flight 401 victims

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. The time was 9:20 p.m. Everything else was in small pieces spread in a general southwest or south-by-southwest direction for 1,500 to 2,000 feet. Further evidence that the whole ovens-got-salvaged story is untrue comes from claims that the ovens were made by Foster Refregerator company. Of course, hearing them from the porch isn't the same as being in the middle of them armed with a gig, taking a long breath of Everglades air, feeling utterly alive. Another flight was being subjected to pre-flight checks when Bob Loft was spotted wandering around the undercarriage. Below: The Casado family tour the crash site. The cloak of black was made all the more intense by the surreal stillness. Loft, Robert Albin | Rosario Messina 2/29/26 He ended up making numerous trips out to the levee where the rescue operation base was located. He can't remember anyone's name now. I diplomatically told James that I couldn't take possession of the large pieces of wreckage. After about an hour, he saw the first helicopter. Bud revved up the engine and headed northwest. Luis Bancroft 10/10/48 Paranormal phenomena and bizarre oddities. Outside of the aircraft, there wasnt much in the way of visual cues and city lights were non-existent. Eugene Schenker 6/24/30 Beverly Raposa doesn't mind flying. I was coping with someone who was disabled. Varujan Eskihanci 9/7/25 DALLAS - December 29, 2022, will mark a half-century since the fatal crash of Eastern Air Lines (EA) Flight 401. That credo seems to be exemplified in every major airplane crash. The pair conversed briefly before Loft faded from sight. My mother never told me the flight attendant's name, but she did say that she had suffered a broken back in the crash. Michael Ann Kaminer 12/28/45 They died. Richard L. Marquis, a carpet-layer, saw it too. I lost my boot., Well, Raposa said, Ill help you find it., Thats okay, Raposa said. Pilots and flight attendants frequently saw Don Repo after that, and always he gave them some valuable maintenance note about the aircraft. By that time, I had also earned a commercial pilot license with airplane single and multi-engine and instrument ratings. 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. He survived, barely, with his right arm nearly severed, his left knee broken and his chest crushed. "This is way in the past.". I'll forever believe that it was Eastern Flight 401, just minutes before it and its passengers and crew became part of aviation history and legend. He is survived by his daughter in law Lynn Johnson and grandsons Kurtis and Kyle Johnson, all of Florida. Infantino sold his house and investment property at a loss, swapped his Lincoln for a Ford Pinto and went job-hunting. 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. 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. Source: Google Sites. Jana Dedek 6/24/53 Flight 401 - Autopilot indicator | "Hey! Leonhard put the car in park, cut the motor and stepped out. #563 The explanation soon became clear: the apparitions were always on aircraft that contained equipment salvaged from Flight 401. His left knee was dislocated, wrenched sideways at a vicious right angle. "Remember what the doctor said," Nancy chimes in. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew blew the roof of the house across the street through his front windows. She screamed for help, but no one answered, and she wondered whether she was the only one left alive. Introducing the Keys Quirkiest Resident. Flipping through the pages, Bud smiles for the first time in hours. At least he lives near his precious Everglades. The Ghost of Flight 401 was not much of a departure for him. Leonhard pulled his eyes away from the painful scene, lifted his head and slowly swung the stark-white beam of his helmet-mounted lamp across a massive trench carved in the marsh. I specifically recall one section of fuselage skin that included a series of passenger windows that must have measured 10 feet by 6 feet square. ValuJet 592 went down in May 1996, killing all 110 on board. 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. Then the commuter airline folded. This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Flight 401. In a weak voice, one of them asked, What about the alligators?, Raposa didnt hesitate: We made such a loud noise when we hit. This killed the First Officer instantly. The aircraft disintegrated, scattering wreckage over an area approximately 1600 feet long by 300 feet wide (NTSB). My guess is that the L1011 essentially did a flat or horizontal cartwheel and tore itself apart. A fireball rushed through the fuselage, and the plane began pinwheeling like a giant Ferris wheel spun loose from its mount. Meanwhile, 1,100 miles to the north, an Eastern Airlines jumbo jet lifted off in bitter cold weather from New Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport. Marquis is also survived by a son, Donald Marquis of Altamonte Springs; a daughter, Terri Mabie of Tucson; 10 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Flight 401 - Possible Explanation | Exactly fifty years ago, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 mysteriously . Kobe Bryant, 41 ans, un des plus clbres joueurs de basket-ball de la NBA, avait pris sa retraite en 2016.. bord de l'hlicoptre se trouvaient galement sa fille de treize ans, Gianna, qui jouait . This photo was taken hours before the crash on December 29th while on board Flight 26 in Miami. Miami International Airport Sighting | You could hear the cry of death. 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. 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. Donald Louis Repo 5/10/21 This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic. Old and sick now, he lives in near poverty on the edge of the Everglades. The hours passed, and still no rescuers had arrived. It was one of the great ghost stories of the 1970s. The crew members, however, were focused on fixing the wheel-light indicator. Theyd been married only 20 days and were returning from their honeymoon. Bob Loft appeared before the Vice President of Eastern Air Lines in First Class. Funny how people scream for God at a time like that. In late 1972 the two were passengers in a plane crash that left both with debilitating painful injuries. His name showed up recently on a Web site (eastern401.googlepages.com) about the 35th anniversary of a tragedy that killed more than 100 passengers and traumatized dozens more. The flight, destined for Kyiv, Ukraine, took off on Jan. 8, 2020 from Tehran . 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. Loft accidentally nudged the control yoke, perhaps with his knee, while turning around to speak to Repo, and the autopilot mode was one which followed whatever pitch the pilot set with the yoke. An Eastern flight attendant posted this scan (below) from his L-1011 FA manual. He told of an unidentified mechanic who came upon a whole stockroom of equipment, all in perfect working condition, that Eastern had ordered to be removed from various aircraft. He cranked up the engine and moved toward the sound. Ann Connell, Barry Connell, Angelo Donadeo, Patricia R Georgia, Adrianne Ann Hamilton, Jennifer Larsen, Thomas Mulcahy, Mercedes V Ruiz, Beverly Jean Raposa, Trudy J Smith, Sue F. Tibbs, Sharon R Transue, Dorothy M Warnock. Each year on December 29th, I spend a little time thinking about that silhouetted L1011 heading west over Opa locka Airport. Under the command of Captain Robert Albin Loft, an expert navigator rated 50th in seniority at Eastern. If he saw legs kicking, he turned the seat over. The 52-year-old flight engineer was one of 101 people who'd died Dec. 29, 1972 when Eastern Flight 401, packed with holiday travelers, slammed into the Everglades . Later that afternoon or evening, Bill Elliott came back to the clubhouse where we were all waiting for him so he could let us know what he did and saw. Stick with the book. Flight 401 Normal - Faulty Auto Pilot | After dark he moonlighted as a commercial frogger. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The Ghost of Flight 401 (TV Movie 1978) - IMDb, Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute, The Ghost of Flight 401 (TV 1978) - YouTube, Flight 401 - Flight Crew Fatal Photograph, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 - Crash Investigation, Findings and Passenger List - Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute. Steve Shippy and Cindy Kaza team up to uncover the horrifying truth about the crash of Eastern Flight 401. Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute. She was whipped. Afterward, folks hope to take the old man into the Everglades, in his own airboat, if he wants. One of them attracted . This killed the First Officer instantly. "I consider the survivors 75 miracles. Born in Arkansas, he grew up in South Florida when everybody seemed to be poor. Mercy Ruiz, Cindy Kaza, Ron Infantino. Sure enough, once arrived in Mexico City, it was discovered that one of the three engines was damaged and would have to be replaced. His wife Nancy - they married when she was 15 - could always tell when it was on his mind, though. Two years after the crash, Anita and Franklin Kent's lives were taken up by endless doctor visits. I have lost contact with Bill Elliott. There were four men in the cockpit, all preoccupied with the light and landing gear. The original witness so was distressed that several of the cabin crew had to forcibly restrain her. Whenever either Loft or Repo make an appearance, they tend to be life-like and look like just another person. No flicker from an air boaters headlamp. There were 75 at the time, 20 years ago tonight. For over thirty years Charlie worked with the FAA as an Air Traffic Controller. With the autopilot engaged, the malfunctioning light was dismantled by two members of the crew. She put in 11 more years with United before retiring. 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. There was just one problem: Bob Loft had been dead for months. That alone adds credibility to their accounts. A friend once warned him: "One day you'll work a plane crash out there." Mary Carfizzi 11/3/19 (No one had a camera, so I don't have any personal photos.) Let us email you a link to each week's new episode. Donald Stanley Casadona 7/16/38 Eastern Air Lines Flight 401, crashed on 29 December 1972. Viewers who enter The Ghost of Flight 401 looking for shivers and thrills might be disappointed. Trans World Airlines Flight 800 was carrying 230 people, including four cockpit crew members and 14 flight attendants. 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. Aground. Dead bodies hung, lay and floated everywhere I looked. Her face burned from the jet fuel. It seemed to be miles off course. Evidently, I wasn't so stupid as to put any regulatory violations in writing in my log book. His wife said his ashes would be spread over the crash site in the Everglades that ''he loved so much,'' at a later date. According to the National Transportation Safety Board ( NTSB ), the main fuselage broke into four main sections and many other smaller pieces on impact. The sightings apparently stopped once this was all done. My direct and indirect contact with Eastern Flight 401 didn't end on December 30, 1972. 2017. This position is with the Agency Services area of DTMB. In addition to commemorating Flight 401, the creative talent behind the exhibit is seeking to help survivors raise the funding needed to create a permanent large-scale memorial to Flight 401's victims and survivors in the City of Miami Springs, once home to a thriving Eastern Air Lines community. He was honored again at the memorial service for the crash victims and their families on December 29th, 2007, and he led a procession of more than 100 airboats to the crash site from a launching site on the Tamiami Trail (US 41). As other reviewers note, this is the nonfiction story of Eastern Flight 401, which crashed in the Everglades back in 1972. Back to the clubhouse and armed with the airspace restrictions, I was ready to fly. I was then almost 26 years old and had recently graduated from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. She left Eastern and worked in the travel agency industry. This one quip appears to be the genesis of the entire story. 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. Mama, heat up the frying pan. That was the first time I had heard of the crash. He felt a sense of mission as he looked out into the black swamp, knowing that his job required cunning and stealth. From L to R, Captain Robert Albin Loft, pilot Albert John Stockstill, and flight engineer Donald Louis Repo. At some point the captain inadvertently bumped the control wheel, knocking the autopilot partially off. 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Loose from its mount briefly before Loft faded from sight Captain Robert Albin Loft pilot... Restrictions, I was then almost 26 years old and had recently graduated from Florida Atlantic University Boca! Help you find it., Thats okay, Raposa said, '' Nancy chimes in, Anita Franklin... There wasnt much in the Everglades, in his own airboat, if he wants way... House and investment property at a time like that the entire story 2020 from.... Log book dislocated, wrenched sideways at a vicious right angle and Kyle Johnson, all Florida!

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