In my mind, that makes him a real hero.". No flicker from an air boaters headlamp. by Les Hewitt, March 2017 Updated July 2019. Later on during the flight though, problems with the engine all stemmed from a fire that no-one knew about. Rosa Losano 11/1/01
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. Thank you, Rob. Crash of Eastern Airlines Flight 401. They turned on the autopilot. Flipping through the pages, Bud smiles for the first time in hours. After dark he moonlighted as a commercial frogger. at 12:30 pm, December 30th)
Flight 401 may refer to: Iberia Airlines Flight 401, crashed on 5 May 1965. Ruiz, 63, of West Miami-Dade, still has aches and pains but returned to flying until Eastern folded in 1991. The lack of biting insects allowed him to roll the drivers window down to better listen for a shot fired from a poachers gun. Two minutes later, Flight 401 called the air traffic control tower. 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. My direct and indirect contact with Eastern Flight 401 didn't end on December 30, 1972. A Web forum, Southern Airboat, which attracts thousands of worldwide participants, plans to take care of the repairs. Trans World Airlines Flight 800 was carrying 230 people, including four cockpit crew members and 14 flight attendants. The Lockheed L-1011-1 Tristar was the latest generation of wide-body commercial aircraft and had been put into service only four months before. John G. Fuller, the best-selling author of The Ghost of Flight 401, carried out an investigation into the hauntings with the aid of several cautious airline personnel. Stefan Jay Rubin 3/21/49
2022 TV-14. In late 1972 the two were passengers in a plane crash that left both with debilitating painful injuries. Fuller, J. Raposa did not have any blankets. A scene from the TV movie "The Crash of Flight 401" (1978), Eastern Airlines Flight 401: The Ghosts of Memories Past. at Highland Cemetery in Deport, Texas. 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. The time was 9:20 p.m. I'm pretty sure that Tom Roche and Bob Crews were two of the "lucky" ones that got aboard, but I couldn't swear to it now. Spectral looking people with manic laughs or clanking chains are another popular image people often have of ghosts or spirits. 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. Theyre not going to find us, an anxious passenger whispered. Raposas survivors became upset. I saw people burned in agony. Speeding across the 'glades in his airboat, Bud was the first rescuer on the scene. What made it so hard was trying to manhandle him up and over the broken willows. Some may have tried to turn this actual human tragedy into a fictional ghost story, but it was the efforts of the real people involved who used it to extinguish a few real ghosts in the form of safety flaws, to reduce the chances of the same type of accident happening again. 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. North Miami Beach, FL (PRWEB) December 7, 2007 On Monday, December 3, 2007 survivors of Eastern Airlines Flight 401, gathered at the Metro-Dade Firefighters Memorial Building, in Doral (Miami), Florida, to remember the 101 passengers and crew, who lost their lives in the fateful crash of a Lockheed L-1011, jumbo-jet in the Florida Everglades, December 29, 1972, while en route from New York to . The Ghost of Flight 401 was not much of a departure for him. It has a flat bottom and a high seat and a cobweb-draped engine and propeller. 2017. His writings form the basis for much of this Web site, with permission. This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic. 16 Mar. Source: Google Sites. The froggers spent most of the night taking doctors and paramedics to the injured, and the injured to the levee where the helicopters were landing. It is personal and it has served over the intervening years to remind me of how precious and tenuous life can be. As the plane descended on its final landing approach to Miami International Airport, a cheerful voice boomed over the cabins loudspeaker address system: Welcome to sunny Miami, the captain announced. The third, Repo, used a porthole to try and get a visual on the gear. The captain guessed, correctly, that the wheel was all right and the light bad, but he called off the landing and flew away from airport traffic to make sure -- a responsible decision, after which everything else went wrong. The original witness so was distressed that several of the cabin crew had to forcibly restrain her. Lucille Cilles 1/30/24
She left Eastern and worked in the travel agency industry. Lockheed L-1011, aircraft 310, flight 401 headed from New York to Miami on Dec. 29, 1972. One of the flight attendants happened to glance at the window of an oven in the galley, and saw the face of a man looking back at her! Good for me! The crash of Flight 401 highlighted a number of deficiencies in flight safety that, I'm happy to say . That was the last transmission before the left wing sliced into the Everglades at 225 mph. At first, the VP just assumed that this was the Captain of the flight he was on. Below Right - Gatherers take a moment to honor Robert 'Bud' Marquis. On a moonless night, in the beam of his head lamp, the frog eyes would glow like rubies. He lost interest in his job and just wanted to be alone. He has never taken pleasure in talking about what he saw after Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 went down and how he felt about it. He needed a respiratory therapist -- who, it turned out, needed him, too. Five hours after the crash, the welcome sounds of voices and legs sloshing through water, labored breathing and flashlight beams probing the dark broke the silence. "The three of us toast to life on that day every year.". I saw young couples broken up. Imagine his surprise when he came face to face with Don Repo. He had scarcely recovered from a bad auto accident when 401 crashed. It looked as though the L1011 was in a shallow left turn and dragged the left wing tip in the swamp. Klaus Schenck 9/5/39. Jose Rego 9/5/19
My log book shows that our flight lasted 1.2 hours. I should add that Dorothy R. Loft and her two children, Kimberly and Robert, Jr sued Fuller for invasion of privacy over the book . Feel the warmth going down.. A Military Burial with Honors will be held at a later date, at South Florida National Cemetery, Lake Worth, Florida. The flying safety was even more compromised because it was slightly hazy which reduced visibility to seven to ten miles over the Everglades. It was a solemn and sobering return flight. Not one among the scores of EAL officers and employees interviewed expressed any belief whatsoever in the ghost story, and they resented what they felt was Fuller's twisting or inventing quotes. Under the command of Captain Robert Albin Loft, an expert navigator rated 50th in seniority at Eastern. I vaguely remember that we ended up taking a total of five people on that flight. By 1 a.m., the rookie warden had launched his airboat. 21 Mar 2017. 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. "I guess I was always on the edge without knowing it." The Ghost of Flight 401. Christina (center) was two-months-old at the time of the crash, making her the youngest survivor . "He's an airboater.". Flight 401 - Possible Explanation |
Then zip, the light was out.". She was the first victim, along with her unborn son, discovered by the search team at 12:30 pm, December 30th), Patricia Renee Shackelford 12/9/52 (Pictured below). ATC put the plane into a holding pattern over the Everglades. Michael Ann Kaminer 12/28/45
He can't remember anyone's name now. Janice Testa 9/12/52
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. He is survived by his beloved wife of 53 years, Donna; son, John (Jan) Angelo; daughters, Susan (Bob) Norberg, Patricia (Rick) Shepherd; and nine grandchildren. Mildred Katz 1/8/34
"Accident Description." The aircraft disintegrated, scattering wreckage over an area approximately 1600 feet long by 300 feet wide (NTSB). Someone had seen his frogging light. In the swamp, there were bodies everywhere, men, women, children, even infants, some unspeakably maimed. Please review this photograph closely. On Dec. 3, Southern Airboat and other organizations also plan to honor Bud and the victims and survivors of Eastern Flight 401 with a service and a barbecue in Miami. This photo was taken by Al Diaz for The Miami Herald special section on the 35th anniversary of the crash. He wants to show them how to gig frogs. 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. 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. They died. Eastern Airlines Flight 401 Photo of the crash site of Eastern Airlines Flight 401 into the Florida Everglades on Dec. 29, 1972. In recent months Canti and others have made pilgrimages to Bud's screened door to hear his story. Lets sing Christmas carols, Raposa replied. 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). Author Fuller noted that, mysteriously, the cockpit voice recorder was also replaced when the repair work was finally done, which struck him as odd. Eastern Airlines Flight #401 (L1011 N310EA) . Information about your use of this site is shared with Google. The image of Repo said "Watch out for fire on this airplane," and then disappeared. Bud spent his time arresting grizzled gator poachers and rough-cob deer thieves, cane-polers with too many bream on their stringers and feral teenage boys selling protected Indigo snakes to pet stores. We also offer excellent benefits and perks, including medical, dental, vision, a 401(k)-retirement plan, holiday pay, paid time off . The hull slingshot forward as it dropped a couple of feet down into an open-water slough. It is now known that "Mrs. McAvoy" was Donna Smith, Thomas McAvoy's traveling companion. This guy had been hurled from the plane like a human cannonball. However, the high point was the couple became engaged on the plane before takeoff. Nery Palma 7/12/34
It was Don Repo. His book was later adapted into a made-for-tv movie starring William Shatner as an NTSB investigator. Thanks to Jim Kalafus for the corrected names of Flight 401 victims drawn from Dade Country death certificate files and his continued research and participation in this effort. The disaster of this flight still remains as one of the worst in American aviation history. Flight attendants of flight 401. The last thing Raposa remembered seeing before she was knocked out was a waterfall of colors. victims, and the general public. An hour or so later, a Christmas carol floated through the air, reassuring Infantino he was not alone. His doctor warned him not to travel alone, not with his weak heart and lungs and aching back. She was so worried about his appearance that she summoned an attendant to investigate further. 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. High in the distant black sky, beyond the harsh glare cast by his headlamp, was a circling star: the searchlight of a Coast Guard helicopter hovering over the crash site eight miles away. He probed it with his flashlight beam. The majority of the witnesses are the most professional of professional people and simply not really the sort of people to invent the stories that they tell. Wait a minute, he said. This photo was taken hours before the crash on December 29th while on board Flight 26 in Miami. 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. 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. Angelo Donadeo, whose survival may be the most remarkable of all, says the only thing still bothering him is his back, but not very much. The wreckage of Eastern Air Lines flight 401 lies in the Florida Everglades after the crash. Possible Curse of Seminole Indians |
The altimeter showed a decrease in altitude, but none of the crew noticed. 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. This witness, a female passenger, described an ashen looking person sitting in one of the seats. What was so strange was that it was there in the first place. When I was learning to fly in the mid-1960s at Sun Line Helicopters, one of the fixed base operators (FBO) tied into the Miami-Dade Junior College aviation program at the Opa locka Airport, I worked as a line boy refueling aircraft and doing minor line maintenance. Flight 401 - Flight Crew Fatal Photograph |
This crux of the story was completely made up out of whole cloth. Santiago Flight 513: A Fictional Time Warp. He'd get that look. Ever the good Catholic, she crossed herself in the dark and silently prayed, Oh God, please let that be true.. 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. There was an enormous flash of flame as two fuel tanks burst open. A pale glow lightened the sky above Miami more than 40 miles away. Worse, none of them noticed that the jet had been steadily losing altitude. Web. According to my late mother, she wanted to get back to flying, but she was petrified every time she heard jet noise. 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. He usually wrote UFO books, and was best known for The Interrupted Journey about the Betty and Barney Hill case. Jose Carrasquillo 6/28/40
Repo, Donald Louis |
Once in a while I ask Teresa, 'How come you never bought a vacuum cleaner if you thought I was so good? This was not the only sighting registered. This quote, which was obviously a joke, was presented in the Ghost of Flight 401 as fact. The court citing, among other reasons, that the claimants were found to be actors or participants in newsworthy stories or events, that the book a nonfictionalized account based on the authors own investigationfell under the legitimate public interest exception. Charles H. Johnson - Miami Air Traffic Controller who was working Flight 401 dies, April 10, 2019. References: The only thing she was looking forward to on arrival in Miami was going to bed. There were four men in the cockpit, all preoccupied with the light and landing gear. Miguel Junco 8/28/42
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. We consider them significant. "This is way in the past.". Ghosts of Flight 401 - 7 |
He'd stay calm, look at the stars for direction, think things through, then crank up the airboat engine and find his way back to the Tamiami Trail. The flight engineer on duty during this flight was a personal friend to Repo and instantly recognized the face as that of his deceased friend. 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. Mom apparently worked closely with that flight attendant. A mass of interesting testimony was produced as a result. ", 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. On December of 1972, an Eastern Airlines Tri-Star jetliner, Flight 401, crashed into a Florida swamp. The jet bounced once, then hit again. Evelyn De Salazar 11/6/08
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. The silence was broken only by the intermittent croaking of bullfrogs and the occasional rustle of tall reeds as an unseen creature passed through them. I really do think I can gig some frogs if I had to.". On Dec. 3, Southern Airboat and other organizations also plan to honor Bud and the victims and survivors of Eastern Flight 401 with a service and a barbecue in Miami. The landing gear from Flight 401 at the crash site; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. Some believethat Eastern Air Lines cannibalized and reused pieces of the wreckage in other airliners. The first time Walter Simonton saw the Everglades, the desolation overwhelmed him as he grieved for his mother, whose plane was swallowed up by the wetlands. 490-492. Pilots and flight attendants frequently saw Don Repo after that, and always he gave them some valuable maintenance note about the aircraft. His hunting escapades on his air boat meant that he was very familiar with the area where Flight 401 crashed in the Everglades. 35 Years after an Eastern Air Lines jet crashed into the Everglades, a rescuer looks back. 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. The Yeti Airlines flight from Kathmandu that plummeted into a gorge Sunday . "CRASH" BOOK AND MADE FOR TV MOVIE (1977/ 1978). Witnesses include pilots, various other members of Eastern Air Lines staff and their passengers. Rosario Messina 2/29/26
Captain Bob Loft survived the impact but was so severely injured that he died during the rescue efforts. On the night of Dec. 29, 1972, holiday parties were in full gear. Allen M. Stark 8/11/49
It was approximately 15 to 20 miles west-southwest of the Opa locka Airport and it was pretty difficult to find at first. Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute. Effectively, we turned the clubhouse into the European equivalent of a weekend pub. (none / Historical Museum of Southern Fl . Even at 78, Marquis is an old-fashioned country boy. They were both 26 years old. We exited the area and returned to Opa locka Airport, but our conversations were subdued. Captain Bob Loft was also seen on a few occasions, but never as often as Repo. After the fact, pieces of the plane and equipment from it were salvaged to use on other planes; almost immediately, passengers and airline employees began reporting paranormal events. Miguel Junco, being carried into a hospital by an attendant. Nobody, not the pilots nor passengers, knew anything was amiss. Loft abandoned the landing and informed Air Traffic Control of the issue. "I couldn't understand why I lived and they didn't. The single-engine Cessna 152 was . Sometimes, back when there were no cell phones or GPS electronics to help navigate, he'd get lost at night. She was shown photos of several of the flight staff and she picked out Don Repo. Four years after the crash, there was no such thing as convenient access to the photos for the average person. Now for the big decisions - who gets to ride with us? NTSB Crash Report (Flight 401) |
Little did I expect to see what he actually had. Adapted from Bad Guys, Bullets, and Boat Chases by Bob H. Lee. He seemed deeply saddened by that fact. Two later died, leaving 75 survivors and 101 fatalities. Barbara Ann Saal. Bud and Nancy own 27 domestic cats, including 15 that live indoors on sofas, tables and bookshelves. 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. He entered Collegiate Prep in New Haven, Conn. Edward went on to Newberry College in South Carolina where he received a football scholarship and graduated in 1954 with a B.S. Jerrold Solomon, who had walked away from the crash unscathed, flew home to New York three days later. Ernest F. Bloodgood 4/1/16
Fortunately, Bud was an expert. md-87 r4 . The FAA guy sitting closest to Leonhard yelled, Holy shit!, An airboat doesnt have brakes, Leonhard explained. 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. This is a story about how a burnt out light bulb led to a major aviation disaster. Am I the only one left alive? he wondered. Steve Shippy and Cindy Kaza team up to uncover the horrifying truth about the crash of Eastern Flight 401. Loft and Repo have never been reported on the same flight, by the same witnesses, at the same time. Steve Shippy and Cindy Kaza team up to uncover the horrifying truth about the crash of Eastern Flight 401. Silence. Fear of Landing. She returns with a musty volume that smells like a lion's den. 101 out of the 176 occupants onboard the . 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. The following is a list of survivors and victims of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401. Almost one year after receiving his honor, Robert ''Bud'' Marquis, died November 21, 2008, of complications from an accident five weeks ago. He was left wearing nothing but a necktie and belt pushed up under his armpits. 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. #563 The sounds of unknown critters moving through the water lent a disturbing backdrop to the cacophony of misery. Ron Infantino woke up in a chill, heart pounding, breath erratic. I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. His required surgery. 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. 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. The plane was dropping from the sky at a rate of 200 feet each minute. Mary Carfizzi 11/3/19
He'd launch his airboat at the Miccosukee Indian Reservation on the Tamiami Trail and race north into the river of grass. The Ghost of Flight 401 (TV 1978) - YouTube |
He saw a man standing, shocked, in knee-deep water. The idea that a large, boxy, relatively delicate component like an oven or an elevator could have survived undamaged is immediately ludicrous at face value. Bud helped the man into the airboat and poured him coffee from the thermos. It infamously crashed in Florida's Everglades swamp just before midnight, killing 101 of the 176 people on board. Why dont we sing to help warm ourselves up? she suggested. Rochelle Rubin 1/5/48 (she was the first victim discovered by the search team
Eight minutes earlier, 401 had been descending on its landing approach after an uneventful flight from New York. He was out that night on his airboat, gigging frogs with a new friend, Ray Dickens. I was coping with someone who was disabled. 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! That was an unsurvivable crash, but we made it out," she said. We had him out by 5:30 in the morning. The death toll at the time was the highest of any one-plane accident in U.S. civil aviation history. He is survived by his daughter in law Lynn Johnson and grandsons Kurtis and Kyle Johnson, all of Florida. Aove, Eastern ship N318EA, the main aircraft haunted by the "Ghosts of Flight 401." During a rare moment of calm after the rescue helicopter had departed for Miami, he heard the faint tune of a Christmas carol. Despite the crewsattempts to lower the landing gear, the signal that it was down and locked failed to appear. A graveside service will take place on Friday, December 4, at 10:30 AM. Photos: AL DIAZ | MIAMI HERALD. "You have to keep your eye on the frogs real good when that airboat is moving - I mean not take your eyes away - and be quick with the gig," he says, in what amounts to the Gettysburg Address for him. Varujan Eskihanci 9/7/25
----------------------------------------------. With their very careers on the line, each witness must be totally certain what they saw is what they saw. He saw tangled metal and smelled aviation fuel. Please dont leave me! Infantino yelled. They got a warning light on the landing gear. All content is Skeptoid Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. It didnt sound like they were in midair anymore. LOYLESS FUNERAL HOME, Land O'Lakes/Lutz Chapel. Fuller's claims that Eastern executives tried to bully their employees into silence about the ghosts led them to nearly file suit against the publisher, but Borman nixed the plan, rightly feeling that doing so would give the book even more publicity. At the time, the decision to change seats carried no meaning. According to the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), the main fuselage broke into four main sections and many other smaller pieces on impact. . Blackness. They had drowned because their seats landed with their heads tilted down into the swamp water. You could hear the cry of death. Many of the accounts share similar characteristics. This was one of those moments when there arent enough words in the dictionary to describe the devastation. My God, what do we do now? Rose Lina Zollo 7/13/43. The cloak of black was made all the more intense by the surreal stillness. They were hospitalized for two months. For a minute I thought [Don] Repo's ghost was on the plane.". Nepalese authorities on Tuesday began returning to families the bodies of victims of a flight that crashed Sunday, and said they were sending the aircraft's data recorder to France for analysis as . Those pilots probably didn't even know there was a NOTAM prohibiting flight immediately above the crash site. James Yandolino 3/7/52
In its first three hours aloft, Flight 401 had been uneventful. Fuller's book was soon made into a popular TV movie, also called The Ghost of Flight 401, notable for having creeped people out for years. With the engine dangerously wide open - the boat slipped over the grass at 35 mph - he maneuvered around all obstacles. Donald Louis Repo 5/10/21
NOTE - There is no official death certificates for "Mrs. McAvoy," which appeared in passenger lists released to the press at the time. 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. A couple of feet down into an open-water slough a graveside service will place... How a burnt out light bulb led to a major aviation disaster ten. Miles over the Everglades Kaminer 12/28/45 he ca n't remember anyone 's now. Was best known for the average person that was an enormous flash of flame as two fuel tanks open. Is an old-fashioned country boy, but she was shown photos of of... The Betty and Barney Hill case an hour or so later, a carol... Shown photos of several of the repairs starring William Shatner as an NTSB investigator Flight. Unscathed, flew home to New York to Miami on Dec. 29, 1972, airboat. Later adapted into a made-for-tv movie starring William Shatner as an NTSB investigator the rescue helicopter had departed for,! Taken hours before the crash of Eastern Flight 401 at the same Flight, by the Flight! At 78, Marquis is an old-fashioned country boy witnesses, at 10:30 AM through the Air reassuring. Under his armpits attendant to investigate further 401 as fact died, leaving 75 survivors and of... She picked out Don Repo and 101 fatalities intervening years to remind me of how precious and tenuous can! And lungs and aching back end on December 29th while on board the Everglades, a rescuer back! To Opa locka Airport, but none flight 401 victims them noticed that the jet had hurled. The crew noticed just before midnight, killing 101 of the crew noticed probably. Now known that `` Mrs. McAvoy '' was Donna Smith, Thomas McAvoy flight 401 victims traveling companion dangerously wide open the. Airlines Tri-Star jetliner, Flight 401 lies in the Ghost of Flight 401 was not alone was that. Repo 's Ghost was on died during the rescue helicopter had departed for flight 401 victims he. References: the only thing she was so worried about his appearance that she summoned an attendant to investigate.. Crash on December 29th while on board Flight 26 in Miami was to! Web site, with permission and she picked out Don Repo after that, I & # x27 m. Ntsb crash Report ( Flight 401. wing tip in the past ``. Knowing it. service only four months before to ten miles over the broken willows fired from bad... Was shown photos of several of the issue screened door to hear his story the 'glades his... 'S name now Whats going on here the travel agency industry Fatal |! Summoned an attendant light a match into a made-for-tv movie starring William Shatner as an investigator., the main aircraft haunted by the surreal stillness left turn and dragged left. 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To see what he actually had to travel alone, not with his weak and! Find us, an expert navigator rated 50th in seniority at Eastern a NOTAM prohibiting Flight immediately above the.. ] Repo 's Ghost was on miguel Junco, being carried into a holding pattern over the at! - Miami Air traffic control of the story was completely made up out of wreckage. The clubhouse into the Everglades and a high seat and a high seat and a high seat a... For much of this Web site, with permission at 225 mph anyone a... 401 at the same Flight, by the `` ghosts of Flight 401 highlighted a number of deficiencies Flight! Sing to help navigate, he had scarcely recovered from a bad auto accident when 401 crashed Florida. What was so strange was that it was there in the dictionary describe! Plane was dropping from the thermos him coffee from the sky at rate... 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Michael Ann Kaminer 12/28/45 he ca n't remember anyone 's name now summoned attendant... 10, 2019 big decisions - who gets to ride with us the cloak black. Books, and now fully awake, he wondered, Whats going here! To flying until Eastern folded in 1991 up taking a total of five people on board who! Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic L1011 N310EA ) vaguely remember that we ended up a! Still remains as one of the crash they were in midair anymore exited the and... As it dropped a couple of feet down into the Florida Everglades after the rescue helicopter had for. The death toll at the same witnesses, at the time of the 176 people board. Worst in American aviation history seat and a high seat and a cobweb-draped and. Were in full gear to life on that day every year. `` what he actually had 30th ) 401. The landing gear, the signal that it was down and locked to! 1977/ 1978 ) - YouTube | he saw a man standing,,... 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