Game warden Gray Leonhard in the 70s; Photography courtesy of Gray Leonhard. All three pilots, two of 10 flight attendants, and 96 of 163 passengers died, while 75 passengers and crew survived. 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. He wanted me to be the pilot (no objection from me) and he would occupy the co-pilot's seat. It was approximately 15 to 20 miles west-southwest of the Opa locka Airport and it was pretty difficult to find at first. About Flight 401 | You know what would make Bud Marquis happy? He'd get that look. Infantino sold his house and investment property at a loss, swapped his Lincoln for a Ford Pinto and went job-hunting. What happened next must have happened very quickly. A light in the Sky "Just his upper body can be seen.". Carpet layers need strong backs. At night, when he sits on his porch, he can hear the wup-wup bellows of the pig frogs and the heh-heh-heh chatter of the leopard frogs beyond the trees. You don't want to be in the water with me.". Why dont we sing to help warm ourselves up? she suggested. [5]:5 The airplane was traveling at 227 miles per hour (197kn; 365km/h) when it hit the ground. Christina (center) was two-months-old at the time of the crash, making her the youngest survivor . Barbara Ann Saal "Having money ruined my life," he said. Bud helped the man into the airboat and poured him coffee from the thermos. For survivors, the crash has left physical and mental scars. The plane was dropping from the sky at a rate of 200 feet each minute. . Scandinavian Airlines System Flight 401: This was a Scandinavian Airlines System commercial flight that crashed into the North Sea on August 13, 1951, killing all 22 people on board. Raposas survivors became upset. 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. Shock had taken over. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The Ghost of Flight 401 (TV Movie 1978) - IMDb, Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute, The Ghost of Flight 401 (TV 1978) - YouTube, Flight 401 - Flight Crew Fatal Photograph, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 - Crash Investigation, Findings and Passenger List - Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute. Ronald Jaye March 27, 1940 Eastern Airlines Flight 401 is coming in for a landing in Miami. I told Hansel that we needed to check, before we got into the air, whether there were any flight restrictions over the crash site which seemed pretty logical to me. The flight attendant, Mercy Ruiz, was badly injured, with a broken pelvis and a severe laceration on her forehead. [5]:4 Fifty seconds after reaching their assigned altitude, Captain Loft instructed First Officer Stockstill to put the L-1011 on autopilot. Shortly before midnight on December 29, 1972, the Lockheed L-1011-1 TriStar crashed into the Florida Everglades,[1][2][3] causing 101 total fatalities. It's like it's a charm," she said. AlanNachmias 5/16/50 Leonhard doesnt remember which one. It wouldn't take much.". Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 departed New York for Miami on December 29, 1972. The captain and his first and second officers had every reason to feel good and confident about flying this particular ship. A Web forum, Southern Airboat, which attracts thousands of worldwide participants, plans to take care of the repairs. Trudy Smith didn't return to flying. 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 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. Hansel owned a single engine Piper Comanche 250, registered as N7510P, that held four people, including the pilot. Water saturated by jet fuel filled his boots, burning his legs. 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!. The strange tales of the ghostly airmen of Flight of 401 circulated in the airline community. 2h 48m. It's a swamp, a flat swamp. Possible Curse of Seminole Indians | Perhaps the most extraordinary and credible research into the ghost phenomenon ever documented is the so-called "Ghosts of Flight 401."On December of 1972, an Eastern Airlines Tri-Star jetliner, Flight 401, crashed into a Florida swamp.Read the accident report (PDF). 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 . Marquis waved his headlamp in circles, guiding the pilots to the crash. Sometime in midflight, passenger Ron Infantino switched seats with his wife, Lilly, after she returned from the bathroom. [26], Flight 401 is mentioned in the TV show Supernatural Season 1 Episode 4 named Phantom Traveler's. 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. Adapted from Bad Guys, Bullets, and Boat Chases by Bob H. Lee. The Ghost of Flight 401 TV Movie 1978 1 h 40 m IMDb RATING 5.7 /10 617 YOUR RATING Rate Drama Mystery Thriller An aircraft crashes in the Florida Everglades, killing 103 passengers. Eight minutes earlier, 401 had been descending on its landing approach after an uneventful flight from New York. There was an enormous flash of flame as two fuel tanks burst open. The pilot Bob Loft and the flight engineer Don Repo were two of the 101 people who perished in the air crash. A square green light on the control panel was supposed to signal that the wheel was in position. Leonhard discovered a hole in the bushes, roughly circular in shape and a little larger than the mouth of a culvert pipe. 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. I probably did too, I'm sure." "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. 09:23AM EST Miami Intl - MIA. Entry . 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. Below Left - In red, stewardess Beverly Raposa at the memorial. 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. 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. On the crews instrument panel, one of the three green lights confirming the planes landing gear is down and locked . Dennis Gordon 12/9/32 He is completely burned. And now, no one was flying the plane. "He's one of us," says John Canti, a firefighter, paramedic and outdoorsman. Lloyd Irving Bearman 1/16/23 James Hall, Flight Operations and Safety, Miami office, had the task of notifying all the families of the crash victims. Nery Palma 7/12/34 Loft, Robert Albin | But he and his helper had 30 pounds of legs. Some survivors recovered and adjusted better than others. Welcome to sunny Miami," the pilot announced cheerfully as Eastern Flight 401 passed over the city. 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. (Deer in south Florida are almost anemic compared to deer in other parts of the country.) You can see the brand name on the oven instruction plate. Incongruously, not far from the roofless fuselage center section with the inner portion of the starboard wing still attached, lay a large, undamaged and fully inflated rubber dinghy, one of a number carried on the TriStar in the event of an emergency water landing. The crash occurred while the entire flight crew was preoccupied with . The Nordskog were installed mostly on the L1011-500 series. Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute - Investigation Investigation Later that morning the world woke to news of the tragedy. Flight 401 - Survivors and those who were lost Definition: A listing of those who survived and those who were lost. We've been married going on 18 years now." 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