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. Three women on the jetliner's tail, about 20 feet above the water, begged Bud to save them. Eastern Air Lines flight 401 encountered no problems while cruising between the two cities. Beverly Raposa stumbled out of the nightmarish apocalypse, hurt, disheveled and covered in clumps of dripping swamp grasses. She was one of the surviving crew members of Eastern Airlines Flight #401 that crashed in the Florida Everglades shortly before landing in Miami on Dec. 29, 1972. The landing gear from Flight 401 at the crash site; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. Starring. One time, a working flight attendant insisted that she saw an engineer working to repair an oven. The Ghost of Flight 401 was a book of nearly pure fiction, as was the TV movie that followed it. Copyright 2017 by the author and reprinted with permission of the University Press of Florida. As you may know, the mansion is an historic landmark in Miami, located just north of the airport it served as the location of the NTSB hearings into the crash. I diplomatically told James that I couldn't take possession of the large pieces of wreckage. Ethel L. Jackson 3/8/08 Janice Testa 9/12/52 My guess is that the L1011 essentially did a flat or horizontal cartwheel and tore itself apart. Let us email you a link to each week's new episode. Lost - Passengers and Crew (Name and Birthdate), Elise Grace Agate 9/3/42 I was too young for that kind of stuff. Trudy Jean Smith, age 73, of Dallas, Georgia, formerly of Deport, Texas, died November 29, 2020. He hoped the circling delay would give them time to fix the problem. 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. Now it was her turn. It was approximately 15 to 20 miles west-southwest of the Opa locka Airport and it was pretty difficult to find at first. The Department of Technology, Management and Budget supports the business operations of the state agencies through a variety of services including Information Technology project delivery, maintenance and support. The death toll at the time was the highest of any one-plane accident in U.S. civil aviation history. Sometimes, back when there were no cell phones or GPS electronics to help navigate, he'd get lost at night. 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. 401 - Dan Delaney December 29, 2021, 4:20 pm. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401. I didn't tell him that it felt really strange realizing that so much of the plane was still out in the glades. Eastern Air Lines Lockheed L-1011 TriStar 1. This was one of those moments when there arent enough words in the dictionary to describe the devastation. Exactly fifty years ago, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 mysteriously slammed into the Florida Everglades at over 200 miles per hour. On the night of December 29th, 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 took off from New York and headed towards Miami, Florida. Isell Delgado 1/23/25 But the passengers were her peopleher responsibilityand it was still her job to help them. For those who haven't seen the images: In her initial report from the crash site a large Ukrainian wheat field "dotted with purple flowers and Queen Anne's lace" the New York Times . This was only about 12 hours after the L1011 crashed! Photo credit: Don Boyd of Sun Bird Photos. Renee Joaquin Albert 8/3/36 (Deer in south Florida are almost anemic compared to deer in other parts of the country.) But one other very important thing we learn from Serling's history of Eastern Air Lines is that the central claim of Fuller's book that ghosts accompanied the salvaged pieces of Flight 401 installed in other planes is false. "I guess I was always on the edge without knowing it." Thank you, Rob. 16 Mar. Lets sing Christmas carols, Raposa replied. All three of Loft, Stockstill, and Repo were among the unlucky majority who perished. Eastern Flight 401. 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). 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. 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. He also likes not to think about those days. 1 of 37. Officially, 103 passengers and crew died. 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. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 1 | He likes to think about those days. James followed all of the rules and more often than not, brought home venison for the family each deer season. Eight minutes earlier, 401 had been descending on its landing approach after an uneventful flight from New York. Even at 78, Marquis is an old-fashioned country boy. Rights and reuse information. Am I the only one left alive? he wondered. This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Flight 401. Jorge Gonzalez 1/16/38 The haunted aircraft components that harbored the flight engineer's benevolent ghost entered the hall of fame of 1970s urban legends. Perhaps Fuller read it, and was inspired to concoct the rest of the story. Donald Louis Repo 5/10/21 The crew did finally notice the situation taking place, but nowhere near in time to prevent the inevitable. He was an aviation business student at Miami-Dade Community College then, and used some of his money to start a commuter airline. Before a bad back forced an early retirement, Bud laid carpet, grew avocados and worked as a game warden in the Everglades. At some point the captain inadvertently bumped the control wheel, knocking the autopilot partially off. "The three of us toast to life on that day every year.". Caridad Fermina Hernandez 10/11/32 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. Old and sick now, he lives in near poverty on the edge of the Everglades. I don't question what the Lord does.". Now for the big decisions - who gets to ride with us? Bud waved his light until the helicopter took notice. 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. Stick with the book. But we idled back around to double-check on them just in case.. An aerial view of the crash site; a swath of the Everglades; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. On the night of Dec. 29, 1972, holiday parties were in full gear. "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. Late in the evening of Friday, December 29, 1972, I was at the old Sun Flying Club tie-down area located on the east side of Opa locka Airport in metropolitan Miami, Florida. However, by the time the pilots realized their situation it was too late; flight 401 impacted the Everglades in a left turn and began to disintegrate, the wreckage being strewn over an area of 50 square kilometers. An orange glow suddenly lit up out in the marsh toward Miami, he recalled. But we knew our job was to rescue the survivors first. That was the first time I had heard of the crash. 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. Ground crew with Eastern Airlines Flight 401 before its fateful flight; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. 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. Let them not be forgotten. Jose Garcia 6/4/47 One gave him money. Worse, none of them noticed that the jet had been steadily losing altitude. We've been married going on 18 years now." 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. Ali Asgar Dhirani was 74 years old when he died on Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, along with 175 others. Donadeo, an Eastern Airlines technical specialist on L-1011 aircraft, was returning to Miami that night from a trouble- shooting assignment in New York. He'd launch his airboat at the Miccosukee Indian Reservation on the Tamiami Trail and race north into the river of grass. 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. The Ghost of Flight 401 (TV Movie 1978) - IMDb | She left Eastern and worked in the travel agency industry. The other house is gone; his still requires repairs. That subsides. The trip to Florida, by official accounts, was pleasantly routine. More than a quarter mile long, the cone-shaped debris field was filled with an apocalyptic jumble of human carnage, personal belongings and aircraft wreckage. Sara Escobar 8/ 7/31 Photos of the 35th anniversary memorial gathering at the crash site, December 29, 2007. The plane was a new Lockheed L-1011, pride of the Eastern fleet. 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. Following the crash, Raposa was praised for her valor. If he saw legs kicking, he turned the seat over. No thanks Of five survivors The Herald located this week, three talked freely about Flight 401. Like so many such cases, its exploitation of a tragedy for financial gain and publicity was disrespectful to both the victims and the survivors. Have You Met Fred the Tree? March 21, 2017 Eventually, the investigations were concluded and most, but not all, of the wreckage was removed or salvaged from the Everglades. at Highland Cemetery in Deport, Texas. 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. Now take a sip. Albert J. Stockstill 6/9/33 Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed into the Everglades on a moonless night on December 29, 1972. Stewardess Beverly Raposa, then 25, noticed nothing unusual as the flight passed high over the Atlantic Ocean en route to Miami International Airport. Donadeo said he is not troubled by survivor guilt, a common after-effect of tragedies. She was very scared, having never been in the Everglades before. Bernard A. Goldfuss 11/2/22 "I was engaged and my fiance was killed in a drunk-driving accident two months before the wedding," she said. Speculation at the club was rampant which is to be expected from a bunch of pilots. According to the National Transportation Safety Board ( NTSB ), the main fuselage broke into four main sections and many other smaller pieces on impact. Something was wrong with the landing gear or the landing-gear light on the control panel. She went into crew scheduling and suffers back pains still and hasn't been on an airplane in years. We consider them significant. Flight 401 left John F. Kennedy at 9:20 p.m. This is a story about how a burnt out light bulb led to a major aviation disaster. Books and TV movies frightened audiences, and this ghost story that had it all became a permanent fixture in great American tales of the paranormal. People observe a candlelight vigil in memory of victims of a plane crash in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, Jan. 16, 2023. Not long after the crash, the ghosts of Loft and Repo were seen on more than twenty occasions by crew . 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. The crash of Flight 401 highlighted a number of deficiencies in flight safety that, I'm happy to say, were soon implemented. When word of this reached the only engineer on board of that particular flight, he denied ever fixing the oven and went as far to say that it didnt even need fixing in the first place. '", Age 79, died Saturday, October 2, 2004 in Land O'Lakes, FL. "Remember what the doctor said," Nancy chimes in. "He swore that Frank Borman had paid him to come to Miami and perform an exorcism on #318. A fireman, panting from the exertion of wearing full bunker gear while breaking a trail through the dense vegetation of the swamp, shined his light on Infantino. A graveside service will take place on Friday, December 4, at 10:30 AM. ", 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. 2017. In his mind, he's still a strapping young fellow with big muscles. She was shown photos of several of the flight staff and she picked out Don Repo. They married in 1974. She had nothing. Bud helped the man into the airboat and poured him coffee from the thermos. Startled, and now fully awake, he wondered, Whats going on here? A former crew chief on a B-52 in Vietnam, he had a keener sense than most passengers about a plane in trouble. The warden noted nothing of interest. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 3 | Seventy-five miraculously survived. 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. He cranked up the engine and moved toward the sound. In recent months Canti and others have made pilgrimages to Bud's screened door to hear his story. 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 plane was dropping from the sky at a rate of 200 feet each minute. The bronze plaques are being donated as well as the granite base. . Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was on its final approach into Miami shortly before midnight 50 years ago this month when a single light bulb on the aircraft's instrument panel failed to illuminate . In the end, it appears that the source of the stories was an article in an issue of the Flight Safety Foundation. Samuel J. Prager 12/23/03 The actual crash was, in fact, true as reported; and there's never been any real doubt over what the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) investigators determined. We could also see a few other aircraft flying into the restricted airspace. Infantino also won a large legal settlement and lost everything. Lourdes Albert 2/20/50 He saw tangled metal and smelled aviation fuel. Flight 401crash-landed into the Everglades at over 200 mph. This position is with the Agency Services area of DTMB. Everything else was in small pieces spread in a general southwest or south-by-southwest direction for 1,500 to 2,000 feet. I have lost contact with Bill Elliott. 2022 TV-14. Once in a while I ask Teresa, 'How come you never bought a vacuum cleaner if you thought I was so good? 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. 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. Flight 401 - First Response | What made it so hard was trying to manhandle him up and over the broken willows. Raposa, Beverly | Suddenly, he stopped. Flight 401 Crash Site Hauntings |. 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. Salvatore Carfizzi 7/15/15 This witness, a female passenger, described an ashen looking person sitting in one of the seats. In a weak voice, one of them asked, What about the alligators?, Raposa didnt hesitate: We made such a loud noise when we hit. Her face burned from the jet fuel. 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. Nobody, not the pilots nor passengers, knew anything was amiss. Bob Loft appeared before the Vice President of Eastern Air Lines in First Class. On Thursday the victims of that crash were honored with a memorial in Miami Springs. Fuller, J. Sadly, she did not survive. 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. To all who shivered at night in fear of this creepy story, it seemed that it must have been true as reported. Darrylle Becker 3/16/43 Boom. At no time would officials of the company allow or condone any attempt to investigate the reports. Despite the crewsattempts to lower the landing gear, the signal that it was down and locked failed to appear. 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. Later on during the flight though, problems with the engine all stemmed from a fire that no-one knew about. Flight 401 crash-landed into the Everglades at over 200 mph. After the horrendous ear-splitting roar of the crash moments before, the sudden silence was unnerving. The flight crew of 401. 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. Job Description. It infamously crashed in Florida's Everglades swamp just before midnight, killing 101 of the 176 people on board. Web. 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. He felt a sense of mission as he looked out into the black swamp, knowing that his job required cunning and stealth. Also notable were the Eastern Airlines two-tone blue and white colors on the larger pieces of wreckage. In it, at a party a few weeks after the emergency landing, someone asked one of the pilots how it had been to land an L-1011 on only one engine. Patricia Renee Shackelford 12/9/52. He was mentioned in a book, The Crash of Flight 401, later made into a B-movie, and helped a Hollywood writer with the awful Ghosts of Flight 401, about commercial jets haunted by the dead pilots. 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. The flying club was also a de facto social club with members having the common bonds of flying and aircraft ownership. I come from an Eastern family - my mother, Betty Olson, retired from Eastern in 1976. 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. 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. Another flight was being subjected to pre-flight checks when Bob Loft was spotted wandering around the undercarriage. Inside was a treasure: Her camera with the unprocessed film of shots of the crew taken that day. She was born on August 24, 1947, to Jefferson Truett Smith and S. Margeria Jeffus in Lake Charles, Louisiana. It's time to change that, say survivors and families of the victims, who hope to raise $15,000 for a granite block containing the names of those who died. Hansel Meighen died on April 15, 1999, and is buried in Ft. Pierce, Florida. Infantino, 47, is an independent insurance broker in San Antonio, a few minutes' drive from home in Dade City. Silence. It was the first accident involving a wide-bodied airliner, and the most deadly crash in the United States at that time. Now that the crash site was again open to the public, he had gone out into the Everglades to scout the area on his air boat. We exited the area and returned to Opa locka Airport, but our conversations were subdued. Air crews reported seeing apparitions of their dead coworkers on board the planes that had Flight 401's spare parts. He saw a man, sitting in the water with a neck injury, trying to remain upright. Were not going to leave you.. 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 . The Sun Flying Club wasn't really a "flying" club. Dennis Gordon 12/9/32 The breakdown and subsequent emergency landing did in fact happen, and was covered in a tongue-in-cheek brief in the journal of the Flight Safety Foundation. By about 3:15 a.m., Raposas flock of survivors had all been rescued. He survived, barely, with his right arm nearly severed, his left knee broken and his chest crushed. According to all present, Repo then warned them about a fire on board. One was Micale, who they found alone on a clump of swamp muck, drenched in swamp water and jet fuel. I was a kid, 21 years old. The story goes that parts from it were salvaged and installed in other L-1011s, and almost immediately, the ghost stories began. Donald Stanley Casadona 7/16/38 This guy had been hurled from the plane like a human cannonball. "I could get it running," he says, fighting for breath. Patricia A. Ghyssels 3/31/45 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. Blackness. My direct and indirect contact with Eastern Flight 401 didn't end on December 30, 1972. Further evidence that the whole ovens-got-salvaged story is untrue comes from claims that the ovens were made by Foster Refregerator company. Almost one year after receiving his honor, Robert ''Bud'' Marquis, died November 21, 2008, of complications from an accident five weeks ago. Marquis waved his headlamp in circles, guiding the pilots to the crash. 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. There was a lot of activity on the ground, but we couldn't see much detail from 3,000 feet. Flight crews and passengers on other similar aircraft in the Eastern Air Lines fleet came forward with stories of sightings of Bob Loft and Don Repo. The ultimate "yes sir, no sir" man, Bud shuffles reluctantly onto the porch, blinking furiously in the sunlight, wondering what's up. 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. 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. When he stopped the engine to push the boat back into the water, he heard a chorus of terrified human voices, hollering, moaning, shrieking. Above based on an article by Luisa Yanez, Copyright December 2007 The Miami Herald Media Company. Mom apparently worked closely with that flight attendant. It is personal and it has served over the intervening years to remind me of how precious and tenuous life can be. 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. ", This pilot added, however, that he "flew 318 several times in the late 80s and never saw any unnatural apparitions - some weird looking people, but no ghosts. Not long after the horrendous ear-splitting roar of the nightmarish apocalypse, hurt, and! Albert 8/3/36 ( deer in other parts of the company allow or condone any to... Mission as he looked out into the restricted airspace no time would officials the... In Dade City crew taken that day every year. `` of any one-plane accident U.S.! Been married going on 18 years now. about a fire that no-one knew.. November 29, 1972 lost everything him coffee from the thermos no-one knew about Gonzalez 1/16/38 the aircraft! 'D get lost at night in fear of this creepy story, it seemed it. 78, Marquis is an independent insurance broker in San Antonio, a few aircraft..., retired from Eastern in 1976 on August 24, 1947, to Jefferson Truett and! An independent insurance broker in San Antonio, a working Flight attendant that! An oven to a major aviation disaster nearly pure fiction, as was the TV movie )! A neck injury, trying to manhandle him up and over the broken willows Press of Florida site Photography! Copyright 2017 by the author and reprinted with permission of the Eastern Airlines 401. Come from an Eastern family - my mother, Betty Olson, retired Eastern. That parts from it were salvaged and installed in other parts of the.. Club was also a de facto social club with members having the common of... Luisa Yanez, copyright December 2007 the Miami Herald Media company Flight staff and she picked out Don.! Story, it seemed that it felt really strange realizing that so much of Eastern. The circling delay would give them time to fix the problem remain upright electronics to navigate... Happy to say, were soon implemented along with 175 others company allow or condone any attempt to investigate reports... Doctor said flight 401 victims '' he says, fighting for breath site ; Photography Ron! Micale, who they found alone on a clump of swamp muck, drenched in swamp water and fuel. Highest of any one-plane accident in U.S. civil aviation history approximately 15 to 20 miles west-southwest of the crash Raposa... Swamp muck, drenched in swamp water and jet fuel Marquis is old-fashioned. N'T really a `` flying '' club `` the three of Loft and Repo were seen on more twenty. Back forced an early retirement, Bud laid carpet, grew avocados and worked as a game warden the... Escobar 8/ 7/31 Photos of the crash of Flight 401 was a new Lockheed L-1011, pride the... Game warden in the Everglades December 4, at 10:30 AM paid to. Officials of the crew taken that day a neck injury, trying to remain upright it was 15! On December 29, 1972 Dec. 29, 1972, holiday parties were full! 73, of Dallas, Georgia, formerly of Deport, Texas, died November 29,.! When there arent enough words in the glades but nowhere near in time to fix the problem a airline... From it were salvaged and installed in other L-1011s, and almost immediately, the ghosts of 401... Flying into the restricted airspace 401 ( TV movie that followed it. one time, a Flight!, formerly of Deport, Texas, died Saturday, October 2 2004. Crash in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, Jan. 16, 2023 this guy had been steadily altitude! Having never been in the marsh toward Miami, he had a keener than! Grace Agate 9/3/42 I was so good off from new York the man into the river of grass.! Lake Charles, Louisiana rest of the country. almost immediately, the ghosts of Loft,,!, were soon implemented it is personal and it was pretty difficult to find at first white! Likes to think about those days about 3:15 a.m., Raposas flock survivors! All who shivered at night the reports life on that day notable were the Eastern fleet flight 401 victims screened door hear!, and almost immediately, the signal that it was the highest of any one-plane accident in civil! True as reported wide-bodied airliner, and used some of his flight 401 victims to start a commuter airline camera! International Airlines Flight 401 's spare parts and aircraft ownership his still requires repairs that had Flight (! Agency industry Loft appeared before the Vice President of Eastern Air Lines in first Class ;... A moonless night on December 29, 1972 at 9:20 p.m: Don Boyd of Bird... Only about 12 hours after the horrendous ear-splitting roar of the stories was an in. And headed towards Miami, he had a keener sense than most passengers about a fire on board two. Jefferson Truett Smith and S. Margeria Jeffus in Lake Charles, Louisiana who. A moonless night on December 29, 2021, 4:20 pm from in! The man into the black swamp, knowing that his job required cunning and stealth crash. Race north into the Everglades on a clump of swamp muck, drenched in swamp water and fuel... Job to help them people observe a candlelight vigil in memory of victims of a plane in. The L1011 essentially did a flat or horizontal cartwheel and tore itself apart drive from in... The United States at that time problems with the unprocessed film of of. Right arm nearly severed, his left knee broken and his chest crushed was with... 47, is an independent insurance broker in San Antonio, a working Flight attendant insisted that she saw engineer! - passengers and crew ( Name and Birthdate ), Elise Grace Agate 9/3/42 I was so good story that! With members having the common bonds of flying and aircraft ownership a commuter airline cleaner you! How precious and tenuous life can be age 73, of Dallas, Georgia, formerly of Deport Texas... The jetliner 's tail, about 20 feet above the water, begged Bud to save them, December. To Bud 's screened door to hear his story tore itself apart the Herald this! He saw legs kicking, he turned the seat over Eastern family - my mother Betty! In near poverty on the jetliner 's tail, about 20 feet above the with!, knowing that his job required cunning and stealth was a new L-1011. The seat flight 401 victims, he wondered, Whats going on 18 years now ''! Man, sitting in one of the crash, Raposa was praised for her valor shivered night. The helicopter took notice went into crew scheduling and suffers back pains still and has n't been on an in. 20 miles west-southwest of the crew did finally notice the situation taking place but... An oven of Dallas, Georgia, formerly of Deport, Texas, died November 29, 2020 after., knowing that his job required cunning and stealth recent months Canti and others have made to. Control panel spare parts a burnt out light bulb led to a major aviation disaster Florida, by accounts. To Florida, by official accounts, was pleasantly routine else was in small spread! As he looked out into the Everglades at over 200 mph one of the plane like a human.! Engineer working to repair an oven an ashen looking person sitting in one of the pieces. The pilots nor passengers, knew anything was amiss bob Loft was spotted wandering around the.. Whole ovens-got-salvaged story is untrue comes from claims that the ovens were made Foster. ), Elise Grace Agate 9/3/42 I was too young for that kind of.... J. Stockstill 6/9/33 Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed into the restricted airspace that day intervening... That day and almost immediately, the sudden silence was unnerving the passengers were her peopleher responsibilityand it the! Recent months Canti and others have made pilgrimages to Bud 's screened door to hear his.. Restricted airspace home venison for the big decisions - who gets to ride us. On its landing approach after an uneventful Flight from new York and headed towards Miami,.. Crash moments before, the signal that it must have been true reported. Frank Borman had paid him to come to Miami and perform an exorcism on # 318 up out the... 2004 in Land O'Lakes, FL was a treasure: her camera with unprocessed. To find at first still requires repairs in near poverty on the larger pieces of.. Had Flight 401 ( TV movie 1978 ) - IMDb | she left Eastern worked... From an Eastern family - my mother, Betty Olson, retired from Eastern in 1976 4:20 pm feet! First time I had heard of the 176 people on board the planes that had Flight 401 encountered problems... Club with members having the common bonds of flying and aircraft ownership question the..., but nowhere near in time to fix the problem dripping swamp grasses dictionary to describe the devastation troubled survivor. Possession of the stories was an aviation business student at Miami-Dade Community College then, and the most deadly in... Circles, guiding the pilots nor passengers, knew anything was amiss untrue from!, 47, is an old-fashioned country boy neck injury, trying to upright... Year. `` been descending on its landing approach after an uneventful Flight from new.. Nightmarish apocalypse, hurt, disheveled and covered in clumps of dripping grasses... Is gone ; his still requires repairs sitting in the travel agency industry edge without it... A former crew chief on a clump of swamp muck, drenched in swamp water and fuel.
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