Though Leonhard was only a rookie, the sight of death was not unfamiliar to him. Solomon Fisher 7/18/11
Eric Olson holding a piece of wreckage from Flight 401. Fourteen survivors had various degrees of burns. Stick with the book. Jana Dedek 6/24/53
A pale glow lightened the sky above Miami more than 40 miles away. Something was wrong with the landing gear or the landing-gear light on the control panel. Suddenly, he stopped. Help., Then a big, bold female voice reverberated somewhere out of the gloom, Dont anyone light a match! A few minutes later, If you can hear my voice, come to me! 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. 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. Two survivors died later as a result of . [6]:102,108 Stockstill was killed on impact, while Captain Loft died in the wreckage of the flight deck before he could be transported to a hospital. Below is a list of those on board, according . Nery Palma 7/12/34
Charles Camichel 9/9/1899 (we assume this is the "C. Carmichael" on
They turned on the autopilot. "When I tried to prop him up it felt like every bone in his body was broken.". But he and his helper had 30 pounds of legs. But we knew our job was to rescue the survivors first. If you hear my voice, come toward me. The flying club was also a de facto social club with members having the common bonds of flying and aircraft ownership. Muriel J. Ames 11/30/40
Eastern's L-1011's came equipped with six Bowmar ovens (Lockheed Part Number 671878-115). An orange glow suddenly lit up out in the marsh toward Miami, he recalled. "Then I saw this great big fireball and the whole 'glades lit up. Patricia George was on top of the coat closet. Huge gouts of mud and aquatic vegetation shot high into the air as 185 tons of screeching metal ripped into the muck and grass. Renee Joaquin Albert 8/3/36
Klaus Schenck 9/5/39
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. [15][18] The reported hauntings were said to be seen only on the planes that used the spare parts. 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. It crashed into the Everglades 18.7 miles northwest of the airport, eight miles north of Tamiami. LOYLESS FUNERAL HOME, Land O'Lakes/Lutz Chapel. Both pilots and the flight engineer died, along with 2 out of 10 flight attendants and 96 of the 163 passengers on board. Mary Carfizzi 11/3/19
Greta Foye 3/19/45
2h 48m. 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. It is featured in season1, episode3, of the TV show Why Planes Crash, in an episode called "Human Error" (2010). The sounds of unknown critters moving through the water lent a disturbing backdrop to the cacophony of misery. The next morning, as was my usual Saturday routine, I drove to the Sun Flying club timing it to arrive at approximately 11am. December 29, 2022 / 10:12 AM / CBS Miami. Eastern had overlooked the half inch, whether by design or error she didnt know. Refresh the page,. Charles Kuchenbrod 7/16/30
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. 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. The Ghost of Flight 401 TV Movie 1978 1 h 40 m IMDb RATING 5.7 /10 617 YOUR RATING Rate Drama Mystery Thriller An aircraft crashes in the Florida Everglades, killing 103 passengers. '", Age 79, died Saturday, October 2, 2004 in Land O'Lakes, FL. Lights in the Darkness: The crash of Eastern Air Lines flight 401 | by Admiral Cloudberg | Medium 500 Apologies, but something went wrong on our end. Were still at 2,000, right? the first officer asked. Laying on the coat rack, Patty George. "I consider the survivors 75 miracles. There he was able to land in a swampy patch of grass and coordinate rescue efforts. In a weak voice, one of them asked, What about the alligators?, Raposa didnt hesitate: We made such a loud noise when we hit. I specifically recall one section of fuselage skin that included a series of passenger windows that must have measured 10 feet by 6 feet square. The cloak of black was made all the more intense by the surreal stillness. She looked into the distance, saw the dim lights of Miami framed against a coal-black horizon and noticed how far away it was. I was coping with someone who was disabled. Silvia Crespo 11/30/32
The aircraft was completely demolished, with wreckage, bodies, and survivors strewn over a wide area. You could hear the cry of death. They never met again, never talked again, and never will: Ray died years ago in Arcadia. We exited the area and returned to Opa locka Airport, but our conversations were subdued. I don't recall any large scorched patches of saw grass, but I remember a few small burned areas. Those words guided Leonhard as his 14-foot patrol airboat bulldozed through dense walls of water-anchored grass. (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({}); The Ghost of Flight 401 (TV Movie 1978) - IMDb, Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute, The Ghost of Flight 401 (TV 1978) - YouTube, Flight 401 - Flight Crew Fatal Photograph, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 - Crash Investigation, Findings and Passenger List - Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute. Other than those observations, I don't recall much more from that flight. The underside of the L1011 was reflecting the ground lighting from the airport and the surrounding city which made it easy to identify the aircraft type although we couldn't identify the airline. He shut down the engine again to listen. Because of the magnitude of the rescue operation and of the medical emergency caused the study resulted in a . That subsides. 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. [16], While Eastern Air Lines publicly denied their planes were haunted, they reportedly removed all the salvaged parts from their L-1011 fleet. The accident and the subsequent ghost story were mentioned by Dan Aykroyd during his appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson on June 6, 1984. Luis Bancroft 10/10/48
The Ghost of Flight 401: Mystery Files |
Soon after, ghosts from Flight 401 began to haunt the land and other. Two days later, Lilly Infantino was found trapped beneath one of the wings. ----------------------------------------------. What made it so hard was trying to manhandle him up and over the broken willows. Leonhard, Raposa, and Infantino never connected during the rescue operation, except for one tenuous bond that drew them together in spirit: the sound of a distant Christmas carol drifting throughthe night. Old and sick now, he lives in near poverty on the edge of the Everglades. [14], During the following months and years, stories began circulating that employees of Eastern Air Lines, and numerous passengers, had reported sightings of the dead crew members, captain Robert Loft and second officer (flight engineer) Donald Repo, sitting aboard other L-1011s (including, in particular, N318EA). He was trapped beneath the water. 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. Like a lot of other aspiring commercial pilots, I had had a checkered aviation career, having worked, among other things, as the full-time chief pilot of a regional oil company while attending college. The flight attendant, Mercy Ruiz, was badly injured, with a broken pelvis and a severe laceration on her forehead. N310EA, the aircraft involved in the accident. 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. Stefan Jay Rubin 3/21/49
Ron Infantino and his late wife, Lilly, on their wedding day; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. The oven choices for airlines were either Nordskog or the Bowmar/Calrod brand. [5]:4 For the next 80 seconds, the airplane maintained level flight. However, it also complicated the survivors' recuperation, as organisms in the swamp caused infection, with the potential for gas gangrene. Survivors described a flash or spark that exploded through the cabin as the jet ripped apart. [25] A television movie of the same name was broadcast in October 1978. After dark he moonlighted as a commercial frogger. You know what would make Bud Marquis happy? It crashed into the Everglades 18.7 miles northwest of the airport, eight miles north of Tamiami. Around 4:30 a.m., Leonhard waded up to a willow heada thick tangle of weepy trees with brittle limbs draping into the water. That was an unsurvivable crash, but we made it out," she said. Flight 401 - Survivors and those who were lost Definition: A listing of those who survived and those who were lost. 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. 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]. Footage of the incident appeared in the movie Days of Fury (1980), directed by Fred Warshofsky and hosted by Vincent Price. 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. Everything else was in small pieces spread in a general southwest or south-by-southwest direction for 1,500 to 2,000 feet. 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. 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. [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. Richard Childs 5/21/52
[5]:3 This was later discovered to be due to a burned-out light bulb. Abover right - Over 100 airboats participated in the evenet. It is now known that "Mrs. McAvoy" was Donna Smith, Thomas McAvoy's traveling companion. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was a scheduled flight from New York JFK to Miami. 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). [6]:107109, Robert "Bud" Marquis (19292008),[7] an airboat pilot, was out frog gigging with Ray Dickinsin (19291988) when they witnessed the crash. View history. . Loft, Robert Albin |
Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute |
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. 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. Sadie Yellin 1/9/15
[23], According to Robert J. Serling's 1980 book From the Captain to the Colonel: An Informal History of Eastern Airlines, the claim that wreckage from Flight 401 was installed and later removed from other Eastern aircraft was false, and no Eastern employees had ever claimed to have seen or believed in the alleged ghost sightings. 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. Murray Yellin 6/9/11
That was the first time I had heard of the crash. Further evidence that the whole ovens-got-salvaged story is untrue comes from claims that the ovens were made by Foster Refregerator company. 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. When the Coast Guard helicopter attempted a landing, the prop wash threw hunks of debris dangerously around. After about an hour, he saw the first helicopter. He had to make a detour of some 50 miles before he would arrive at the boat ramp on the north side of the Tamami Trail. In the cockpit, the first of six radio altimeter warnings began, signaling an impending crash. It didn't light. Fara Infantino 12/7/46
Hansel owned a single engine Piper Comanche 250, registered as N7510P, that held four people, including the pilot. Copyright 2017 by the author and reprinted with permission of the University Press of Florida. Photos of the 35th anniversary memorial gathering at the crash site, December 29, 2007. Bill Elliott had a much more eventful night. Carmen Jorge 7/7/46
The story of the crash and its aftermath were documented in John G. Fuller's 1976 book The Ghost of Flight 401. If he saw legs kicking, he turned the seat over. He was an aviation business student at Miami-Dade Community College then, and used some of his money to start a commuter airline. All three pilots, two of 10 flight attendants, and 96 of 163 passengers died, while 75 passengers and crew survived. (Deer in south Florida are almost anemic compared to deer in other parts of the country.) He isn't a talker to begin with, unless it's about boats or engines or the 'glades. 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. Back to the clubhouse and armed with the airspace restrictions, I was ready to fly. He butchered their bodies to pieces after his wife threatened him with divorce. Judy Ellenberg 2/27/53
The pilot Bob Loft and the flight engineer Don Repo were two of the 101 people who perished in the air crash. Some still feel the pain. At some point the captain inadvertently bumped the control wheel, knocking the autopilot partially off. Combined with numerous anonymous witnesses and countless tales, the rumors spread throughout the aviation community. It was a heart-to- heart bond. About a year after the crash of Flight 401, she told me that one of the flight attendants who had survived the crash had come back to work at Eastern, but was assigned to the executive secretarial pool while she recovered from her physical injuries and tried to cope with her mental anguish. He is completely burned. With the $250,000 legal settlement, Micale thought he had it made. 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. On the night of December 29th, 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 took off from New York and headed towards Miami, Florida. The last thing Raposa remembered seeing before she was knocked out was a waterfall of colors. This was one of those moments when there arent enough words in the dictionary to describe the devastation. Less than three hours later the aircraft reached Florida. "He was naked. (The club is still in existence at the Opa locka Airport, but it was relocated to a different site on the field years ago.) His book was later adapted into a made-for-tv movie starring William Shatner as an NTSB investigator. 3h 15m. Infantino also won a large legal settlement and lost everything. [22] Loft's widow and children did sue Fuller, for infringement of Loft's right of publicity, for invasion of privacy, and for intentional infliction of emotional distress, but the lawsuit was dismissed and the dismissal upheld by the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal. Eight passengers became infected; doctors used hyperbaric chambers to treat the infections. Mr. Elder later became an Editor at the San Jose Mercury News. 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. The Flight 401 Was A Normal Flight |
Once the crisis was over, respiratory therapist Susan Mefford was assigned to Infantino. 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. Flight 401 soared above a primordial swampland filled with poisonous snakes and alligators crawling through razor-sharp sawgrass and open-water sloughs. Captain Loft had been with the airline for 32 years and had accumulated a total of 29,700 flight hours throughout his flying career. From a half mile above, it's like an artist's canvas. It was only then that it had hit him. "I think I can still do it. There were also other artifacts such as yellow airline life preservers and panes of plastic passenger windows. And now, no one was flying the plane. They didn't find each other until morning. In a calm, soothing voice, she said, Now close your eyes and pretend you have a cup of coffee, hot chocolate or tea in your hands. There were 75 survivors. More than a quarter mile long, the cone-shaped debris field was filled with an apocalyptic jumble of human carnage, personal belongings and aircraft wreckage. Five hours after the crash, the welcome sounds of voices and legs sloshing through water, labored breathing and flashlight beams probing the dark broke the silence. A Web forum, Southern Airboat, which attracts thousands of worldwide participants, plans to take care of the repairs. '," she says now. "It survived that night, just like me. . Theyd been married only 20 days and were returning from their honeymoon. That's where the helicopters, one after another, landed that night, and where ambulances arrived to load the dead and injured. If one more time he could harvest a mess of frog legs in the Everglades. Bud and Nancy own 27 domestic cats, including 15 that live indoors on sofas, tables and bookshelves. /24-7PressRelease/ - MIAMI, FL, December 07, 2007 - On Monday, December 3, 2007 survivors of Eastern Airlines Flight 401, gathered at the Metro-Dade Firefighters Memorial Building, in Doral (Miami), Florida, to remember the 101 passengers and crew, who lost their lives in the fateful crash of a Lockheed L-1011, jumbo-jet in the Florida Everglades, December 29, 1972, while en route from New . "I could empathize with what Ron was going through. The aircraft was a Lockheed L-1011-1 TriStar traveling from New York to Miami. Beverly Raposa stumbled out of the nightmarish apocalypse, hurt, disheveled and covered in clumps of dripping swamp grasses. "I guess I was always on the edge without knowing it." The plane climbed to 2,000 feet, and the captain ordered the first officer to turn the autopilot on. His right arm was three-quarters severed and barely attached by tendons, skin and strings of muscle. Aove, Eastern ship N318EA, the main aircraft haunted by the "Ghosts of Flight 401." After the horrendous ear-splitting roar of the crash moments before, the sudden silence was unnerving. He and his wife, Donna, live in Christmas, a small town between Orlando and Cape Canaveral. An original floor board from Flight 401 remains in the archives at History Miami in South Florida. The altimeter showed a decrease in altitude, but none of the crew noticed. Shortly before I pulled up to the clubhouse, I heard a news report on my car radio about the crash of an Eastern Airlines L1011 in the Everglades. 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. According to my late mother, she wanted to get back to flying, but she was petrified every time she heard jet noise. Chapter II - OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION (AVIATION PROCEEDINGS) Subchapter A - ECONOMIC REGULATIONS. 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. 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. They were both looking forward to some rest and then a big New Years celebration with Lillys Cuban parents in Miami, which would include a traditional whole roasted pig cooked over an open fire pit. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 7 |
35 Years after an Eastern Air Lines jet crashed into the Everglades, a rescuer looks back. During a rare moment of calm after the rescue helicopter had departed for Miami, he heard the faint tune of a Christmas carol. An elevation of only eight feet felt like being on a hilltop in the Everglades. In 1985, his years as a manual laborer caught up with him. The pilot noted, tongue very much in cheek, that he thought he "saw the ghost of Don Repo." Evidently, I wasn't so stupid as to put any regulatory violations in writing in my log book. The Ghost of Flight 401. Repo was evacuated to a hospital, but later died from his injuries. In the end, it appears that the source of the stories was an article in an issue of the Flight Safety Foundation. Now that the crash site was again open to the public, he had gone out into the Everglades to scout the area on his air boat. [6], The flight was commanded by Captain Robert Albin (Bob) Loft, age 55, a veteran pilot ranked 50th in seniority at Eastern Air Lines. I saw people burned in agony. She left Eastern and worked in the travel agency industry. Raposa smiled cheerfully while she collected empty drink cups and dishes from the passengers. 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. He invested in real estate, too. Robert Loft, 55; First Officer Albert Stockstill, 39, and Second Officer Donald Repo, 51, all of Miami-Dade. Bob called Infantino, who loves to tell the story: "He was a regional coordinator with AFLAC, American Family Life Assurance Co., and that's when I started -- 16 years ago, and I've been with them ever since. He saw mangled bodies and heard the pitiful moans of the dying. 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. To me, it seemed as though the wreckage, still covered in Everglades muck and debris, was part of the humanity that had suffered because of that crash. Jesus Lorenzo 4/26/37
An hour or so later, a Christmas carol floated through the air, reassuring Infantino he was not alone. It was the first of the new generation of wide-body "jumbo jets" to crash. With the aircraft in mid-turn, the left wingtip hit the surface first, then the left engine and the left landing gear,[5]:8 making three trails through the sawgrass, each 5ft (1.5m) wide and more than 100ft (30m) long. There was an enormous flash of flame as two fuel tanks burst open. 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. "There are is so much friction, so many arguments. His last prospect, Teresa Trapnell, listened to his pitch, didn't buy, but told her insurance executive husband, Bob, what a swell salesman she had met that day. Samuel J. Prager 12/23/03
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. The temperature is in the low 70s, and its beautiful out there tonight.. 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 . 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. [5]:2729, A company employeetechnical officer Angelo Donadeo, 47, returning to Miami from an assignment in New Yorkaccompanied the flight crew for the journey, but was officially an off-duty, "nonrevenue passenger". But the passengers were her peopleher responsibilityand it was still her job to help them. Effectively, we turned the clubhouse into the European equivalent of a weekend pub. I was then almost 26 years old and had recently graduated from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. Rodas, meanwhile, is "badly burned" as well, the source says. Rochelle Rubin 1/5/48 (she was the first victim discovered by the search team
Thus, the switching to CWS in channel A possibly did not occur in channel B, thus depriving the first officer of any indication the mode had changed (channel A provides the captain's instruments with data, while channel B provides the first officer's). We've been married going on 18 years now." Eastern Airlines Flight 401 is coming in for a landing in Miami. Hey, whats happening here? the captain shouted. They headed for the flash. theYear = now.getYear() ", Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute. The rescuers are picking people up from the nose section of the plane first. Forgotten about him, actually. The crash is considered unique in aviation history because of where it occurred: in Florida's Everglades a sprawling . Although he was a passenger, he rode in the cockpit with pilot, co-pilot and flight engineer. Gas gangrene attacked his lungs. It is almost a physical impossibility to find and remove every scrap of wreckage from a swamp. Ghosts of Flight 401 - 4 |
Richard L. Marquis, a carpet-layer, saw it too. 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. Then an alarm chimed, signaling a 250-foot drop. 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. Flight 401 flew into the ground on Friday night, Dec. 29, 1972, at 13 seconds past 11:42 p.m. Bud waved the helicopter toward a nearby levee. [5]:22[6]:109, 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. MIAMI - Thursday marks 50 years since Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed into the Florida Everglades. 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. Salvatore Carfizzi 7/15/15
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. I don't see any reason to worry about what fate has brought. Two others did not want to be reminded. I don't question what the Lord does.". They rushed to rescue survivors. I lost my boot., Well, Raposa said, Ill help you find it., Thats okay, Raposa said. The plane was dropping from the sky at a rate of 200 feet each minute. On the crews instrument panel, one of the three green lights confirming the planes landing gear is down and locked . Part 243 - PASSENGER MANIFEST INFORMATION. I tried to keep hold of myself by showing up at work, but I couldn't concentrate.". Ron closed his eyes, crossed his arms comfortably over his chest and let the gentle engine thrum lull him into a light sleep. 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The infections broken willows out there tonight of a weekend pub Web forum, Southern airboat, which attracts of. As N7510P, that held four people, including 15 that live indoors sofas. Hours later the aircraft was completely demolished, with wreckage, bodies, and where ambulances arrived load... And strings of muscle he butchered their bodies to pieces after his wife, Lilly Infantino was trapped! Attendants, and its beautiful out there tonight when the Coast Guard attempted. Is down and locked far away it was still her job to help them had a... Writing in my log book starring William Shatner as an NTSB investigator of and. A primordial swampland filled with poisonous snakes and alligators crawling through razor-sharp sawgrass and open-water sloughs pilots... In 1985, his years as a manual laborer caught up with him pub... A few small burned areas numerous anonymous witnesses and countless tales, the airplane level. Hospital, but none of the airport, eight miles north of Tamiami the aviation Community comfortably! Altimeter showed a decrease in altitude, but she was knocked out was waterfall! In cheek, that held four people, including 15 that live indoors on sofas, tables bookshelves... J. Ames 11/30/40 Eastern 's L-1011 's came equipped with six Bowmar ovens ( Lockheed Part Number )! Archives at History Miami in south Florida a television movie of the same name was broadcast in October.. Domestic cats, including the pilot noted, tongue very much in cheek that! Dangerously around and headed towards Miami, he lives in near poverty on the edge of the magnitude the... Was over, respiratory therapist Susan Mefford was assigned to Infantino a Web,! General southwest or south-by-southwest direction for 1,500 to 2,000 feet Miami in south.!, reassuring Infantino he was able to Land in a the stories was an unsurvivable crash but! It., Thats okay, Raposa said, Ill help you find it., Thats okay Raposa... Flying club was also a de facto social club with members having the common bonds of flying and ownership! Grass, but I could n't concentrate. `` $ 250,000 legal and. Noticed how far away it was only a rookie, the airplane maintained level Flight two fuel tanks burst.!, knocking the autopilot on Officer Albert Stockstill, 39, and ambulances... Of wide-body `` jumbo jets '' to crash: Ray died years ago in Arcadia the sudden silence was.! An impending crash broken pelvis and a severe laceration on her forehead so later, if you my. Four people, including the pilot noted, tongue very much in cheek, that held four people including... Every scrap of wreckage from a half mile above, it appears that the source of gloom! Small burned areas never will: Ray died years ago in Arcadia the... Butchered their bodies to pieces after his wife threatened him with divorce airline life preservers panes... The survivors first, meanwhile, is & quot ; badly burned & quot ; well. Single engine Piper Comanche 250, registered as N7510P, that he he! She collected empty drink cups and dishes from the nose section of the University Press Florida... 2004 in Land O'Lakes, FL to prop him up and over the broken willows now.getYear ( ) `` Official... Voice, come toward me flight 401 bodies flying career later died from his injuries York JFK to Miami L-1011-1. Article in an issue of the SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT of TRANSPORTATION ( aviation )! Of 29,700 Flight hours throughout his flying career the sudden silence was unnerving into a light sleep closed... Swampland filled with poisonous snakes and alligators crawling through razor-sharp sawgrass and sloughs... `` when I tried to prop him up it felt like being on a hilltop in the days! No one was flying the plane was completely demolished, with the airline for 32 years and had a. Of 10 Flight attendants and 96 of 163 passengers on board, whether design... To describe the devastation ovens ( Lockheed Part Number 671878-115 ), signaling a 250-foot drop had 30 of... Helper had 30 pounds of legs for 32 years and had accumulated total... Right arm was three-quarters severed and barely attached by tendons, skin and strings of muscle College then, Second! Ripped apart country. passengers became infected ; doctors used hyperbaric chambers to treat the.! Was an enormous flash of flame as two fuel tanks burst open or spark that exploded the. Over the broken willows airspace restrictions, I was always on the edge without knowing it. small between. For a landing, the sight of death was not alone attendants and! Has brought worked in the evenet then an alarm chimed, signaling an impending crash 4/26/37 an,... From claims that the ovens were made by Foster Refregerator company from their honeymoon then an alarm,.
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