In the narrow beam of his head lamp he now saw enormous strips of torn metal. A Military Burial with Honors will be held at a later date, at South Florida National Cemetery, Lake Worth, Florida. ----------------------------------------------. The Yeti Airlines flight from Kathmandu that plummeted into a gorge Sunday . Combined with numerous anonymous witnesses and countless tales, the rumors spread throughout the aviation community. Like a lot of other aspiring commercial pilots, I had had a checkered aviation career, having worked, among other things, as the full-time chief pilot of a regional oil company while attending college. 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. An hour or so later, a Christmas carol floated through the air, reassuring Infantino he was not alone. Discretion was the better part of valor. Santiago Flight 513: A Fictional Time Warp. 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. The Ghost of Flight 401 (TV Movie 1978) - IMDb |
His right arm was badly hurt. I was amazed at the size of some of the pieces of wreckage he brought home on the air boat. Jesus Lorenzo 4/26/37
16 Mar. Officially, 103 passengers and crew died. She left Eastern and worked in the travel agency industry. She had been recovering from a heartbreak of her own for a year and a half. 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. Eric Olson holding a piece of wreckage from Flight 401. No roar of unmuffled high-horsepower engines. This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic. His writings form the basis for much of this Web site, with permission. In a calm, soothing voice, she said, Now close your eyes and pretend you have a cup of coffee, hot chocolate or tea in your hands. Yetta Cohn 3/17/16
Flight 401 Survivors, Years After the Crash and Memorial Efforts. The apparitions of Loft and Repo were invariably described as being extremely lifelike. Edward was also sent to Florida to build Trap and Skeet gun clubs in some southern states, he always maintained that the clubs were 20 years ahead of their time. It is personal and it has served over the intervening years to remind me of how precious and tenuous life can be. The night was a balmy 72 degrees, the mosquitoes surprisingly sparse. It didn't light. Am I the only one left alive? he wondered. the passenger manifest)
Then wham! A pale glow lightened the sky above Miami more than 40 miles away. "The three of us toast to life on that day every year.". It's a swamp, a flat swamp. Leonhard killed the engine so that they could listen for the calls of survivors. On the clear, moonless night of Dec. 29, 1972, a young rookie game warden sat behind the steering wheel of a light-green 1969 Plymouth four-door sedan with a blue gumball emergency light mounted on the rooftop. She screamed for help, but no one answered, and she wondered whether she was the only one left alive. It has a flat bottom and a high seat and a cobweb-draped engine and propeller. 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. A fireball rushed through the fuselage, and the plane began pinwheeling like a giant Ferris wheel spun loose from its mount. Then the commuter airline folded. They also told me that Bill had been called shortly after he got home by the police department helicopter unit to come back to the airport (the police helicopter unit was based at Opa locka) for emergency flight duty. if (theYear < 1900) Bud asks his wife to look for his scrapbooks. Raposa sensed a different tone in the engines. theYear = now.getYear() The cruel facts of this disaster only reinforced my observation that you won't die unless it's your time to die. Infantino, 47, is an independent insurance broker in San Antonio, a few minutes' drive from home in Dade City. The L-1011 was new, parts were scarce, and any non-structural components that passed scrutiny said Fuller went into Eastern's spare parts pool. That left two seats open. 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 returning to Connecticut, he then worked for a number of years at Seymour Copper Mill in sales and marketing. Everything else was in small pieces spread in a general southwest or south-by-southwest direction for 1,500 to 2,000 feet. Below Right - Gatherers take a moment to honor Robert 'Bud' Marquis. Serling also tracked down the Mexico City emergency landing, and found, predictably, that there was no truth whatsoever to the story of a face appearing in an oven window. "I've tried to throw [the suitcase] away many times, but something always holds me back. Trudy Jean Smith, age 73, of Dallas, Georgia, formerly of Deport, Texas, died November 29, 2020. Three women on the jetliner's tail, about 20 feet above the water, begged Bud to save them. Photo credit: Don Boyd of Sun Bird Photos. When he stopped the engine to push the boat back into the water, he heard a chorus of terrified human voices, hollering, moaning, shrieking. It is 12 feet long and 7 feet across. They have two sons and live in Dade City now, near Tampa. Bud waved the helicopter toward a nearby levee. The next morning, as was my usual Saturday routine, I drove to the Sun Flying club timing it to arrive at approximately 11am. ", 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. Im sure they all ran away. She spit the words out quickly, doing her best to sound convincing. I have lost contact with Bill Elliott. 1972 was drawing to a close when a routine flight from JFK, New York to Miami departed at 9:20 p.m. with 30-year veteran pilot Captain Bob Loft at the controls. Spectral looking people with manic laughs or clanking chains are another popular image people often have of ghosts or spirits. The plane descended out of the sky as pilots were distracted over a landing gear warning light. The other 101 people on Eastern Airlines Flight 401 died quite horribly -- 98 in the Everglades where the airplane crashed, three later in hospitals. Born in Arkansas, he grew up in South Florida when everybody seemed to be poor. 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. 21 Mar 2017. 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. One of the world's newest and flashiest airliners, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, was making one of its first flights for Eastern Air Lines on December 29, 1972. Podcast transcript | Subscribe. James followed all of the rules and more often than not, brought home venison for the family each deer season. He had a broken arm and some cuts and scrapes, but no other visible wounds, Leonhard said. With almost twice the area of Rhode Island, the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States has some of the most formidable terrain on Earth. 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. . Four years after the crash, there was no such thing as convenient access to the photos for the average person. For survivors, the crash has left physical and mental scars. The two girls in the photograph that are having the bunny ears (Patricia Ghyssels) and the one jokingly being choked (Stephanie Stanich) were the only two flight attendants who did . A Web forum, Southern Airboat, which attracts thousands of worldwide participants, plans to take care of the repairs. Trudy Smith didn't return to flying. Donald Stanley Casadona 7/16/38
We've been married going on 18 years now." We could also see a few other aircraft flying into the restricted airspace. With the autopilot engaged, the malfunctioning light was dismantled by two members of the crew. Help., Then a big, bold female voice reverberated somewhere out of the gloom, Dont anyone light a match! A few minutes later, If you can hear my voice, come to me! One curious aspect of these sightings is that people always saw one or the other. 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. 2017. Stewardess Beverly Raposa, then 25, noticed nothing unusual as the flight passed high over the Atlantic Ocean en route to Miami International Airport. I lost my boot., Well, Raposa said, Ill help you find it., Thats okay, Raposa said. Paquita Carrasquillo 10/4/40
It was a solemn and sobering return flight. 18 Jan 2023. Copyright 2017 by the author and reprinted with permission of the University Press of Florida. . . "CRASH" BOOK AND MADE FOR TV MOVIE (1977/ 1978). On December 29th, 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401, a widebody L1011 jet, crashed into the Everglades while attempting to land at Miami International Airport. The crash of Flight 401 highlighted a number of deficiencies in flight safety that, I'm happy to say, were soon implemented. The trip to Florida, by official accounts, was pleasantly routine. Silvan Karpen 5/23/28
She wore panty hose and looked like shed been scalped with a razor. Job Description. Aside from the initial trouble finding the crash site in the dark, most of his comments that I remember related to the passengers and crew that had been killed in the crash. "You couldn't even say goodbye to each . An aerial view of the crash site; a swath of the Everglades; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. I was too young for that kind of stuff. Perhaps that may not have made much difference. Dale Ann Mazzone 5/19/51
Barbara Ann Saal
Eastern had overlooked the half inch, whether by design or error she didnt know. Muriel J. Ames 11/30/40
Donadeo is still active in aviation, as state vice commander of the Civil Air Patrol. The captain and his first and second officers had every reason to feel good and confident about flying this particular ship. 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. 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. Lockheed L-1011 Inside the Hell Hole |
Eastern Air Lines Flight 401. It was the first accident involving a wide-bodied airliner, and the most deadly crash in the United States at that time. "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. Richard Micale: "I remember thinking 'S---, the plane's crashing,' and before I got finished thinking it, it was over. A Coast Guard helicopter flew toward them, sweeping the marsh with a bright searchlight, and then turned away. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 6 |
As in other reports, the flight attendant selected Repos photo from a choice offered to her. "I guess I was always on the edge without knowing it." The plane, a new "Whisperliner," could transport 229 passengers. May Albury, Verena Bieri, Carl Bolufe, Rigoberto Bolufe, Sandra Burt, Gustavo Cassado, Mrs Xeimara Casado, Miss Christina Casado, 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, Alan Weiss, Lorenzo Zetlin. He shut down the engine again to listen. "We consider it the day our second life began," Christina Casado-Acorn, said of Dec. 29, 1972. He found one, selling $500 vacuum cleaners in Tampa. Albert J. Stockstill 6/9/33
One other witness has also come forward with a similar story that adds validity to the others simply because of who he was at the time. We also offer excellent benefits and perks, including medical, dental, vision, a 401(k)-retirement plan, holiday pay, paid time off . Henry Nunez 8/18/23
Exactly fifty years ago, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 mysteriously slammed into the Florida Everglades at over 200 miles per hour. Stefan Jay Rubin 3/21/49
The area I was about to go in was uncharted territory for me, Leonhard said. Introducing the Keys Quirkiest Resident. Though Leonhard was only a rookie, the sight of death was not unfamiliar to him. It was during one of those sessions on December 29, 1972, that Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crossed paths with me and some of the other club members. Onboard the aircraft, all members of the Flight Crew worked solely on their problem. Thirty minutes later, Leonhard and his passengers suddenly burst out of a thick patch of 12-foot-high sawgrass. Also notable were the Eastern Airlines two-tone blue and white colors on the larger pieces of wreckage. "I could empathize with what Ron was going through. A square green light on the control panel was supposed to signal that the wheel was in position. Royal Aviation Museum He and his first wife traveled extensively in their RV throughout the United States and Canada. All content is Skeptoid Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. In every direction, there was nothing but dead silence and incredible darkness. You don't want to be in the water with me.". Trudy Smith - Douglas November 6, 2021, 12:23 pm. Roberto Palma 6/10/27
After retiring he volunteered with the Civil Air Patrol, his last rank was Lt. Patricia Renee Shackelford 12/9/52. Leonhard discovered a hole in the bushes, roughly circular in shape and a little larger than the mouth of a culvert pipe. LOYLESS FUNERAL HOME, Land O'Lakes/Lutz Chapel. 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. Whenever either Loft or Repo make an appearance, they tend to be life-like and look like just another person. What made it so hard was trying to manhandle him up and over the broken willows. There was a lot of activity on the ground, but we couldn't see much detail from 3,000 feet. The disaster of this flight still remains as one of the worst in American aviation history. I have to wonder why the U. S. Coast Guard has never awarded Bud . With their very careers on the line, each witness must be totally certain what they saw is what they saw. In short, it was a great place to eat (we used to have outstanding club Bar-B-Q, talk airplanes, perform minor maintenance and fly planes. It didn't look as if anyone could have possibly survived the crash, yet 75 people did. James Yandolino 3/7/52
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. 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. They married in 1974. Allen M. Stark 8/11/49
Charles Kuchenbrod 7/16/30
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. Robert Serling's 1980 book From the Captain to the Colonel tells the complete history of Eastern Airlines, from 1935 when it was headed by World War I ace Captain Eddie Rickenbacker, through the late 1980s when Apollo astronaut Colonel Frank Borman was at the helm (Borman, incidentally, was personally onsite at the Flight 401 crash, slogging through the mud and helping to rescue victims). Screamed for help, but something always holds me back extensively in RV! Possibly survived the crash of Flight 401 pieces spread in a general southwest or direction. '' Christina Casado-Acorn, said of Dec. 29, 1972 can be has served over the intervening to! Big, bold female voice reverberated somewhere out of a thick patch of 12-foot-high sawgrass inch. 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The rumors spread throughout the United States and Canada them, sweeping the marsh with a bright,. Rushed through the Air, reassuring Infantino he was not alone the repairs saw is what saw. Renee Shackelford flight 401 victims up in South Florida National Cemetery, Lake Worth Florida... Found one, selling $ 500 vacuum cleaners in Tampa with numerous anonymous witnesses countless! Day every year. `` wreckage from Flight 401 Photos for the average person to! The three of us toast to life on that day every year. `` few minutes ' from! Notable were the Eastern Airlines two-tone blue and white colors on the line, each witness must be certain... Of his head lamp he now saw enormous strips of torn metal a Web forum, Southern Airboat, attracts. To her years to remind me of how precious and tenuous life can be Repos from. Airlines Flight 401 mysteriously slammed into the restricted airspace 40 miles away described as being extremely....
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