About Flight 401 | Bud's heroics were featured prominently a few days later in the Miami Herald. A scene from the TV movie "The Crash of Flight 401" (1978), Eastern Airlines Flight 401: The Ghosts of Memories Past. Maureen I. Chesler 10/12/47 Dennis Gordon 12/9/32 The temperature is in the low 70s, and its beautiful out there tonight.. Ron Infantino woke up in a chill, heart pounding, breath erratic. I'd be able to do the right thing today.". The left wingtip banked into the marsh at 227 miles per hour. [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. The plane climbed to 2,000 feet, and the captain ordered the first officer to turn the autopilot on. Old and sick now, he lives in near poverty on the edge of the Everglades. Seventy-five miraculously survived. [6]:107109, Robert "Bud" Marquis (19292008),[7] an airboat pilot, was out frog gigging with Ray Dickinsin (19291988) when they witnessed the crash. He had logged 280 hours in the L-1011. 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. Dead bodies hung, lay and floated everywhere I looked. They claimed that the deceaseds name was being used for the commercial purpose of selling books about the fatal crash (and a movie based on the book) by referring to the decedent as a reappearing ghost. The family lost the suit, and subsequent appeals. He also likes not to think about those days. The Ghost of Flight 401 (TV Movie 1978) - IMDb | Ethel L. Jackson 3/8/08 I was a kid, 21 years old. Lloyd Irving Bearman 1/16/23 Ron and Fara Infantino, married for 20 days, were coming home from their honeymoon when Flight 401 crashed. The aircraft impacted the Everglades at 227 mph at 25.51'53"N, 80.35'43"W, almost 7 miles due north of Tamiami Trail (US 41), slightly over 7 miles . His doctor warned him not to travel alone, not with his weak heart and lungs and aching back. About 490 feet (150m) from the wingtip's initial contact with the ground, the massive fuselage had begun to break up, scattering components from the underfloor galley, the cargo compartments, and the cabin interior. Survivors - Crew and Eastern Employees 103 passengers and crew members died in the crash or shortly thereafter and 75 passengers/crew survived. Wreckage from Eastern Airlines Flight 401 in the Everglades; Photography courtesy Ron Infantino, Buried up to his neck in freezing water and muck, completely naked except for the elastic rims of his socks, severely injured, shivering and in shock, Infantino feebly called into the night: Lilly, where are you? Infantino also won a large legal settlement and lost everything. He saw mangled bodies and heard the pitiful moans of the dying. He saw a man, sitting in the water with a neck injury, trying to remain upright. by Gary Leff on December 29, 2022. Water saturated by jet fuel filled his boots, burning his legs. [4] It was also the first hull loss and fatal crash of a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar. 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. He carried survivors to safety and made them as comfortable as he could. /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 . Rodas, meanwhile, is "badly burned" as well, the source says. Elizabeth M. Pollack 12/10/17 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. 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. 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). Ghosts of Flight 401 - 3 | In his mind, he's still a strapping young fellow with big muscles. 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. The powers-that-be want them to . Julia Lustig 5/30/25 "Having money ruined my life," he said. He knows exactly how he'd go about it. My former brother-in-law, James Anderson, was an avid air boat owner and hunting enthusiast. I probably did too, I'm sure." A friend once warned him: "One day you'll work a plane crash out there." Lucille Cilles 1/30/24 Greta Foye 3/19/45 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. He was one of those rare south Florida individuals who owned a ton of hunting rifles and lived for the deer hunting season so he could go out on his air boat and hunt scrawny deer in the Everglades. She dug down into the black muck, cupped a double handful to her face and smeared it all over the affected areas. [6]:110 Visually, since it was nighttime and the aircraft was flying over the darkened terrain of the Everglades, no ground lights or other visual signs indicated the TriStar was slowly descending. Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute - Investigation Investigation Later that morning the world woke to news of the tragedy. . [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). Follow my voice!. Lilly leaned back in her seat, resting quietly. Donadeo was back at work three months after the crash, took a transfer from Miami to Atlanta in 1978 and retired in 1983. Almost 40 years ago, Eastern Airlines flight 401 crashed. MIAMI - Thursday marks 50 years since Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed into the Florida Everglades. "I guess I was always on the edge without knowing it." [10], Most of the dead were passengers in the aircraft's midsection. The area I was about to go in was uncharted territory for me, Leonhard said. Raposa smiled cheerfully while she collected empty drink cups and dishes from the passengers. Both pilots and the flight engineer died, along with 2 out of 10 flight attendants and 96 of the 163 passengers on board. The plane was dropping from the sky at a rate of 200 feet each minute. That was the last transmission before the left wing sliced into the Everglades at 225 mph. Eastern had overlooked the half inch, whether by design or error she didnt know. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 left New York's JFK airport, bound for Miami International Airport, on December 29, 1972. Eastern's L-1011's came equipped with six Bowmar ovens (Lockheed Part Number 671878-115). The point of this entire story is to simply tell you that yes - planes can be haunted. 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. 09:23AM EST Miami Intl - MIA. Back row: Pat Ghyssels, Trudy Smith, Adrianne Hamilton and Mercy Ruiz. Bill Elliott had a much more eventful night. Salvatore Carfizzi 7/15/15 What made it so hard was trying to manhandle him up and over the broken willows. Aground. Varujan Eskihanci 9/7/25 "He was naked. I was tired and hit the sack as soon as I got home. PHOTO CREDIT: Patrick Farrell - Miami Herald Staff. Standing by the open door, he carefully scanned the unbroken horizon with a pair of wide-lens binoculars. Judy Ellenberg 2/27/53 Flight 401 - Autopilot indicator | Raposa popped the release buckle and fell into the marsh, landing on her hands and knees. No more clothes on his body .". The old airboat, the airboat in which he carried injured passengers, waits on a rusty trailer with flat tires. Entry . Rose Lina Zollo 7/13/43. Because of the magnitude of the rescue operation and of the medical emergency caused the study resulted in a . Angelo was a friend to all who know him, generous with his time to anyone who needed him and a devoted husband and father. If he saw legs kicking, he turned the seat over. Jerome Becker 6/27/39 I don't recall any large scorched patches of saw grass, but I remember a few small burned areas. It seemed to be miles off course. Eastern 401, pull up, climb straight ahead to 2,000, go back to approach control, the tower advised. He retired from the Metro-Dade police department and moved to Brooksville, Florida many years ago. It was during one of those sessions on December 29, 1972, that Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crossed paths with me and some of the other club members. Lockheed L-1011 Inside the Hell Hole | They failed to notice that the autopilot had been disconnected inadvertently and, subsequently, the aircraft gradually lost altitude and crashed. Murray Yellin 6/9/11 Two others did not want to be reminded. I especially remember Bill describing passengers who apparently survived the crash impact, but were knocked unconscious and were still strapped into their seats. [5]:4 This altitude alert, designed to warn the pilots of an inadvertent deviation from the selected altitude, went unnoticed by the crew. John G. Fuller, the best-selling author of The Ghost of Flight 401, carried out an investigation into the hauntings with the aid of several cautious airline personnel. Jorge Gonzalez 1/16/38 Jose Garcia 6/4/47 The next morning, as was my usual Saturday routine, I drove to the Sun Flying club timing it to arrive at approximately 11am. Two days later, Lilly Infantino was found trapped beneath one of the wings. Three of the four cockpit crew members, two of the 10 flight attendants, and 96 of the 163 passengers were killed; 75 people survived. "I was engaged and my fiance was killed in a drunk-driving accident two months before the wedding," she said. Though Leonhard was only a rookie, the sight of death was not unfamiliar to him. His flight crew included First Officer . 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. At the time, the decision to change seats carried no meaning. He was trapped beneath the water. The only piece of wreckage I did keep, and which I still have in my possession, is one of the plastic passenger window panes. We could also see a few other aircraft flying into the restricted airspace. She put in 11 more years with United before retiring. 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