Pine and others want to do something nice for Bud, perhaps honor him with a special day, raise cash for Bud's taxes, groceries and medical bills. The altimeter showed a decrease in altitude, but none of the crew noticed. Bud waved his light until the helicopter took notice. Photos of the 35th anniversary memorial gathering at the crash site, December 29, 2007. Fourteen survivors had various degrees of burns. Today, she still has the small, Eastern Airlines-issued cream-colored suitcase she carried the night of the crash. 35 Years after an Eastern Air Lines jet crashed into the Everglades, a rescuer looks back. Her face burned from the jet fuel. She was killed. Miguel Junco 8/28/42 He felt helpless, hearing what sounded like hundreds of voices coming at him from different directions. Lucille Cilles 1/30/24 Below Right - Gatherers take a moment to honor Robert 'Bud' Marquis. Luis Bancroft 10/10/48 . Back in the day, when he spent so much time in the wilderness, only the airplanes overhead reminded him of civilization. Rochelle Rubin 1/5/48 (she was the first victim discovered by the search team It would be hard to make up a plausible story like Ronald Infantino's -- too sad, too joyful. Ruiz, 63, of West Miami-Dade, still has aches and pains but returned to flying until Eastern folded in 1991. He did well for a while -- had a big house in the Country Club of Miami and drove a Lincoln. Marquis, Robert | Last edited on 22 February 2023, at 02:18, intentional infliction of emotional distress, "Airliner carrying 167 crashes in Everglades", "Giant jetliner goes down in 'gator infested swamp", "Eastern Airlines, Inc. L-1011, N310EA, Miami, Florida, December 29, 1972", "Robert "Bud" Marquis's Obituary on San Francisco Chronicle", "PART TWO: THE CRASH "It felt like a wild rollercoaster ride", "A Lesson on the Importance of Crew Resource Management", "Lessons Learnt from the Crash of Eastern 401", Eastern Flight 401 The Story of the Crash, The Crash of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401-Epilogue, ASN Aircraft accident Lockheed L-1011-385-1 TriStar 1 N310EA Everglades, FL, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Eastern_Air_Lines_Flight_401&oldid=1140849286, This page was last edited on 22 February 2023, at 02:18. Three women on the jetliner's tail, about 20 feet above the water, begged Bud to save them. [22] Eastern considered suing for libel, based on assertions of a cover-up by Eastern executives, but Borman opted not to, feeling a lawsuit would merely provide more publicity for the book. Even though I didn't own an airplane, the club members considered me one of their own, a privilege that I treasure and respect to this day, despite the fact that I haven't had any involvement with the club since the late 1970s. B738. 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. 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. The apparitions of Loft and Repo were invariably described as being extremely lifelike. He seemed deeply saddened by that fact. A glance out a window, after all, would have shown nothing but the black Everglades below. Elizabeth M. Pollack 12/10/17 "When I tried to prop him up it felt like every bone in his body was broken.". Of five survivors The Herald located this week, three talked freely about Flight 401. Only their bedroom has an air conditioner. Someone had seen his frogging light. The unintentional jar apparently caused the planes nose to tilt down a few degrees. . Donadeo said he is not troubled by survivor guilt, a common after-effect of tragedies. Then he tells the story the best he can. Survivors - Crew and Eastern Employees Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 left New York's JFK airport, bound for Miami International Airport, on December 29, 1972. We exited the area and returned to Opa locka Airport, but our conversations were subdued. He was left wearing nothing but a necktie and belt pushed up under his armpits. According to the National Transportation Safety Board ( NTSB ), the main fuselage broke into four main sections and many other smaller pieces on impact. When I was learning to fly in the mid-1960s at Sun Line Helicopters, one of the fixed base operators (FBO) tied into the Miami-Dade Junior College aviation program at the Opa locka Airport, I worked as a line boy refueling aircraft and doing minor line maintenance. The crash occurred while the entire flight crew was preoccupied with . No roar of unmuffled high-horsepower engines. Check-in; . | 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. Hansel owned a single engine Piper Comanche 250, registered as N7510P, that held four people, including the pilot. Blackness. Photography courtesy Ron Infantino, A few minutes later Leonhards radio crackled. The night was a balmy 72 degrees, the mosquitoes surprisingly sparse. of 401 King Street, London, W6 9NJ, United Kingdom (+612 9691 0176). Repo was evacuated to a hospital, but later died from his injuries. The approach controller cleared the flight to climb to 2,000ft (610m), and then hold west over the Everglades. Gas gangrene attacked his lungs. 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. It looked as though the L1011 was in a shallow left turn and dragged the left wing tip in the swamp. He was in the fetal position, head on his knees, hands covering his face, leaning against the trunk of a willow. Two passing pilots saw it and called the airport. The hours passed, and still no rescuers had arrived. It looked like someone had poured gasoline on a campfire, and poof, up it went. Curiously, Leonhard never heard the impact. "Welcome to Miami," the pilot announced during the descent at 11:30. Tower, this is Eastern 401, it looks like were going to have to circle. document.write(theYear) Flamingo Magazine, 8 Black Floridians Who Are an Absolute Force in Their Industry, Calling All Readers (and Writers): 13 Favorite Florida Indie Bookstores, The Wackiest Florida News Stories of 2022. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 2 | Eastern Air Lines CEO (and former Apollo astronaut) Frank Borman termed the ghost stories about the crash "garbage". [6]:101 The pilots cycled the landing gear, but still failed to get the confirmation light. Ernest F. Bloodgood 4/1/16 On December 29, 1972, Eastern Air Lines flight 401 left New York's JFK airport and crashed on its approach to Miami, killing 101 of the 176 people on board. He saw mangled bodies and heard the pitiful moans of the dying. 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. Flight 401 - First Response | Sharon Transue was a replacement crew member out of reserve, didn't feel as much a . I was amazed at the size of some of the pieces of wreckage he brought home on the air boat. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was a scheduled flight from New York JFK to Miami.Shortly before midnight on December 29, 1972, the Lockheed L-1011-1 TriStar crashed into the Florida Everglades, causing 101 total fatalities. Ron and Fara Infantino, married for 20 days, were coming home from their honeymoon when Flight 401 crashed. In 1972 he was a young carpenter who liked living fast. Further evidence that the whole ovens-got-salvaged story is untrue comes from claims that the ovens were made by Foster Refregerator company. in Electrical, Mechanical, Aerospace Engineering, or related subject area My log book shows that our flight lasted 1.2 hours. December 21, 2022, 5:00 AM. He'd launch his airboat at the Miccosukee Indian Reservation on the Tamiami Trail and race north into the river of grass. Rose Kashman 9/22/15 The movie is fairly innacurate and over-dramitized. Carmen Jorge 7/7/46 They were both 26 years old. 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. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew blew the roof of the house across the street through his front windows. Patricia George was on top of the coat closet. 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. With an injured back and a cut foot, she slogged through sucking muck, shredded saw grass and plane wreckage. "I think I can still do it. His writings form the basis for much of this Web site, with permission. After the wreckage is removed, salvageable parts from the plane are used to repair other aircraft. Other than those observations, I don't recall much more from that flight. "I consider the survivors 75 miracles. Jesus Lorenzo 4/26/37 He knows exactly how he'd go about it. The mood was festive as people were leaving the coldness of New York to bring in 1973 on the beaches of Florida. Incident at Exeter concerned a series of well-publicized UFO sightings in and around the town of Exeter, New Hampshire in . I saw a husband who couldn't find his wife or his children." An aerial view of the crash site; a swath of the Everglades; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. He was out that night on his airboat, gigging frogs with a new friend, Ray Dickens. From a half mile above, it's like an artist's canvas. The Ghosts of Eastern Flight 401. 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. Back to the clubhouse and armed with the airspace restrictions, I was ready to fly. He cranked up the engine and moved toward the sound. I really do think I can gig some frogs if I had to. Follow my voice. Within minutes, six to eight passengers crawled out of the dark and were seated on the scrap of flooring, shivering, afraid and in shock. On Dec. 29, 1972, it carried 178, including crew. Leonhard doesnt remember which one. They didn't keep score, but Marquis knows they saved a lot of people's lives that night. 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.. His book was later made into a TV movie. After dark he moonlighted as a commercial frogger. Flight 401 departed JFK Airport in New York on Friday, December 29, 1972, at 21:20, with 163 passengers and 13 crew members on board. [5]:6,16[9] However, the NTSB concluded that the captain's tumor did not contribute to the accident. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401, crashed on 29 December 1972. Passenger List: TWA Flight 800. With the $250,000 legal settlement, Micale thought he had it made. Raposas survivors became upset. 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. The old airboat, the airboat in which he carried injured passengers, waits on a rusty trailer with flat tires. Charles Camichel 9/9/1899 (we assume this is the "C. Carmichael" on Judy Ellenberg 2/27/53 Lloyd Irving Bearman 1/16/23 [6]:107108 Donadeo, the lone survivor of the four flight-deck occupants, recovered from his injuries. If one more time he could harvest a mess of frog legs in the Everglades. Three of the four cockpit crew members, two of the 10 flight attendants, and 96 of the 163 passengers were killed; 75 people survived. His book was later adapted into a made-for-tv movie starring William Shatner as an NTSB investigator. Frank Borman And Flight 401 #2505745 BY NIKV69 - Fri Feb 20, 2004 11:17 am Being a child from an Eastern Air Lines family I am shocked that my father never told me that Frank Borman who at the time was a new VP of EAL rushed to the scene of the crash of flight 401 in the Everglades in December of 72'. A mass of interesting testimony was produced as a result. He received a $250,000 settlement in a lawsuit, blew it all, got into drug trouble, went back to work and fell off a truck. The Ghost of Flight 401. Ron Infantino woke up in a chill, heart pounding, breath erratic. Eastern used the Bowmar/Calrod brand. But the passengers were her peopleher responsibilityand it was still her job to help them. Then a sudden jolt rattled the aircraft. It was closing in on midnight on Dec. 29, 1972. Loretta E. Bloodgood 10/13/15 Soon after, ghosts from Flight 401 began to haunt the land and other. He'd see the lights and hear the roar as the jets climbed into the black night over the swamp or descended toward Miami International Airport. I wish I had that kind of money today instead of 20 years ago. 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. Lockheed L-1011 Inside the Hell Hole | 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. 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. An Eastern Air Lines Lockheed L-1011 crashed at 2342 eastern standard time, December 29, 1972, 18.7 miles west-northwest of Miami International Airport, Miami Florida. On a moonless night, in the beam of his head lamp, the frog eyes would glow like rubies. In the narrow beam of his head lamp he now saw enormous strips of torn metal. It is 12 feet long and 7 feet across. 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. Stephanie Rae Stanich 11/10/48 There he was able to land in a swampy patch of grass and coordinate rescue efforts. Yes, they are, Raposa assured them. 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 . Frank Borman, a former NASA astronaut and Eastern's senior vice president of operations, was awoken at home by a telephone call explaining of a probable crash. [5]:4 Fifty seconds after reaching their assigned altitude, Captain Loft instructed First Officer Stockstill to put the L-1011 on autopilot. 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. [11] The swamp absorbed much of the energy of the crash, lessening the impact on the aircraft. Jose Carrasquillo 6/28/40 Situational awareness was mandatory, otherwise we could all foresee a midair collision. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. (It was later expanded to a much larger area either later that same day or the next day.). They even made cheesy movie about it. Greta Foye 3/19/45 My direct and indirect contact with Eastern Flight 401 didn't end on December 30, 1972. A similar situation appeared in the Thai movie Dark Flight, directed by Kongkiat Khomsiri, produced in 2012. Not long after, "ghosts" of Loft and Repo were seen on more than twenty occasions by crew members on other Eastern Tri-Stars, especially those planes which had been fitted with parts salvaged from the Flight 401 wreckage. On December 29, 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing over 100 souls. The flying safety was even more compromised because it was slightly hazy which reduced visibility to seven to ten miles over the Everglades. 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. Oddly, he felt no pain. I was tired and hit the sack as soon as I got home. [4] Despite their own injuries, the surviving flight attendants were credited with helping other survivors and several quick-thinking actions such as warning survivors of the danger of striking matches due to jet fuel in the swamp water[9] and singing Christmas carols to keep up hope and draw the rescue teams' attention, as flashlights were not part of the standard equipment on commercial airliners at the time. "I guess I was always on the edge without knowing it." He'd get that look. Julia Lustig 5/30/25 He immediately drove to Eastern's Miami offices and decided to charter a helicopter to the crash site, as the swampy terrain made rescue difficult, and Eastern Airlines had not heard any news of progress in rescue efforts. 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. "That's what really gets me. Flight 401 left John F. Kennedy at 9:20 p.m. Though Leonhard was only a rookie, the sight of death was not unfamiliar to him. [5]:3, The cockpit crew removed the light assembly,[6]:102 and Second Officer Repo was dispatched to the avionics bay beneath the flight deck to check via a small porthole whether the landing gear was indeed down. Bill, ironically, as well as being the proud owner of a pristine Cessna 180 was one of the helicopter pilots for the Metro-Dade police department. She put in 11 more years with United before retiring. Still, $50,000 will have to be raised in order to erect the memorial. The pilot Bob Loft and the flight engineer Don Repo were two of the 101 people who perished in the air crash. She dug down into the black muck, cupped a double handful to her face and smeared it all over the affected areas. The Ghost of Flight 401 (TV 1978) - YouTube | She had been turned down by Trans World Airlines for a job because she was a half inch under the 5-foot-2-inch minimum height required for all stewardesses. It seemed to help. A Coast Guard helicopter flew toward them, sweeping the marsh with a bright searchlight, and then turned away. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 7 | We went deeper and deeper, until wed gone about 50 yards. 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. "Having money ruined my life," he said. Discretion was the better part of valor. Allen M. Stark 8/11/49 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. I dont know this for sure, but I seem to remember he was the last survivor rescued.. Entry . Marc Leshay 11/28/51 She had no first-aid kit. "That wasn't my first brush with death," he said. The experienced flight crew was distracted when the landing gear light failed to come on, which they believed was caused by a blown bulb. That subsides. Flight 401 Survivors, Years After the Crash and Memorial Efforts. I do recall that some gremlins were on it though and they kept messing up my landing!!!!". Ronald Jaye March 27, 1940 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). Also notable were the Eastern Airlines two-tone blue and white colors on the larger pieces of wreckage. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 traveled from New York to Miami. 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. High in the distant black sky, beyond the harsh glare cast by his headlamp, was a circling star: the searchlight of a Coast Guard helicopter hovering over the crash site eight miles away. I especially remember Bill describing passengers who apparently survived the crash impact, but were knocked unconscious and were still strapped into their seats. The television movie The Ghost of Flight 401, which was broadcast on NBC during February 1978, offers a fictionalized depiction of the crash and alleged ghost sightings. 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. 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. Jerome Becker 6/27/39 He was mentioned in a book, The Crash of Flight 401, later made into a B-movie, and helped a Hollywood writer with the awful Ghosts of Flight 401, about commercial jets haunted by the dead pilots. There was an enormous flash of flame as two fuel tanks burst open. The only piece of wreckage I did keep, and which I still have in my possession, is one of the plastic passenger window panes. Infantino, 47, is an independent insurance broker in San Antonio, a few minutes' drive from home in Dade City. I had first, second and third-degree burns all over my body. "He swore that Frank Borman had paid him to come to Miami and perform an exorcism on #318. Ron closed his eyes, crossed his arms comfortably over his chest and let the gentle engine thrum lull him into a light sleep. The only thing she was looking forward to on arrival in Miami was going to bed. Back row: Pat Ghyssels, Trudy Smith, Adrianne Hamilton, Mercy Ruiz. He isn't a talker to begin with, unless it's about boats or engines or the 'glades. Two survivors died later as a result of . The article covered the story of an Eastern L-1011 ferry flight where the jet lost one of the two operating engines and the pilot had a challenging landing. [4], Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was a regularly scheduled flight from John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New York, to Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida. They never met again, never talked again, and never will: Ray died years ago in Arcadia. My guess is that the L1011 essentially did a flat or horizontal cartwheel and tore itself apart. Mildred Katz 1/8/34 theYear = now.getYear() The aircraft was destroyed. The memories don't. The mud of the Everglades may have blocked wounds sustained by survivors, preventing them from bleeding to death. 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]. 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). He has fallen backwards and his arms are spread apart. Moe Lustig 7/16/23 The Ghost of Flight 401. No flicker from an air boaters headlamp. On the day of the crash, Flight 401 was operated using a Lockheed L-1011-1 TriStar (registration N310EA), which had been delivered to the airline on August 18, 1972. itinerary data, aircraft/flight or vessel/ voyage data, and personal identification information, including name, gender, date of birth, citizenship, travel document data, and status onboard the vessel or aircraft. Then the commuter airline folded. [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. 09:23AM EST Miami Intl - MIA. Stewardess Beverly Raposa, then 25, noticed nothing unusual as the flight passed high over the Atlantic Ocean en route to Miami International Airport. The flight was under the command of Captain Robert Loft, 55, a veteran Eastern Airline plot. Bud asks his wife to look for his scrapbooks. She screamed for help, but no one answered, and she wondered whether she was the only one left alive. My mother never told me the flight attendant's name, but she did say that she had suffered a broken back in the crash. But he and his helper had 30 pounds of legs. Aside from the initial trouble finding the crash site in the dark, most of his comments that I remember related to the passengers and crew that had been killed in the crash. 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." N310EA, the aircraft involved in the accident. An elevation of only eight feet felt like being on a hilltop in the Everglades. As Stockstill started another turn, onto 180, he noticed the discrepancy. "He was just a guy out there frogging and minding his own business who knew he had to help people in trouble. Indeed, they said, some . (The largest L1011 operators then at MIA were Eastern Airlines and Delta Airlines, but I don't recall seeing any airline markings when the L1011 was overhead.) Mom apparently worked closely with that flight attendant. Eastern management must have taken the stories somewhat seriously, however. Selma Karpen 6/16/21 AlanNachmias 5/16/50 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. Burning jet fuel engulfed the aircraft as it plowed through the swamp. The death toll per the final accident report was 99. His required surgery. One hundred and three lives were lost. 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. His wife Nancy - they married when she was 15 - could always tell when it was on his mind, though. ----------------------------------------------. Several survivors tracked him down to thank him personally. It's broken, just like him. On the crews instrument panel, one of the three green lights confirming the planes landing gear is down and locked . Solomon Fisher 7/18/11 She left Eastern and worked in the travel agency industry. Rose Lina Zollo 7/13/43. Two minutes later, Flight 401 called the air traffic control tower. He'd cruise up on the frog, spear the frog with the 3-pronged gig, knock the frog off the gig into a sack, all the while moving forward in the airboat while getting ready to gig another frog.