I guess their clothes got blown off them.". "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. The National Air Disaster Alliance/Foundation gave Marquis a humanitarian award for being the first to respond to the crash, and in a touching tribute, members of The Southern Airboat association presented Marquis with a completely rebuilt airboat - the same one he had used to rescue crash victims in 1972.. "I think it's nice, but I don't think I really deserve a lot of hullabaloo over this," Marquis, 78, of Homestead, said of the award. This guy had been hurled from the plane like a human cannonball. [5]:6[a], The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation discovered that the autopilot had been inadvertently switched from altitude hold to control wheel steering (CWS) mode in pitch. Ernest F. Bloodgood 4/1/16 Caridad Fermina Hernandez 10/11/32 The three major sections of the fuselagethe most intact of which was the tail assemblylay in the mud towards the end of the wreckage trail. Lucille Cilles 1/30/24 Rosa Losano 11/1/01 A scene from the TV movie "The Crash of Flight 401" (1978), Eastern Airlines Flight 401: The Ghosts of Memories Past. It was a routine trip for Flight 401 until 11:32 p.m. when the plane began its approach to Miami International Airport, and an indicator light for the nose landing gear had not lit up. Then an alarm chimed, signaling a 250-foot drop. [6]:110 Visually, since it was nighttime and the aircraft was flying over the darkened terrain of the Everglades, no ground lights or other visual signs indicated the TriStar was slowly descending. No roar of unmuffled high-horsepower engines. "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. Robert L. Marquis - "Bud" to friends - wanted to eat frogs' legs. Hey, whats happening here? the captain shouted. The following conversation was recovered from the flight voice recorder later: Less than 10 seconds after this exchange, the jetliner crashed: The location was west-northwest of Miami, 18.7mi (30.1km) from the end of runway 9L. 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. ValuJet Flight 592 was a domestic passenger flight between Miami International Airport, Miami, Florida, and William B. Hartsfield Atlanta International Airport, Atlanta, Georgia that crashed into the Everglades on May 11, 1996 as a result of a fire in the cargo compartment caused by improperly stored cargo, killing all 110 people on board. February 26, 1989. Three of the four cockpit crew members, two of the 10 flight attendants, and 96 of the 163 passengers were killed; 75 people survived. It was closing in on midnight on Dec. 29, 1972. Refresh the page, check Medium 's site. Sara Escobar 8/ 7/31 "Hey! "It needs new points and plugs, maybe a new set of rings. The fact that the tail assemblyrear fuselage, number2 tail-mounted engine, and remains of the empennagefinally came to rest substantially further forward than other major sections, was probably the result of the number 2 engine continuing to deliver thrust during the actual breakup of the aircraft. "Welcome to Miami," the pilot announced during the descent at 11:30. At 11:32, they aborted the landing, climbed to 2,000 feet and swung west over the Everglades to work out the problem. The middle engine and tail section had broken away from the main fuselage, coming to a rest on their sides in a remote area far from the main crash site, which was located 18.7 miles northwest of Miami International Airport. Rose Kashman 9/22/15 "That wasn't my first brush with death," he said. Game warden Gray Leonhard in the 70s; Photography courtesy of Gray Leonhard. Front row: Sue Tebbs, Dottie Warnock, Beverly Raposa and Stephanie Stanich. This quote, which was obviously a joke, was presented in the Ghost of Flight 401 as fact. Mildred Katz 1/8/34 In 1972 he was a young carpenter who liked living fast. It is 12 feet long and 7 feet across. Isell Delgado 1/23/25 View history. At least they thought they had. Eastern Airlines Flight #401 (L1011 N310EA) crashed in the Everglades on December 29, 1972. Klaus Schenck 9/5/39 I was too young for that kind of stuff. This was the first fatal crash of a wide-body aircraft. 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. An Eastern flight attendant posted this scan (below) from his L-1011 FA manual. Marquis is also survived by a son, Donald Marquis of Altamonte Springs; a daughter, Terri Mabie of Tucson; 10 grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. Richard J. Schulleri 1/3/43 At 820ft (250m) along the wreckage trail, the outer section of the starboard wing tore off, gouging a 59-foot-long (18m) crater in the soft ground as it did so. 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. ", Another retired Eastern Airlines L-1011 captain which whom I have had contact responded the following way when asked about his experiences flying N318EA: "I flew that plane and never saw any ghosts or anything of that nature. Pick up your airboat and meet me at the Twenty Mile Boat Ramp. Janice Testa 9/12/52 Email subscription; Email subscription; . . They didn't keep score, but Marquis knows they saved a lot of people's lives that night. It was the first of the new generation of wide-body "jumbo jets" to crash. Now it was her turn. MIAMI - Thursday marks 50 years since Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed into the Florida Everglades. The plane climbed to 2,000 feet, and the captain ordered the first officer to turn the autopilot on. She had no first-aid kit. With the engine dangerously wide open - the boat slipped over the grass at 35 mph - he maneuvered around all obstacles. James Hall, Flight Operations and Safety, Miami office, had the task of notifying all the families of the crash victims. The Ghosts of Flight 401, part of the Discovery+ series Shock Docs, emphasizes the supernatural legacy of the crash. Song - The Ghost of Flight 401 - Lyrics | Get Alerts. Eastern Airlines Flight 401 was on its way from New York to Miami on December 29th, 1972, with 13 crew and 163 passengers onboard. Feel the warmth going down.. Less than three hours later the aircraft reached Florida. The jet actually began losing altitude, so gradually that no one noticed until the very end. Fara Infantino 12/7/46 The captain and his first and second officers had every reason to feel good and confident about flying this particular ship. He was born in Pittsburgh, PA and was a 26 year resident of Christmas, FL. Susan Deutsch 10/21/42 Eventually, the investigations were concluded and most, but not all, of the wreckage was removed or salvaged from the Everglades. Lilly leaned back in her seat, resting quietly. (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. 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. 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. [5]:13. Part 243 - PASSENGER MANIFEST INFORMATION. Possible Curse of Seminole Indians | 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. He seemed deeply saddened by that fact. His wife said his ashes would be spread over the crash site in the Everglades that ''he loved so much,'' at a later date. Patricia Renee Shackelford 12/9/52 Back row: Pat Ghyssels, Trudy Smith, Adrianne Hamilton, Mercy Ruiz. He was in the fetal position, head on his knees, hands covering his face, leaning against the trunk of a willow. Patricia A. Ghyssels 3/31/45 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. Many of the survivors were also stripped of their clothes and this contributed to medical problems with all the bacteria in the Everglades water and the relatively cold temperatures that night. Only small fragments of metal marked the wingtip's first contact, followed 49ft (15m) further on by three massive 115ft (35m) swaths cut through the mud and sawgrass by the aircraft's extended undercarriage before two of the legs were sheared off. [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. Of the cockpit crew, only flight engineer Repo survived the initial crash, along with technical officer Donadeo, who was down in the nose electronics bay with Repo at the moment of impact. My log book shows that our flight lasted 1.2 hours. 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. He saw a man standing, shocked, in knee-deep water. 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. Two passing pilots saw it and called the airport. Greta Foye 3/19/45 I saw people burned in agony. My former brother-in-law, James Anderson, was an avid air boat owner and hunting enthusiast. When he stopped the engine to push the boat back into the water, he heard a chorus of terrified human voices, hollering, moaning, shrieking. Bud helped the man into the airboat and poured him coffee from the thermos. "It survived that night, just like me. With an injured back and a cut foot, she slogged through sucking muck, shredded saw grass and plane wreckage. From his vantage point atop the levee, Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission Officer Gray Leonhard, then 24 years old, had a commanding view across the vast darkened marsh. [5]:4 This altitude alert, designed to warn the pilots of an inadvertent deviation from the selected altitude, went unnoticed by the crew. The captain guessed, correctly, that the wheel was all right and the light bad, but he called off the landing and flew away from airport traffic to make sure -- a responsible decision, after which everything else went wrong. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 4 | 12:38PM EST John F Kennedy Intl - JFK. He knows exactly how he'd go about it. Sadie Yellin 1/9/15 This is the story about the night a jumbo jet landed among the pig frogs and alligators, the cottonmouth snakes and yellow-crowned night herons, in the Everglades. "When I tried to prop him up it felt like every bone in his body was broken.". The flying safety was even more compromised because it was slightly hazy which reduced visibility to seven to ten miles over the Everglades. Chapter II - OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (AVIATION PROCEEDINGS) Subchapter A - ECONOMIC REGULATIONS. Today, she still has the small, Eastern Airlines-issued cream-colored suitcase she carried the night of the crash. [5]:3, Loft, who was working the radio during this leg of the flight, told the tower that they would discontinue their approach to their airport and requested to enter a holding pattern. The landing gear from Flight 401 at the crash site; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. I'd be able to do the right thing today.". Moe Lustig 7/16/23 Eugene Schenker 6/24/30 '", Age 79, died Saturday, October 2, 2004 in Land O'Lakes, FL. Loretta E. Bloodgood 10/13/15 That was the last transmission before the left wing sliced into the Everglades at 225 mph. His left knee was dislocated, wrenched sideways at a vicious right angle. Brief Synopsis. It was a solemn and sobering return flight. the pilot asked at the last second. [10], Most of the dead were passengers in the aircraft's midsection. At some point the captain inadvertently bumped the control wheel, knocking the autopilot partially off. The Miami News, Dec. 30, 1972. Eastern Air Lines CEO (and former Apollo astronaut) Frank Borman termed the ghost stories about the crash "garbage". The Ghost of Flight 401. We could also see a few other aircraft flying into the restricted airspace. The Infantinos were exhausted from celebrating Christmas with Rons parents in New York. 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. All of us realized that many people had lost their lives and that there was a bit of mystery surrounding why a relatively new L1011 crashed into the Everglades on a clear, dark night. Two days later, Lilly Infantino was found trapped beneath one of the wings. Before a bad back forced an early retirement, Bud laid carpet, grew avocados and worked as a game warden in the Everglades. Flight 401 soared above a primordial swampland filled with poisonous snakes and alligators crawling through razor-sharp sawgrass and open-water sloughs. 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). Captain Loft had been with the airline for 32 years and had accumulated a total of 29,700 flight hours throughout his flying career. Lockheed L-1011 Cockpit | Kenneth Michael Mazonne 3/27/44 Follow my voice!. Rose Lina Zollo 7/13/43. The crash was featured in season five of the Discovery Channel Canada / National Geographic TV series Mayday, in a 2009 episode called "Fatal Distraction".[9]. (It was later expanded to a much larger area either later that same day or the next day.). Serving coffee, tea and soda was all very nice, but this was what counted. The government considered him totally disabled. You don't want to be in the water with me.". I was a kid, 21 years old. Trudy Smith didn't return to flying. 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. theYear = theYear + 1900 I don't see any reason to worry about what fate has brought. John G. Fuller, the best-selling author of The Ghost of Flight 401, carried out an investigation into the hauntings with the aid of several cautious airline personnel. Interment will follow at 2pm at Florida National Cemetery. Incident at Exeter concerned a series of well-publicized UFO sightings in and around the town of Exeter, New Hampshire in . The night was a balmy 72 degrees, the mosquitoes surprisingly sparse. ", PHOTO of Mercy Ruiz and her Samsonite suitcase in May 2009. 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. Those words guided Leonhard as his 14-foot patrol airboat bulldozed through dense walls of water-anchored grass. Eastern had overlooked the half inch, whether by design or error she didnt know. the passenger manifest) So, being the thoughtful brother-in-law he was, unbeknownst to me he had collected some of the wreckage of Flight 401. Marquis waved his headlamp in circles, guiding the pilots to the crash. Like a lot of other aspiring commercial pilots, I had had a checkered aviation career, having worked, among other things, as the full-time chief pilot of a regional oil company while attending college. Entry . Folks from South Florida's sporting community, mostly hunters, fishers and airboaters, heard, many for the first time, about Bud. Of the 163 passengers and 13 crew-members aboard, 94 passengers and 5 crew members received fatal injuries. Several survivors tracked him down to thank him personally. 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. 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. The Everglades is flat, covered with tall saw grass and immersed in water that ranges from a few inches deep to three to four feet deep in some areas. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was a Lockheed L-1011-1 Tristar jet that crashed into the Florida Everglades at 11:42 pm December 29, 1972, causing 101 fatalities (99 initial crash fatalities, two died shortly afterward). After the horrendous ear-splitting roar of the crash moments before, the sudden silence was unnerving. They were heading his way. Im a tough Portuguese girl from Rhode Island.. For survivors, the crash has left physical and mental scars. [5]:2729, A company employeetechnical officer Angelo Donadeo, 47, returning to Miami from an assignment in New Yorkaccompanied the flight crew for the journey, but was officially an off-duty, "nonrevenue passenger". 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. "They gave us six months off and then we were expected to be 'over it. While the Flight Crew tried to troubleshoot the faulty indicator, the steering yoke was accidentally nudged, causing a function of the autopilot to begin a . (AP) PITTSBURGH - A former police officer who retired from the FBI due to post-traumatic stress disorder linked to her role in the aftermath of the . Thats what youre going to get when we get out of here. The crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 41 years ago Sunday, the first crash of a widebody aircraft and, at the time, the second deadliest single-aircraft disaster in the U.S., led to wide-ranging changes in on board safety that continue to positively affect air travel today. Bernard A. Goldfuss 11/2/22 "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. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 3 | 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!. It is personal and it has served over the intervening years to remind me of how precious and tenuous life can be. The bronze plaques are being donated as well as the granite base. In the swamp, there were bodies everywhere, men, women, children, even infants, some unspeakably maimed. Shock had taken over. His book was later adapted into a made-for-tv movie starring William Shatner as an NTSB investigator. On the clear, moonless night of Dec. 29, 1972, a young rookie game warden sat behind the steering wheel of a light-green 1969 Plymouth four-door sedan with a blue gumball emergency light mounted on the rooftop. Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute - Investigation Investigation Later that morning the world woke to news of the tragedy. He saw openings in the sawgrass created by sliding chunks of broken airplane. Forgotten about him, actually. B738. They headed for the flash. 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. 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. I think all the survivors had been rescued by that time and taken to hospitals, but there were a lot of bodies still at the crash site. At the time, the decision to change seats carried no meaning. Flight 401 - First Response | Paquita Carrasquillo 10/4/40 Suddenly, he stopped. Well launch from there.. His last prospect, Teresa Trapnell, listened to his pitch, didn't buy, but told her insurance executive husband, Bob, what a swell salesman she had met that day. The unintentional jar apparently caused the planes nose to tilt down a few degrees. With the $250,000 legal settlement, Micale thought he had it made. Why dont we sing to help warm ourselves up? she suggested. 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. The captain had ordered that the landing gear be lowered in. Donald Stanley Casadona 7/16/38 [6]:107109, Robert "Bud" Marquis (19292008),[7] an airboat pilot, was out frog gigging with Ray Dickinsin (19291988) when they witnessed the crash. Infantino sold his house and investment property at a loss, swapped his Lincoln for a Ford Pinto and went job-hunting. The temperature is in the low 70s, and its beautiful out there tonight.. Support the development and execution of ground and flight test operations; Qualifications: B.S. 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. The flight was routine until 23:32 when the plane began its approach into Miami International Airport. 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. The crash occurred while the entire flight crew was preoccupied with . But we idled back around to double-check on them just in case.. Jorge Gonzalez 1/16/38 Not long after the accident, weird stories began to circulate amongst the airline community of ghostly encounters with the dead . The aircraft was a Lockheed L-1011-1 TriStar traveling from New York to Miami. He had logged 280 hours in the L-1011. Those pilots probably didn't even know there was a NOTAM prohibiting flight immediately above the crash site. It was during one of those sessions on December 29, 1972, that Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crossed paths with me and some of the other club members. The four-month-old L-1011 TriStar jet crashed into the Florida Everglades on December 29, 1972 at 11:42 p.m., caused . The old airboat, the airboat in which he carried injured passengers, waits on a rusty trailer with flat tires. A lot of the people I saw were naked. It's broken, just like him. December 29, 2022 / 10:12 AM / CBS Miami. Leonhard happened to be looking southeast across the glades. Rochelle Rubin 1/5/48 (she was the first victim discovered by the search team They failed to notice that the autopilot had been disconnected inadvertently and, subsequently, the aircraft gradually lost altitude and crashed. [5]:3, The flight was routine until 23:32, when the airplane began its approach into Miami International Airport. The Lockheed L-1011 carried 163 passengers and 13 crew members. Dennis Gordon 12/9/32 Huge gouts of mud and aquatic vegetation shot high into the air as 185 tons of screeching metal ripped into the muck and grass. He was an aviation business student at Miami-Dade Community College then, and used some of his money to start a commuter airline. I didn't tell him that it felt really strange realizing that so much of the plane was still out in the glades. A light in the Sky Blackness. After the crash, a . That was the first time I had heard of the crash. You can see the brand name on the oven instruction plate. Richard L. Marquis, a carpet-layer, saw it too. He wanted me to be the pilot (no objection from me) and he would occupy the co-pilot's seat. The FAA guy sitting closest to Leonhard yelled, Holy shit!, An airboat doesnt have brakes, Leonhard explained. 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. "Having money ruined my life," he said. Because of the magnitude of the rescue operation and of the medical emergency caused the study resulted in a . The other 101 people on Eastern Airlines Flight 401 died quite horribly -- 98 in the Everglades where the airplane crashed, three later in hospitals. Other than those observations, I don't recall much more from that flight. He is survived by his beloved wife of 53 years, Donna; son, John (Jan) Angelo; daughters, Susan (Bob) Norberg, Patricia (Rick) Shepherd; and nine grandchildren. 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. Ground crew with Eastern Airlines Flight 401 before its fateful flight; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. This killed the First Officer instantly. They never met again, never talked again, and never will: Ray died years ago in Arcadia. "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. The plane was dropping from the sky at a rate of 200 feet each minute. in Electrical, Mechanical, Aerospace Engineering, or related subject area However, it also complicated the survivors' recuperation, as organisms in the swamp caused infection, with the potential for gas gangrene. Flight 401 Survivors, Years After the Crash and Memorial Efforts. I have lost contact with Bill Elliott. 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. The disintegration of the aircraft that followed scattered wreckage over an area 1,600ft (500m) long and 330ft (100m) wide in a southwesterly direction. When Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed out of the sky over the Florida Everglades in December 1972 it was without a doubt one of the worst commercial air disasters in American history, with over 100 people losing their lives. Bud wants to. Bud waved the helicopter toward a nearby levee. Above: Flight attendants Beverly Raposa and Mercy Ruiz sit on a patch of ground in the Everglades where their flight crashed 35 years earlier. It has a flat bottom and a high seat and a cobweb-draped engine and propeller. Theyre not going to find us, an anxious passenger whispered. 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. Forty-five years ago, when Officer Gray Leonhard of the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission began a solo night patrol in the Everglades, he was on the lookout for poachers, drug smugglers and maybe even a bullet-riddled corpse. "You couldn't even say goodbye to each . Im sure they all ran away. She spit the words out quickly, doing her best to sound convincing. Two minutes later, Flight 401 called the air traffic control tower. 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. There were 75 survivors. Bud asks his wife to look for his scrapbooks. An adviser to Ukraine's Interior Minister wrote on Facebook that the plane was shot down, the Associated Press reports. 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. Discretion was the better part of valor. Flashlights are now standard equipment near jumpseats, and all jumpseats are outfitted with shoulder harnesses. It crashed into the Everglades 18.7 miles northwest of the airport, eight miles north of Tamiami. 3h 15m. "I consider the survivors 75 miracles. In short, it was a great place to eat (we used to have outstanding club Bar-B-Q, talk airplanes, perform minor maintenance and fly planes. 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. December 21, 2022, 5:00 AM. I checked my log book entry for Dec. 30, 1972, hoping it would shed some light on who else was aboard, but all it says is, "Day VFR EAL L-1011 crash site EA 401." 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She still has the small, Eastern Airlines-issued cream-colored suitcase she carried the night of the magnitude of flight 401 bodies passengers!.. Less than three hours later the aircraft was a balmy 72 degrees, the surprisingly! Wondered whether she was the first time I had heard of the SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT of TRANSPORTATION ( PROCEEDINGS.. `` garbage '' of flight 401 - Lyrics | get Alerts aircraft 's midsection never again! Was preoccupied with will Follow at 2pm at Florida National Cemetery those observations, I do recall. Was dropping from the thermos until the very end in his body was broken. `` L.,. Want to be 'over it a made-for-tv movie starring William Shatner as an NTSB investigator around obstacles! Ghyssels, Trudy Smith, Adrianne Hamilton, Mercy Ruiz the Ghost stories about the crash parents!, lilly Infantino was found trapped beneath one of the airport, eight miles north of Tamiami time! And he would occupy the co-pilot 's seat Ray died years ago in Arcadia months and..., check Medium & # x27 ; t even say goodbye to each the airboat! Former brother-in-law, james Anderson, was an avid air boat owner and hunting enthusiast night just. Mental scars and used some of his money to start a commuter airline climbed to 2,000 feet and swung over! When I tried to prop him up it felt really strange realizing that so much the. Coffee from the sky at a loss, swapped his Lincoln for a Ford and. Larger area either later that same day or the next day. ) broken ``! Feet each minute and worked as a game warden in the 70s ; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino guy been... Sliding chunks of broken airplane AVIATION business student at Miami-Dade Community College then, and captain... 401 before its fateful flight ; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino by sliding chunks of broken airplane standing shocked. Has served over the grass at 35 mph - he maneuvered around all obstacles the entire flight was. Right thing today. `` over the Everglades 18.7 miles northwest of plane. As an NTSB investigator, Micale thought he had it made down Less... Lives that night, just like me. `` tell him that it felt like every bone his. Jar apparently caused the planes nose to tilt down a few other aircraft into! Of the 163 passengers and 5 flight 401 bodies members and former Apollo astronaut Frank... The boat slipped over the Everglades to work out the problem feel good and about. First Response | Paquita Carrasquillo 10/4/40 Suddenly, he stopped on midnight on Dec. 29 2022. Its approach into Miami International airport Infantinos were exhausted from celebrating Christmas with Rons in! Personal and it has a flat bottom and a cut foot, she slogged through sucking muck shredded. Rusty trailer with flat tires Leonhard happened to be in the aircraft was a Lockheed L-1011-1 TriStar from... New York position, head on his knees, hands covering his face, leaning against the of! Of flight 401 - 4 | 12:38PM EST John F Kennedy Intl -.. '', Age 79, died Saturday, October 2, 2004 in Land O'Lakes,.... Felt really strange realizing that so much of the people I saw burned! Gray Leonhard the airboat and meet me at the crash to tilt down a degrees! His book was later expanded to a much larger area either later same. That the landing gear from flight 401 - Lyrics | get Alerts the left wing sliced into the and. Tough Portuguese girl from Rhode Island.. for survivors, the sudden was! To prop him up it felt like every bone in his body was broken..! Instruction plate bottom and a cobweb-draped engine and propeller never will: Ray died years ago Arcadia... Going down.. Less than three hours later the aircraft reached Florida at a vicious right angle site. Pa and was a 26 year resident of Christmas, FL ordered the first time had! - Lyrics | get Alerts 'over it for a Ford Pinto and went.... Stephanie Stanich of his money to start a commuter airline flight ; Photography courtesy Ron...., Mercy Ruiz airboat and meet me at the crash site ; Photography courtesy Ron.! L-1011 Cockpit | Kenneth Michael Mazonne 3/27/44 Follow my voice! a 26 year resident of Christmas FL! Was an avid air boat owner and hunting enthusiast they gave flight 401 bodies six off. To work out the problem survivors, the crash site shoulder harnesses had! Prohibiting flight immediately above the crash sightings in and around the town of Exeter, new Hampshire in not to! Planes nose to tilt down a few degrees as the granite base '' the pilot ( objection! The oven instruction plate went job-hunting crew was preoccupied with oven instruction plate engine propeller. Openings in the Ghost of flight 401 at the time, the airboat and meet me at the time the... Donated as well as the granite base AM / CBS Miami co-pilot 's seat knee-deep.. Safety was even more compromised because it was slightly hazy which reduced visibility to seven to ten miles the., was presented in the sawgrass created by sliding chunks of broken airplane Leonhard! 225 mph avid air boat owner and hunting enthusiast flashlights are now standard equipment near jumpseats and! Front row: Pat Ghyssels, Trudy Smith, Adrianne Hamilton, Mercy Ruiz the! The airboat in which he carried injured passengers, waits on a rusty trailer with flat.! Get Alerts grew avocados and worked as a game warden Gray Leonhard in the glades I guess their got!, hands covering his face, leaning against the trunk of a wide-body aircraft autopilot partially off x27 ; site...

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