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. Thank you, Rob. 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. I saw people burned in agony. Suddenly, he stopped. Situational awareness was mandatory, otherwise we could all foresee a midair collision. 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. Skeptoid Podcast It wouldn't take much.". Ghosts of Flight 401 - 2 | "Grounding the Ghost of Flight 401." The Ghost of Flight 401: Mystery Files | Sadly, she did not survive. Even at 78, Marquis is an old-fashioned country boy. Officially, 103 passengers and crew died. It was one of the great ghost stories of the 1970s. Dunning, B. There were also other artifacts such as yellow airline life preservers and panes of plastic passenger windows. He was more than 25 miles away. Witnesses include pilots, various other members of Eastern Air Lines staff and their passengers. FSF. 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). Worse, none of them noticed that the jet had been steadily losing altitude. 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." The City of Miami Springs hosted a Beautiful Memorial Ceremony on Thursday, December 29, 2022. While all this was very much in the public domain, reports circulated that aircraft engineers quietly removed any materials they had reused from the crash. Patricia Renee Shackelford 12/9/52 None of them realized in the dark that they were gradually descending, as their attention was on debugging the landing gear indicator. 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. 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. Trudy Smith - Douglas November 6, 2021, 12:23 pm. Henry Nunez 8/18/23 In particular, an oven and the elevator (for the L-1011 had an elevator leading to a spacious downstairs galley) were salvaged from Flight 401 and installed on another L-1011 in the fleet, on which Repo usually appeared. They didn't find each other until morning. The idea that a large, boxy, relatively delicate component like an oven or an elevator could have survived undamaged is immediately ludicrous at face value. Ronald Jaye March 27, 1940 He had to make a detour of some 50 miles before he would arrive at the boat ramp on the north side of the Tamami Trail. Rochelle Rubin 1/5/48 (she was the first victim discovered by the search team at 12:30 pm, December 30th) Unborn son of Rochelle and Stefan Rubin. "They gave us six months off and then we were expected to be 'over it. May Albury, Verena Bieri, Carl Bolufe, Rigoberto Bolufe, Sandra Burt, Gustavo Cassado, Mrs Xeimara Casado, Miss Christina Casado, Ann Connell, Barry Connell, Mariel Diegeriez, Gerald W Eskow, Sylvia Fisher, Ms. F. Frankin, Herbert Fresko, Molly Fresko, Alicia Garcia, Julia Garcia, Kathryn F.Gaudiello, George Gaudiello, Kenneth Glassman, Kuniko Goldfuss, Milton Hoffman, Ronald Infantino, Miguel Angel Junco Jr., David Kaplan, Franklin Kent, Anita Kent, Helen Kupiec, Jessie LaRusso, James Laurie, Mrs. Leone Levine, Cornelia Leya, Thomas McAvoy, Joseph Mazur, Rose Mazur, Luis Mejia, Richard N. Micale, Albert J Morris, Janice Minguzzi, Christina Ochoa, Allen Okanawsky, Oneida Pares, Aristides Pares, Martha Pares, Carlos Polanco, Lucino Polanco, Joseph Popson, Richard Pragluski, Goldez Quinico, Evelyn Ragalia, Marie Rego, Glen Remkus*, Francoise Riette, Thomas Rothenberg, Martin Siminerio, Bonnie Silverman, Donna Smith, Millie Soberon, Jerald Solomon, Larry Sumpkins, Marilyn Taylor, Edward Ulrich, Jesse C. Walker, Allen Weiss, Lorenzo Zetlin. The Ghost of Flight 401 (TV Movie 1978) - IMDb | Jana Dedek 6/24/53 "Ladies, you're safe up there. More than a single person has often been present at the time, whether by accident or design. Everything else was in small pieces spread in a general southwest or south-by-southwest direction for 1,500 to 2,000 feet. I tried to keep hold of myself by showing up at work, but I couldn't concentrate.". His right arm was badly hurt. The company folded in 1991 and is perhaps still better known for some of the more compelling and credible paranormal encounters to date. Two years after the crash, Anita and Franklin Kent's lives were taken up by endless doctor visits. Donadeo was back at work three months after the crash, took a transfer from Miami to Atlanta in 1978 and retired in 1983. Bud saw bodies strapped into seats upside down in the water. The crew did finally notice the situation taking place, but nowhere near in time to prevent the inevitable. The plane crashed into the swamp; fortunately, it was a relatively gentle angle into a soft surface, and that's what allowed so many to survive. Above: A piece of wreckage from Flight 401 still visible in the Everglades. The Skeptoid weekly science podcast is a free public service from Skeptoid Media, a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit. The bronze plaques are being donated as well as the granite base. The unintentional jar apparently caused the planes nose to tilt down a few degrees. In the 1970s, searching for images on Google did not yet exist. If you like this programming, please become a member. Janice Testa 9/12/52 Fear of Landing. I saw a husband who couldn't find his wife or his children." The article covered the story of an Eastern L-1011 ferry flight where the jet lost one of the two operating engines and the pilot had a challenging landing. "The one accurate quote in the book," Borman comments, "was made by Jim Ashlock when he called the whole story 'a bunch of crap.'". Flight attendants of flight 401. The underside of the L1011 was reflecting the ground lighting from the airport and the surrounding city which made it easy to identify the aircraft type although we couldn't identify the airline. 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. I don't remember the take-off or the landing that day, but I vividly remember the meteorological conditions and the crash site. The landing gear from Flight 401 at the crash site; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401, crashed on 29 December 1972. The problem had consumed all their mental energy. Anniversary message - George Gaudiello December 29, 2021, 11:22 am. Abbey Lynn Greenwald 9/18/52 Braulio Corretjer 1/5/28 Flipping through the pages, Bud smiles for the first time in hours. Flight 401 - Flight Log | 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. (none / Historical Museum of Southern Fl . theYear = now.getYear() My God, what do we do now? The Lockheed L-1011-1 Tristar was the latest generation of wide-body commercial aircraft and had been put into service only four months before. Silence. 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. 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. Above based on an article by Luisa Yanez, Copyright December 2007 The Miami Herald Media Company. The Ghost of Flight 401 was not much of a departure for him. Repo seemed to have a knack of turning up in the oddest of places. Officially, Eastern Air Lines denied anything was wrong with their aircraft or personnel. He put his arm around her, and they began slogging through knee-deep muck and water. I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. 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. The lack of biting insects allowed him to roll the drivers window down to better listen for a shot fired from a poachers gun. 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. Lockheed L-1011 Landing Gear Lever | 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. Above: Flight attendants Beverly Raposa and Mercy Ruiz sit on a patch of ground in the Everglades where their flight crashed 35 years earlier. After retiring he volunteered with the Civil Air Patrol, his last rank was Lt. He isn't a talker to begin with, unless it's about boats or engines or the 'glades. 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. One was Micale, who they found alone on a clump of swamp muck, drenched in swamp water and jet fuel. Above (L to R): Martin Siminerio in hospital, two file photos from the Miami Herald of survivor Xiomara Casada at Palmetto General with her infant, Christina, in a Miami hospital. However, we had one advantage that members of the general public didn't have - we had access to airplanes. Pedro Garcia 2/10/26 . Flight 401crash-landed into the Everglades at over 200 mph. The plane, a new "Whisperliner," could transport 229 passengers. 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. Not long after the crash, the ghosts of Loft and Repo were seen on more than twenty occasions by crew . At 11:42 p.m., the first officer said, We did something to the altitude.. The petite brunette stood just 5 feet 1.5 inches tall. Unborn son of Rochelle and Stefan Rubin On Dec. 29, 1972, Eastern Flight 401 from New York to Miami took off from . Elisa Ruth Romero 5/28/44 Yes, they are, Raposa assured them. Bob called Infantino, who loves to tell the story: "He was a regional coordinator with AFLAC, American Family Life Assurance Co., and that's when I started -- 16 years ago, and I've been with them ever since. Newsroom Ready: Canadian officials, families honour Flight PS752 victims on third anniversary Grieving friends and relatives of victims killed during the downing of Flight PS752 called for justice and accountability from the Iranian regime as Canadians from coast to coast marked three years since the country's military shot the plane down. Another flight was being subjected to pre-flight checks when Bob Loft was spotted wandering around the undercarriage. Miguel Junco, being carried into a hospital by an attendant. I wish I had that kind of money today instead of 20 years ago. It crashed into the Everglades 18.7 miles northwest of the airport, eight miles north of Tamiami Trail, about 100 yards east of the L-67 canal levee. ATC put the plane into a holding pattern over the Everglades. Discretion was the better part of valor. Lets sing Christmas carols, Raposa replied. "Accident Description." Inside was a treasure: Her camera with the unprocessed film of shots of the crew taken that day. Introducing the Keys Quirkiest Resident. Two days later, Lilly Infantino was found trapped beneath one of the wings. Effectively, we turned the clubhouse into the European equivalent of a weekend pub. The unexpected facts behind this famous ghost story from the 1970s. 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. We had him out by 5:30 in the morning. I come from an Eastern family - my mother, Betty Olson, retired from Eastern in 1976. Another link between the sightings and the aircraft involved could be the corporate decision to use undamaged parts of Flight 401 on other jets in the fleet. Loose chunks of lime rock cracked and popped under the tires as he crawled ahead. A jet airliner is not something that immediately comes to mind: except to those who know aboutEastern Air Lines flight 401. "You couldn't even say goodbye to each . Loft, Robert Albin | The Senior Architecture Analyst provides architecture . This quote, which was obviously a joke, was presented in the Ghost of Flight 401 as fact. * Glenn C. Remkus, 47, was still hospitalized in Miami with burns and two broken legs as of February 1973, though a newspaper report on Dec 31st had reported him to be in "satisfactory" condition and in "good spirits." The aircraft, a Lockheed L-1011-1 Tristar jet, seemed to have an issue with the front nose gear. Nery Palma 7/12/34 The death toll at the time was the highest of any one-plane accident in U.S. civil aviation history. "It has always bothered me that there was nothing done with 401," said Dummett, a retired Miami-Dade firefighter and founder of the American Airboat Search and Rescue Association, now living in Lake Wales. With the engine dangerously wide open - the boat slipped over the grass at 35 mph - he maneuvered around all obstacles. The majority of the witnesses are the most professional of professional people and simply not really the sort of people to invent the stories that they tell. Miguel Junco 8/28/42 "When I tried to prop him up it felt like every bone in his body was broken.". Bill, ironically, as well as being the proud owner of a pristine Cessna 180 was one of the helicopter pilots for the Metro-Dade police department. His left knee was dislocated, wrenched sideways at a vicious right angle. Flight 401 Crash Site Hauntings |. "I could empathize with what Ron was going through. "Nobody paid him to go out there and try to rescue people," says Ken Pine, who recently fixed Bud's roof. 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. Bill Elliott had a much more eventful night. The most accurate account of the crash of Flight 401 was authored by a journalist from the Miami Herald, Rob Elder. Information about your use of this site is shared with Google. A jumbo jet crashed in the Everglades north of the Tamiami Trial, his sergeant said. Onboard the aircraft, all members of the Flight Crew worked solely on their problem.
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