Evidently, I wasn't so stupid as to put any regulatory violations in writing in my log book. Donald Stanley Casadona 7/16/38 So far, the Board of Directors of the Curtiss Mansion has graciously given their approval to place the Eastern Airlines Flight 401 Memorial on it's grounds. Two minutes later, Flight 401 called the air traffic control tower. In fact, she told my mother that she cringed in fear every time she drove down Le Jeune Road (the eastern boundary of Miami International Airport) just because of all the jet noise when planes were landing and taking off. I saw people burned in agony. Sometime in midflight, passenger Ron Infantino switched seats with his wife, Lilly, after she returned from the bathroom. His hunting escapades on his air boat meant that he was very familiar with the area where Flight 401 crashed in the Everglades. I lost my boot., Well, Raposa said, Ill help you find it., Thats okay, Raposa said. She worked in the executive offices at Easterns Miami base. 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. (The largest L1011 operators then at MIA were Eastern Airlines and Delta Airlines, but I don't recall seeing any airline markings when the L1011 was overhead.) Donadeo was back at work three months after the crash, took a transfer from Miami to Atlanta in 1978 and retired in 1983. Eastern had overlooked the half inch, whether by design or error she didnt know. The experienced flight crew was distracted when the landing gear light failed to come on, which they believed was caused by a blown bulb. Fourteen survivors had various degrees of burns. Grand Canyon Disaster + . These and other requirements are imposed for the purpose of meeting the collective objectives of the Aviation and Ground crew with Eastern Airlines Flight 401 before its fateful flight; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. He'd cruise up on the frog, spear the frog with the 3-pronged gig, knock the frog off the gig into a sack, all the while moving forward in the airboat while getting ready to gig another frog. His wife said his ashes would be spread over the crash site in the Everglades that ''he loved so much,'' at a later date. Incident at Exeter concerned a series of well-publicized UFO sightings in and around the town of Exeter, New Hampshire in . Rosa Losano 11/1/01 Yes, they are, Raposa assured them. I vaguely remember that we ended up taking a total of five people on that flight. I probably did too, I'm sure." Then wham! Please dont leave me! Infantino yelled. 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. Im a tough Portuguese girl from Rhode Island.. Patricia A. Ghyssels 3/31/45 (The club is still in existence at the Opa locka Airport, but it was relocated to a different site on the field years ago.) Several survivors tracked him down to thank him personally. All of us realized that many people had lost their lives and that there was a bit of mystery surrounding why a relatively new L1011 crashed into the Everglades on a clear, dark night. A jumbo jet crashed in the Everglades north of the Tamiami Trial, his sergeant said. With the $250,000 legal settlement, Micale thought he had it made. Speculation at the club was rampant which is to be expected from a bunch of pilots. Marquis is also survived by a son, Donald Marquis of Altamonte Springs; a daughter, Terri Mabie of Tucson; 10 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. "Hey, what's happening here?" From his vantage point atop the levee, Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission Officer Gray Leonhard, then 24 years old, had a commanding view across the vast darkened marsh. Today, she still has the small, Eastern Airlines-issued cream-colored suitcase she carried the night of the crash. His fishing and hunting skills helped put supper on the family table. I was coping with someone who was disabled. Two years after the crash, Anita and Franklin Kent's lives were taken up by endless doctor visits. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 5 | The plane climbed to 2,000 feet, and the captain ordered the first officer to turn the autopilot on. The tall building behind the plane is Building 16 at MIA, the former headquarters of Eastern Air Lines. She returns with a musty volume that smells like a lion's den. His required surgery. I was tired and hit the sack as soon as I got home. "It survived that night, just like me. [17] Over time, the reporting of ghost sightings stopped. [8], In all, 75 survived the crash67 of the 163 passengers and eight of the 10 flight attendants. "I still love to fly; I get on planes and fall asleep like a baby," jokes Raposa. The accident and the subsequent ghost story were mentioned by Dan Aykroyd during his appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on June 6, 1984. Im sure they all ran away. She spit the words out quickly, doing her best to sound convincing. Adelaide Geneve Bearman 9/21/22 He butchered their bodies to pieces after his wife threatened him with divorce. The flying club was also a de facto social club with members having the common bonds of flying and aircraft ownership. A yellow flash. I was amazed at the size of some of the pieces of wreckage he brought home on the air boat. Lets sing Christmas carols, Raposa replied. 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. Also in attendance was Ron Infantino, David Kaplan and the Casado family. They headed for the flash. "Hey! It was a heart-to- heart bond. [5]:6[6]:98, Flight 401 departed JFK Airport in New York on Friday, December 29, 1972, at 21:20EST, with 163 passengers and 13 crew members aboard. [5]:5. Hey! For survivors, the crash has left physical and mental scars. The aircraft was completely demolished, with wreckage, bodies, and survivors strewn over a wide area. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 departed New York for Miami on December 29, 1972. . He was one of those rare south Florida individuals who owned a ton of hunting rifles and lived for the deer hunting season so he could go out on his air boat and hunt scrawny deer in the Everglades. Based on the book, it dramatized the crash, rescue efforts, and NTSB investigation. On December 3rd 2007, survivors of Eastern Air Lines flight 401 gathered at the Metro-Dade Firefighters' Memorial Building in Miami to honor Robert "Bud" Marquis, and to remember those who lost their lives in the crash nearly 35 years ago. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 6 | [5]:3, The flight was routine until 23:32, when the airplane began its approach into Miami International Airport. The National Air Disaster Alliance/Foundation gave Marquis a humanitarian award for being the first to respond to the crash, and in a touching tribute, members of The Southern Airboat association presented Marquis with a completely rebuilt airboat - the same one he had used to rescue crash victims in 1972.. "I think it's nice, but I don't think I really deserve a lot of hullabaloo over this," Marquis, 78, of Homestead, said of the award. Last picture of Paul Walker alive, before getting into the porsche that crashed. During a rare moment of calm after the rescue helicopter had departed for Miami, he heard the faint tune of a Christmas carol. Then the commuter airline folded. I come from an Eastern family - my mother, Betty Olson, retired from Eastern in 1976. "Remember what the doctor said," Nancy chimes in. 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. He shut down the engine again to listen. He had lost contact with his frogging helper, Ray, too. Riding with him were two Federal Aviation Administration officials. The movie is fairly innacurate and over-dramitized. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 1 | There was an enormous flash of flame as two fuel tanks burst open. Theyll find us eventually., Raposa had the survivors scoot together, sitting back to back so they could stay warm. The aircraft was a Lockheed L-1011-1 TriStar traveling from New York to Miami. Nobody, not the pilots nor passengers, knew anything was amiss. According to the National Transportation Safety Board ( NTSB ), the main fuselage broke into four main sections and many other smaller pieces on impact. Even though I didn't own an airplane, the club members considered me one of their own, a privilege that I treasure and respect to this day, despite the fact that I haven't had any involvement with the club since the late 1970s. He felt a sense of mission as he looked out into the black swamp, knowing that his job required cunning and stealth. It was rare for commercial airliners to fly westbound directly overhead Opa locka Airport at such a relatively low altitude. It would be hard to make up a plausible story like Ronald Infantino's -- too sad, too joyful. He isn't a talker to begin with, unless it's about boats or engines or the 'glades. Colonel. You can see the brand name on the oven instruction plate. Jerrold Solomon, who had walked away from the crash unscathed, flew home to New York three days later. Why dont we sing to help warm ourselves up? she suggested. I wouldnt be a bit surprised if the speed hed been traveling was well over a hundred miles an hour., Leonhard added, The guy weighed around 160, but it still took eight of us carrying a stretcher filled with his dead weight to carry him out. Of the 163 passengers and 13 crew-members aboard, 94 passengers and 5 crew members received fatal injuries. 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. That area was off limits to hunters and others for a number of months while federal investigators searched the area for clues to the crash. Nicholas Minguzzi 8/5/68 [5]:22[6]:109, 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. Interment will follow at 2pm at Florida National Cemetery. Lockheed L-1011 Inside the Hell Hole | Jonathan Adam Kaminer 8/22/70 [21] A television movie, also titled The Ghost of Flight 401, broadcast by NBC during February 1978. [22] Loft's widow and children did sue Fuller, for infringement of Loft's right of publicity, for invasion of privacy, and for intentional infliction of emotional distress, but the lawsuit was dismissed and the dismissal upheld by the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal. "I could empathize with what Ron was going through. [5]:4 For the next 80 seconds, the airplane maintained level flight. 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. Eastern Airlines Flight 401 is coming in for a landing in Miami. He is completely burned. Eastern Airlines Flight 401 was on its way from New York to Miami on December 29th, 1972, with 13 crew and 163 passengers onboard. He'd see the lights and hear the roar as the jets climbed into the black night over the swamp or descended toward Miami International Airport. 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. 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. Warren Terry 2/16/34 The last thing Raposa remembered seeing before she was knocked out was a waterfall of colors. 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. [15][16] Gossip regarding the sighting of the spirits of Don Repo and Bob Loft spread throughout Eastern Air Lines to the extent that Eastern's management warned employees that they could be dismissed if caught spreading ghost stories. What caused Flight 401 crash? My guess is that the L1011 essentially did a flat or horizontal cartwheel and tore itself apart. If you would like to contribute to this cause, donations can be made to: National Air Disaster Foundation (write "EAL 401 Memorial" on the check), You may also make donations by credit card on their website: www.PlaneSafe.org. I think all the survivors had been rescued by that time and taken to hospitals, but there were a lot of bodies still at the crash site. I mean, I was a single person with no family. Loise Shackelford attended. Flight 401 flew into the ground on Friday night, Dec. 29, 1972, at 13 seconds past 11:42 p.m. The crash is considered unique in aviation history because of where it occurred: in Florida's Everglades a sprawling . His last complete thought before losing consciousness was, This is going to be one hell of a rough landing., Beverly Raposa with her Eastern Airlines stewardess class in the 60s; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. Then he tells the story the best he can. 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. She looked into the distance, saw the dim lights of Miami framed against a coal-black horizon and noticed how far away it was. [15][16][17], These stories speculated that parts of the crashed aircraft were salvaged after the investigation and refitted into other L-1011s. Chapter II - OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (AVIATION PROCEEDINGS) Subchapter A - ECONOMIC REGULATIONS. (Deer in south Florida are almost anemic compared to deer in other parts of the country.) That subsides. A friend once warned him: "One day you'll work a plane crash out there." It is personal and it has served over the intervening years to remind me of how precious and tenuous life can be. That was the first time I had heard of the crash. All 110 people on board died. Refresh the page,. Unable to move and weak from severe loss of blood, his body hung suspended in the watery muck, still bent in the sitting position. That's why Hansel wanted me to fly; it would be my license that got revoked if we got caught, not his! 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. His right arm was badly hurt. My God, what do we do now? My mother never told me the flight attendant's name, but she did say that she had suffered a broken back in the crash. View history. Instead of landing in . Eduardo Jaramillo 8/2/32 Then an alarm chimed, signaling a 250-foot drop. Richard Childs 5/21/52 "Having money ruined my life," he said. Eddie Albert featured as "Dunn", a fictionalized version of Captain Robert Loft. This quote, which was obviously a joke, was presented in the Ghost of Flight 401 as fact. 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. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was a scheduled flight from New York JFK to Miami. Effectively, we turned the clubhouse into the European equivalent of a weekend pub. The bent, white-haired man in the mirror has a bad heart and breathes from an oxygen machine, hasn't been frogging in a coon's age, and hasn't been in his airboat since, well, he can't remember. One was Micale, who they found alone on a clump of swamp muck, drenched in swamp water and jet fuel. Water saturated by jet fuel filled his boots, burning his legs. 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. We had him out by 5:30 in the morning. Patricia Renee Shackelford 12/9/52 Janice Testa 9/12/52 The death toll at the time was the highest of any one-plane accident in U.S. civil aviation history. As Stockstill started another turn, onto 180, he noticed the discrepancy. Picture that in your mind. It crashed into the Everglades 18.7 miles northwest of the airport, eight miles north of Tamiami. Give or take a word, the announcement is remembered verbatim by virtually every survivor. Murray Yellin 6/9/11 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. Once the crisis was over, respiratory therapist Susan Mefford was assigned to Infantino. After retiring he volunteered with the Civil Air Patrol, his last rank was Lt. Possible Curse of Seminole Indians | "Your body could be stripped naked if you're thrown out through an opening, or your body could be relatively intact if you were in part of the aircraft that 'fluttered' down to the surface" because. 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. By about 3:15 a.m., Raposas flock of survivors had all been rescued. 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. Perhaps the most extraordinary and credible research into the ghost phenomenon ever documented is the so-called "Ghosts of Flight 401."On December of 1972, an Eastern Airlines Tri-Star jetliner, Flight 401, crashed into a Florida swamp.Read the accident report (PDF). Mildred Katz 1/8/34 Then, it dropped 100ft (30m), and then again flew level for two more minutes, after which it began a descent so gradual it could not be perceived by the crew. Some survivors recovered and adjusted better than others. Two later died, leaving 75 survivors and 101 fatalities. "You couldn't even say goodbye to each . Luis Bancroft 10/10/48 [5]:3 This was later discovered to be due to a burned-out light bulb. Speeding across the 'glades in his airboat, Bud was the first rescuer on the scene. Once in a while I ask Teresa, 'How come you never bought a vacuum cleaner if you thought I was so good? The story of the crash and its aftermath were documented in John G. Fuller's 1976 book The Ghost of Flight 401. Stephanie Rae Stanich 11/10/48 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. But it kept jamming. 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. His book was later adapted into a made-for-tv movie starring William Shatner as an NTSB investigator. Before a bad back forced an early retirement, Bud laid carpet, grew avocados and worked as a game warden in the Everglades. He seemed deeply saddened by that fact. This was the first fatal crash of a wide-body aircraft. Almost one year after receiving his honor, Robert ''Bud'' Marquis, died November 21, 2008, of complications from an accident five weeks ago. Mama, heat up the frying pan. 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. Dr. Aftabuddin Chowdhury 1/1/43 Eastern Air Lines CEO (and former Apollo astronaut) Frank Borman termed the ghost stories about the crash "garbage". Rose Kashman 9/22/15 That was the last transmission before the left wing sliced into the Everglades at 225 mph. He was a retired aircraft Engineer with Eastern Airlines in Miami, a survivor of the December 1972 crash of the L-1011 in the Everglades, and a Navy veteran of WWII. "Welcome to Miami," the pilot announced during the descent at 11:30. . Charles Kuchenbrod 7/16/30 Get Alerts. 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. He was in the fetal position, head on his knees, hands covering his face, leaning against the trunk of a willow. Leonhard happened to be looking southeast across the glades. in Electrical, Mechanical, Aerospace Engineering, or related subject area She had been turned down by Trans World Airlines for a job because she was a half inch under the 5-foot-2-inch minimum height required for all stewardesses. But Infantino couldnt follow the voice. James Hall, Flight Operations and Safety, Miami office, had the task of notifying all the families of the crash victims. Seventy-five miraculously survived. The petite brunette stood just 5 feet 1.5 inches tall. The warden noted nothing of interest. In 1985, his years as a manual laborer caught up with him. About 490 feet (150m) from the wingtip's initial contact with the ground, the massive fuselage had begun to break up, scattering components from the underfloor galley, the cargo compartments, and the cabin interior. He was an aviation business student at Miami-Dade Community College then, and used some of his money to start a commuter airline. At night, when he sits on his porch, he can hear the wup-wup bellows of the pig frogs and the heh-heh-heh chatter of the leopard frogs beyond the trees. [5]:13. Once you become stuck in the glades, you could be there for a long, long, time.. 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. Although he was a passenger, he rode in the cockpit with pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer. 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. Forgotten about him, actually. Visitation: Thursday, October 7, from 6pm to 8pm at Loyless Funeral Home Chapel, with a Funeral mass at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church on Friday at 10am. What songs will we sing? one passenger asked. It wouldn't take much.". [25] A television movie of the same name was broadcast in October 1978. [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. 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. Photo credit: Don Boyd of Sun Bird Photos. The area I was about to go in was uncharted territory for me, Leonhard said. They died. His 1977 book, Crash, tells the story of many of the passengers, the investigation and aftermath of Flight 401. Bud waved his light until the helicopter took notice. Christina (center) was two-months-old at the time of the crash, making her the youngest survivor . Of the 176 passengers and crew members aboard Flight 401, 77 survived the initial crash. The plane was crossing over the Everglades on Dec. 29, 1972 . At the time, the decision to change seats carried no meaning. The fact that the tail assemblyrear fuselage, number2 tail-mounted engine, and remains of the empennagefinally came to rest substantially further forward than other major sections, was probably the result of the number 2 engine continuing to deliver thrust during the actual breakup of the aircraft. So, being the thoughtful brother-in-law he was, unbeknownst to me he had collected some of the wreckage of Flight 401. Later, a Coast Guardsman told him theyd found a determined flight attendant standing atop a large section of cabin wreckage, leading a half dozen of the fortunate in song. 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