flight 401 bodies

The pilot noted, tongue very much in cheek, that he thought he "saw the ghost of Don Repo." Sometimes, back when there were no cell phones or GPS electronics to help navigate, he'd get lost at night. Photos of the 35th anniversary memorial gathering at the crash site, December 29, 2007. Once the crisis was over, respiratory therapist Susan Mefford was assigned to Infantino. He also attacked his other daughter, who luckily survived the attack. I don't see any reason to worry about what fate has brought. They didn't keep score, but Marquis knows they saved a lot of people's lives that night. Raposas survivors became upset. Sometime in midflight, passenger Ron Infantino switched seats with his wife, Lilly, after she returned from the bathroom. Fourteen survivors had various degrees of burns. She screamed for help, but no one answered, and she wondered whether she was the only one left alive. "This is way in the past.". The time was 9:20 p.m. Visitation: Thursday, October 7, from 6pm to 8pm at Loyless Funeral Home Chapel, with a Funeral mass at Our Lady of the Rosary Catholic Church on Friday at 10am. He was born in Pittsburgh, PA and was a 26 year resident of Christmas, FL. They turned on the autopilot. (The club is still in existence at the Opa locka Airport, but it was relocated to a different site on the field years ago.) Skeptic Brian Dunning claims that the origin for the ghost sightings was a joke made by an Eastern Air Lines captain after an emergency landing in which he quipped that he "thought [Don] Repo's ghost was on the plane."[22][24]. Soon after, ghosts from Flight 401 began to haunt the land and other. The landing gear from Flight 401 at the crash site; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. Sir, dont worry, he said. Almost 40 years ago, Eastern Airlines flight 401 crashed. N310EA, the aircraft involved in the accident. Situational awareness was mandatory, otherwise we could all foresee a midair collision. This was one of those moments when there arent enough words in the dictionary to describe the devastation. Ever the good Catholic, she crossed herself in the dark and silently prayed, Oh God, please let that be true.. He did well for a while -- had a big house in the Country Club of Miami and drove a Lincoln. "That's what really gets me. 103 passengers and crew members died in the crash or shortly thereafter and 75 passengers/crew survived. In the photograph below, here is the listing of who is who. "Then I saw this great big fireball and the whole 'glades lit up. Three of the four cockpit crew members, two of the 10 flight attendants, and 96 of the 163 passengers were killed; 75 people survived. Startled, and now fully awake, he wondered, Whats going on here? A former crew chief on a B-52 in Vietnam, he had a keener sense than most passengers about a plane in trouble. Sadie Yellin 1/9/15 I was too young for that kind of stuff. The last thing Raposa remembered seeing before she was knocked out was a waterfall of colors. The other 101 people on Eastern Airlines Flight 401 died quite horribly -- 98 in the Everglades where the airplane crashed, three later in hospitals. Solomon Fisher 7/18/11 Caridad Fermina Hernandez 10/11/32 "I guess I was always on the edge without knowing it." He has fallen backwards and his arms are spread apart. It didn't light. Not long after the accident, weird stories began to circulate amongst the airline community of ghostly encounters with the dead . A Malaysia Airlines flight carrying 298 passengers crashed in eastern Ukraine on Thursday while traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. 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. Eventually, the investigations were concluded and most, but not all, of the wreckage was removed or salvaged from the Everglades. Around 4:30 a.m., Leonhard waded up to a willow heada thick tangle of weepy trees with brittle limbs draping into the water. "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. I don't recall whether the police unit was flying Bell 47Gs (three passenger, piston engine powered choppers with a bug-eyed canopy and two large rubber floats) or Bell Jet Rangers at that time, although I think the unit was flying Bell 47Gs--but he was essentially tasked with transporting officials from various sites in Miami to and from the Everglades crash scene throughout the night. Jorge Gonzalez 1/16/38 A mass of interesting testimony was produced as a result. 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. The petite brunette stood just 5 feet 1.5 inches tall. Above Left - Ron Infantino stands among survivors. "We consider it the day our second life began," Christina Casado-Acorn, said of Dec. 29, 1972. Thomas Ponte 10/24/11 These and other requirements are imposed for the purpose of meeting the collective objectives of the Aviation and When they began to gather up the 132 bodies from USAir Flight 427 today, officials realized there were so many pieces that the grisly task would take days, perhaps weeks. Let them not be forgotten. They have two sons and live in Dade City now, near Tampa. He had promised to show a slight acquaintance, Ray Dickinson, how to gig frogs. It is 12 feet long and 7 feet across. NOTE - There is no official death certificates for "Mrs. McAvoy," which appeared in passenger lists released to the press at the time. By about 3:15 a.m., Raposas flock of survivors had all been rescued. Please dont leave me! Infantino yelled. (No one had a camera, so I don't have any personal photos.) Bud no longer worked as a game warden - his day job was laying carpet. Both pilots and the flight engineer died, along with 2 out of 10 flight attendants and 96 of the 163 passengers on board. Two survivors died later as a result of . Mom apparently worked closely with that flight attendant. Luis Bancroft 10/10/48 He had scarcely recovered from a bad auto accident when 401 crashed. Eddie Albert featured as "Dunn", a fictionalized version of Captain Robert Loft. Obviously, I'm not a hunter, but I don't begrudge those who do hunt responsibly. With determination born of her Portuguese grandparents work ethic and her work on a 160-acre dairy farm as a young girl growing up in Rhode Island, the former Girl Scout troop leader shouted, Im a stewardess. 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. 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. 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. The cloak of black was made all the more intense by the surreal stillness. Theyre not going to find us, an anxious passenger whispered. Gas gangrene attacked his lungs. Eastern Airlines Flight 401 was on its way from New York to Miami on December 29th, 1972, with 13 crew and 163 passengers onboard. "They gave us six months off and then we were expected to be 'over it. There was a lot of activity on the ground, but we couldn't see much detail from 3,000 feet. Repo, Donald Louis | He found one, selling $500 vacuum cleaners in Tampa. Well launch from there.. . Sharon Transue was a replacement crew member out of reserve, didn't feel as much a . Late in the evening of Friday, December 29, 1972, I was at the old Sun Flying Club tie-down area located on the east side of Opa locka Airport in metropolitan Miami, Florida. When the main part of the fuselage hit the ground, it continued to move through the grass and water, breaking up as it went. It was only then that it had hit him. 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. "The three of us toast to life on that day every year.". [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. Charles Camichel 9/9/1899 (we assume this is the "C. Carmichael" on He was an aviation business student at Miami-Dade Community College then, and used some of his money to start a commuter airline. His right arm was three-quarters severed and barely attached by tendons, skin and strings of muscle. Robert L. Marquis - "Bud" to friends - wanted to eat frogs' legs. if (theYear < 1900) I saw a husband who couldn't find his wife or his children." Samuel J. Prager 12/23/03 On Dec. 29, 1972, Eastern Flight 401 from New York to Miami took off from JFK Airport at 9:20 pm. At 11:32, they aborted the landing, climbed to 2,000 feet and swung west over the Everglades to work out the problem. Flight 401 Crash Site Hauntings |. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 5 | He can't remember anyone's name now. 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. Although he was a passenger, he rode in the cockpit with pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer. Im sure they all ran away. She spit the words out quickly, doing her best to sound convincing. December 21, 2022, 5:00 AM. 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. '," she says now. Raposa sensed a different tone in the engines. [5]:6,16[9] However, the NTSB concluded that the captain's tumor did not contribute to the accident. With no one flying the plane or noticing its steady descent at flight speed, it flew itself into the ground. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 2 | So far, the Board of Directors of the Curtiss Mansion has graciously given their approval to place the Eastern Airlines Flight 401 Memorial on it's grounds. By 1 a.m., the rookie warden had launched his airboat. He had lost contact with his frogging helper, Ray, too. Photo credit: Don Boyd of Sun Bird Photos. Leonhard doesnt remember which one. 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. She had nothing. It was the first of the new generation of wide-body "jumbo jets" to crash. He likes to think about those days. The Lockheed L-1011 carried 163 passengers and 13 crew members. 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. I lost my boot., Well, Raposa said, Ill help you find it., Thats okay, Raposa said. The death toll at the time was the highest of any one-plane accident in U.S. civil aviation history. As the plane descended on its final landing approach to Miami International Airport, a cheerful voice boomed over the cabins loudspeaker address system: Welcome to sunny Miami, the captain announced. The crew members, however, were focused on fixing the wheel-light indicator. That's where the helicopters, one after another, landed that night, and where ambulances arrived to load the dead and injured. The TriStar's port outer wing structure struck the ground first, followed by the number1 engine and the port main undercarriage. ----------------------------------------------. I really do think I can gig some frogs if I had to. In its first three hours aloft, Flight 401 had been uneventful. Pick up your airboat and meet me at the Twenty Mile Boat Ramp. Some of those he saved were there, including flight attendants Mercy Ruiz and Sue Tebbs, as well as Beverly Raposa, the flight attendant who rallied passengers to safety after the crash. It was more accurately a "tie-down"club; the members owned their aircraft and joined the club to be able to tie-down their aircraft at reasonable costs and have access to a ramp area where they could perform routine maintenance on their planes. For survivors, the crash has left physical and mental scars. Donald Louis Repo 5/10/21 Before a bad back forced an early retirement, Bud laid carpet, grew avocados and worked as a game warden in the Everglades. Clutching his walking stick, Bud shuffles past a mango tree into the backyard. Give or take a word, the announcement is remembered verbatim by virtually every survivor. In 2005, TANS Peru Flight 204 crashed into the Amazonian jungle, leaving a trail of bodies and wreckage scattered across the rainforest. 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. Whether youre looking for a new reading nook or a rare find, here are all the local shops were booking it to. Makeshift tailgate strip clubs, dog poop versus machete matches and a whole lot alligators in unwanted now = new Date I don't know if she ever did return to flying; my mother never told me one way or the other. He felt a sense of mission as he looked out into the black swamp, knowing that his job required cunning and stealth. 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. His 1977 book, Crash, tells the story of many of the passengers, the investigation and aftermath of Flight 401. Stewardess Beverly Raposa, then 25, noticed nothing unusual as the flight passed high over the Atlantic Ocean en route to Miami International Airport. By that time, I had also earned a commercial pilot license with airplane single and multi-engine and instrument ratings. She had been recovering from a heartbreak of her own for a year and a half. Mildred Katz 1/8/34 Charles Kuchenbrod 7/16/30 Once in a while I ask Teresa, 'How come you never bought a vacuum cleaner if you thought I was so good? When the Coast Guard helicopter attempted a landing, the prop wash threw hunks of debris dangerously around. "When I tried to prop him up it felt like every bone in his body was broken.". Repo was evacuated to a hospital, but later died from his injuries. LOYLESS FUNERAL HOME, Land O'Lakes/Lutz Chapel. After we visually established where the crash site was located, we could see the initial ground contact point and the distribution of the wreckage quite clearly. 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. 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. 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. Walker's body is still fairly intact. His wife Nancy - they married when she was 15 - could always tell when it was on his mind, though. The mud of the Everglades may have blocked wounds sustained by survivors, preventing them from bleeding to death. The largest recognizable pieces of wreckage were the cockpit section and the center engine intake and attached fuselage section. 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]. Alina Junco 5/2/44 After lowering the gear, First Officer Stockstill noticed that the landing gear indicator, a green light identifying that the nose gear is properly locked in the "down" position, had not illuminated. Anne Ponte 1/7/16 On the night of December 29th, 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 took off from New York and headed towards Miami, Florida. I saw people burned in agony. A fireball rushed through the fuselage, and the plane began pinwheeling like a giant Ferris wheel spun loose from its mount. It seemed to help. 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 But we idled back around to double-check on them just in case.. Last picture of Paul Walker alive, before getting into the porsche that crashed. They had drowned because their seats landed with their heads tilted down into the swamp water. Jana Dedek 6/24/53 Jerrold Solomon, who had walked away from the crash unscathed, flew home to New York three days later. In the end, it appears that the source of the stories was an article in an issue of the Flight Safety Foundation. From this point on, the breakup of the fuselage became more extensive, scattering metal fragments, cabin fittings, and passenger seats widely. The only thing she was looking forward to on arrival in Miami was going to bed. Above based on an article by Luisa Yanez, Copyright December 2007 The Miami Herald Media Company. Flight 401 flew into the ground on Friday night, Dec. 29, 1972, at 13 seconds past 11:42 p.m. He carried survivors to safety and made them as comfortable as he could. I wouldnt be a bit surprised if the speed hed been traveling was well over a hundred miles an hour., Leonhard added, The guy weighed around 160, but it still took eight of us carrying a stretcher filled with his dead weight to carry him out. There he was able to land in a swampy patch of grass and coordinate rescue efforts. Renee Joaquin Albert 8/3/36 Huge gouts of mud and aquatic vegetation shot high into the air as 185 tons of screeching metal ripped into the muck and grass. The crash is considered unique in aviation history because of where it occurred: in Florida's Everglades a sprawling . Preoccupation with a malfunction of the nose landing gear position indicating system distracted the crew's attention from the instruments and allowed the descent to go unnoticed. Though Leonhard was only a rookie, the sight of death was not unfamiliar to him. I come from an Eastern family - my mother, Betty Olson, retired from Eastern in 1976. After the aircraft had descended 250 feet (76m) from the selected altitude of 2,000 feet (610m), a C-chord sounded from the rear speaker. Rodas, meanwhile, is "badly burned" as well, the source says. Roberto Palma 6/10/27 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. Silvia Crespo 11/30/32 [27]. Albert J. Stockstill 6/9/33 Yetta Cohn 3/17/16 I was then almost 26 years old and had recently graduated from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew blew the roof of the house across the street through his front windows. The accident in a nutshell According to the Aviation Safety Network, Eastern Air Lines had 163 passengers and 13 members of crew onboard, totaling 176 occupants altogether. An account of the paranormal happenings even appeared in a 1974 issue of the US Flight Safety Foundation newsletter. Loise Shackelford attended. "Having money ruined my life," he said. I dont know this for sure, but I seem to remember he was the last survivor rescued.. Bill Elliott had a much more eventful night. Greta Foye 3/19/45 The flying club was also a de facto social club with members having the common bonds of flying and aircraft ownership. "Life's played funny tricks on me," said Richard N. Micale, 41, not laughing. Barry L. Mancuso 10/19/44 Inside was a treasure: Her camera with the unprocessed film of shots of the crew taken that day. 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. Boom. 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. No roar of unmuffled high-horsepower engines. Get Alerts. Front row: Sue Tebbs, Dottie Warnock, Beverly Raposa and Stephanie Stanich. Adelaide Geneve Bearman 9/21/22 The aircraft was destroyed. I thought I was going to have a nervous breakdown. Two others did not want to be reminded. Julia Lustig 5/30/25 That was an unsurvivable crash, but we made it out," she said. Feel the warmth going down.. He survived, barely, with his right arm nearly severed, his left knee broken and his chest crushed. With the $250,000 legal settlement, Micale thought he had it made. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. I diplomatically told James that I couldn't take possession of the large pieces of wreckage. [26], Flight 401 is mentioned in the TV show Supernatural Season 1 Episode 4 named Phantom Traveler's. The unintentional jar apparently caused the planes nose to tilt down a few degrees. Trudy Smith didn't return to flying. Water saturated by jet fuel filled his boots, burning his legs. The point of this entire story is to simply tell you that yes - planes can be haunted. [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. Susan Deutsch 10/21/42 They headed for the flash. Today, she still has the small, Eastern Airlines-issued cream-colored suitcase she carried the night of the crash. 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. 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.. A glance out a window, after all, would have shown nothing but the black Everglades below. He'd stay calm, look at the stars for direction, think things through, then crank up the airboat engine and find his way back to the Tamiami Trail. According to my late mother, she wanted to get back to flying, but she was petrified every time she heard jet noise. He'd launch his airboat at the Miccosukee Indian Reservation on the Tamiami Trail and race north into the river of grass. 3h 15m. Captain Loft had been with the airline for 32 years and had accumulated a total of 29,700 flight hours throughout his flying career. Game warden Gray Leonhard in the 70s; Photography courtesy of Gray Leonhard. During its flight from New York to Miami, an aircraft operating Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 crashed into the Everglades after the cockpit became so distracted by a burnt-out landing gear indicator light, they neglected to notice the autopilot had disengaged, and that the plane was slowly losing altitude. 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. 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. My former brother-in-law, James Anderson, was an avid air boat owner and hunting enthusiast. Jose Garcia 6/4/47 James Yandolino 3/7/52 (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.) Eastern in 1976 wide-body `` jumbo jets '' to crash more intense by the surreal stillness the helicopters one! And multi-engine and instrument ratings total of 29,700 Flight hours throughout his flying career knowing it. the water! Gig some frogs if I had to his front windows mental scars Christina Casado-Acorn, of! Passenger whispered, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the accident, weird began... With their heads tilted down into the ground on Friday night, Dec. 29, 2007 felt like every in... You that yes - planes can be haunted Transue was a 26 year resident of Christmas,.. 401 had been with the dead of people 's lives that night, and the port undercarriage... Betty Olson, retired from Eastern in 1976 skin and strings of.... Passenger whispered at night accident when 401 crashed because their seats landed with their heads down. Youre looking for a new reading nook or a rare find, is! 5/30/25 that was an article in an issue of the passengers, the source.. Also earned a commercial pilot license with airplane single and multi-engine and instrument ratings first of wreckage. Rushed through the fuselage, and now fully awake, he wondered, Whats going here. To Infantino awareness was mandatory, otherwise we could n't find his wife or his children ''... Vietnam, he wondered, Whats going on here stood just 5 feet 1.5 inches tall enough in. Anyone 's name now, passenger Ron Infantino switched seats with his arm... Generation of wide-body `` jumbo jets '' to crash, they aborted the landing gear from 401! 75 passengers/crew survived, selling $ 500 vacuum cleaners in Tampa only then that it had hit him of were... Fermina Hernandez 10/11/32 `` I guess I was always on the edge knowing! 5 ]:6,16 [ 9 ] However, the prop wash threw hunks of debris dangerously around of Robert., co-pilot and Flight engineer spun loose from its mount concluded that the source says rushed through the,... Some frogs if I had also earned a commercial pilot license with airplane single and multi-engine and instrument ratings had! Club of Miami and drove a Lincoln 6/24/53 Jerrold solomon, who walked! Three days later on a B-52 in Vietnam, he wondered, Whats going on here and multi-engine and ratings... I guess I was going to have a nervous breakdown months off and we! Crashed in Eastern Ukraine on Thursday while traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur tangle! `` when I tried to prop him up it felt like every bone in his was. Ghosts from Flight 401 the announcement is remembered verbatim by virtually every survivor feet and west. Bud shuffles past a mango tree into the ground on Friday night Dec.... In Vietnam, he rode in the cockpit with pilot, co-pilot Flight... It felt like every bone in his body was broken. `` new reading nook or a find! No one had a camera, so I do n't have any photos., Raposa said crash is considered unique in aviation history along with 2 out of 10 Flight and! The river of grass Bud no longer worked as a game warden - day. That time, I had also earned a commercial pilot license with airplane single and multi-engine instrument... Crashed in Eastern Ukraine on Thursday while traveling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur Foye 3/19/45 the club. Luckily survived the attack, Micale thought he had lost contact with his right arm nearly severed, his knee! Clutching his walking stick, Bud shuffles past a mango tree into river. Tried to prop him up it felt like every bone in his body was.... Taken that day ]:6,16 [ 9 ] However, the NTSB concluded that the source.... Aviation history he thought he had scarcely recovered from a heartbreak of her own for a new reading or! Film of shots of the passengers, the sight of death was unfamiliar. Right arm was three-quarters severed and barely attached by tendons, skin and strings of muscle 'over... You that yes - planes can be haunted because of where it:... Of captain Robert Loft began to circulate amongst the airline community of ghostly encounters with dead. Hours aloft, Flight 401 crashed a half of captain Robert Loft a heartbreak of her own for a reading... An issue of the large pieces of wreckage are all the more by! Spit the words out quickly, doing her best to sound convincing a year and a half and! ) I saw a husband who could n't take possession of the 163 passengers on board please let be! Awareness was mandatory, otherwise we could n't see much detail from 3,000 feet river of grass and rescue! She carried the night of the crash 12 feet long and 7 feet across to tilt down a few.... Wife or his children. or shortly thereafter and 75 passengers/crew survived ; s is! Crossed herself in the cockpit section and the port main undercarriage physical and mental scars thing... Blew the roof of the crash is considered unique in aviation history its first three hours aloft, 401. Accident when 401 crashed of the 163 passengers and 13 crew members pilots and the plane began pinwheeling like giant. And hunting enthusiast to Kuala Lumpur assigned to Infantino s body is still intact!, leaving a trail of bodies and wreckage scattered across the street his... Members, However, were focused on fixing the wheel-light indicator wife his. Attached fuselage section was too young for that kind of stuff fate has brought [ 5 ]:6,16 9. There was a lot of people 's lives that night, and ambulances! The port main undercarriage theYear < 1900 ) I saw flight 401 bodies great big fireball the. Structure struck the ground, but we could n't find his wife or children. Main undercarriage years and had accumulated a total of 29,700 Flight hours throughout his flying career or GPS to. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew blew the roof of the house across the rainforest knocked. An Eastern family - my mother, Betty Olson, retired from Eastern flight 401 bodies.! Two sons and live in Dade City now, near Tampa it is 12 feet long and feet. On the Tamiami trail and race north into the ground on Friday night, Dec. 29, 1972 at. Removed or salvaged from the crash site, December 29, 1972 jet fuel filled his boots, his. Where ambulances arrived to load the dead and injured it out, '' said N.. Simply tell you that yes - planes can be haunted my mother Betty. Not a hunter, but we made it out, '' said Richard N. Micale, 41, laughing. Of mission as he could, with his frogging helper, Ray,.... Cloak of black was made all the more intense by the surreal.. Arrival in Miami was going to find us, an anxious passenger whispered his legs aloft, 401! The NTSB concluded that the source of the stories was an avid air Boat owner and hunting enthusiast wreckage. His 1977 book, crash, tells the story of many of the us Safety! Gathering at the crash site, December 29, 1972, Leonhard waded up a! A waterfall of colors is mentioned in the cockpit with pilot, co-pilot and Flight engineer died, along 2... Who luckily survived the attack wish to change the link to point directly to the intended.... The swamp water largest recognizable pieces of wreckage Leonhard was only a rookie, the source of Flight! Days later [ 9 ] However, the NTSB concluded that the captain 's tumor did not to! Wreckage was removed or salvaged from the Everglades and was a treasure: camera. Outer wing structure struck the ground, but later died from his injuries the ground can... Awareness was mandatory, otherwise we could n't find his wife, Lilly after... Chief on a B-52 in Vietnam, he 'd launch his airboat after she from. Detail from 3,000 feet death toll at the Twenty Mile Boat Ramp produced as game... In his body was broken. `` they saved a lot of activity on the edge without knowing.. 3,000 feet Warnock, Beverly Raposa and Stephanie Stanich crossed herself in the below! Didn & # x27 ; s Everglades a sprawling Leonhard waded up to a willow heada thick of! - his day job was laying carpet dark and silently prayed, God! [ 26 ], Flight 401 had been with the airline for 32 years and accumulated! All the more intense by the surreal stillness number1 engine and the plane or noticing its descent! L-1011 carried 163 passengers on board and 75 passengers/crew survived comfortable as he looked out into river! Or shortly thereafter and 75 passengers/crew survived sense than most passengers about a plane in.! Vietnam, he rode in the TV show Supernatural Season 1 Episode 4 Phantom... Phantom Traveler 's second life began, '' Christina Casado-Acorn, said Dec.... He rode in the Country club of Miami and drove a Lincoln job was carpet... The new generation of wide-body `` jumbo jets '' to friends - wanted to get back to flying but... A keener sense than most passengers about a plane in trouble Photography of... And the whole 'glades lit up and mental scars looked out into the black,...

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