flight 401 victims

"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. Delta pilot pay varies depending on schedule, aircraft and other factors, but current flight pay can range from an average of $75,000 a year for a starting first officer to more than $300,000 a . Santiago Flight 513: A Fictional Time Warp. I was then almost 26 years old and had recently graduated from Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. I was a kid, 21 years old. She was the first victim, along with her unborn son, discovered by the search team at 12:30 pm, December 30th), Patricia Renee Shackelford 12/9/52 (Pictured below). They were hospitalized for two months. "It survived that night, just like me. Retired Air Force Col. Frank Bormana former astronaut, vice president of Eastern Airlines and now a first respondercame to escort her into a helicopter hovering at ground level a short distance away. However, by the time the pilots realized their situation it was too late; flight 401 impacted the Everglades in a left turn and began to disintegrate, the wreckage being strewn over an area of 50 square kilometers. Two tours in Southeast Asia had hardened him. The crash of Flight 401 highlighted a number of deficiencies in flight safety that, I'm happy to say . Speeding across the 'glades in his airboat, Bud was the first rescuer on the scene. He also ran his own gun store in Seymour, Conn. During this time, he divorced and later met Alexandra (Sandra) Burt. Selma Karpen 6/16/21 In particular, an oven and the elevator (for the L-1011 had an elevator leading to a spacious downstairs galley) were salvaged from Flight 401 and installed on another L-1011 in the fleet, on which Repo usually appeared. '", Age 79, died Saturday, October 2, 2004 in Land O'Lakes, FL. 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. She was born on August 24, 1947, to Jefferson Truett Smith and S. Margeria Jeffus in Lake Charles, Louisiana. After a few minutes they saw the lights of rescue helicopters, circling, searching, much too far east and south. Their marriage spanned 47 years. The man vanished before their very eyes and those of several other passengers. Trudy Smith - Douglas November 6, 2021, 12:23 pm. The ultimate "yes sir, no sir" man, Bud shuffles reluctantly onto the porch, blinking furiously in the sunlight, wondering what's up. victims, and the general public. Then he tells the story the best he can. He was mentioned in a book, The Crash of Flight 401, later made into a B-movie, and helped a Hollywood writer with the awful Ghosts of Flight 401, about commercial jets haunted by the dead pilots. He was out that night on his airboat, gigging frogs with a new friend, Ray Dickens. Viewers who enter The Ghost of Flight 401 looking for shivers and thrills might be disappointed. My direct and indirect contact with Eastern Flight 401 didn't end on December 30, 1972. "He's an airboater.". I saw young couples broken up. We had him out by 5:30 in the morning. Later that afternoon or evening, Bill Elliott came back to the clubhouse where we were all waiting for him so he could let us know what he did and saw. Some would rather not remember. On December 29th, 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401, a widebody L1011 jet, crashed into the Everglades while attempting to land at Miami International Airport. Dale Ann Mazzone 5/19/51 The flight, destined for Kyiv, Ukraine, took off on Jan. 8, 2020 from Tehran . He was born in Pittsburgh, PA and was a 26 year resident of Christmas, FL. Ronald Jaye March 27, 1940 Edward E. Ulrich died at home on May 25, 2021. Front row from the left: Dottie Warnock, Pat Ghyssels, Beverly Raposa, Patty Georgia, Stephanie Stanich. Those words guided Leonhard as his 14-foot patrol airboat bulldozed through dense walls of water-anchored grass. It was Don Repo. The wheels were down, locked in position for landing, but the pilot wasn't sure about the forward wheel under the plane's nose. Source: Google Sites. Later on during the flight though, problems with the engine all stemmed from a fire that no-one knew about. Bob Loft appeared before the Vice President of Eastern Air Lines in First Class. There was a lot of activity on the ground, but we couldn't see much detail from 3,000 feet. The signal inside the cockpit had not illuminated as it should have. 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. It marked the 50th anniversary of the Eastern Airlines Flight 401 disaster. My former brother-in-law, James Anderson, was an avid air boat owner and hunting enthusiast. This was not the only sighting registered. Bud's heroics were featured prominently a few days later in the Miami Herald. Donald Stanley Casadona 7/16/38 New York: Atheneum, 1977. ATC put the plane into a holding pattern over the Everglades. The plane climbed to 2,000 feet, and the captain ordered the first officer to turn the autopilot on. Below: Franklin and Anita Kent celebrate Franklin's pending release from Palm Springs hospital with some ice cream, on February 17, 1973 (W.O. The lack of biting insects allowed him to roll the drivers window down to better listen for a shot fired from a poachers gun. He'd see the lights and hear the roar as the jets climbed into the black night over the swamp or descended toward Miami International Airport. Forty-five years ago, when Officer Gray Leonhard of the Florida Game and Fresh Water Fish Commission began a solo night patrol in the Everglades, he was on the lookout for poachers, drug smugglers and maybe even a bullet-riddled corpse. Fuller, J. Wreckage site of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401. Beverly Raposa doesn't mind flying. On Thursday the victims of that crash were honored with a memorial in Miami Springs. "I consider the survivors 75 miracles. Johnson, Charles | She described him as dazed and unresponsive. The two girls in the photograph that are having the bunny ears (Patricia Ghyssels) and the one jokingly being choked (Stephanie Stanich) were the only two flight attendants who did . Then a sudden jolt rattled the aircraft. 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 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. Isell Delgado 1/23/25 "I could empathize with what Ron was going through. 1 of 37. Raposas survivors became upset. He'd launch his airboat at the Miccosukee Indian Reservation on the Tamiami Trail and race north into the river of grass. The final leg of the flight was canceled as a result of this fire. Ruiz, 63, of West Miami-Dade, still has aches and pains but returned to flying until Eastern folded in 1991. "That's what really gets me. In the end, it appears that the source of the stories was an article in an issue of the Flight Safety Foundation. It became his navigation beacon. . The Ghost of Flight 401 was a book of nearly pure fiction, as was the TV movie that followed it. He ended up making numerous trips out to the levee where the rescue operation base was located. Loretta E. Bloodgood 10/13/15 Anne Ponte 1/7/16 Jose Rego 9/5/19 The Skeptoid weekly science podcast is a free public service from Skeptoid Media, a 501(c)(3) educational nonprofit. Miguel Junco 8/28/42 Lets sing Christmas carols, Raposa replied. The tall building behind the plane is Building 16 at MIA, the former headquarters of Eastern Air Lines. Trudy Jean Smith, age 73, of Dallas, Georgia, formerly of Deport, Texas, died November 29, 2020. Serving coffee, tea and soda was all very nice, but this was what counted. 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). It was broken in the crash and he avoids putting any strain on it -- good advice for anyone his age, 67. Genres. (The club is still in existence at the Opa locka Airport, but it was relocated to a different site on the field years ago.) The hours passed, and still no rescuers had arrived. Loft accidentally nudged the control yoke, perhaps with his knee, while turning around to speak to Repo, and the autopilot mode was one which followed whatever pitch the pilot set with the yoke. This is a story about how a burnt out light bulb led to a major aviation disaster. She looked into the distance, saw the dim lights of Miami framed against a coal-black horizon and noticed how far away it was. PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Farrell - Miami Herald Staff. That credo seems to be exemplified in every major airplane crash. Discretion was the better part of valor. Eastern Airlines Flight #401 (L1011 N310EA) . Two later died, leaving 75 survivors and 101 fatalities. They turned on the autopilot. Also notable were the Eastern Airlines two-tone blue and white colors on the larger pieces of wreckage. An hour or so later, a Christmas carol floated through the air, reassuring Infantino he was not alone. Diane Carol Greenblatt 5/5/52 Give or take a word, the announcement is remembered verbatim by virtually every survivor. Everything else was in small pieces spread in a general southwest or south-by-southwest direction for 1,500 to 2,000 feet. Don Repo survived long enough to reach the hospital, but he also proved to be too badly injured. With the exception of names being changed for the sake of respecting the real victims, the film . It looked like a piece of the wreckage, or something, had been propelled on a near horizontal trajectory, traveling just a foot or two above the waters surface, and rocketed into the willows with tremendous force., Bent at the waist, the two men waded into the hole, following a ragged debris trail of damaged vegetation. I was too young for that kind of stuff. She worked in the executive offices at Easterns Miami base. He saw mangled bodies and heard the pitiful moans of the dying. Pick up your airboat and meet me at the Twenty Mile Boat Ramp. I have to wonder why the U. S. Coast Guard has never awarded Bud . Kenneth Michael Mazonne 3/27/44 Mildred Katz 1/8/34 Now take a sip. 2023 Skeptoid Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 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. That was an unsurvivable crash, but we made it out," she said. The harrowing tale of three survivors of the 1972 crash of Eastern Airlines flight 401 into the Everglades. Paquita Carrasquillo 10/4/40 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. In late 1972 the two were passengers in a plane crash that left both with debilitating painful injuries. None of them realized in the dark that they were gradually descending, as their attention was on debugging the landing gear indicator. N310EA (193A-1011), the plane that was designated as Flight 401 when it crashed. Tedeschi Trucks Band Takes Over an Allman Brothers Band Tradition at the Beacon Theatre. I'd be able to do the right thing today.". Two years after the crash, a book called The Ghost of Flight 401 was published, claiming that there were many reported sightings of the pilot, who had most likely accidentally switched off the autopilot, and the flight engineer, who had missed the warning chime because he left his seat to investigate the issue with the landing gear light. Today, she still has the small, Eastern Airlines-issued cream-colored suitcase she carried the night of the crash. So, being the thoughtful brother-in-law he was, unbeknownst to me he had collected some of the wreckage of Flight 401. Flight 401 Survivors, Years After the Crash and Memorial Efforts. Abover right - Over 100 airboats participated in the evenet. But, to play it safe, she always wore an add-on hairpiece and teased her hair up into a bouffant to make herself look taller. Flight 401 - Flight Crew Fatal Photograph. Bill and I left for our respective homes after securing the clubhouse. He felt helpless, hearing what sounded like hundreds of voices coming at him from different directions. Inside the planes cockpit, the crew was trying to slide in a replacement bulb, a roughly two-square-inch all-in-one light assembly unit covered by a translucent green plastic lens, valued at $12 altogether. Lourdes Albert 2/20/50 One of the world's newest and flashiest airliners, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar, was making one of its first flights for Eastern Air Lines on December 29, 1972. Leonhard hit the gas as he toggled on the blue light and siren. Front row from the left: Dottie Warnock, Pat Ghyssels, Beverly Raposa Patty... Bulb led to a major aviation disaster the Miami Herald Staff the larger pieces of.... March 27, 1940 Edward E. Ulrich died at home on May 25, 2021, 12:23 pm stemmed a! The lack of biting insects allowed him to roll the drivers window down to better listen for shot! # 401 ( L1011 N310EA ), circling, searching, much too far east and.! 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