James followed all of the rules and more often than not, brought home venison for the family each deer season. The most interesting story in The Ghost of Flight 401 revolves around the conflict between the employees and airline management in regards to the ghost sightings. The altimeter showed a decrease in altitude, but none of the crew noticed. Get the latest flight sales and travel reviews straight to your inbox. It's broken, just like him. But Infantino couldnt follow the voice. Only their bedroom has an air conditioner. "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. It seemed to help. Loise Shackelford attended. He was one of those rare south Florida individuals who owned a ton of hunting rifles and lived for the deer hunting season so he could go out on his air boat and hunt scrawny deer in the Everglades. A Coast Guard helicopter flew toward them, sweeping the marsh with a bright searchlight, and then turned away. About 490 feet (150m) from the wingtip's initial contact with the ground, the massive fuselage had begun to break up, scattering components from the underfloor galley, the cargo compartments, and the cabin interior. She was killed. An orange glow suddenly lit up out in the marsh toward Miami, he recalled. The Ghosts of Eastern Flight 401. The oven choices for airlines were either Nordskog or the Bowmar/Calrod brand. Hansel owned a single engine Piper Comanche 250, registered as N7510P, that held four people, including the pilot. Infantino sold his house and investment property at a loss, swapped his Lincoln for a Ford Pinto and went job-hunting. In the days and weeks following the crash of Eastern Airlines Flight 401, recovery efforts captivated the nation, and perhaps because of its iconic, unforgiving, alligator-riddled crash site, the event has remained seared in the memories of Floridians for decades. He was left wearing nothing but a necktie and belt pushed up under his armpits. In 1972 he was a young carpenter who liked living fast. On December 29, 1972, Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was the first jumbo jet to crash and the second worst single-plane disaster in America up to that time. By 1 a.m., the rookie warden had launched his airboat. Jerome Becker 6/27/39
Below: The Casado family tour the crash site. Based on the book, it dramatized the crash, rescue efforts, and NTSB investigation. Some would rather not remember. Julia Lustig 5/30/25
Inside the planes cockpit, the crew was trying to slide in a replacement bulb, a roughly two-square-inch all-in-one light assembly unit covered by a translucent green plastic lens, valued at $12 altogether. [5]:5 The airplane was traveling at 227 miles per hour (197kn; 365km/h) when it hit the ground. By the time I got to the clubhouse, there must have been 10 to 15 members milling about, all discussing the crash. Patricia A. Ghyssels 3/31/45
"He's an airboater.". Maureen I. Chesler 10/12/47
The largest recognizable pieces of wreckage were the cockpit section and the center engine intake and attached fuselage section. He had lost contact with his frogging helper, Ray, too. I dont know this for sure, but I seem to remember he was the last survivor rescued.. [15][16][17], These stories speculated that parts of the crashed aircraft were salvaged after the investigation and refitted into other L-1011s. Sometime in midflight, passenger Ron Infantino switched seats with his wife, Lilly, after she returned from the bathroom. Theyll find us eventually., Raposa had the survivors scoot together, sitting back to back so they could stay warm. 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. Flight 401 left John F. Kennedy at 9:20 p.m. I had first, second and third-degree burns all over my body. Lockheed L-1011 Cockpit |
I vaguely remember that we ended up taking a total of five people on that flight. It was closing in on midnight on Dec. 29, 1972. The left wingtip banked into the marsh at 227 miles per hour. Mama, heat up the frying pan. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 left New York's JFK airport, bound for Miami International Airport, on December 29, 1972. Murray Yellin 6/9/11
There were also a bunch of vehicles and some helicopters on a nearby levee that was being used as the base of operations for the rescue and crash investigation. Eventually, the investigations were concluded and most, but not all, of the wreckage was removed or salvaged from the Everglades. /24-7PressRelease/ - MIAMI, FL, December 07, 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 . Once the crisis was over, respiratory therapist Susan Mefford was assigned to Infantino. He'd cruise up on the frog, spear the frog with the 3-pronged gig, knock the frog off the gig into a sack, all the while moving forward in the airboat while getting ready to gig another frog. They turned on the autopilot. February 26, 1989. Photo credit: Don Boyd of Sun Bird Photos. Angelo was a friend to all who know him, generous with his time to anyone who needed him and a devoted husband and father. Two survivors died later as a result of . Flight 401 Normal - Faulty Auto Pilot |
He saw openings in the sawgrass created by sliding chunks of broken airplane. Her face burned from the jet fuel. Further evidence that the whole ovens-got-salvaged story is untrue comes from claims that the ovens were made by Foster Refregerator company. Two later died, leaving 75 survivors and 101 fatalities. Unfortunately it did so as a scattered wreck over the marshes of Florida's Everglades. The death toll per the final accident report was 99. Although there is no factual evidence to support the claim, legend has it that after the crash investigation, surviving avionics and galley equipment was salvaged from the crash site, returned to the manufacturers and overhauled to help relieve equipment shortages on Lockheed's growing production line. AlanNachmias 5/16/50
The Miami News, Dec. 30, 1972. The NTSB classified the injuries of one nonrevenue passenger and one other passenger as nonfatal, as their deaths occurred more than seven days after the accident. "The three of us toast to life on that day every year.". Were still at 2,000, right? the first officer asked. [5]:23 In this mode, once the pilot releases pressure on the yoke (control column or wheel), the autopilot maintains the pitch attitude of the aircraft until the yoke is again moved. Ron Infantino woke up in a chill, heart pounding, breath erratic. Carmen Jorge 7/7/46
A lot of the people I saw were naked. 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. She returns with a musty volume that smells like a lion's den. Not shown, Sharon Transue (she was taking the photo). Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was a scheduled flight from New York JFK to Miami.Shortly before midnight on December 29, 1972, the Lockheed L-1011-1 TriStar crashed into the Florida Everglades, causing 101 total fatalities. My former brother-in-law, James Anderson, was an avid air boat owner and hunting enthusiast. There was an enormous flash of flame as two fuel tanks burst open. The TriStar's port outer wing structure struck the ground first, followed by the number1 engine and the port main undercarriage. The aircraft was a Lockheed L-1011-1 TriStar traveling from New York to Miami. 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. Theyd been married only 20 days and were returning from their honeymoon. His writings form the basis for much of this Web site, with permission. He was an aviation business student at Miami-Dade Community College then, and used some of his money to start a commuter airline. "I still love to fly; I get on planes and fall asleep like a baby," jokes Raposa. "I consider the survivors 75 miracles. But, to play it safe, she always wore an add-on hairpiece and teased her hair up into a bouffant to make herself look taller. The flying club tie-down area and ramp were immediately adjacent to the Sun Line operation and I often was called upon to fuel aircraft on the Sun Flying Club property. Back to the clubhouse and armed with the airspace restrictions, I was ready to fly. Alina Junco 5/2/44
By that time, I had also earned a commercial pilot license with airplane single and multi-engine and instrument ratings. I was a kid, 21 years old. Judy Ellenberg 2/27/53
Ghosts of Flight 401 - 2 |
Susan Deutsch 10/21/42
[26], Flight 401 is mentioned in the TV show Supernatural Season 1 Episode 4 named Phantom Traveler's. The captain had ordered that the landing gear be lowered in. I don't see any reason to worry about what fate has brought. "I guess I was always on the edge without knowing it." Nicholas Minguzzi 8/5/68
By about 3:15 a.m., Raposas flock of survivors had all been rescued. During its descent, the Boeing jet airliner was in a "nose up deck approach" which meant that it was almost next to impossible for its flight crew to see the small Cessna flying directly below it.39 The overhead position of the climbing Cessna 172 Skyhawk's cantilevered wing would have restricted Boswell and Kazy's rear view.40 On May 11, 1996, the ValuJet Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-9 operating the route crashed into the Everglades about 10 minutes after taking off from Miami as a result of a fire in the cargo compartment caused by mislabeled and improperly stored hazardous cargo. Then an alarm chimed, signaling a 250-foot drop. They didn't keep score, but Marquis knows they saved a lot of people's lives that night. The flying safety was even more compromised because it was slightly hazy which reduced visibility to seven to ten miles over the Everglades. "I could empathize with what Ron was going through. A dramatization of the jetliner crash into the Florida Everglades in December 1972, and the rescue of seventy-three passengers (103 died), made up primarily of recognizable TV personalities plus famed bandleader Artie Shaw in his TV-movie debut. It promised to be an exciting week in Miami, especially for people who had bucks for a meal at Joe's Stone Crabs and a night at the Fontainebleau Hotel, where the sexy dancer Ann-Margret was headlining. 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. 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. On December 29, 1972, Eastern Air Lines flight 401 left New York's JFK airport and crashed on its approach to Miami, killing 101 of the 176 people on board. On December 29, 1972, Flight 401 was en route to Miami International Airport but due to a malfunctioning landing gear light and other distractions, plowed into the swampland, making the incident the second deadliest single aircraft disaster in United States history. On September 4, 1954, Santiago Airlines Flight 513 departed from Aachen, West Germany, destined for Porto Alegre, Brazil. Get Alerts. There were 75 survivors. Beverly Raposa switched seats from her regular position in the galley for a flight from New York to Miami. 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. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 1 |
He had promised to show a slight acquaintance, Ray Dickinson, how to gig frogs. It was approximately 15 to 20 miles west-southwest of the Opa locka Airport and it was pretty difficult to find at first. Incredibly, we found a man sitting alone on a small tussock. The other 101 people on Eastern Airlines Flight 401 died quite horribly -- 98 in the Everglades where the airplane crashed, three later in hospitals. Branches had been recently snapped off all the way around the opening, all pointing inward. 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. He'd get that look. ", 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. His right arm was three-quarters severed and barely attached by tendons, skin and strings of muscle. One was Micale, who they found alone on a clump of swamp muck, drenched in swamp water and jet fuel. We've been married going on 18 years now." Eduardo Jaramillo 8/2/32
Today, she still has the small, Eastern Airlines-issued cream-colored suitcase she carried the night of the crash. He butchered their bodies to pieces after his wife threatened him with divorce. A light in the Sky When the main part of the fuselage hit the ground, it continued to move through the grass and water, breaking up as it went. Eastern 401, pull up, climb straight ahead to 2,000, go back to approach control, the tower advised. "Having money ruined my life," he said. employees and their immediate families of the Promoter and its related bodies corporate and registered travel companions of employees of the Promoter and its related bodies corporate. "I think I can still do it. NOTE - There is no official death certificates for "Mrs. McAvoy," which appeared in passenger lists released to the press at the time. Pin. No roar of unmuffled high-horsepower engines. The only thing she was looking forward to on arrival in Miami was going to bed. [23], According to Robert J. Serling's 1980 book From the Captain to the Colonel: An Informal History of Eastern Airlines, the claim that wreckage from Flight 401 was installed and later removed from other Eastern aircraft was false, and no Eastern employees had ever claimed to have seen or believed in the alleged ghost sightings. The time was 9:20 p.m. After the aircraft had descended 250 feet (76m) from the selected altitude of 2,000 feet (610m), a C-chord sounded from the rear speaker. 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. Brief Synopsis. Each year on December 29th, I spend a little time thinking about that silhouetted L1011 heading west over Opa locka Airport. The Nordskog were installed mostly on the L1011-500 series. . Blackness. How about we start with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?. I mean, I was a single person with no family. Silvia Crespo 11/30/32
Flight 401 flew into the ground on Friday night, Dec. 29, 1972, at 13 seconds past 11:42 p.m. My direct and indirect contact with Eastern Flight 401 didn't end on December 30, 1972. 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. It crashed into the Everglades 18.7 miles northwest of the airport, eight miles north of Tamiami. We could also see a few other aircraft flying into the restricted airspace. If you would like to contribute to this cause, donations can be made to: National Air Disaster Foundation (write "EAL 401 Memorial" on the check), You may also make donations by credit card on their website: www.PlaneSafe.org. Tennessee's Music City combines country, bluegrass, rock, pop, Americana, gospel, classical, jazz, and bluesall in perfect harmonyto create one of the best places in the world to remember music's greatest performers, see today's top artists, and maybe discover the next big thing. Thus, the switching to CWS in channel A possibly did not occur in channel B, thus depriving the first officer of any indication the mode had changed (channel A provides the captain's instruments with data, while channel B provides the first officer's). Jorge Gonzalez 1/16/38
This quote, which was obviously a joke, was presented in the Ghost of Flight 401 as fact. This guy had been hurled from the plane like a human cannonball. Below is a list of those on board, according . A pale glow lightened the sky above Miami more than 40 miles away. Renee Joaquin Albert 8/3/36
Both pilots and the flight engineer died, along with 2 out of 10 flight attendants and 96 of the 163 passengers on board. Eastern Airlines Flight 401 on the tarmac before takeoff on Dec. 29, 1972; Photography by Jon Proctor, I called out to a Coast Guardsman who was working nearby to come and help me out, Leonhard said. Adapted from Bad Guys, Bullets, and Boat Chases by Bob H. Lee. Bill Elliott had a much more eventful night. Grand Canyon Disaster + . And now, no one was flying the plane. Flight 401 - Autopilot indicator |
You could hear the cry of death. If one more time he could harvest a mess of frog legs in the Everglades. Suddenly, he stopped. No more clothes on his body .". 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. It wouldn't take much.". Rumors quickly spread that the man may be hiding at the abandoned Parkway West Medical Center, which prompted heavily armed police to move in. Back in the day, when he spent so much time in the wilderness, only the airplanes overhead reminded him of civilization. Marquis is also survived by a son, Donald Marquis of Altamonte Springs; a daughter, Terri Mabie of Tucson; 10 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Leonhard hit the gas as he toggled on the blue light and siren. His book was later adapted into a made-for-tv movie starring William Shatner as an NTSB investigator. When she came to, she was still belted into her seat, tipped to one side, hanging six feet above the swamp. Seventy-five miraculously survived. Donald Stanley Casadona 7/16/38
"It survived that night, just like me. With his left, he held onto the boat and walked beside it to the levee. 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. Loose chunks of lime rock cracked and popped under the tires as he crawled ahead. Anne Ponte 1/7/16
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 come from an Eastern family - my mother, Betty Olson, retired from Eastern in 1976. 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. 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. 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. Investment property at a loss, swapped his Lincoln for a flight from New York to.. 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