flight 401 victims

Let us email you a link to each week's new episode. By that time, I had also earned a commercial pilot license with airplane single and multi-engine and instrument ratings. Richard Childs 5/21/52 Above Left - Ron Infantino stands among survivors. Renee Joaquin Albert 8/3/36 But Infantino couldnt follow the voice. He survived, barely, with his right arm nearly severed, his left knee broken and his chest crushed. In a weak voice, one of them asked, What about the alligators?, Raposa didnt hesitate: We made such a loud noise when we hit. Riding with him were two Federal Aviation Administration officials. Memorial unveiled paying homage to 101 victims who perished on Eastern Flight 401. Roberto Palma 6/10/27 He saw a man, sitting in the water with a neck injury, trying to remain upright. Bud asks his wife to look for his scrapbooks. He wanted me to be the pilot (no objection from me) and he would occupy the co-pilot's seat. I don't remember the take-off or the landing that day, but I vividly remember the meteorological conditions and the crash site. Speeding across the 'glades in his airboat, Bud was the first rescuer on the scene. That section of the Everglades is a tangle of sawgrass, tree islands, canals and levees. 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. "Remember what the doctor said," Nancy chimes in. He also likes not to think about those days. Michael Ann Kaminer 12/28/45 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. They were hospitalized for two months. Flight 401 may refer to: Iberia Airlines Flight 401, crashed on 5 May 1965. document.write(theYear) Flamingo Magazine, This Recent University of Tampa Graduate Just Won the Florida Filmmaker Award. The largest recognizable pieces of wreckage were the cockpit section and the center engine intake and attached fuselage section. An Eastern representative told Serling that, while pondering whether to sue Fuller or his publisher: We spent weeks trying to locate anyone who claimed to have seen a ghost and couldn't find one person. Ann Connell, Barry Connell, Angelo Donadeo, Patricia R Georgia, Adrianne Ann Hamilton, Jennifer Larsen, Thomas Mulcahy, Mercedes V Ruiz, Beverly Jean Raposa, Trudy J Smith, Sue F. Tibbs, Sharon R Transue, Dorothy M Warnock. Boom. Lucille Cilles 1/30/24 Flight 401. Klaus Schenck 9/5/39 Everything else was in small pieces spread in a general southwest or south-by-southwest direction for 1,500 to 2,000 feet. The plane, a new "Whisperliner," could transport 229 passengers. Warren Terry 2/16/34 Eastern Air Lines Flight 401. I saw a husband who couldn't find his wife or his children." He saw a man standing, shocked, in knee-deep water. This quote, which was obviously a joke, was presented in the Ghost of Flight 401 as fact. He'd launch his airboat at the Miccosukee Indian Reservation on the Tamiami Trail and race north into the river of grass. In 1972 he was a young carpenter who liked living fast. HONORING FLIGHT 401 VICTIMS - Exactly fifty years ago, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 mysteriously slammed into the Florida Everglades at over 200 miles per hour. 40 were killed on United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania Countless victims and first responders are still dying due to 9/11-related illnesses The victims ranged in . Whenever either Loft or Repo make an appearance, they tend to be life-like and look like just another person. Podcast transcript | Subscribe. "He swore that Frank Borman had paid him to come to Miami and perform an exorcism on #318. They didn't find each other until morning. Theyre not going to find us, an anxious passenger whispered. We exited the area and returned to Opa locka Airport, but our conversations were subdued. My log book shows that our flight lasted 1.2 hours. Once the crisis was over, respiratory therapist Susan Mefford was assigned to Infantino. Don Repo survived long enough to reach the hospital, but he also proved to be too badly injured. The pilot Bob Loft and the flight engineer Don Repo were two of the 101 people who perished in the air crash. That subsides. The control tower at Opa locka shut down at 11pm each evening back then so the L1011 had to be in contact with Miami Approach Control, since we assumed it was ultimately being vectored for an approach to MIA. In it, at a party a few weeks after the emergency landing, someone asked one of the pilots how it had been to land an L-1011 on only one engine. Some believethat Eastern Air Lines cannibalized and reused pieces of the wreckage in other airliners. The original witness so was distressed that several of the cabin crew had to forcibly restrain her. The actual crash was, in fact, true as reported; and there's never been any real doubt over what the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board) investigators determined. 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. It was the first accident involving a wide-bodied airliner, and the most deadly crash in the United States at that time. Follow my voice!. That was the last transmission before the left wing sliced into the Everglades at 225 mph. One of the flight attendants happened to glance at the window of an oven in the galley, and saw the face of a man looking back at her! Top Left: The girls of Flight 401. Good for me! Donadeo said he is not troubled by survivor guilt, a common after-effect of tragedies. 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. 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: (L) Luis Mejia recovering from the crash in Palmetto Hospital in 1973 and (R) Carlos Polanco in 2004. An interesting side show to the crash of Flight 401 was documented in the 1976 book The Ghost of Flight 401, by John G. Fuller. Stephanie Rae Stanich 11/10/48 "I could empathize with what Ron was going through. The captain, along with one of two flight crew members, two of 10 flight attendants, and 97 of 163 passengers, died; 75 . March 21, 2017 He was more than 25 miles away. I didn't tell him that it felt really strange realizing that so much of the plane was still out in the glades. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 3 | On Thursday the victims of that crash were honored with a memorial in Miami Springs. References: Repo, Donald Louis | I mean, I was a single person with no family. Photography courtesy Ron Infantino, A few minutes later Leonhards radio crackled. This story has relevance to those of us in anaesthesia. Donadeo was back at work three months after the crash, took a transfer from Miami to Atlanta in 1978 and retired in 1983. Source: Pope Lick Monster the Killer Goatman of Kentucky, Joyce Vincents Unsettling Death That Went Undiscovered for 3 Years, These Real Creepy Audio Recordings Will Give You Nightmares, The Case of Teresita BasaHow a Ghost Solved a Murder. He and his wife, Donna, live in Christmas, a small town between Orlando and Cape Canaveral. To all who shivered at night in fear of this creepy story, it seemed that it must have been true as reported. The Infantinos were exhausted from celebrating Christmas with Rons parents in New York. There were bodies that were naked, which we all figured occurred because they had been flung out of the protected environmental cocoon of the L1011 into 200 mph winds when the fuselage broke up. Introducing the Keys Quirkiest Resident. He was an aviation business student at Miami-Dade Community College then, and used some of his money to start a commuter airline. A graveside service will take place on Friday, December 4, at 10:30 AM. She was killed. He had a broken arm and some cuts and scrapes, but no other visible wounds, Leonhard said. HistoryMiami. In addition to commemorating Flight 401, the creative talent behind the exhibit is seeking to help survivors raise the funding needed to create a permanent large-scale memorial to Flight 401's victims and survivors in the City of Miami Springs, once home to a thriving Eastern Air Lines community. In the end, it appears that the source of the stories was an article in an issue of the Flight Safety Foundation. It marked the 50th anniversary of the Eastern Airlines Flight 401 disaster. Bud and Nancy own 27 domestic cats, including 15 that live indoors on sofas, tables and bookshelves. This killed the First Officer instantly. I saw young couples broken up. Crash of Eastern Airlines Flight 401. Eric Olson holding a piece of wreckage from Flight 401. Each year on December 29th, I spend a little time thinking about that silhouetted L1011 heading west over Opa locka Airport. 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. Fara Infantino 12/7/46 Two tours in Southeast Asia had hardened him. That was a godsend because I got to meet and befriend many of the club members, most of whom were successful small business owners enjoying the fruits of their labor by owning and operating private aircraft (something that is almost cost prohibitive in today's aviation, regulatory and business environments). It looked as though the L1011 was in a shallow left turn and dragged the left wing tip in the swamp. He had to make a detour of some 50 miles before he would arrive at the boat ramp on the north side of the Tamami Trail. Two minutes later, Flight 401 called the air traffic control tower. That left two seats open. As I recall that December night, it was a relatively cool evening for south Florida with a moonless night sky. The memories don't. 200110850. Possible Curse of Seminole Indians | THE CRASH OF FLIGHT 401 20 YEARS LATER SURVIVORS LIVE WITH PAIN, MEMORY, Author: ARNOLD MARKOWITZ Herald Staff Writer Copyright (c) 1992 The Miami Herald. Below Right - Gatherers take a moment to honor Robert 'Bud' Marquis. It was a solemn and sobering return flight. Below: The Casado family tour the crash site. An Eastern flight attendant posted this scan (below) from his L-1011 FA manual. A scene from the TV movie "The Crash of Flight 401" (1978), Eastern Airlines Flight 401: The Ghosts of Memories Past. Raposa, Beverly | Albert J. Stockstill 6/9/33 This was only about 12 hours after the L1011 crashed! Surprisingly, he found that there were large pieces of wreckage still out in the glades. A light on the instrument panel the first officer was monitoring failed to illuminate green to confirm that the nose landing gear was extended and locked. She had no first-aid kit. I tried to keep hold of myself by showing up at work, but I couldn't concentrate.". Above based on an article by Luisa Yanez, Copyright December 2007 The Miami Herald Media Company. Flight 401 - Autopilot indicator | ", 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. On December of 1972, an Eastern Airlines Tri-Star jetliner, Flight 401, crashed into a Florida swamp. degree history and physical education. I have chosen to list him as a survivor as he was alive at the time of the NTSB hearings. Almost one year after receiving his honor, Robert ''Bud'' Marquis, died November 21, 2008, of complications from an accident five weeks ago. 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. Surprise turned to horror when Repo disappeared before the pilots eyes. He looks at the photo of the primitive camp he built in the cypress trees so many years ago when he was young and strong and could hunt and gig frogs and look at the stars. A fireball rushed through the fuselage, and the plane began pinwheeling like a giant Ferris wheel spun loose from its mount. Darrylle Becker 3/16/43 There were four men in the cockpit, all preoccupied with the light and landing gear. Flight 401 left John F. Kennedy at 9:20 p.m. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 7 | "That's what really gets me. I'd be able to do the right thing today.". Donald Louis Repo 5/10/21 Loft, Robert Albin | No flicker from an air boaters headlamp. Bud waved the helicopter toward a nearby levee. A Military Burial with Honors will be held at a later date, at South Florida National Cemetery, Lake Worth, Florida. The cloak of black was made all the more intense by the surreal stillness. Rosemary Mancuso 10/31/49 Flight 401 soared above a primordial swampland filled with poisonous snakes and alligators crawling through razor-sharp sawgrass and open-water sloughs. 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. When he stopped the engine to push the boat back into the water, he heard a chorus of terrified human voices, hollering, moaning, shrieking. 18 Jan 2023. This photo taken in September 2009. The night was a balmy 72 degrees, the mosquitoes surprisingly sparse. It was broken in the crash and he avoids putting any strain on it -- good advice for anyone his age, 67. Though Leonhard was only a rookie, the sight of death was not unfamiliar to him. Then he tells the story the best he can. ATC put the plane into a holding pattern over the Everglades. 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