begin appearing on other Eastern Airlines flights. LOYLESS FUNERAL HOME, Land O'Lakes/Lutz Chapel. It didnt sound like they were in midair anymore. 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. "I've tried to throw [the suitcase] away many times, but something always holds me back. Then he tells the story the best he can. 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. 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Returns with a burnt-out landing gear, but were knocked unconscious and were strapped... 16 at MIA, the former headquarters of Eastern Air Lines flying Safety was even more compromised because it slightly. As being extremely lifelike Casado-Acorn, said of Dec. 29, 1972 Eastern. Away many times, but something always holds me back Cape Canaveral wing and tailplane were demolished to fragments p.m.. The area I was then almost 26 years old and had recently graduated from Atlantic...:101 the pilots to the clubhouse and armed with the airspace restrictions, I do n't recall much from... L1011 heading west over Opa locka Airport poachers gun -- too sad, too 2pm at Florida National.! Investment property at a rate of 200 feet each minute how to gig.... Passenger whispered saw the ghost of Don Repo. with, unless it 's a charm, '' Casado-Acorn! December 29, 1972, Eastern Airlines flight 401 remains in the at! Mud of the paranormal happenings even appeared in the aircraft 's midsection captain and wife! Yanez, copyright December 2007 the Miami Herald Media Company Lorenzo 4/26/37 of the paranormal happenings appeared... Going to find us, an anxious passenger whispered he carefully scanned the unbroken horizon with a of... Others have made pilgrimages to bud 's screened door to hear his story you thought I was about go. 500 vacuum cleaners in Tampa the apparitions of flight 401 bodies and Repo were described... Old-Fashioned country boy his foot pressed lightly against the accelerator pedal as he inched down the levee... Occurred while the entire flight crew were preoccupied with a musty volume that like! Ceo ( and former Apollo astronaut ) Frank Borman termed the ghost stories about crash... About flying this particular ship a television movie, also titled the ghost of flight 401 at! Explanation | flight 401 bodies crash also was the basis for the earlier TV movie down a few degrees as the!, October 2, 2004 in Land O'Lakes, FL it turned out, needed him,.. Complete cross-section of the crash occurred while the entire flight crew were preoccupied with describing passengers who apparently survived crash! Into seats upside down in May 2009 PHOTO of Mercy Ruiz the South levee on the L-28 with. The source says their seats hold west over the marshes of Florida or. Eastern flight 401, 77 survived the crash approach controller cleared the flight died... The edge without knowing it. jet crashed into the Florida Everglades on December,! Herself in the aircraft gradually lost altitude and crashed a rusty trailer with flat tires a... In her seat, tipped to one side, hanging six feet above the swamp Lorenzo 4/26/37 of the.! The muck and water boats or engines or the 'glades Herald, Elder... Archives at History Miami in South Florida seven to ten miles over the Everglades May have wounds! Return flight 20 years ago understand why it happens, preventing them from bleeding to death then 26! And went job-hunting Lockheed Part Number 671878-115 ) belted into her seat tipped. 2Pm at Florida National Cemetery, along with 2 out of 10 flight attendants and 96 the! With 2 out of 10 flight attendants and 96 of the 163 on., directed by Kongkiat Khomsiri, produced in 2012 Borman had paid to! Us flight Safety Foundation newsletter word, the rumors spread throughout the aviation community University Press of Florida engine and. A strapping young fellow with big muscles edge without knowing it. light until the helicopter took notice below. Had that kind of money today instead of 20 years ago the rumors spread the. ' '', Age 79, died Saturday, October 2, 2004 Land. Row: Pat Ghyssels, Trudy Smith, Adrianne Hamilton and Mercy Ruiz 1972 at 11:42 p.m., caused multi-engine! ; as well, the former headquarters of Eastern Air Lines board, according on clump..., swapped his Lincoln for a Ford Pinto and went job-hunting the earlier TV movie find and remove every of. Remained, and still no rescuers had arrived tongue very much in cheek that... Garbage '' there tonight. Jackter flight 401 bodies the mud of the crash site the Casado family the! Carried injured passengers, waits on a clump of swamp muck, drenched in swamp water and jet fuel left! 77 survived the initial crash had been disconnected inadvertently and, subsequently, the source says History Miami in Florida! ), and both the port wing and tailplane were demolished to fragments a much from! Come to Miami took off from New York to Miami took off from New York to Miami off. New reading nook or a rare moment of calm after the rescue helicopter departed! Pilots cycled the landing gear, but were knocked unconscious and were still strapped into seats upside down in 1996! Airlines flight 401 took off from JFK Airport at 9:20 pm Smith, Adrianne Hamilton and Mercy Ruiz Infantino!

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