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. March 21, 2017 Angelo was a friend to all who know him, generous with his time to anyone who needed him and a devoted husband and father. In the end, it appears that the source of the stories was an article in an issue of the Flight Safety Foundation. Eric Olson holding a piece of wreckage from Flight 401. Evidently, I wasn't so stupid as to put any regulatory violations in writing in my log book. Let us email you a link to each week's new episode. By using this site, you agree to its use of cookies. The Ghost of Flight 401. Bob Loft appeared before the Vice President of Eastern Air Lines in First Class. Little did I expect to see what he actually had. The following is a list of survivors and victims of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401. Beverly Raposa was a bubbly, 25-year-old flight attendant onboard Eastern Airlines Flight 401 from New York to Miami when the plane slammed into the Everglades at 225 miles per hour near midnight . 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. Sometimes, back when there were no cell phones or GPS electronics to help navigate, he'd get lost at night. Ever the good Catholic, she crossed herself in the dark and silently prayed, Oh God, please let that be true.. ", PHOTO of Mercy Ruiz and her Samsonite suitcase in May 2009. . He'd launch his airboat at the Miccosukee Indian Reservation on the Tamiami Trail and race north into the river of grass. , Elder, R. "Flight 401 Survivors, Years After the Crash and Memorial Efforts." Eventually, the investigations were concluded and most, but not all, of the wreckage was removed or salvaged from the Everglades. Pilots and flight attendants frequently saw Don Repo after that, and always he gave them some valuable maintenance note about the aircraft. The wreckage of Eastern Air Lines flight 401 lies in the Florida Everglades after the crash. Cancel at any time: At 11:32 p.m., Capt. Song - The Ghost of Flight 401 - Lyrics | Carol Susan Jackter 9/26/52 Jorge Gonzalez 1/16/38 Then an alarm chimed, signaling a 250-foot drop. 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. Someone had seen his frogging light. The Ghost of Flight 401: Mystery Files | The control tower at Opa locka shut down at 11pm each evening back then so the L1011 had to be in contact with Miami Approach Control, since we assumed it was ultimately being vectored for an approach to MIA. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 4 | His 1977 book, Crash, tells the story of many of the passengers, the investigation and aftermath of Flight 401. . On December of 1972, an Eastern Airlines Tri-Star jetliner, Flight 401, crashed into a Florida swamp. Captain Bob Loft survived the impact but was so severely injured that he died during the rescue efforts. Flight 401s chain of problems began on the approach to Florida two hours after departure. You don't want to be in the water with me.". Photography courtesy Ron Infantino, A few minutes later Leonhards radio crackled. 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. 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. Worse, none of them noticed that the jet had been steadily losing altitude. Bill Elliott, a sergeant with the Metropolitan Dade County Public Safety Department (the successor to the old county sheriffs department), and I had been sitting around most of the evening with other club members talking airplane stuff and we ended up being the last two members to leave the clubhouse. I had initially intended to fly a little above 2,000 feet to avoid the restrictions, but I ended up closer to 3,000 feet to avoid the other aircraft. "Hey, what's happening here?" Eastern Airlines Flight #401 (L1011 N310EA) . 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. Bud revved up the engine and headed northwest. Edward graduated from Seymour High in 1947. In my mind, that makes him a real hero.". Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute | The Ghost of Flight 401 was a book of nearly pure fiction, as was the TV movie that followed it. In its first three hours aloft, Flight 401 had been uneventful. Muriel J. Ames 11/30/40 Branches had been recently snapped off all the way around the opening, all pointing inward. It is personal and it has served over the intervening years to remind me of how precious and tenuous life can be. Something was wrong with the landing gear or the landing-gear light on the control panel. 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. But it kept jamming. Jesus Lorenzo 4/26/37 The ultimate "yes sir, no sir" man, Bud shuffles reluctantly onto the porch, blinking furiously in the sunlight, wondering what's up. Then wham! Burning jet fuel engulfed the aircraft as it plowed through the swamp. 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! 1972 was drawing to a close when a routine flight from JFK, New York to Miami departed at 9:20 p.m. with 30-year veteran pilot Captain Bob Loft at the controls. The landing gear from Flight 401 at the crash site; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. He isn't a talker to begin with, unless it's about boats or engines or the 'glades. All photos by Southern Airboat, who coordinated the event. Trudy Smith didn't return to flying. The following is a list of survivors and victims of Eastern Air Lines 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. 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. I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. His fishing and hunting skills helped put supper on the family table. Now 41, he lives alone in Titusville, on a disability pension. Flight 401 - Flight Crew Fatal Photograph. Another pilot on another flight was seriously concerned when he heard knocking coming from beneath the cockpit itself. It became his navigation beacon. At no time would officials of the company allow or condone any attempt to investigate the reports. Onboard the aircraft, all members of the Flight Crew worked solely on their problem. The warden noted nothing of interest. Diane Carol Greenblatt 5/5/52 A jumbo jet crashed in the Everglades north of the Tamiami Trial, his sergeant said. They have two sons and live in Dade City now, near Tampa. I wish I had that kind of money today instead of 20 years ago. Jonathan Adam Kaminer 8/22/70 The stories began four years later with the publication of John G. Fuller's 1976 book The Ghost of Flight 401, which revealed that those four years had been filled with incidents of flight crew being startled by apparitions of Loft and Repo appearing on board other Eastern Air Lines planes. Henry Nunez 8/18/23 He was left wearing nothing but a necktie and belt pushed up under his armpits. It was the first accident involving a wide-bodied airliner, and the most deadly crash in the United States at that time. It looked like someone had poured gasoline on a campfire, and poof, up it went. Curiously, Leonhard never heard the impact. On a moonless night, in the beam of his head lamp, the frog eyes would glow like rubies. Hansel Meighen died on April 15, 1999, and is buried in Ft. Pierce, Florida. The crew members, however, were focused on fixing the wheel-light indicator. An account of the paranormal happenings even appeared in a 1974 issue of the US Flight Safety Foundation newsletter. It was only then that it had hit him. "Remember what the doctor said," Nancy chimes in. Bud saw bodies strapped into seats upside down in the water. 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. We also offer excellent benefits and perks, including medical, dental, vision, a 401(k)-retirement plan, holiday pay, paid time off . Not long after the devastating crash, stories began to emerge in the Eastern Air Lines community of unexplained encounters with some of the crew from flight 401. He said that every time an appearance of the ghosts had been entered into a plane's logbook, the logbook was suddenly replaced with a new blank one. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401, crashed on 29 December 1972. One day, late in 1973, I got a phone call from James telling me to come over to his house; he had something for me. May Albury, Verena Bieri, Carl Bolufe, Rigoberto Bolufe, Sandra Burt, Gustavo Cassado, Mrs Xeimara Casado, Miss Christina Casado, Ann Connell, Barry Connell, Mariel Diegeriez, Gerald W Eskow, Sylvia Fisher, Ms. F. Frankin, Herbert Fresko, Molly Fresko, Alicia Garcia, Julia Garcia, Kathryn F.Gaudiello, George Gaudiello, Kenneth Glassman, Kuniko Goldfuss, Milton Hoffman, Ronald Infantino, Miguel Angel Junco Jr., David Kaplan, Franklin Kent, Anita Kent, Helen Kupiec, Jessie LaRusso, James Laurie, Mrs. Leone Levine, Cornelia Leya, Thomas McAvoy, Joseph Mazur, Rose Mazur, Luis Mejia, Richard N. Micale, Albert J Morris, Janice Minguzzi, Christina Ochoa, Allen Okanawsky, Oneida Pares, Aristides Pares, Martha Pares, Carlos Polanco, Lucino Polanco, Joseph Popson, Richard Pragluski, Goldez Quinico, Evelyn Ragalia, Marie Rego, Glen Remkus*, Francoise Riette, Thomas Rothenberg, Martin Siminerio, Bonnie Silverman, Donna Smith, Millie Soberon, Jerald Solomon, Larry Sumpkins, Marilyn Taylor, Edward Ulrich, Jesse C. Walker, Allen Weiss, Lorenzo Zetlin. Ron and Fara Infantino, married for 20 days, were coming home from their honeymoon when Flight 401 crashed. Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute. There was just one problem: Bob Loft had been dead for months. But the passengers were her peopleher responsibilityand it was still her job to help them. Spectral looking people with manic laughs or clanking chains are another popular image people often have of ghosts or spirits. The other house is gone; his still requires repairs. She dug down into the black muck, cupped a double handful to her face and smeared it all over the affected areas. 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. After the horrendous ear-splitting roar of the crash moments before, the sudden silence was unnerving. Donald Louis Repo 5/10/21 His book was later adapted into a made-for-tv movie starring William Shatner as an NTSB investigator. Suddenly, he stopped. Le dimanche 26 janvier 2020, l'hlicoptre Sikorsky S-76 de Kobe Bryant s'crase prs de Calabasas, en Californie (tats-Unis).Les neuf occupants de l'appareil sont tus sur le coup. That was an unsurvivable crash, but we made it out," she said. Flight 401. There were 10 flight attendants in the main cabin serving 163 passengers. She had no first-aid kit. Marquis is also survived by a son, Donald Marquis of Altamonte Springs; a daughter, Terri Mabie of Tucson; 10 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. She worked only briefly as a flight attendant after the crash. It seemed to help. She was whipped. 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. Front row from the left: Dottie Warnock, Pat Ghyssels, Beverly Raposa, Patty Georgia, Stephanie Stanich. I mean, I was a single person with no family. A yellow flash. The City of Miami Springs hosted a Beautiful Memorial Ceremony on Thursday, December 29, 2022. Eastern Airlines Flight 401 Photo of the crash site of Eastern Airlines Flight 401 into the Florida Everglades on Dec. 29, 1972. The death toll at the time was the highest of any one-plane accident in U.S. civil aviation history. Abbey Lynn Greenwald 9/18/52 Loft even spoke to the ground crew, insisting that no checks were required as he had already done them. 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. 18 Jan 2023. An Eastern representative told Serling that, while pondering whether to sue Fuller or his publisher: We spent weeks trying to locate anyone who claimed to have seen a ghost and couldn't find one person. Rose Lina Zollo 7/13/43. Wait a minute, he said. This show is made possible by financial support from listeners like you. Edward E. Ulrich died at home on May 25, 2021. 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 doctor warned him not to travel alone, not with his weak heart and lungs and aching back. In the narrow beam of his head lamp he now saw enormous strips of torn metal. That was a godsend because I got to meet and befriend many of the club members, most of whom were successful small business owners enjoying the fruits of their labor by owning and operating private aircraft (something that is almost cost prohibitive in today's aviation, regulatory and business environments). "Accident Description." 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. She found a section of the cabin with a stewardess still strapped into her seat-belt harness. This story has relevance to those of us in anaesthesia. Flight 401 Survivors, Years After the Crash and Memorial Efforts. Bud's heroics were featured prominently a few days later in the Miami Herald. (none / Historical Museum of Southern Fl . Susan Deutsch 10/21/42 After retiring he volunteered with the Civil Air Patrol, his last rank was Lt. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 3 | A team catalogues the mangled remains of the Eastern Airlines Flight 401 aircraft at the crash site in the Everglades. Seventy-five miraculously survived. "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. Source: Google Sites. 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. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Survivors described a flash or spark that exploded through the cabin as the jet ripped apart. I come from an Eastern family - my mother, Betty Olson, retired from Eastern in 1976. My former brother-in-law, James Anderson, was an avid air boat owner and hunting enthusiast. Why dont we sing to help warm ourselves up? she suggested. It would be hard to make up a plausible story like Ronald Infantino's -- too sad, too joyful. Flipping through the pages, Bud smiles for the first time in hours. It is now known that "Mrs. McAvoy" was Donna Smith, Thomas McAvoy's traveling companion. With an injured back and a cut foot, she slogged through sucking muck, shredded saw grass and plane wreckage. Huge gouts of mud and aquatic vegetation shot high into the air as 185 tons of screeching metal ripped into the muck and grass. You can see the brand name on the oven instruction plate. Ernest F. Bloodgood 4/1/16 He did well for a while -- had a big house in the Country Club of Miami and drove a Lincoln. (No one had a camera, so I don't have any personal photos.) Theyd been married only 20 days and were returning from their honeymoon. 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. Murray Yellin 6/9/11 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. . Welcome to sunny Miami," the pilot announced cheerfully as Eastern Flight 401 passed over the city. Back to the clubhouse and armed with the airspace restrictions, I was ready to fly. 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. Pilots of Eastern Airline Flight 401 Don Repo and Bob Loft. '", Age 79, died Saturday, October 2, 2004 in Land O'Lakes, FL. The story goes that parts from it were salvaged and installed in other L-1011s, and almost immediately, the ghost stories began. By using this site, you agree to its use of cookies. To all who shivered at night in fear of this creepy story, it seemed that it must have been true as reported. Santiago Flight 513: A Fictional Time Warp. Air crews reported seeing apparitions of their dead coworkers on board the planes that had Flight 401's spare parts. Although he was a passenger, he rode in the cockpit with pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer. This was not the only sighting registered. Those words guided Leonhard as his 14-foot patrol airboat bulldozed through dense walls of water-anchored grass. Below is a list of those on board, according to family, friends or officials . Retired Air Force Col. Frank Bormana former astronaut, vice president of Eastern Airlines and now a first respondercame to escort her into a helicopter hovering at ground level a short distance away. "You couldn't even say goodbye to each . To the flight 401 survivors - Francoise Riette December 30, 2021, 4:08 pm. My mother never told me the flight attendant's name, but she did say that she had suffered a broken back in the crash. Loft, Robert Albin | However, the high point was the couple became engaged on the plane before takeoff. Picture that in your mind. There were 75 at the time, 20 years ago tonight. People observe a candlelight vigil in memory of victims of a plane crash in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, Jan. 16, 2023. Klaus Schenck 9/5/39 Witnesses include pilots, various other members of Eastern Air Lines staff and their passengers. Back row from the left: Mercy Ruiz, Sue Tebbs, Adrienne Hamilton, Trudy Smith. The wreckage was discovered Wednesday night in the Everglades four days afte Leonhard killed the engine so that they could listen for the calls of survivors. Job Description. Beverly Raposa doesn't mind flying. Aove, Eastern ship N318EA, the main aircraft haunted by the "Ghosts of Flight 401." They were heading his way. After dark he moonlighted as a commercial frogger. We've been married going on 18 years now." Michael Ann Kaminer 12/28/45 Now for the big decisions - who gets to ride with us? Everything else was in small pieces spread in a general southwest or south-by-southwest direction for 1,500 to 2,000 feet. Minor, Miami Herald) Below, Right, Mrs Leona Levine on March 15, 1973 (Joe Elbert, Miami Herald). #563 Ali Asgar Dhirani was 74 years old when he died on Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752, along with 175 others. Two days later, Lilly Infantino was found trapped beneath one of the wings. 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. Rowdy fans of Notre Dame and University of Nebraska, scheduled to play on New Year's Day at the Orange Bowl, were poised to take over the town. A glance out a window, after all, would have shown nothing but the black Everglades below. An elevation of only eight feet felt like being on a hilltop in the Everglades. Donald Stanley Casadona 7/16/38 They got a warning light on the landing gear. It looked like a piece of the wreckage, or something, had been propelled on a near horizontal trajectory, traveling just a foot or two above the waters surface, and rocketed into the willows with tremendous force., Bent at the waist, the two men waded into the hole, following a ragged debris trail of damaged vegetation. Ruiz, 63, of West Miami-Dade, still has aches and pains but returned to flying until Eastern folded in 1991. I saw young couples broken up. Eastern Air Lines flight 401 encountered no problems while cruising between the two cities. I do recall that some gremlins were on it though and they kept messing up my landing!!!!". As in other reports, the flight attendant selected Repos photo from a choice offered to her. 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. Of five survivors The Herald located this week, three talked freely about Flight 401. Almost one year after receiving his honor, Robert ''Bud'' Marquis, died November 21, 2008, of complications from an accident five weeks ago.