Have You Met Fred the Tree? The disaster of this flight still remains as one of the worst in American aviation history. Outside of the aircraft, there wasnt much in the way of visual cues and city lights were non-existent. We were standing outside the clubhouse on the ramp, getting ready to lock up the building before leaving, when we both noticed something unusual overhead. The movie is fairly innacurate and over-dramitized. Stockstill began a turn to follow the airport's approach pattern, and immediately noticed their altitude but it was too late. With the autopilot engaged, the malfunctioning light was dismantled by two members of the crew. He usually wrote UFO books, and was best known for The Interrupted Journey about the Betty and Barney Hill case. The government considered him totally disabled. It's like it's a charm," she said. The man vanished before their very eyes and those of several other passengers. He saw a man standing, shocked, in knee-deep water. Raposa popped the release buckle and fell into the marsh, landing on her hands and knees. . Two years after the crash, Anita and Franklin Kent's lives were taken up by endless doctor visits. This story has relevance to those of us in anaesthesia. Christina was the youngest survivor of the accident. 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. An aerial view of the crash site; a swath of the Everglades; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. Loft accidentally nudged the control yoke, perhaps with his knee, while turning around to speak to Repo, and the autopilot mode was one which followed whatever pitch the pilot set with the yoke. They were all the pieces that had been salvaged from Flight 401, including the oven and elevator, but many other pieces as well. Infantino also won a large legal settlement and lost everything. Pin. One gave him money. He invested in real estate, too. On December 29th, 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401, a widebody L1011 jet, crashed into the Everglades while attempting to land at Miami International Airport. PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Farrell - Miami Herald Staff. The harrowing tale of three survivors of the 1972 crash of Eastern Airlines flight 401 into the Everglades. Aground. Repo seemed to have a knack of turning up in the oddest of places. Ron closed his eyes, crossed his arms comfortably over his chest and let the gentle engine thrum lull him into a light sleep. They never met again, never talked again, and never will: Ray died years ago in Arcadia. The area I was about to go in was uncharted territory for me, Leonhard said. How about we start with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer?. Trudy Smith - Douglas November 6, 2021, 12:23 pm. Of course, hearing them from the porch isn't the same as being in the middle of them armed with a gig, taking a long breath of Everglades air, feeling utterly alive. ExpandAutoplay. Stewardess Beverly Raposa, then 25, noticed nothing unusual as the flight passed high over the Atlantic Ocean en route to Miami International Airport. Abover right - Over 100 airboats participated in the evenet. ", 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. Paquita Carrasquillo 10/4/40
The plane was dropping from the sky at a rate of 200 feet each minute. 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. His book was later adapted into a made-for-tv movie starring William Shatner as an NTSB investigator. Susana Luna 8/29/29
I diplomatically told James that I couldn't take possession of the large pieces of wreckage. Web. Join our emailing list to keep up to date with the latest. 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. Shortly after I arrived, one of my friends, Hansel Meighen, practically dragged me to his airplane and loudly announced that we were going to go fly out to the Everglades crash site. To those who survived, the scene must have had an eerie end-of-the-earth feel, with wisps of gray mist swirling, a baby wailing, the groans from the injured and the dying. At first, witnesses reported nothing more severe than standing in the aisles, occupying the galley and cockpit. 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.. You don't want to be in the water with me.". Work toward erecting a permanent memorial for Flight 401 at the Curtiss Mansion in Miami continues under the leadership of survivors Ron Infantino and Beverly Raposa. They claimed that the deceaseds name was being used for the commercial purpose of selling books about the fatal crash (and a movie based on the book) by referring to the decedent as a reappearing ghost. The family lost the suit, and subsequent appeals. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 traveled from New York to Miami. In recent months Canti and others have made pilgrimages to Bud's screened door to hear his story. The explanation soon became clear: the apparitions were always on aircraft that contained equipment salvaged from Flight 401. 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. I come from an Eastern family - my mother, Betty Olson, retired from Eastern in 1976. Afterward, folks hope to take the old man into the Everglades, in his own airboat, if he wants. Warren Terry 2/16/34
James followed all of the rules and more often than not, brought home venison for the family each deer season. 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. Darrylle Becker 3/16/43
Bud helped the man into the airboat and poured him coffee from the thermos. Roberto Palma 6/10/27
But when they took off, one of the two remaining engines flamed out, forcing them to make an emergency landing on just one engine. When word of this reached the only engineer on board of that particular flight, he denied ever fixing the oven and went as far to say that it didnt even need fixing in the first place. She worked in the executive offices at Easterns Miami base. Mr. Elder later became an Editor at the San Jose Mercury News. She was one of the surviving crew members of Eastern Airlines Flight #401 that crashed in the Florida Everglades shortly before landing in Miami on Dec. 29, 1972. For over thirty years Charlie worked with the FAA as an Air Traffic Controller. His left knee was dislocated, wrenched sideways at a vicious right angle. We could also see a few other aircraft flying into the restricted airspace. Jerome Becker 6/27/39
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. The plane was a new Lockheed L-1011, pride of the Eastern fleet. 490-492. 16 Mar. Four years after the crash, there was no such thing as convenient access to the photos for the average person. Carpet layers need strong backs. Pilots of Eastern Airline Flight 401 Don Repo and Bob Loft. Barry L. Mancuso 10/19/44
Rose Lina Zollo 7/13/43. It didn't look as if anyone could have possibly survived the crash, yet 75 people did. Angelo was a friend to all who know him, generous with his time to anyone who needed him and a devoted husband and father. Theyd been married only 20 days and were returning from their honeymoon. "Then I saw this great big fireball and the whole 'glades lit up. "He swore that Frank Borman had paid him to come to Miami and perform an exorcism on #318. In the end, it appears that the source of the stories was an article in an issue of the Flight Safety Foundation. She went and got another flight attendant, who came and saw the same thing. The Ghost of Flight 401 (TV 1978) - YouTube |
She left Eastern and worked in the travel agency industry. Let them not be forgotten. The last thing Raposa remembered seeing before she was knocked out was a waterfall of colors. Jesus Lorenzo 4/26/37
In the swamp, there were bodies everywhere, men, women, children, even infants, some unspeakably maimed. At the time, the decision to change seats carried no meaning. Talk to anyone about ghosts or hauntings, and invariably images of abandoned old houses with dilapidated features or conditions will spring to mind. Folks from South Florida's sporting community, mostly hunters, fishers and airboaters, heard, many for the first time, about Bud. Job Description. On December 29, 1972, the Lockheed L-1011-1 TriStar - Flight 401 - left New York and flew on a downward vector to Miami, Florida. 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. Memorial unveiled paying homage to 101 victims who perished on Eastern Flight 401. Shock had taken over. It's broken, just like him. At least they thought they had. Chapter 4 - Flight 401 Passenger List. Unborn son of Rochelle and Stefan Rubin
Pilot Bob Loft, copilot Bert Stockstill, and flight engineer Don Repo were bringing the plane in to land at Miami International Airport. He needed a respiratory therapist -- who, it turned out, needed him, too. I saw people burned in agony. Perhaps that may not have made much difference. "Ladies, you're safe up there. With their very careers on the line, each witness must be totally certain what they saw is what they saw. My former brother-in-law, James Anderson, was an avid air boat owner and hunting enthusiast. 2017. 17 Mar. The Lockheed L-1011-1 Tristar was the latest generation of wide-body commercial aircraft and had been put into service only four months before. Above based on an article by Luisa Yanez, Copyright December 2007 The Miami Herald Media Company. Royal Aviation Museum Below: The Casado family tour the crash site. 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). "Remember what the doctor said," Nancy chimes in. "I guess I was always on the edge without knowing it." May Albury, Verena Bieri, Carl Bolufe, Rigoberto Bolufe, Sandra Burt, Gustavo Cassado, Mrs Xeimara Casado, Miss Christina Casado, Ann Connell, Barry Connell, 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, Allen Weiss, Lorenzo Zetlin. Of this Flight still remains as one of the crew YouTube | she left Eastern worked! 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