His foot pressed lightly against the accelerator pedal as he inched down the south levee on the L-28 canal with his headlights off. He received a $250,000 settlement in a lawsuit, blew it all, got into drug trouble, went back to work and fell off a truck. "Life's played funny tricks on me," said Richard N. Micale, 41, not laughing. The flight had 163 passengers and 13 crew members. 12:38PM EST John F Kennedy Intl - JFK. The scene was impressive. Flight 401 was a short-haul flight to Miami. By the time I got to the clubhouse, there must have been 10 to 15 members milling about, all discussing the crash. All 110 people on board died. . "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. Hey!" Last picture of Paul Walker alive, before getting into the porsche that crashed. [15][16][17], These stories speculated that parts of the crashed aircraft were salvaged after the investigation and refitted into other L-1011s. Im sure they all ran away. She spit the words out quickly, doing her best to sound convincing. "He was just a guy out there frogging and minding his own business who knew he had to help people in trouble. Everything else was in small pieces spread in a general southwest or south-by-southwest direction for 1,500 to 2,000 feet. Jerry stopped seeing the girl in Miami he had been dating, married a different woman a year later and quit his job at Gimbel's. Rose Kashman 9/22/15 There were also other artifacts such as yellow airline life preservers and panes of plastic passenger windows. [10], Most of the dead were passengers in the aircraft's midsection. 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. Bob called Infantino, who loves to tell the story: "He was a regional coordinator with AFLAC, American Family Life Assurance Co., and that's when I started -- 16 years ago, and I've been with them ever since. Eddie Albert featured as "Dunn", a fictionalized version of Captain Robert Loft. Funny how people scream for God at a time like that. That was a miracle that is probably attributable to three factors: (1) the crash site was a soft, wet swamp; (2) there was no significant post-crash fire; and (3) the force of disintegration was directed horizontally and not vertically, flinging many survivors out into the swamp instead of subjecting them to fatal blunt force trauma which is characteristic of most airplane crashes. This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Flight 401. She dug down into the black muck, cupped a double handful to her face and smeared it all over the affected areas. Incredibly, we found a man sitting alone on a small tussock. [22] Eastern considered suing for libel, based on assertions of a cover-up by Eastern executives, but Borman opted not to, feeling a lawsuit would merely provide more publicity for the book. 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. In 1985, his years as a manual laborer caught up with him. One was Micale, who they found alone on a clump of swamp muck, drenched in swamp water and jet fuel. Flight 401 flew into the ground on Friday night, Dec. 29, 1972, at 13 seconds past 11:42 p.m. The Lockheed L-1011 carried 163 passengers and 13 crew members. Three of the four cockpit crew members, two of the 10 flight attendants, and 96 of the 163 passengers were killed; 75 people survived. I really do think I can gig some frogs if I had to. 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. No roar of unmuffled high-horsepower engines. I had first, second and third-degree burns all over my body. It happened 40 years ago today on a cold dark night in the Everglades, a brand new "Whisperliner" jumbo jet. They rushed to rescue survivors. Thomas Ponte 10/24/11 In December 1972, there was a deadly | by Verity Partington | The Mystery Box | Medium 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. "He's an airboater.". She choked on the acrid fumes from the 43,000 pounds of aviation gas that had spilled from the plane and screamed, Dont light any matches!. HONOLULU, FEB. 25 -- As investigators questioned the pilots and ground crew today, Coast Guard and Navy rescue workers recovered from the Pacific two seats and a 4-by-6-foot . An Eastern Air Lines Lockheed L-1011 crashed at 2342 eastern standard time, December 29, 1972, 18.7 miles west-northwest of Miami International Airport, Miami Florida. Ten feet in front of them were what looked like two mannequins to Leonharda partially clothed woman lying faceup in the mud and a naked man lying facedown. Effectively, we turned the clubhouse into the European equivalent of a weekend pub. Robert Albin Loft 3/17/17 2h 48m. A yellow flash. When the main part of the fuselage hit the ground, it continued to move through the grass and water, breaking up as it went. In every direction, there was nothing but dead silence and incredible darkness. Flight 401 crash-landed into the Everglades at over 200 mph. "He swore that Frank Borman had paid him to come to Miami and perform an exorcism on #318. My God, what do we do now? Greta Foye 3/19/45 The powers-that-be want them to . She screamed for help, but no one answered, and she wondered whether she was the only one left alive. His friend, of course, envisioned a Piper Cub or something small going down in a summer thunderstorm, not a state-of-the-art L-1011 carrying 200 passengers on a perfect winter night. His doctor warned him not to travel alone, not with his weak heart and lungs and aching back. 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. His wife said his ashes would be spread over the crash site in the Everglades that ''he loved so much,'' at a later date. Off I went to check with the FAA Flight Service Station. "I couldn't understand why I lived and they didn't. "I'm going to send some flowers to Miami and have them put on the grave of my first wife," said Ronald Infantino, who lost his bride of 20 days in the crash. 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. No more clothes on his body .". I was too young for that kind of stuff. Speeding across the 'glades in his airboat, Bud was the first rescuer on the scene. Soon after, ghosts from Flight 401 began to haunt the land and other. On December 29, 1972 pilot Robert "Bob" Loft and flight engineer Don Repo were piloting Eastern Airlines Flight 401 from JFK Airport (NY) to Miami, Florida. We're having legs tonight. At the time, it was one of the worst civil aviation disasters the country had ever seen. Renee Joaquin Albert 8/3/36 Dead bodies hung, lay and floated everywhere I looked. "CRASH" BOOK AND MADE FOR TV MOVIE (1977/ 1978). in Electrical, Mechanical, Aerospace Engineering, or related subject area The flying club was also a de facto social club with members having the common bonds of flying and aircraft ownership. So, being the thoughtful brother-in-law he was, unbeknownst to me he had collected some of the wreckage of Flight 401. 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. In my mind, that makes him a real hero.". 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. Flight 401 - Flight Crew Fatal Photograph | 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. Entry . The television movie The Ghost of Flight 401, which was broadcast on NBC during February 1978, offers a fictionalized depiction of the crash and alleged ghost sightings. Johnson, Charles | 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. That was the last transmission before the left wing sliced into the Everglades at 225 mph. 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. He and his wife, Donna, live in Christmas, a small town between Orlando and Cape Canaveral. A friend once warned him: "One day you'll work a plane crash out there." Angelo was a friend to all who know him, generous with his time to anyone who needed him and a devoted husband and father. "Having money ruined my life," he said. 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. Below Left - In red, stewardess Beverly Raposa at the memorial. No gunshots. Old and sick now, he lives in near poverty on the edge of the Everglades. That left two seats open. [15][16] Gossip regarding the sighting of the spirits of Don Repo and Bob Loft spread throughout Eastern Air Lines to the extent that Eastern's management warned employees that they could be dismissed if caught spreading ghost stories. He did well for a while -- had a big house in the Country Club of Miami and drove a Lincoln. "Welcome to Miami," the pilot announced during the descent at 11:30. There would be plenty of time for body recovery, Leonhard said. "I could empathize with what Ron was going through. '", Age 79, died Saturday, October 2, 2004 in Land O'Lakes, FL. 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. My mother never told me the flight attendant's name, but she did say that she had suffered a broken back in the crash. Picture that in your mind. Leonhard hit the gas as he toggled on the blue light and siren. "He's one of us," says John Canti, a firefighter, paramedic and outdoorsman. N310EA, the aircraft involved in the accident. His writings form the basis for much of this Web site, with permission. Rosa Losano 11/1/01 According to my late mother, she wanted to get back to flying, but she was petrified every time she heard jet noise. The Infantinos were exhausted from celebrating Christmas with Rons parents in New York. It was an easy way to break the monotony of intense study, tour the good old USA and also earn a few bucks and I must emphasize the aspect of the earnings. He can't remember anyone's name now. "Your body could be stripped naked if you're thrown out through an opening, or your body could be relatively intact if you were in part of the aircraft that 'fluttered' down to the surface" because. 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. Game warden Gray Leonhard in the 70s; Photography courtesy of Gray Leonhard. They were not only reported by people who had known Loft and Repo, but the ghosts were also subsequently identified from photographs by people who had not known Loft and Repo. I have lost contact with Bill Elliott. Even at 78, Marquis is an old-fashioned country boy. Almost one year after receiving his honor, Robert ''Bud'' Marquis, died November 21, 2008, of complications from an accident five weeks ago. The accident in a nutshell According to the Aviation Safety Network, Eastern Air Lines had 163 passengers and 13 members of crew onboard, totaling 176 occupants altogether. Speculation at the club was rampant which is to be expected from a bunch of pilots. Eastern Airlines Flight 401 was on its way from New York to Miami on December 29th, 1972, with 13 crew and 163 passengers onboard. It is almost a physical impossibility to find and remove every scrap of wreckage from a swamp. Stewardess Beverly Raposa, then 25, noticed nothing unusual as the flight passed high over the Atlantic Ocean en route to Miami International Airport. [25] A television movie of the same name was broadcast in October 1978. It's like it's a charm," she said. Carpet layers need strong backs. The accident and the subsequent ghost story were mentioned by Dan Aykroyd during his appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on June 6, 1984. In the cockpit, the first of six radio altimeter warnings began, signaling an impending crash. The sounds of unknown critters moving through the water lent a disturbing backdrop to the cacophony of misery. An elevation of only eight feet felt like being on a hilltop in the Everglades. Marquis is also survived by a son, Donald Marquis of Altamonte Springs; a daughter, Terri Mabie of Tucson; 10 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. "It survived that night, just like me. His wife Nancy - they married when she was 15 - could always tell when it was on his mind, though. That was the first time I had heard of the crash. [8], In all, 75 survived the crash67 of the 163 passengers and eight of the 10 flight attendants. They were both looking forward to some rest and then a big New Years celebration with Lillys Cuban parents in Miami, which would include a traditional whole roasted pig cooked over an open fire pit. 2023-Feb-14. Then, it dropped 100ft (30m), and then again flew level for two more minutes, after which it began a descent so gradual it could not be perceived by the crew. Bud asks his wife to look for his scrapbooks. Hey, whats happening here? the captain shouted. Unfortunately it did so as a scattered wreck over the marshes of Florida's Everglades. The government considered him totally disabled. After about an hour, he saw the first helicopter. [9] All the survivors were injured; 60 received serious injuries and 17 suffered minor injuries that did not require hospitalization. B738. Check-in; . 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. His book was later made into a TV movie. Ground crew with Eastern Airlines Flight 401 before its fateful flight; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. I was a kid, 21 years old. At approximately 2340R 29 December 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401, a Lockheed 1011, with 178 persons on board, crashed in the Everglades 18 miles west of Miami International Airport. Some still feel the pain. As Stockstill started another turn, onto 180, he noticed the discrepancy. Mom apparently worked closely with that flight attendant. She was killed. Above: A piece of wreckage from Flight 401 still visible in the Everglades. Several survivors tracked him down to thank him personally. When she came to, she was still belted into her seat, tipped to one side, hanging six feet above the swamp. "The three of us toast to life on that day every year.". The temperature is in the low 70s, and its beautiful out there tonight.. Obviously, I'm not a hunter, but I don't begrudge those who do hunt responsibly. 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