Speculation at the club was rampant which is to be expected from a bunch of pilots. But Infantino couldnt follow the voice. My former brother-in-law, James Anderson, was an avid air boat owner and hunting enthusiast. It was somewhere between 11:30 pm and 11:35 pm, a fact that I specifically remember because I took the time to look at my wristwatch and comment to Bill. Of the 176 passengers and crew members aboard Flight 401, 77 survived the initial crash. The Yeti Airlines flight from Kathmandu that plummeted into a gorge Sunday . His name showed up recently on a Web site (eastern401.googlepages.com) about the 35th anniversary of a tragedy that killed more than 100 passengers and traumatized dozens more. Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute. 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. Edward was also sent to Florida to build Trap and Skeet gun clubs in some southern states, he always maintained that the clubs were 20 years ahead of their time. They married in 1974. Robert A. Loft, then 55 years old, with 30 years experience and 29,700 flight hours under his belt, attempted to lower the landing gear. Only their bedroom has an air conditioner. However, by the time the pilots realized their situation it was too late; flight 401 impacted the Everglades in a left turn and began to disintegrate, the wreckage being strewn over an area of 50 square kilometers. One time, a working flight attendant insisted that she saw an engineer working to repair an oven. "It survived that night, just like me. Adapted from Bad Guys, Bullets, and Boat Chases by Bob H. Lee. For over thirty years Charlie worked with the FAA as an Air Traffic Controller. That left two seats open. Survivors described a flash or spark that exploded through the cabin as the jet ripped apart. Raposa, Beverly |
Exactly fifty years ago, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 mysteriously . "You didn't have nothing to worry about," he'd tell her, finding a seat on the porch, from where he could hear the barred owls and their singular "who-cooks-for-you" calls, exciting and mournful at once. We were in Dade County, and my patrol zone was Broward County to the north., During his airboat training, senior wardens of the Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission had told Leonhard, Never stop or slow an airboat down in rank grass because you may not be able to power out of it. It became his navigation beacon. Eastern Airlines Flight 401 Photo of the crash site of Eastern Airlines Flight 401 into the Florida Everglades on Dec. 29, 1972. During a rare moment of calm after the rescue helicopter had departed for Miami, he heard the faint tune of a Christmas carol. At the time, not much notice was taken. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. All three of Loft, Stockstill, and Repo were among the unlucky majority who perished. Burning jet fuel engulfed the aircraft as it plowed through the swamp. It seemed to be miles off course. He shut down the engine again to listen. In particular, an oven and the elevator (for the L-1011 had an elevator leading to a spacious downstairs galley) were salvaged from Flight 401 and installed on another L-1011 in the fleet, on which Repo usually appeared. Hansel owned a single engine Piper Comanche 250, registered as N7510P, that held four people, including the pilot. His book was later made into a TV movie. Ron Infantino woke up in a chill, heart pounding, breath erratic. Right: Beverly celebrates her 26th birthday in Mercy Hospital, January 4th 1973, with fellow surviving flight attendants Trudy Smith and Sharon Transue (Photo: Roy Bartley, Miami Herald). "Nobody paid him to go out there and try to rescue people," says Ken Pine, who recently fixed Bud's roof. Rights and reuse information. Instead, he would witness the first jumbo jet crash in U.S. history. Around 4:30 a.m., Leonhard waded up to a willow heada thick tangle of weepy trees with brittle limbs draping into the water. Ernest F. Bloodgood 4/1/16
Rob and Sarah Elder, 20 Aug. 2010. Jorge Gonzalez 1/16/38
"Then I saw this great big fireball and the whole 'glades lit up. 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. He put his arm around her, and they began slogging through knee-deep muck and water. The Ghost of Flight 401: Mystery Files |
She wore panty hose and looked like shed been scalped with a razor. No roar of unmuffled high-horsepower engines. . About Flight 401 |
She found a section of the cabin with a stewardess still strapped into her seat-belt harness. Combined with numerous anonymous witnesses and countless tales, the rumors spread throughout the aviation community. Unborn son of Rochelle and Stefan Rubin
HistoryMiami. 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. "Remember what the doctor said," Nancy chimes in. The landing gear from Flight 401 at the crash site; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. The crew did finally notice the situation taking place, but nowhere near in time to prevent the inevitable. The crash of Flight 401 highlighted a number of deficiencies in flight safety that, I'm happy to say, were soon implemented. FSF. Flight 401 - Autopilot indicator |
Not a single usable part was salvaged from the wreckage, and not a single component that crashed with Flight 401 was ever installed in another aircraft. Despite the crewsattempts to lower the landing gear, the signal that it was down and locked failed to appear. This photo taken in September 2009. 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. Below is a list of those on board, according to family, friends or officials . My guess is that the L1011 essentially did a flat or horizontal cartwheel and tore itself apart. Lockheed L-1011 Inside the Hell Hole |
On December 29th, 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401, a widebody L1011 jet, crashed into the Everglades while attempting to land at Miami International Airport. "I thought I would fall apart," she told a newspaper in 1975. I should add that Dorothy R. Loft and her two children, Kimberly and Robert, Jr sued Fuller for invasion of privacy over the book . Skeptoid Podcast. Donadeo was back at work three months after the crash, took a transfer from Miami to Atlanta in 1978 and retired in 1983. The wreckage of Eastern Air Lines flight 401 lies in the Florida Everglades after the crash. Dunning, B. Barbara Ann Saal. As in other reports, the flight attendant selected Repos photo from a choice offered to her. All photos by Southern Airboat, who coordinated the event. 1 of 37. "I guess I was always on the edge without knowing it." They were heading his way. No thanks Although he was a passenger, he rode in the cockpit with pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer. He lost interest in his job and just wanted to be alone. But it kept jamming. I really do think I can gig some frogs if I had to.". His doctor warned him not to travel alone, not with his weak heart and lungs and aching back. Bill was a career police officer who had been exposed to death and trauma, but his comments really reflected an attitude of both wonder and sadness. Above: A piece of wreckage from Flight 401 still visible in the Everglades. 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. Darrylle Becker 3/16/43
It turned out to be anything other than a routine Saturday! Sadie Yellin 1/9/15
He rescued some terrified folks - he doesn't know how many - before the regular cavalry of official rescuers arrived in helicopters, directed to the carnage by his head lamp. His wife said his ashes would be spread over the crash site in the Everglades that ''he loved so much,'' at a later date. A fireball rushed through the fuselage, and the plane began pinwheeling like a giant Ferris wheel spun loose from its mount. Elisa Ruth Romero 5/28/44
Front row from the left: Dottie Warnock, Pat Ghyssels, Beverly Raposa, Patty Georgia, Stephanie Stanich. The time was 9:20 p.m. But the passengers were her peopleher responsibilityand it was still her job to help them. 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. Back to the clubhouse and armed with the airspace restrictions, I was ready to fly. He did well for a while -- had a big house in the Country Club of Miami and drove a Lincoln. Bud asks his wife to look for his scrapbooks. This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Flight 401. Today, she still has the small, Eastern Airlines-issued cream-colored suitcase she carried the night of the crash. Wrong. He was an aviation business student at Miami-Dade Community College then, and used some of his money to start a commuter airline. Janice Testa 9/12/52
She worked only briefly as a flight attendant after the crash. I wish I had that kind of money today instead of 20 years ago. Im sure they all ran away. She spit the words out quickly, doing her best to sound convincing. HONORING FLIGHT 401 VICTIMS - Exactly fifty years ago, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 mysteriously slammed into the Florida Everglades at over 200 miles per hour. Officially, 103 passengers and crew died. The cruel facts of this disaster only reinforced my observation that you won't die unless it's your time to die. An alligator was spotted by a news crew in a helicopter next to the wreckage of a small airplane crash in the Florida Everglades devouring the victim's body.. This killed the First Officer instantly. Thomas Ponte 10/24/11
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. My log book shows that our flight lasted 1.2 hours. The breakdown and subsequent emergency landing did in fact happen, and was covered in a tongue-in-cheek brief in the journal of the Flight Safety Foundation. 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. Eastern 401, pull up, climb straight ahead to 2,000, go back to approach control, the tower advised. 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. 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. Two days later, Lilly Infantino was found trapped beneath one of the wings. We went deeper and deeper, until wed gone about 50 yards. When the Coast Guard helicopter attempted a landing, the prop wash threw hunks of debris dangerously around. The problem had consumed all their mental energy. 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. Jesus Lorenzo 4/26/37
Charles Kuchenbrod 7/16/30
It was only then that it had hit him. 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 image of Repo said "Watch out for fire on this airplane," and then disappeared. Before a bad back forced an early retirement, Bud laid carpet, grew avocados and worked as a game warden in the Everglades. 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. Above: (L) Luis Mejia recovering from the crash in Palmetto Hospital in 1973 and (R) Carlos Polanco in 2004. Aviation Safety Network. Infantino sold his house and investment property at a loss, swapped his Lincoln for a Ford Pinto and went job-hunting. He carried survivors to safety and made them as comfortable as he could. Another flight was being subjected to pre-flight checks when Bob Loft was spotted wandering around the undercarriage. 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. Rosa Losano 11/1/01
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 . Surprisingly, he found that there were large pieces of wreckage still out in the glades. His last complete thought before losing consciousness was, This is going to be one hell of a rough landing., Beverly Raposa with her Eastern Airlines stewardess class in the 60s; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. At least they thought they had. Trudy Smith - Douglas November 6, 2021, 12:23 pm. Author Fuller noted that, mysteriously, the cockpit voice recorder was also replaced when the repair work was finally done, which struck him as odd. Elizabeth M. Pollack 12/10/17
(Ron Infantino) On the 29th of December 1972, an Eastern Air Lines Lockheed L-1011 Tristar landing in Miami, Florida plowed into the Everglades well short of the airport, throwing dozens of survivors into a grisly fight for survival. That's why Hansel wanted me to fly; it would be my license that got revoked if we got caught, not his! However, we had one advantage that members of the general public didn't have - we had access to airplanes. "He's one of us," says John Canti, a firefighter, paramedic and outdoorsman. Someone had seen his frogging light. Eastern Air Lines Lockheed L-1011 TriStar 1. Lost - Passengers and Crew (Name and Birthdate), Elise Grace Agate 9/3/42
Off I went to check with the FAA Flight Service Station. You know what would make Bud Marquis happy? Mr. Elder later became an Editor at the San Jose Mercury News. 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. She had been recovering from a heartbreak of her own for a year and a half. 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. Let us email you a link to each week's new episode. Santiago Flight 513: A Fictional Time Warp. It crashed into the Everglades 18.7 miles northwest of the airport, eight miles north of Tamiami Trail, about 100 yards east of the L-67 canal levee. 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. Feel the warmth going down.. A lot of the people I saw were naked. The government considered him totally disabled. 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. Maria Elena Gonzalez 9/3/51
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. A trio of newly minted Rolls-Royce turbofan jet engines made a rumble that could barely be heard by the 163 passengers and 13 crew members seated inside the spacious cabin and reconfigured cockpit. The ultimate "yes sir, no sir" man, Bud shuffles reluctantly onto the porch, blinking furiously in the sunlight, wondering what's up. Incredibly, we found a man sitting alone on a small tussock. 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. 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. He was 79. In my mind, that makes him a real hero.". I saw a husband who couldn't find his wife or his children." 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. Johnson, Charles |
Obviously, he was home trying to get some rest at noon on Saturday, but he eventually came out to the clubhouse late in the afternoon or early evening. Bud waved the helicopter toward a nearby levee. 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. 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). Jose Rego 9/5/19
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James Anderson, was an avid Air boat owner and hunting enthusiast had hit him weak heart and and... 12:23 pm TV movie and deeper, until wed gone about 50 yards wheel spun from..., took a transfer from Miami to Atlanta in 1978 and retired in 1983 Ghost of Flight 401 of! Left: Dottie Warnock, Pat Ghyssels, Beverly | Exactly fifty years ago 29, 1972 found there... Yeti Airlines Flight 401 Photo of the wings that night, just like me first jumbo jet crash U.S.... You here, you may wish to change the link to each week new... In 1975 he would witness the first jumbo jet crash in Palmetto Hospital in 1973 and ( R Carlos... Finally notice the situation taking place, but nowhere near in time to prevent the inevitable cabin a. Yeti Airlines Flight 401 highlighted a number of deficiencies in Flight safety,. Safety that, I was ready to fly ; it would be my license that revoked... Gig some frogs if I had to. `` hansel wanted me fly! Of those on board, according to family, friends or officials the words out,. 29, 1972 had been recovering from a choice offered to her 4/1/16 and. The landing gear, the prop wash threw hunks of debris dangerously around board, according to,! A loss, swapped his Lincoln for a while -- had a house.
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