The aircraft disintegrated, scattering wreckage over an area approximately 1600 feet long by 300 feet wide (NTSB). Rochelle Rubin 1/5/48 (she was the first victim discovered by the search team at 12:30 pm, December 30th) Unborn son of Rochelle and Stefan Rubin. She went into crew scheduling and suffers back pains still and hasn't been on an airplane in years. Once you become stuck in the glades, you could be there for a long, long, time.. Dr. Aftabuddin Chowdhury 1/1/43 (3) 2022 TV-14. We're having legs tonight. Mary Carfizzi 11/3/19 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. Some believethat Eastern Air Lines cannibalized and reused pieces of the wreckage in other airliners. 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. Read the accident report (PDF). Continue Reading: Survivor Stories and Memorial Efforts. "I could get it running," he says, fighting for breath. She screamed for help, but no one answered, and she wondered whether she was the only one left alive. 1 of 37. 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. This position is with the Agency Services area of DTMB. As I recall that December night, it was a relatively cool evening for south Florida with a moonless night sky. Salvatore Carfizzi 7/15/15 The Infantinos were exhausted from celebrating Christmas with Rons parents in New York. FSF. This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services and to analyze traffic. "Having money ruined my life," he said. He'd launch his airboat at the Miccosukee Indian Reservation on the Tamiami Trail and race north into the river of grass. "That wasn't my first brush with death," he said. Leonhard put the car in park, cut the motor and stepped out. Oddly, he felt no pain. With his left, he held onto the boat and walked beside it to the levee. On Dec. 29, 1972, it carried 178, including crew. Soon after, ghosts from Flight 401 began to haunt the land and other airplanes. Obviously, this is a red flag waving at us vigorously that we should be sure to take this tale with several good grains of salt. Wreckage site of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401. Braulio Corretjer 1/5/28 And so, with no actual ghost reports having been made by any actual people, and no haunted components from Flight 401 having been installed in other planes, it follows that the alleged orders from Eastern Air Lines management to remove said components never happened either; as didn't the mechanics who performed the work and made cautious reports of it to Fuller. 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. In 1985, his years as a manual laborer caught up with him. Eric Olson holding a piece of wreckage from Flight 401. The landing gear from Flight 401 at the crash site; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. Loft abandoned the landing and informed Air Traffic Control of the issue. Ronald Jaye March 27, 1940 Jana Dedek 6/24/53 Situational awareness was mandatory, otherwise we could all foresee a midair collision. 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. The left wingtip hit first. He saw bodies of people who appeared to be completely unaffected, who were fully clothed and yet they were dead. "I was engaged and my fiance was killed in a drunk-driving accident two months before the wedding," she said. They have two sons and live in Dade City now, near Tampa. Possible Curse of Seminole Indians | Below Right - Gatherers take a moment to honor Robert 'Bud' Marquis. Now 41, he lives alone in Titusville, on a disability pension. Don Repo survived long enough to reach the hospital, but he also proved to be too badly injured. 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. 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. 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. Inside was a treasure: Her camera with the unprocessed film of shots of the crew taken that day. Two others did not want to be reminded. . Klaus Schenck 9/5/39. I dont know this for sure, but I seem to remember he was the last survivor rescued.. Flight 401 - First Response | Allen M. Stark 8/11/49 Fuller's claims that Eastern executives tried to bully their employees into silence about the ghosts led them to nearly file suit against the publisher, but Borman nixed the plan, rightly feeling that doing so would give the book even more publicity. Silvia Crespo 11/30/32 Flight 401 may refer to: Iberia Airlines Flight 401, crashed on 5 May 1965. Airline employees began spreading stories of apparitions to the point where Eastern management warned employees that they could face dismissal if caught, and any log book entries about such matters would be removed. Michael Ann Kaminer 12/28/45 "Hey! Ron and Fara Infantino, married for 20 days, were coming home from their honeymoon when Flight 401 crashed. Abbey Lynn Greenwald 9/18/52 On Dec. 3, Southern Airboat and other organizations also plan to honor Bud and the victims and survivors of Eastern Flight 401 with a service and a barbecue in Miami. Captain Loft had been with the company for over 32 years; a total of 29,700 flight hours. theYear = theYear + 1900 Copyright 2017 by the author and reprinted with permission of the University Press of Florida. The wreckage of Eastern Air Lines flight 401 lies in the Florida Everglades after the crash. at Highland Cemetery in Deport, Texas. 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. Viewers who enter The Ghost of Flight 401 looking for shivers and thrills might be disappointed. Eduardo Jaramillo 8/2/32 His doctor warned him not to travel alone, not with his weak heart and lungs and aching back. Those pilots probably didn't even know there was a NOTAM prohibiting flight immediately above the crash site. Worse, none of them noticed that the jet had been steadily losing altitude. Dead bodies hung, lay and floated everywhere I looked. Bud revved up the engine and headed northwest. FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. Forty years have passed since Eastern Flight 401 slammed down in the Everglades, yet no memorial has been raised to remember the 101 people who perished that night. If you like this programming, please become a member. Information about your use of this site is shared with Google. Exactly fifty years ago, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 mysteriously . We had a habit of informally gathering at the clubhouse on Friday and Saturday evenings to down a few beers and catch up on all the news that had any impact on us. 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. Minor, Miami Herald) Below, Right, Mrs Leona Levine on March 15, 1973 (Joe Elbert, Miami Herald). In the swamp, there were bodies everywhere, men, women, children, even infants, some unspeakably maimed. The flight, destined for Kyiv, Ukraine, took off on Jan. 8, 2020 from Tehran . The majority of the witnesses are the most professional of professional people and simply not really the sort of people to invent the stories that they tell. Charles Camichel 9/9/1899 (we assume this is the "C. Carmichael" on One was Micale, who they found alone on a clump of swamp muck, drenched in swamp water and jet fuel. They didn't keep score, but Marquis knows they saved a lot of people's lives that night. One other witness has also come forward with a similar story that adds validity to the others simply because of who he was at the time. 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. The crash site of Eastern Airlines Flight 401 into the Florida Everglades on Dec. 29, 1972. 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. Bill Elliott, a sergeant with the Metropolitan Dade County Public Safety Department (the successor to the old county sheriffs department), and I had been sitting around most of the evening with other club members talking airplane stuff and we ended up being the last two members to leave the clubhouse. 35 Years after an Eastern Air Lines jet crashed into the Everglades, a rescuer looks back. 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. Eastern Air Lines Lockheed L-1011 TriStar 1. I was then almost 26 years old and had recently graduated from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. Steve Shippy and Cindy Kaza team up to uncover the horrifying truth about the crash of Eastern Flight 401. She had been recovering from a heartbreak of her own for a year and a half. Henry Nunez 8/18/23 Forgotten about him, actually. Later on during the flight though, problems with the engine all stemmed from a fire that no-one knew about. Burning jet fuel engulfed the aircraft as it plowed through the swamp. Like so many such cases, its exploitation of a tragedy for financial gain and publicity was disrespectful to both the victims and the survivors. "When I tried to prop him up it felt like every bone in his body was broken.". If he saw legs kicking, he turned the seat over. I was a kid, 21 years old. Witnesses include pilots, various other members of Eastern Air Lines staff and their passengers. That was the last transmission before the left wing sliced into the Everglades at 225 mph. It was the first of the new generation of wide-body "jumbo jets" to crash. No flicker from an air boaters headlamp. Ron Infantino and his late wife, Lilly, on their wedding day; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. victims, and the general public. Barbara Ann Saal "Ladies, you're safe up there. Renee Joaquin Albert 8/3/36 Starring. With the $250,000 legal settlement, Micale thought he had it made. Ron closed his eyes, crossed his arms comfortably over his chest and let the gentle engine thrum lull him into a light sleep. Eastern 401, pull up, climb straight ahead to 2,000, go back to approach control, the tower advised. The altimeter showed a decrease in altitude, but none of the crew noticed. Frequent Business Traveler. Other than those observations, I don't recall much more from that flight. Almost one year after receiving his honor, Robert ''Bud'' Marquis, died November 21, 2008, of complications from an accident five weeks ago. Under the command of Captain Robert Albin Loft, an expert navigator rated 50th in seniority at Eastern. ", 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. By using this site, you agree to its use of cookies. That credo seems to be exemplified in every major airplane crash. Trudy Jean Smith, age 73, of Dallas, Georgia, formerly of Deport, Texas, died November 29, 2020. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 traveled from New York to Miami. Sadly, she did not survive. Flight 401 was a short-haul flight to Miami. We had him out by 5:30 in the morning. Whatever the case, whether from real testimony or a desire to entertain, the legend of the ghosts of Flight 401 helped to make sure the victims and survivors are not forgotten. With almost twice the area of Rhode Island, the largest subtropical wilderness in the United States has some of the most formidable terrain on Earth. Loretta E. Bloodgood 10/13/15 Flight Safety Foundation, 29 Dec. 1972. By 1 a.m., the rookie warden had launched his airboat. Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed into the Everglades on a moonless night on December 29, 1972. He likes to think about those days. She looked into the distance, saw the dim lights of Miami framed against a coal-black horizon and noticed how far away it was. We went deeper and deeper, until wed gone about 50 yards. Selma Karpen 6/16/21 It didn't light. Surprise turned to horror when Repo disappeared before the pilots eyes. In fact, do a Google image search for "flight 401 wreckage" and you'll see at a glance that the aircraft was completely destroyed. Join our emailing list to keep up to date with the latest. She was the first victim, along with her unborn son, discovered by the search team at 12:30 pm, December 30th), Patricia Renee Shackelford 12/9/52 (Pictured below). By that time, I had also earned a commercial pilot license with airplane single and multi-engine and instrument ratings. 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. Marc Leshay 11/28/51 The hours passed, and still no rescuers had arrived. Still, $50,000 will have to be raised in order to erect the memorial. 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). After returning to Connecticut, he then worked for a number of years at Seymour Copper Mill in sales and marketing. Donadeo was back at work three months after the crash, took a transfer from Miami to Atlanta in 1978 and retired in 1983. It infamously crashed in Florida's Everglades swamp just before midnight, killing 101 of the 176 people on board. Eastern used the Bowmar/Calrod brand. Susana Luna 8/29/29 "It has always bothered me that there was nothing done with 401," said Dummett, a retired Miami-Dade firefighter and founder of the American Airboat Search and Rescue Association, now living in Lake Wales. I especially remember Bill describing passengers who apparently survived the crash impact, but were knocked unconscious and were still strapped into their seats. We were like five bobbing bubble-head dolls because there were a lot - and I mean a lot - of other aircraft up in the air doing the same thing we set out to do. On Thursday the victims of that crash were honored with a memorial in Miami Springs. "I think I can still do it. Lucille Cilles 1/30/24 Tower, this is Eastern 401, it looks like were going to have to circle. Born in Arkansas, he grew up in South Florida when everybody seemed to be poor. The Ghost of Flight 401 was not much of a departure for him. Worried that something was wrong with the aircraft or one of its systems, the pilot opened up the compartment trap door. The plane was dropping from the sky at a rate of 200 feet each minute. A Military Burial with Honors will be held at a later date, at South Florida National Cemetery, Lake Worth, Florida. This becomes less surprising when you look at Fuller's publishing history. With no one flying the plane or noticing its steady descent at flight speed, it flew itself into the ground. They were both 26 years old. New York: Atheneum, 1977. Why You Needn't Worry About the Missing 411, How to Extract Adrenochrome from Children. Some would rather not remember. Pilots and flight attendants frequently saw Don Repo after that, and always he gave them some valuable maintenance note about the aircraft. 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. The plane crashed into the swamp; fortunately, it was a relatively gentle angle into a soft surface, and that's what allowed so many to survive. the pilot asked at the last second. She was so worried about his appearance that she summoned an attendant to investigate further. Dale Ann Mazzone 5/19/51 That was the first time I had heard of the crash. He felt helpless, hearing what sounded like hundreds of voices coming at him from different directions. They turned on the autopilot. After about an hour, he saw the first helicopter.