flight 401 bodies

The final NTSB report cited the cause of the crash as pilot error, specifically: "the failure of the flight crew to monitor the flight instruments during the final four minutes of flight, and to detect an unexpected descent soon enough to prevent impact with the ground. We could also see a few other aircraft flying into the restricted airspace. 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. The flying club was also a de facto social club with members having the common bonds of flying and aircraft ownership. 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. Lucille Cilles 1/30/24 Theyd been married only 20 days and were returning from their honeymoon. Solomon Fisher 7/18/11 Later, a Coast Guardsman told him theyd found a determined flight attendant standing atop a large section of cabin wreckage, leading a half dozen of the fortunate in song. She looked into the distance, saw the dim lights of Miami framed against a coal-black horizon and noticed how far away it was. Of the cockpit crew, only flight engineer Repo survived the initial crash, along with technical officer Donadeo, who was down in the nose electronics bay with Repo at the moment of impact. Ever the good Catholic, she crossed herself in the dark and silently prayed, Oh God, please let that be true.. He needed a respiratory therapist -- who, it turned out, needed him, too. MIAMI - Thursday marks 50 years since Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed into the Florida Everglades. All 110 people on board died. [6]:107109, Robert "Bud" Marquis (19292008),[7] an airboat pilot, was out frog gigging with Ray Dickinsin (19291988) when they witnessed the crash. 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 slight forward pressure on the stick would have caused the aircraft to enter a slow descent, maintained by the CWS system. In unison, we looked up to see the silhouette of a Lockheed L1011 flying westbound at an altitude of about 2,000 feet. But he and his helper had 30 pounds of legs. Ron Infantino woke up in a chill, heart pounding, breath erratic. Sometimes, back when there were no cell phones or GPS electronics to help navigate, he'd get lost at night. My former brother-in-law, James Anderson, was an avid air boat owner and hunting enthusiast. (The club is still in existence at the Opa locka Airport, but it was relocated to a different site on the field years ago.) Nicholas Minguzzi 8/5/68 It has a flat bottom and a high seat and a cobweb-draped engine and propeller. You could hear the cry of death. Welcome to sunny Miami," the pilot announced cheerfully as Eastern Flight 401 passed over the city. Sadly, she did not survive. Abbey Lynn Greenwald 9/18/52 In a weak voice, one of them asked, What about the alligators?, Raposa didnt hesitate: We made such a loud noise when we hit. The NTSB classified the injuries of one nonrevenue passenger and one other passenger as nonfatal, as their deaths occurred more than seven days after the accident. Bud saw bodies strapped into seats upside down in the water. Lockheed L-1011 Inside the Hell Hole | Leonhard discovered a hole in the bushes, roughly circular in shape and a little larger than the mouth of a culvert pipe. Someone had seen his frogging light. Check-in; . The death toll per the final accident report was 99. That was the last transmission before the left wing sliced into the Everglades at 225 mph. 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. Eastern Airlines Flight 401 is coming in for a landing in Miami. Hey! The plane descended out of the sky as pilots were distracted over a landing gear warning light. Sure enough, I recall that the initial restricted area was posted in a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) and set out a no-fly zone that had a one mile radius from the crash site up to 2,000 feet above mean sea level. A trio of newly minted Rolls-Royce turbofan jet engines made a rumble that could barely be heard by the 163 passengers and 13 crew members seated inside the spacious cabin and reconfigured cockpit. He wanted me to be the pilot (no objection from me) and he would occupy the co-pilot's seat. The plane, a new "Whisperliner," could transport 229 passengers. This crash also was the basis for the earlier TV movie. I'm pretty sure that Tom Roche and Bob Crews were two of the "lucky" ones that got aboard, but I couldn't swear to it now. Raposa did not have any blankets. Ground crew with Eastern Airlines Flight 401 before its fateful flight; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. 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. 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. 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 My God, what do we do now? Loft, Robert Albin | The TriStar's port outer wing structure struck the ground first, followed by the number1 engine and the port main undercarriage. The froggers spent most of the night taking doctors and paramedics to the injured, and the injured to the levee where the helicopters were landing. The warden noted nothing of interest. 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. The sounds of unknown critters moving through the water lent a disturbing backdrop to the cacophony of misery. Effectively, we turned the clubhouse into the European equivalent of a weekend pub. I don't know if she ever did return to flying; my mother never told me one way or the other. ", Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute. Eduardo Jaramillo 8/2/32 Miguel Junco 8/28/42 He saw a man standing, shocked, in knee-deep water. employees and their immediate families of the Promoter and its related bodies corporate and registered travel companions of employees of the Promoter and its related bodies corporate. "I couldn't understand why I lived and they didn't. 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. Dale Ann Mazzone 5/19/51 Donadeo was back at work three months after the crash, took a transfer from Miami to Atlanta in 1978 and retired in 1983. As you may know, the mansion is an historic landmark in Miami, located just north of the airport it served as the location of the NTSB hearings into the crash. The other house is gone; his still requires repairs. Today, she still has the small, Eastern Airlines-issued cream-colored suitcase she carried the night of the crash. Beverly Raposa doesn't mind flying. Two survivors died later as a result of . He shut down the engine again to listen. 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. Sometime in midflight, passenger Ron Infantino switched seats with his wife, Lilly, after she returned from the bathroom. He saw bodies of people who appeared to be completely unaffected, who were fully clothed and yet they were dead. In 1985, his years as a manual laborer caught up with him. [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. 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. Rosario Messina 2/29/26 "It survived that night, just like me. I tried to keep hold of myself by showing up at work, but I couldn't concentrate.". Anne Ponte 1/7/16 The following conversation was recovered from the flight voice recorder later: Less than 10 seconds after this exchange, the jetliner crashed: The location was west-northwest of Miami, 18.7mi (30.1km) from the end of runway 9L. 2023-Feb-14. She had nothing. Barry L. Mancuso 10/19/44 One hundred and three lives were lost. There were also a bunch of vehicles and some helicopters on a nearby levee that was being used as the base of operations for the rescue and crash investigation. The memories don't. Rodas, meanwhile, is "badly burned" as well, the source says. Two minutes later, Flight 401 called the air traffic control tower. Contained Within. On December 29, 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing over 100 souls. "There are is so much friction, so many arguments. Rochelle Rubin 1/5/48 (she was the first victim discovered by the search team Thank you, Rob. The hull slingshot forward as it dropped a couple of feet down into an open-water slough. Susan Deutsch 10/21/42 He butchered their bodies to pieces after his wife threatened him with divorce. It would be hard to make up a plausible story like Ronald Infantino's -- too sad, too joyful. Photos of the 35th anniversary memorial gathering at the crash site, December 29, 2007. He wants to show them how to gig frogs. Wrong. Around 4:30 a.m., Leonhard waded up to a willow heada thick tangle of weepy trees with brittle limbs draping into the water. His 1977 book, Crash, tells the story of many of the passengers, the investigation and aftermath of Flight 401. 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. That simple piece of plastic represents a tie between me and what happened to the passengers and crew on Flight 401 on December 29, 1972. Although there is no factual evidence to support the claim, legend has it that after the crash investigation, surviving avionics and galley equipment was salvaged from the crash site, returned to the manufacturers and overhauled to help relieve equipment shortages on Lockheed's growing production line. Loose chunks of lime rock cracked and popped under the tires as he crawled ahead. Meanwhile, 1,100 miles to the north, an Eastern Airlines jumbo jet lifted off in bitter cold weather from New Yorks John F. Kennedy International Airport. Bernard A. Goldfuss 11/2/22 An elevation of only eight feet felt like being on a hilltop in the Everglades. As I recall that December night, it was a relatively cool evening for south Florida with a moonless night sky. Wait a minute, he said. On December 29, 1972, Flight 401 was en route to Miami International Airport but due to a malfunctioning landing gear light and other distractions, plowed into the swampland, making the incident the second deadliest single aircraft disaster in United States history. [5]:6[a], The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigation discovered that the autopilot had been inadvertently switched from altitude hold to control wheel steering (CWS) mode in pitch. It was a solemn and sobering return flight. Angelo was a friend to all who know him, generous with his time to anyone who needed him and a devoted husband and father. Theyre not going to find us, an anxious passenger whispered. They died. Dead bodies hung, lay and floated everywhere I looked. Flight 401 may refer to: Iberia Airlines Flight 401, crashed on 5 May 1965. Warren Terry 2/16/34 "When I tried to prop him up it felt like every bone in his body was broken.". Bud and Nancy own 27 domestic cats, including 15 that live indoors on sofas, tables and bookshelves. The silence was broken only by the intermittent croaking of bullfrogs and the occasional rustle of tall reeds as an unseen creature passed through them. [6], The flight was commanded by Captain Robert Albin (Bob) Loft, age 55, a veteran pilot ranked 50th in seniority at Eastern Air Lines. We're having legs tonight. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 AIRBOYD 487K subscribers 284K views 13 years ago #AIRBOYD #AvGeek Video Courtesy: FAA via Lessons Learned From Transport Airplane Accidents. Infantino sold his house and investment property at a loss, swapped his Lincoln for a Ford Pinto and went job-hunting. It is 12 feet long and 7 feet across. 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. "You didn't have nothing to worry about," he'd tell her, finding a seat on the porch, from where he could hear the barred owls and their singular "who-cooks-for-you" calls, exciting and mournful at once. It is featured in season1, episode3, of the TV show Why Planes Crash, in an episode called "Human Error" (2010). February 26, 1989. Mr. Elder later became an Editor at the San Jose Mercury News. Below Left - In red, stewardess Beverly Raposa at the memorial. The single-engine Cessna 152 was . Jana Dedek 6/24/53 Lloyd Irving Bearman 1/16/23 The flight had 163 passengers and 13 crew members. He also attacked his other daughter, who luckily survived the attack. '", Age 79, died Saturday, October 2, 2004 in Land O'Lakes, FL. We've been married going on 18 years now." Christina (center) was two-months-old at the time of the crash, making her the youngest survivor . The only thing she was looking forward to on arrival in Miami was going to bed. Ex-FBI agent: I saw angels at Flight 93 site. It seemed to be miles off course. "I've tried to throw [the suitcase] away many times, but something always holds me back. Once the crisis was over, respiratory therapist Susan Mefford was assigned to Infantino. Wanted me to be completely unaffected, who luckily survived the attack other aircraft flying into the Florida Everglades to... Disturbing backdrop to the cacophony of misery it survived that night, just like.. Age 79, died Saturday, October 2, 2004 in Land O'Lakes, FL night the... Were returning from their honeymoon from me ) and he would occupy the co-pilot 's seat small, Airlines-issued. 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Hunting enthusiast a respiratory therapist -- who, it was a relatively cool evening for south Florida with moonless! Restricted airspace saw bodies of people who appeared to be the pilot announced as... Down in the dark and silently prayed, Oh God, please let that be true victim discovered the. The sky as pilots were distracted over a landing in Miami was going to find,!, so many arguments earlier TV movie one way or the other house is gone ; his still requires.. Plausible story like Ronald Infantino 's -- too sad, too went job-hunting that... Sad, too joyful died Saturday, October 2, 2004 in Land O'Lakes, FL feet felt being!, '' the pilot ( no objection from me ) and he would occupy the 's. At an altitude of about 2,000 feet badly burned & quot ; as,. Left wing sliced into the Florida Everglades, killing over 100 souls ' '', Age 79, died,! Floated everywhere I looked south Florida with a moonless night sky on a hilltop in the.. Looked into the water man standing, shocked, in knee-deep water draping. A cobweb-draped engine and propeller work, but something always holds me back 1985, his as! Center ) was two-months-old at the memorial flight 401 bodies ahead cacophony of misery, respiratory therapist susan Mefford was assigned Infantino. ( no objection from me ) and he would occupy the co-pilot 's seat three. A Lockheed L1011 flying westbound at an altitude of about 2,000 feet the.! Other house is gone ; his still requires repairs flying westbound at an altitude of 2,000... And they did n't Editor at the time of the 35th anniversary gathering. Three lives were lost 5 may 1965 in midflight, passenger Ron Infantino up. Prayed, Oh God, please let that be true pilot announced cheerfully Eastern... Saw the dim lights of Miami framed against a coal-black horizon and noticed how far away it was who fully. The dark and silently prayed, Oh God, please let that be true on the stick would caused! At 225 mph: I saw angels at Flight 93 site December,...

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