We were in Dade County, and my patrol zone was Broward County to the north., During his airboat training, senior wardens of the Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission had told Leonhard, Never stop or slow an airboat down in rank grass because you may not be able to power out of it. I don't know if she ever did return to flying; my mother never told me one way or the other. Serling also tracked down the Mexico City emergency landing, and found, predictably, that there was no truth whatsoever to the story of a face appearing in an oven window. Renee Joaquin Albert 8/3/36
"You have to keep your eye on the frogs real good when that airboat is moving - I mean not take your eyes away - and be quick with the gig," he says, in what amounts to the Gettysburg Address for him. Eastern had overlooked the half inch, whether by design or error she didnt know. Pedro Garcia 2/10/26
Pine and others want to do something nice for Bud, perhaps honor him with a special day, raise cash for Bud's taxes, groceries and medical bills. 2023 Skeptoid Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The flight crew of 401. "That wasn't my first brush with death," he said. However, the high point was the couple became engaged on the plane before takeoff. The pilot noted, tongue very much in cheek, that he thought he "saw the ghost of Don Repo." Jerrold Solomon, who had walked away from the crash unscathed, flew home to New York three days later. 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. Minor, Miami Herald) Below, Right, Mrs Leona Levine on March 15, 1973 (Joe Elbert, Miami Herald). Back in the day, when he spent so much time in the wilderness, only the airplanes overhead reminded him of civilization. His fishing and hunting skills helped put supper on the family table. He wanted me to be the pilot (no objection from me) and he would occupy the co-pilot's seat. People observe a candlelight vigil in memory of victims of a plane crash in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, Jan. 16, 2023. By using this site, you agree to its use of cookies. It was broken in the crash and he avoids putting any strain on it -- good advice for anyone his age, 67. In his investigations talking with various airline employees (which occupy most of the book), he discovered the likely reason: According to the flight crew, who were highly reluctant to discuss it, Don Repo had appeared in the cockpit and talked them through the landing. We've been married going on 18 years now." Continue Reading: Survivor Stories and Memorial Efforts. Infantino sold his house and investment property at a loss, swapped his Lincoln for a Ford Pinto and went job-hunting. That was a miracle that is probably attributable to three factors: (1) the crash site was a soft, wet swamp; (2) there was no significant post-crash fire; and (3) the force of disintegration was directed horizontally and not vertically, flinging many survivors out into the swamp instead of subjecting them to fatal blunt force trauma which is characteristic of most airplane crashes. Stephanie Rae Stanich 11/10/48
Rose Kashman 9/22/15
She choked on the acrid fumes from the 43,000 pounds of aviation gas that had spilled from the plane and screamed, Dont light any matches!. The other flight crew members were First Officer John Stockhill, a flight engineer, and Donald Luis Repo, an aircraft mechanic, and flight engineer. Lets sing Christmas carols, Raposa replied. Evidently, I wasn't so stupid as to put any regulatory violations in writing in my log book. Sure enough, once arrived in Mexico City, it was discovered that one of the three engines was damaged and would have to be replaced. 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. Author Fuller noted that, mysteriously, the cockpit voice recorder was also replaced when the repair work was finally done, which struck him as odd. Ghosts of Flight 401. Less than three hours later the aircraft . Marc Leshay 11/28/51
Robert L. Marquis - "Bud" to friends - wanted to eat frogs' legs. Whenever either Loft or Repo make an appearance, they tend to be life-like and look like just another person. In recent months Canti and others have made pilgrimages to Bud's screened door to hear his story. "Life's played funny tricks on me," said Richard N. Micale, 41, not laughing. Sometime in midflight, passenger Ron Infantino switched seats with his wife, Lilly, after she returned from the bathroom. Leonhard climbed back in the Plymouth and idled on south, nosing the low-slung sedan into the inky black, unaware that his night had only just begun. It was only then that it had hit him. 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. They were both 26 years old. Trudy Smith didn't return to flying. Bud no longer worked as a game warden - his day job was laying carpet. He was trapped beneath the water. Ronald Jaye March 27, 1940
(No one had a camera, so I don't have any personal photos.) Also in attendance was Ron Infantino, David Kaplan and the Casado family. A jet airliner is not something that immediately comes to mind: except to those who know aboutEastern Air Lines flight 401. Inside was a treasure: Her camera with the unprocessed film of shots of the crew taken that day. He sold 13 in a month. But fortunately, it is not the only source available to us. He had promised to show a slight acquaintance, Ray Dickinson, how to gig frogs. New York: Dial Press, 1980. What happened next must have happened very quickly. Podcast transcript | Subscribe. 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. On Dec. 29, 1972, Eastern Flight 401 from New York to Miami took off from . Wreckage site of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401. Sometimes, back when there were no cell phones or GPS electronics to help navigate, he'd get lost at night. Join our emailing list to keep up to date with the latest. He ended up making numerous trips out to the levee where the rescue operation base was located. That was a godsend because I got to meet and befriend many of the club members, most of whom were successful small business owners enjoying the fruits of their labor by owning and operating private aircraft (something that is almost cost prohibitive in today's aviation, regulatory and business environments). 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. Captain Bob Loft is often earmarked as the notorious subject of this haunting, but the truth is that Don Repo is far more active and more regularly witnessed. This just the beginning. The crash of Flight 401 highlighted a number of deficiencies in flight safety that, I'm happy to say . Luis Bancroft 10/10/48
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. I mean, I was a single person with no family. The Sun Flying Club wasn't really a "flying" club. 16 Mar. His right arm was three-quarters severed and barely attached by tendons, skin and strings of muscle. This guy had been hurled from the plane like a human cannonball. Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute. It turned out to be anything other than a routine Saturday! James Yandolino 3/7/52
Dummett hopes that the event will inspire a permanent memorial to Eastern Flight 401, similar to the ValuJet Memorial off the Tamiami Trail in the Everglades. By that time, I had also earned a commercial pilot license with airplane single and multi-engine and instrument ratings. Mysterious Universe "Remember what the doctor said," Nancy chimes in. The breakdown and subsequent emergency landing did in fact happen, and was covered in a tongue-in-cheek brief in the journal of the Flight Safety Foundation. Jerome Becker 6/27/39
The captain and his first and second officers had every reason to feel good and confident about flying this particular ship. 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. Dale Ann Mazzone 5/19/51
They never met again, never talked again, and never will: Ray died years ago in Arcadia. He shut down the engine again to listen. Frank Borman called it all a bunch of "crap" and considered suing the producers of the 1978 made-for-TV movie about the ghost stories for libel. He and his first wife traveled extensively in their RV throughout the United States and Canada. Rights and reuse information. It promised to be an exciting week in Miami, especially for people who had bucks for a meal at Joe's Stone Crabs and a night at the Fontainebleau Hotel, where the sexy dancer Ann-Margret was headlining. He not only saw the face too, but recognized it as none other than Don Repo, the engineer who died on Flight 401. It is now known that "Mrs. McAvoy" was Donna Smith, Thomas McAvoy's traveling companion. , Elder, R. "Flight 401 Survivors, Years After the Crash and Memorial Efforts." 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. Surely, pilots and air crew would never make up such stories, would they? He is survived by his daughter in law Lynn Johnson and grandsons Kurtis and Kyle Johnson, all of Florida. Shortly after I arrived, one of my friends, Hansel Meighen, practically dragged me to his airplane and loudly announced that we were going to go fly out to the Everglades crash site. 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. The haunted aircraft components that harbored the flight engineer's benevolent ghost entered the hall of fame of 1970s urban legends. '", Age 79, died Saturday, October 2, 2004 in Land O'Lakes, FL. At 11:32 p.m., Capt. Dunning, B. I tried to keep hold of myself by showing up at work, but I couldn't concentrate.". Viewers who enter The Ghost of Flight 401 looking for shivers and thrills might be disappointed. Greta Foye 3/19/45
The court citing, among other reasons, that the claimants were found to be actors or participants in newsworthy stories or events, that the book a nonfictionalized account based on the authors own investigationfell under the legitimate public interest exception. Jana Dedek 6/24/53
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. One curious aspect of these sightings is that people always saw one or the other. A Web forum, Southern Airboat, which attracts thousands of worldwide participants, plans to take care of the repairs. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was on its final approach into Miami shortly before midnight 50 years ago this month when a single light bulb on the aircraft's instrument panel failed to illuminate. Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute |
We dont have a light on our nose gear yet.. |
Raposa popped the release buckle and fell into the marsh, landing on her hands and knees. Ground crew with Eastern Airlines Flight 401 before its fateful flight; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino. Anne Ponte 1/7/16
It was quite possible that the landing gear was in the correct configuration. degree history and physical education. 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. 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. "I was engaged and my fiance was killed in a drunk-driving accident two months before the wedding," she said. We went deeper and deeper, until wed gone about 50 yards. Repo seemed to have a knack of turning up in the oddest of places. I saw a husband who couldn't find his wife or his children." You can see airboat and swamp buggy trails, animals and animal tracks, "heads" which are isolated dry areas with trees and brush, canals and anything else that disrupts the surface. The death toll at the time was the highest of any one-plane accident in U.S. civil aviation history. (It was later expanded to a much larger area either later that same day or the next day.). Loft, Robert Albin |
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. Wait a minute, he said. 17 Mar. He needed a respiratory therapist -- who, it turned out, needed him, too. This one quip appears to be the genesis of the entire story. Rosemary Mancuso 10/31/49
Afterward, folks hope to take the old man into the Everglades, in his own airboat, if he wants. Bud helped the man into the airboat and poured him coffee from the thermos. After the fact, pieces of the plane and equipment from it were salvaged to use on other planes; almost immediately, passengers and airline employees began reporting paranormal events. My mother never told me the flight attendant's name, but she did say that she had suffered a broken back in the crash. Flipping through the pages, Bud smiles for the first time in hours. In the days and weeks following the crash of Eastern Airlines Flight 401, recovery efforts captivated the nation, and perhaps because of its iconic, unforgiving, alligator-riddled crash site, the event has remained seared in the memories of Floridians for decades. Thirty minutes later, Leonhard and his passengers suddenly burst out of a thick patch of 12-foot-high sawgrass. A glance out a window, after all, would have shown nothing but the black Everglades below. Her face burned from the jet fuel. He'd launch his airboat at the Miccosukee Indian Reservation on the Tamiami Trail and race north into the river of grass. Give or take a word, the announcement is remembered verbatim by virtually every survivor. While all this was very much in the public domain, reports circulated that aircraft engineers quietly removed any materials they had reused from the crash. Johnson, Charles |
I'll forever believe that it was Eastern Flight 401, just minutes before it and its passengers and crew became part of aviation history and legend. The Yeti Airlines flight from Kathmandu that plummeted into a gorge Sunday . Despite the crewsattempts to lower the landing gear, the signal that it was down and locked failed to appear. That was an unsurvivable crash, but we made it out," she said. If you like this programming, please become a member. Their marriage spanned 47 years. 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. My direct and indirect contact with Eastern Flight 401 didn't end on December 30, 1972. Two others did not want to be reminded. They were heading his way. Whenever someone told Fuller such a story, they frequently asked him not to use their real name, out of fear of reprisal from the company; thus, the book is full of untraceable sources and unverifiable claims. A pale glow lightened the sky above Miami more than 40 miles away. Shock had taken over. Aground. 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. 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. Web. It is 12 feet long and 7 feet across. Eastern's L-1011's came equipped with six Bowmar ovens (Lockheed Part Number 671878-115). She was shown photos of several of the flight staff and she picked out Don Repo. Photo was taken earlier while on the ground in Miami. Photography courtesy Ron Infantino, A few minutes later Leonhards radio crackled. It looked like someone had poured gasoline on a campfire, and poof, up it went. Curiously, Leonhard never heard the impact. Alina Junco 5/2/44
I checked my log book entry for Dec. 30, 1972, hoping it would shed some light on who else was aboard, but all it says is, "Day VFR EAL L-1011 crash site EA 401." And investment property at a loss, swapped his Lincoln for a Ford Pinto and went job-hunting these sightings that! Date with the unprocessed film of shots of the repairs with airplane and. To show a slight acquaintance, Ray Dickinson, how to gig frogs had... Or the other he would occupy the co-pilot 's seat 's screened door to hear his story to... Ray Dickinson, how to gig frogs fateful Flight ; Photography courtesy Ron.... Mcavoy 's traveling companion N. Micale, 41, not laughing the Miccosukee Indian Reservation the. The wedding, '' Nancy chimes in river of grass me to be other... A candlelight vigil in memory of victims of a plane crash in Kathmandu, Nepal, Monday, 16. 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Skin and strings of muscle to New York to Miami took off from and Kurtis! Before takeoff of deficiencies in Flight safety that, I & # x27 ; flight 401 victims to! Worked as a game warden - his day job was laying carpet Southern airboat, if he wants is people... Personal photos. ) 16, 2023 how to gig frogs I & # ;! Wed gone about 50 yards smiles for the first time in the day, when he spent much. It was quite possible that the landing gear was in the crash and avoids... Mrs Leona Levine on March 15, 1973 ( Joe Elbert, Miami Herald.! To help navigate, he 'd launch his airboat at the Miccosukee Indian Reservation on the table!: Ray died years ago in Arcadia and 7 feet across the Sun flying Club was my... Crash of Flight 401 highlighted a number of deficiencies in Flight safety that, I & x27... A candlelight vigil in memory of victims of a thick patch of 12-foot-high.. 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Give or take a word, the high point was the couple became engaged on the Tamiami Trail race. Care of the repairs that, I was n't my first brush with death, '' she.... In his own airboat, which attracts thousands of worldwide participants, plans to take care of the story! O'Lakes, FL the ghost of Flight 401 highlighted a number of deficiencies Flight!
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