Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

hey weirdos I'm Elena I'm Ash and this is morbid [Music] it is it's morbid and afternoon
we're having a really bad week so we're just gonna try to just send Good Vibes our way all right yeah just send Good
Vibes this way we've got a lot of family stuff going on indeed can't take a break
for many anything so we cannot do that so we are here and we're here for you and you are here for us yeah that's all
that matters that's all that matters exactly and honestly after you hear this story
you'll be like wow I could go through anything because it's not as bad as this yeah it puts it into perspective exactly
I have a little bit of a different case today I'm going to be talking about Eastern Airlines flight 401
um it was one of the most tragic plane crashes in the United States history oh boy still is and um but it results in
some some interesting paranormal happenings so that's what we're going to focus on the on and that's what we're
going to focus on in the end I can't even talk but uh before we get to that I am gonna go kind of through what really
happened before the Paranormal yeah it started opening so I'm sorry Elena I have to be here but
if you are scared of flying or anything like that like it's cool if you want to like just go boop boop to the end and
hear the Paranormal stuff I think yeah if you have any kind of phobia uh that is flight related or playing crash
related if you have any phobia I really I don't think you should be here because
we talk about the scariest [ __ ] ever and this is gonna be a lot but yeah I think
we should dive on into it let's go I'm gonna disassociate a little bit totally I'll be here totally fine it's
I found it interesting to kind of get into the mechanics of planes and it weirdly made me feel better about this
because this was just kind of user error and it's from like the 70s 72 ago I think 51. things have
gotten a lot better since then exactly you can all feel better about that so on December 29 1972 Eastern Airlines
flight 401 it was scheduled to depart from JFK John F Kennedy International Airport in Jamaica New York at about 9
20 p.m and it was bound for the Miami International Airport on what would roughly be or uh what would be roughly a
three-hour flight yeah now the aircraft it was a Lockheed l-101101 TriStar it was a newly
constructed medium to long range passenger passenger jet and the airline had actually just bought this uh
aircraft about five months earlier oh so brand new brand new actually this kind of plane was very state of the art at
the time in and Eastern Airlines was the first airline to even buy one of these wow
they purchased their first one on April in April of 1972 and the one Bound for Florida that December evening had passed
every inspection that they'd done on it it was up to date with all of the Federal Aviation Administration
guidelines everything and by December 1972 this particular jet had accumulated 936 hours of flight time had landed 502
times and that was pretty standard for several similar models okay so the captain scheduled for that evening was
55 year old Robert Loft he'd been an employee for Eastern air since 1940 so a while and he had been flying with them
since 1951 after you know doing all his training and everything and earlier that
year actually he had passed the l-1011 simulation tests and even in the months leading up to
this particular flight he had great ratings from every instructor he had they all sang his Praises I wish this
could make me feel better but it's making me feel worse I know I know they said he had quote good knowledge of the
aircraft and procedures but one thing that they did insist upon was that he get corrective lenses before piloting a
mid-sized aircraft oh okay they were very adamant that he gets some glasses okay so the additional flight crew for
this particular flight included first officer Albert stockstill aged 39 and Second Officer Donald repo age 59. they
both had similar a similar level of experience to Robert Loft they had also recently passed all the qualifying
training and exams to Pilot this l-1011 The Only Thing Worth pointing out I suppose is that Donald repo's time with
the l-1011 simulator it was about a quarter of that of the other two Airmen just uh he had logged 53 hours with the
simulation okay so a bit less now in the 24 hours before flight 401's departure every single member of the
flight crew had 14 hours of rest since their last nine hour shift per FAA regulations all 10 flight attendants had
also received proper training and they were fully qualified and also in accordance with the faa's regulations
for their positions okay so everybody was qualified yes once all 163 passengers had taken their
seats Captain Loft was given clearance to depart and the plane took off for Miami just a little after 9 20 that
night the flight was very uneventful everything was going swimmingly until the flight crew began preparing for
their descent into the Miami International Airport so the first step in the process to land or get ready for
landing was uh for Robert Loft to move the landing gear handle down and into the
downward position which would prepare for the landing but when he did that the green light which would notify the crew
that the wheels were locked in their landing position that light didn't come on and that light has got to come on for
you to know that everything is locked and like you won't have a very horrific bad landing yeah because you need you
need the wheels to be done and locked and yeah they can't bounce back up right that's what that light was supposed to
be indicating so the light was burned out like it wasn't a working light it wasn't working at the moment so good boy
so he tried again still no light so now he was concerned that something might actually he didn't it didn't maybe
occur to him at this moment that it could be the light that had burned out something said to him maybe something's
wrong with the landing gear and that's why the light isn't turning on yeah I mean that would be my first thought is
like oh like something's wrong with the actual landing gear exactly and you would be probably right if you were a
pilot so he did radio the tower at Miami International at 11 34 pm to report the
issue he told them uh Tower this is Eastern 401 looks like we're gonna have to Circle we don't have a light on our
nose gear yet so the air traffic controllers from Miami Airport responded a few seconds
later and they just said climb straight ahead to 2000 feet and then they instructed them to begin The Descent
again after that thinking it would give them ample time to work out whatever was holding up the
release of this landing gear okay so one minute later Loft radioed this Tower again said they were back in position
above the airport but still were unable to get that green light on the nose gear
now luckily the aircraft was not in any danger of running out of fuel so Loft and his crew were advised to just turn
around and begin The Descent pattern a third time once they worked out the problem this is already a nightmare to
me because I [ __ ] hate Landing yes and so I just want to get there once once The Descent begins I'm like just
get me safely on the ground that's the thing and once you hear especially I I'm sure if you have a fear of flying once
you hear that you're ready to land you're like there's a room like good yeah but then when you're about to land
and you and I actually watch something I'll link it it was like a little uh show about this I'll link it in the show
notes and a man who was on board that night he ended up Surviving this crash and he said he could tell something was
wrong based on the fact that they kept going away because they saw the lights of the airport when they were headed
over there that's usually like the relief like huh and then they started moving away from the airport and he said
it was like pitch black and he was like what the hell are we doing yeah and he could just tell that something was off
so a feel for these people so much because I can feel that anxiety that's the thing so Loft acknowledged the
transmission from the from the tower there and then he instructed first officer Albert stockstill who was still
flying the plane to turn on the autopilot and attempt to fix whatever was causing this problem with the
landing gear and the light now at this time and this was 1972 remind you this kind of plane actually had the most
sophisticated autopilot in history wow this autopilot could have landed the plane on its own if necessary damn like
crazy so stock still acknowledged and engaged the autopilot and then he turned his
attention to the the light there that they were having issues with and he pulled the face plate off of the nose
gear light assembly light lens assembly which is literally just the little like green panel that yeah when the light
turns on it glows green he took that that face panel off there to see if he could like literally blow into the area
unscrew the light bulb please screw it like this is a simple light problem yeah so as he he did that and then he starts
reassembling the panel but as he was doing so the light lens got jammed and he struggled to even get it back into
place oh like they are having a lot of trouble and focusing very much on this light
so while that's going on Loft then instructed a Second Officer Donald repo to go down into the forward Electronics
Bay which on this particular plane is right below the flight deck and it's also referred to as the hell hole the
hell hole they literally call this place the hell hole my guys don't call anything on a plane
anything that's even remotely connotated as anything negative never always make it like the the bouncy house from
McDonald's that we all love the party Bay like just don't do I just Chuck a sip of coffee at like the worst time
ever go down into the party bag go check that out like figure out what's going on
don't call it the hell pitch or the hell don't do that he wanted him to go to that hellhole quote to visually check
the alignment of the note uh nose gear in dices I believe so you say that so basically they're trying to stay calm
trying to assess what this problem is he's going down into the hell hole to see if he can see the wheel lock in
position I was wondering if they would be able to do that like visually that you would if the lights were on eek uh
they didn't realize that the lights were not even on actually to check this but as they sell like they have like cell
phones with flashlights and stuff 1972. yeah this is a different situation completely and even then I think that
would most likely just reflect back at you exactly so dark yeah but as they're circling onto autopilot they still can't
figure out why this light isn't Illuminating they can't tell if their landing gear is engaged which that's
what Donald repo was going down to check but the lights hadn't been turned on to
see that particular like Vantage Point thing I guess now at 11 39 PM Loft radio the Miami tower crew
once again to report that they were still trying to correct the problem and that after that was when he sent Donald
repo back into the electronics Bay to check everything for a second time I think that was once they realized that
they hadn't turned the lights on for him to even check him but two minutes later
repo popped his head through the hatch and told Loft I can't see it's pitch dark I throw the light I throw the
little light I get nothing wow so he's basically saying I have no [ __ ] idea dude
so from the tower at Mia which is a Miami International the traffic controllers noticed that even though
they had told the pilots to maintain an altitude of 2000 feet the plane had started to descend in the last minute or
two since they had last spoken at first it had just dropped a couple hundred feet but then there was a second drop of
about 900 feet now this is terrifying so I'm sorry Elena and everybody else but what flight
401 the crew didn't realize was that as they were all focused on the landing gear extension light and trying to fix
this problem somehow the autopilot program had disengaged and the Jet was free-flying with nobody at the helm oh
boy yeah so this is like user error kind of completely completely like and we'll
we'll get into actually everything that when the investigation was done contributed to the crash it's honestly
it's it's like it's knowing that it's like a human error and not a a thing with the play like a technical like
everything look great on the plane and then oops it just broke it's like that's that's for some reason scarier to me
yeah because I feel like they must have learned something from this experience yeah you use and you know what I mean
like human errors you learn from a mechanical error sometimes it's like hope that doesn't happen again you know
like it's just one of those things like right so I guess this is like something that at least I hope they took a lot
from they did they took a lot from this because we'll get into it but at the time when this happened it was the most
tragic uh plane crash in U.S history oh I just feel so I'm like I'm picturing all these people and I'm like oh it's a
lot and when you uh it's a lot so at 11 41 PM the tower radioed the flight crew and instructed them to
course correct because they were like whoa you're like what's happening veered off Loft acknowledged and requested
permission to get back into position for their descent but didn't still didn't realize that they had free Fallen as
much as they had about 20 seconds later there was another transmission that came
in from Flight 401 where stock still can be heard saying on the recording we did
something to the altitude we're still at 2000 right that was second or two later loft's
voice can be heard on the recording shouting hey what's happening before the transmission just cut out entirely oh I
hate that so in the cabin flight attendant Beverly Raposa thought that she heard an unusual sound and it was
the engines she looked over to her co-worker Stephanie stanich I believe is how you say it and told her those
engines don't sound right and Stephanie replied this they sound fine but Beverly
was like no they absolutely do not in just seconds before the plane tilted violently forward and began a rapid
descent Beverly looked at Stephanie and said no they don't oh boy now just after that flight 401
eventually crashed violently into the densely forested swamps of the Florida Everglades holy [ __ ] at 11 42 PM just a
second or two after the last transmission went out to Miami International the last transmission to the aircraft
from the airport's Tower actually went unanswered and another plane ended up radioing the tower to say that they had
just seen a great flash out west and they weren't sure what it was but they wanted to report it
that flash was part of the plane exploding as it crashed so in the evening of December 29th the
temperature in Miami was a mild 72 degrees with clear weather and unrestricted visibility it was a perfect
night other than the fact that there was no moon that night so of course the crash
occurred in near total darkness now and the plane itself had crashed about 20 miles Northeast of Miami
International Airport and about eight miles north of uh I think it's Tommy's uh Tamiami Trail it's a long
stretch of highway that runs along the western end of edge of Florida okay now the area where the plane was now was a
flat Marshland covered with soft mud under about 6 to 12 inches of swamp water oh my God which had helped soft in
the soften the impact of the plane that when it hit the ground but it should be said that it was not an easier Landing
because of this it was very much still a plane horrific in fact when the plane struck on the earth the left outer wing
hit first then the main engine and then the left portion of the landing gear and
that caused the plane that area of the plane to disintegrate into pieces and that destroyed almost every section of
the passenger compartment oh now on top of that when the wing hit the muddy Earth it sent the plane into a pinwheel
motion and that impact broke the plane into four sections which then scattered luggage and debris across an area of
about 1600 feet long and 300 feet wide cool so people and things were just scattered everywhere
later when investigators surveyed the wreckage they found the right landing gear to be down and in a locked position
and then the right had been actually torn from the plane and the landing gear lever in the cockpit was still in the
gearward down position meaning that it had been engaged before the crash and that's what told them like they were
about to land oh so a search of the electronic split uh bay found that the visual indicator site and Wheel wall
service light assembly were both fully operational and most disturbingly the bulbs in the
nose gear assembly which had been the initial source of the trouble for Flight 401 had simply burned out so that's it
it was just burned out light bulbs this entire crash came down to a 12 burned out light bulb
wow wild so now the passengers who did manage to survive and there were quite a few that survived from this plane crash
that's unbelievable because it's such a big plane it's actually called a jumbo jet oh okay that like while many people
died a lot survived and now we're literally in a nightmare scenario some were still strapped into their seats
others had been thrown from the row and everybody like I said found themselves either sitting or lying in a mix of
Muddy swamp water that now had jet fuel leaking into it from the wreckage oh my God almost 22 tons of jet fuel had
leaked into the swamp holy [ __ ] yeah one passenger Ron Infantino when he realized what was
happening he started to panic and he called out to his new wife Lily they had been married 20 days earlier and she had
been sitting beside him on the plane but now she was nowhere to be found oh my God and he couldn't move because the
crash caused him to break his arm his knee and he his chest was wounded and all he could do was sit there helpless
as he quote heard alligators and snakes Splash around him because remember they're in the Florida Everglades and
now there's all these people who are injured and deceased yup and these alligators are like it's feeding time
yeah holy [ __ ] because initially obviously the sound of the crash probably sent them kind of like yeah
going away but now it's still smelling blood in the water they're seeing what's going like this is a true nightmare
scenario and truly really really sadly Ron later found out that his wife Lily had passed away during the crash and was
inconsolable for many reasons one being that they had switched seats at one point are you before the crash which I
already knew and still that gave me chills all over my entire body are you kidding me one of them had gone up to go
to the bathroom and when whoever came back they switched seats how do you and it's like how do you
write like you would never know or in a million years no of course you would hang on to that that's the thing it's
absolutely terrible so in another part of the swamp flight attendant Mercy Ruiz regained Consciousness and found herself
shivering and soaked with kerosene she was completely unable to move because she had fractured her pelvis
Beverly Raposa who knew they were going down she survived the crash and she was laying nearby as Mercy looked over her
to her and asked what happened and Beverly told her we crashed and mercy simply couldn't comprehend what she
meant she said no we didn't crash it's a bad dream we're gonna wake up uh I would
I can understand that completely can you imagine somebody telling you you're in a
plane crash no I think you just survived a plane crash no how do you even know like your brain must be like no your
brain isn't just your full survival mode I was gonna say it's in total survival it's just like no you didn't exactly
that didn't happen you're dreaming in fact I think Ron was somebody that said like when he woke up he couldn't feel
anything and that's how he knew how bad it was I believe it was him or it may have been one of the other passengers
but they were like I woke up and I couldn't feel anything but I looked down and saw that I was bleeding so I knew it
was bad now while Beverly Raposa did what she could to make everybody around her
comfortable in the immediate aftermath of the crash the first of of Rescuers but
um Mark Marquis I believe it is and his friend actually arrived on scene he had been out that night on the swamp
in his airboat he was actually teaching his friend how to hunt frogs and he saw the bright flash of light when the plane
hit and actually ended up steering the boat in the direction of the crash to see if he could help anybody all he had
to guide him was the light of his headlamp to guide him through the through the dark holy [ __ ] and so he
would travel a short distance and then cut the engine to listen for sound but he was so afraid to run over any bodies
that he would just like move a little bit at a time now finally when he cut the engine for
the fourth or fifth time he and his friend could hear distant chaos he said first it was a faint moaning and then he
started to hear screams for help oh now the first thing he heard when they reached the crash site was a man
screaming I can't hold my head up anymore oh my God so Bud rushed over to where the voice was and jumped into the
muddy water to pull the man out before he drowned because this man was literally lying in the water just like
trying to keep his head up trying not to brown he's exhausted oh so as he scanned
the scene around him all he could see in the light from his head lamp was just Twisted Metal and bodies everywhere oh
my God decades later he said I'm one person in the midst of all this I'm no doctor I didn't know what to do well I I
can't even fathom what would go through your mind but this guy bud is a [ __ ] hero he literally took all of that upon
himself and then secondly when he hopped into the swamp because of the jet fuel his legs started burning instantly and
he still managed to Wade through the water and help whoever he could and he's in there with like alligators and
alligators I don't know the difference but everything everything and jet fuel oh he said he ended up having to treat
burns on his legs for the next week oh my God by then though for the the win oh and without him the Coast Guard it would
have taken them even longer to get to where they were because where the landing area was for them was like far
away from where the crash actually happened so without the use of his airboat they would have been sitting
there trying to figure out how to even get to the the plane crash site oh my God now by then the Coast Guard they had
been alerted to the crash and they dispatched helicopters to search for the wreck and actually they wouldn't have
even been able to find them because it was so dark the swamp had extinguished the fire and again because there was no
moon that night and then combined with the density of the forest it obscured the location where the plane had crashed
wow so petty officer John schneck told reporters I couldn't even see the crash it was pitch dark but fortunately Bud a
true [ __ ] hero here recognized the sound of helicopters and raised his head lamp toward the sky to get their
attention started waving it around and then ended up waving them in the direction of a nearby Levy where they
were able to land and he ended up transporting them over to the crash site but yeah [ __ ] what a Hero true hero in
every sense of the word one of the main heroes in this story now while the First
Responders started making their way around the scene of the accident flight attendants Beverly Raposa and Pat
Georgia gathered those survivors who could move and the group in again singing Christmas carols oh my God are
you kidding me just to keep everybody calm oh no at first that's so that's so that
just [ __ ] me up because it's just a stark contrast oh Christmas carols next to anything dark and scary to me and
it's I'm I'm gone and a lot of these people were traveling for the holidays it had just been Christmas like people
were going to Miami after Christmas to get warm and see family and celebrate with family that they hadn't seen But
like they're just trying to do anything they can to bring any kind of lightness to this and at first the thing was the
singing was actually intended to help Rescuers find their locations that's a good idea too but then it ended up like
you were just saying becoming a means of keeping people's problems exactly passenger uh Martin seminaro told
reporters after they'd been rescued it was nice people controlled themselves very well I've seen movies about this
sort of thing but it was nothing like this oh wow like they all just banded together I'm just saying Christmas
carols yeah so while ground Crews work to locate the survivors additional helicopters ended up flying overhead to
provide light while the crews worked now once the Survivor was located and capable of being moved they would put
that person on bud um buds airboat and then take them to land where they could then be
transported to the nearest hospital one of the first survivors discovered who was still sitting in the cockpit was
Captain Robert Loft damn he was not in good condition though he had lacerations all over him and it was clear to one of
the First Responders schneck that he had broken ribs as well and schneck looked at him and said like hold on there's
more people coming but Captain Loft told him I'm gonna die oh and unfortunately he did pass away on the scene not too
long after Don repo also also survived the crash and was taken to the hospital but he later passed in the hospital due
to his injuries so Rescuers were just watching in horror as several locals descended upon the
scene they had made their way to the site and began looting the bodies I'm sorry what
literally locals came out to the Florida locals Florida men and started looting the bodies schneck told reporters I saw
them taking watches and things from dead people but what can you do we were there
trying to help their survivors and get them out of there so they couldn't even stop them because they were like we have
to just deal with the surviving members here Florida you're not okay you're not okay like like you're you're bleeding
you're not okay people are horrid holy [ __ ] I have never heard something like that Florida man established 1972. oh my
God isn't that a [ __ ] plane crash you show up at the scene and start stealing things off of dead bodies one
where do you where does you what who you did you just go to sleep that night after that I have no idea what the [ __ ]
luckily I'm sure hopefully all the people who did that are dead now I I would imagine if you're not
can't wait for that day my friend just like what the [ __ ] how low do you have to be to wipe something off of a dead
body a plane crash victim yeah any dead body but a plane crash victim While others victims and survivors are being
carted away unreal I'm just like my brain doesn't wrap around that that is shocking unreal
that's one of the most shocking amazing to the story humans need to get it the [ __ ] together and if we haven't by now
and fortunately what a species we are yeah [ __ ] yeah that is Bleak that's unlike anything
I've ever heard [ __ ] so Cruz worked through the night to locate the living and slowly move them out of the swamp
they had been instructed by the FAA to leave the dead and focus only on the living for the time being but at first
telling the living from the dead was difficult so the process was moving slowly eventually and very unfortunately the
bodies of those who had passed away began to sink under the water and those who were still living were able to be
identified and rescued more easily once that started happening which is just this is horrific really horrific by the
next morning rescue workers had found all 77 survivors wow 77 people damn survived which is wild and in the days
that followed a new crew was brought in to find the bodies of those who had not been so fortunate the process was really
slow due to the environment yeah they're in a swamp in a literal swamp but by the
afternoon of December 31st they had found the final body wow buried in the thick mud of the swamp and they were
able to find that body because a hand was sticking out oh my God in total 99 people were killed from the crash
including two flight attendants Stephanie Stanek and Pat gizzles and three members of the the flight crew in
the cockpit including cap Captain Robert Loft and Second Officer Don repo had passed away wow now those who had
survived were still hospitaled hospitalized sorry and then learned that they actually may have gotten a
life-threatening infection from the very mud that had clogged their wounds in the
swamp and saved them shut up because the Mud may have helped save their lives by
clogging their open wounds but then they got an infection from from that same mud
because that mud was found to have an organism that can cause gas Gang Green which can literally kill a person in 48
hours holy [ __ ] so it turned out that eight of the survivors who had uh it turned out
that eight of the survivors had been infected with this one of whom was Ron Infantino who had lost his wife Lily oh
my God he was told that if doctors couldn't locate a hyperbaric chamber for the gangrene to be treated they would
have to amputate his arm so this man got married 20 days prior to this plane crash
was feeling inconsolable from losing his wife switched seats with her so was blaming himself and then was told we
might have to amputate your arm it honestly doesn't get more Bleak than that like that's really [ __ ] up now
luckily they were able to find a chamber for him at a Navy base in Panama City and once he was transported there he
spent 40 hours in the chamber where and what happens when you have this particular infection is that they put
you in a hyper hyperbaric chamber and they put pressurized oxygen into the chamber and that's the only way to kill
this bacteria my God but imagine surviving a plane crash having every all of what I just mentioned happened and
then have to be put into a chamber that is somewhat reminiscent of a plane yeah after crashing one days earlier talk
about traumatic I can't even wow but luckily his arm was able to be saved now just weeks after the crash the
national Transportation safety board and TSB began its investigation to determine
the cross the cause of the crash sorry and what if any measures could be taken to avoid anything similar happening like
to avoid any similar catastrophes now at the time this was the first ever quote-unquote jumbo jet to crash and the
number of people who died it was actually the largest U.S civil aviation was the largest amount of people in U.S
civil aviation history wow so there was a lot of pressure on these investigators
to find out exactly what happened to think that it was a light bulb yeah and yeah so based on the radio
communications with the flight crew and the moments leading up to the crash investigators knew that they were having
a problem with the landing gear so they reviewed the Black Box data but that indicated that the aircraft was working
properly yeah there was nothing wrong with the landing gear oh is it mechanical according to the report the
aircraft power plants airframes electrical and pilot static instruments flight controls and hydraulic and
electrical systems were not factors contributing to this incident wow and that is directly from the NTSB
now having ruled out mechanical mechanical failure and acts of God investigators were left with only one
other cause operator error wow so during the investigation the NTSB reviewed the
autopsies and the medical histories of two members of the flight crew who had died in the crash at this point Don
repo's autopsy in history turned up really nothing significant but the postmortem examination of Captain Loft
did show that there was actually a tumor in his cranial cavity which the medical
examiner noted quote could have affected the captain's Vision particularly where
peripheral vision was concerned oh now that means he's looking at that light he's not seeing in his peripheral yeah
the the um autopilot happening with the autopilot thing exactly and wasn't he the one that they insisted he wear
glasses exactly uh so he so it sounds like he was obviously having difficulty with some parts of his vision well we're
not so sure because then it kind of gets tipped on its head so given the pathologist's findings the NTSB
investigators they did theorize that Captain loft's Vision could be impaired to the extent that he didn't notice the
changes to the alt uh ultimate readings explaining the accident so they were like okay this is it
however that theory was quickly dismissed when interviews with friends family and co-workers reported no
noticeable symptoms of impaired Vision or difficulty performing his duties as a pilot before this and then even the
Pathologists acknowledge that the type of tumor they had found typically presented itself in a very slow onset
giving the person ample time to adopt and compensate for any changes so then they said it was unlikely to be the
cause but then why did they need him to wear corrective lenses he was obviously having some Vision issues if they were
they it was a yes that had to exactly so I think it was in that it was a contributing factor but it wasn't the
only reason that makes sense yeah so as obviously there was something there yeah
he had to work they forced him to wear the lenses exactly so after months of Investigation the ntsp came to the
conclusion that the crash of Flight 401 was the result of a Confluence of Highly
unusual occurrences and errors that could ultimately be chalked up to lack of vigilance among the flight crew sadly
and the following were all taken into consideration and this is from the ntesb so one the approach and Landing routine
was interrupted by abnormal gear indication so that's the light yeah the autopilot was engaged to reduce workload
but positive delegation of aircraft control was not accomplished so they didn't put someone to make sure that
that autopilot was sitting nobody was musician nobody was making sure everything was because that's kind it it
popped into my head when you said like they they put it on autopilot and just went about really paying attention to
this other thing it's like yeah like put it on autopilot for sure it should totally be
figuring out what the hell's happening but one of you has to have on you should be sitting there going okay everything
is like keeping an eye on where you are what the plane's doing what the else what the altitude is doing what that
autopilot is doing it makes sense to me but I was like I'm not a pilot so I'm not going to claim to know what is
supposed to be happening in that cockpit and here's the thing the plane can fly itself but the plane is not meant to fly
itself yeah it's like that autopilot is is there for that reason there too like you said it could Land by itself but you
have to be sitting there monitoring it yeah it's just like it's really nuts and especially that's it I don't think it's
supposed to do that in a situation where there's three people that aren't incapacitated exactly you know they did
find out after that there were certain issues with the autopilot on these particular Jets because it was so new
but they also found that pilots in previous flights on this particular jet had relied too much on the autopilot in a
survey they also again going back to the NT uh SB kind of their conclusion on this right the nose gear position light
lens assembly was removed and re-uh incorrectly reinstalled the captain divided his attention between attempts
to help the first officer and orders to the other crew members to try other approaches to the problem and finally
the flight crew devoted approximately four minutes to the distraction with minimal regard for the other flight
requirements yeah so essentially far too much Manpower and time was put to this one tiny problem and not delegated
around not delegated around at all and again I'm not I don't claim to know anything about flying a plane or being a
pilot no way I can't imagine being a pilot to me it's like one of the scariest and most impressive [ __ ] kid
for jobs you could have and it's like so I don't know what you're supposed to be
doing but it just logically it makes sense to me that if there's more than one person and none of you are
incapacitated at the moment that you need to delegate that stuff to that's the thing because they're having eyes
everywhere there were four people four even so exactly yeah now in more simple terms essentially and I think we've made
it pretty clear the flight crew was so preoccupied with the failure of the nose gear indicator light and didn't notice
when without realizing it one of them had most likely accidentally bumped the autopilot control and turned the program
off that's chilling chilling that's really chilling now the second thing that investigators did want to look into
because May maybe it could be of help was the relatively High survival rate of the passengers yeah the crash of Flight
401 was and still is like I said one of the worst air disasters to ever occur in
the US and it did result in total loss of this particular aircraft but it was still surprising to investigators that
nearly half of the passengers lived yeah and many of them suffered relatively minor injuries that's
unbelievable truly now investigators couldn't say with a hundred percent certainty but they theorized that the
larger section of the uh mid fuselage I believe is how you say it that's where most of the survivors were seated it
managed to stay intact quote until the velocity was considerably reduced or until these sections came to a stop wow
so people seated in that section sustained way fewer injuries than those in other sections where the aircraft
broke apart okay literally like the direction like well they always say your safest where the
wings are and I think that could be why ah interesting now investigators also believed that the relatively new design
of the seat which quote Incorporated energy absorbers into the support structure could also explain the high
number of survivors interesting a lot I think went into it yeah I also think because the plane had been descending
for so long yeah it wasn't as high it didn't fall from like 2 000 feet in this guy abruptly into the ground round it
did fall it was dropping at a different rate exactly now after the release of the ntsb's
report on the investigation many survivors and family members of those who had not survived did file lawsuits
again yeah against Eastern air I would have done the exact same thing they eventually paid out more than 50 million
dollars in Damages that would be about 361 million today oh damn okay yeah so they paid a pretty penny now the tragedy
of Flight 401 was almost immediately incorporated into Florida's folklore but what is surprising is actually that the
supernatural phenomenon around this case started happening even before the flight
had taken off huh according to local Florida writer Greg Jenkins one of the flight attendants who was actually
scheduled to work on flight 401 started having nightmares and what she believed were psychic visions of the catastrophic
crash in early December wow now during these nightmares quote she heard sobbing and crying and echoing in her head and
eventually her dreams became so strong and Vivid that she started telling her friends and her colleagues about them
she said that she was completely convinced quote a Lockheed TriStar jet would be approaching the Miami
International Airport and crash killing everyone what yes now as her dreams and Visions went on they started including
things like Christmas present presents and holiday wreaths holy [ __ ] and that led her to believe that whatever was
going to happen it was likely to happen soon that's horrifying so on December 29th there was a last minute change in
Cruise schedules and that resulted in several flight attendants being put on this particular flight at the last
minute and three of them including this particular woman who had these premonitions about the accident ended up
declining the shift wow because she had talked to them and they were so freaked out about her dreams and Visions holy
[ __ ] and the woman who had been having these nightmares she actually didn't work at all that night because she was
so scared I don't blame her the next day when she learned of the crash she said all the visions and the dreams made
sense the Christmas presents the holiday wreaths and the operation she had seen of quote hands stretched outward then
disappearing forever with muffled screams that's literally how the last body was
found a hand stretched upward my whole body is just gone can you imagine holy [ __ ] according
to author Greg Jenkins who wrote Florida's ghostly Legends and haunted folklore the first report of an
apparition associated with flight 401 which are quite frequent uh were quite frequent afterwards the first one was
from Eastern Air's own vice president he had boarded a flight to Miami just months after the crash on the exact same
kind of plane now some people actually said that this plane that he was on was made from
recycled parts of the plane that had crashed but Eastern Airlines was adamant that they never recycled any parts for
new aircrafts okay it is highly debated in this story but it is simply alleged okay also Eastern Airlines doesn't exist
anymore so whatever but still same kind of plain and same route that this guy was getting on no thank you no but
anyway this man vice president of Eastern air boards the plane at JFK in New York and he takes a seat in the
first class section of the plane and he noticed that he was sitting next to one of Eastern's pilots and he said this
guy's quote eyes were fixated on something outside the window so we ended up trying to make
conversation with the man but he said this man was so focused on something outside the window and when he finally
did look back the vice president first noticed quote the sad pale face before realizing he was staring at none other
than the Late Captain Robert Loft oh [ __ ] he said he quote got the feeling one gets when discovering a dead body or
seeing a ghost and he said just seconds later this vision of Loft literally evaporated right before his eyes and it
freaked him out so badly that he actually hopped out of his seat and alerted the flight attendant even went
out to the ticket agency to see who had been seated next to him on the flight and according to author John Fuller
quote a complete search of the plane and the area was made but there was no sign
of the man who resembled Loft and there were no other Eastern employees on the flight that day shut up
oh [ __ ] now he's just looking out the window like like that's just like sadly looking out the window it looked like he
was probably looking out the window at them doing their like before takeoff routines making sure everybody was
getting it right because remember same [ __ ] flight oh my whole body is chilling wild now according to Fuller
additional sightings of Loft followed soon after most often on flights from JFK to Miami for obvious reasons but
many of those who spotted the apparitions were actually Eastern Airline employees themselves several of
whom had worked with Loft on multiple occasions and they were always were shocked to see his face because they
knew what had happened there were actually so many sightings that allegedly Eastern Airlines warned their
employees not to speak about it wow they started happening so frequently holy [ __ ] now while Captain Loft was like I
said a frequently reported sighting on Eastern flights before long there were other ghosts reported including that of
Second Officer Donald repo and one instance a passenger traveling on Eastern Air Flight 318 which was also an
l-1011 aircraft they reported sitting next to an Eastern employee on her flight to Miami and she said she noticed
that this man sitting next to her looked pale and sickly so she actually asked him if he was all right but the man did
not respond to her and just kept looking straight ahead and still concerned the woman pushed the call button to get the
flight attendant because she's like something's wrong with this guy like I don't is he gonna throw up or something
by the time the flight attendant arrived the man next to her had simply disappeared no gone no can you imagine
no I can't now later when the plan landed because then this poor woman actually went through with the flight
yeah just like what the [ __ ] did I just see like what is that like I said earlier like almost a four-hour flight I
think you're just like what like what the flight attendant asked the woman if she wanted to look over some recent
photos of Eastern air employees because she's like who did you see and the woman
agreed and eventually they came across a group photo of Eastern pilots and one of
those Pilots the woman pointed to and she said that was the man sitting next to me that was absolutely him and the
flight attendant and the woman were both stunned when they turned the photo over
and saw the inscription which read in Memorial Flight 401 December 29 1972. the man that she had pointed to was
Second Officer Donald Ripa holy [ __ ] sat next to her I've never gotten more chills in my life than I've gotten
during this story like holy [ __ ] this story is insane wow now strangely in the
years that passed and remember this previous thing happened on Flight 318 but it seems that Flight 318 became a
frequent host for Spirits with a connection to flight 401 in one instance a crew of Marriott Caterers loaded food
into the gallery and left that's what they were doing and then they all left the plane abruptly and refused to get
back on board and the flight crew was like what is going on and they quote told them that they saw a flight
engineer standing in the galley who instantly disappeared right before their eyes and that's like a group of people
being like uh just a group of caters and they're like I'm not getting back on that plane no no then on another flight
from New York to Miami while the aircraft was flying over the Everglades a male voice came over the PA and
announced that they'd be landing soon instructing everyone to fasten their safety bill results
now later one of the crew members said they they hadn't recognized the voice but it was discovered that none of the
flight crew had made that announcement holy [ __ ] and remember they were most likely flying over the Everglades on the
flight that crashed when they said like like safety yeah belts on were about to land yeah
now as time passed there were more and more sightings most often of laughter uh repo but also unusual circumstances that
eventually led a lot of people to wonder if flight 401 was like a jinxed number huh this became a source of serious
speculation in 1980 when Eastern Air flight 401 from New York to Miami was hijacked and it was flown to Cuba with
225 passengers on board for passenger Jerry Steinem the hijacking was especially troubling because in 1972 he
had traveled to New York and he was scheduled to return to Miami on board Flight 401 that had crashed but a bout
of a pneumonia kept him from getting on the plane that day holy [ __ ] no eight years later here he was in New York
again this time for a wedding and he was planning to return on air Florida but on
the morning of the flight he overslept and had to take a different flight ended up on this particular Eastern Air flight
401 which was then hijacked oh [ __ ] that so this guy wasn't even supposed to be
on this fight in the first place yeah I don't like that and had almost been on the plane that crashed damn
which I would be like I'm never flying yeah that would be the end of me flying so reports of supernatural phenomena
related to Flight 401 they were vague but they did happen quite frequently most of the time it was people spotting
loft or repo in a crowd but in other cases uh one or the other of the pair appeared to point out malfunctioning
systems or other problems to the flight Crews on these Eastern air flights oh I love that like they're like guardian
angels and one of the last ever recorded stories Don repo appeared to an Eastern
Airline pilot and warned him to watch out for fire on his plane oh a few days later there was a small fire in the
cockpit of the plane holy [ __ ] similarly repo again appeared to a different Eastern employee and informed the
Navigator quote there will never be another crash on a TriStar we will not let that happen before disappearing I
just got chills and according to Jenkins this was the last reported sighting of Donald repo
the chills have gone up to my scalp my scalp it says chills on it like we will not let it happen
like oh my God and I'm It's like because it's like operator error so sad feel like they have to like make a makeup for
it oh my God Oh Oh So eventually there were the reports of ghostly visitors and psychic
premonitions had become so common that author and paranormal Enthusiast John G Fuller con excuse me collected them in a
book along with his experience investigating the phenomenon his book The Ghost flight of 401 was published
just four years after the crash and he purports to tell quote the supernatural aftermath more awful than the crash but
not everybody was so enthusiastic about his particular publication and those critics became even more vocal a few
years later when the book was adapted into a TV movie of the same name starring Kim Basinger and Ernest uh
Borgnine huh they just weren't super happy about it it was just a TV film yeah but in an effort to mitigate any
negative press officials at Eastern air tried to keep ahead of the story and they refuted any claims of paranormal
experience related to Flight 401 they told reporters the ghost stories may have begun as a joke among employees but
the airline has found the legend unshakable now they never took any formal steps to
shut down Fuller's book or stop any rumors from spreading but they did consider doing so when they said Fuller
began reporting that parts from the destroyed plane were recycled and put into other other Eastern aircrafts but
he was not the only person to say this yeah if you look into anything I read about this stated that like it was fact
yeah but they said absolutely not alleged alleged now the rumors obviously could have negative negatively affected
Eastern's business and like I said earlier they were adamant that they did not do this but I also don't really know
how they could have because a lot of the plane was destroyed I was gonna say yeah
there were certain things that did survive and actually when when the investigation took place people were so
shocked that they had been preserved so beautifully but who am I to say who who knows who Among
Us who Among Us so now more than 50 years later a lot of the survivors from Flight 401 have sadly passed away and in
2022 the remaining survivors actually fundraised and lobbied the state until they received the approval to install a
memorial on Curtis Parkway in Miami Springs which lists the names of the Dead and actually Beverly reposa spearheaded
the effort to get the monument placed and said I carry these folks in my heart every single day there has not been one
day in the last 50 years that they haven't been in my heart and that I haven't wanted to make sure that I keep
my promise to them like the fact that she was the one who knew this plane was going down and then
was like it is my duty to make sure that these people got remembered and Then followed through with it yeah there's so
many heroes in this I know that's the thing now uh you will probably be happy to hear that Eastern Airlines did close
their doors forever in 1991 because they did fail to keep up with new competitors
who were offering lower rates you know that's okay and hopefully that means now that Don repo and uh Captain loft there
can can rest in peace and not have to worry about it sounds like they did too yeah like they don't have to worry about
making sure that doesn't happen on those flights again exactly wow so that is the
tragic and wildly paranormal story of Eastern Airlines flight 401. that was the chills I got during that like that
was harrowing that was tragic that was terrifying but then just to hear like it was all those things but I love the
highlights of just people coming together and taking care of each other in such a tragedy that's the stuff you
need to hear because then when you hear the the bleakness of people stealing things off of dead bodies like what is
wrong you gotta hear a little bit of people coming together to be good people because
everybody remember like even that was shocking to hear that part yeah those are the minority oh absolutely in
general we we all have to believe that humans are are good in that the shitty ones just are the ones that shock you so
they're the ones that get all the all the talk but for this one forget about those people forget about it forget
about them and think about the people who you know bud there who went running into jet fuel swamp my guy without a
second thought like I butt and all these kind of people and think about you know
like you know Captain Loft and Don repo who were just trying to make up for the the errors that happened in that flight
it's amazing it's so sad but [ __ ] I know it's such a tragic story but it's also
so beautiful in the end when you hear that they were like we're never gonna let this happen again yeah but then also
so tragic that their afterlife was spent making sure that this did trying to stop
it from happening again just a human error like it's not like anybody did anything maliciously no it's
not like they were bad at their job it's like it was no the human error and they
had flown many many flights yeah landed and took off safely millions of times and again they're just human beings it
was just a mistake of delegating so it's like that's really it it's a wild story
but we're gonna get a little more haunted and I don't know about uplifting but we're gonna get a little more
haunted for spooky season because it's official I think we're in spooky season no we record these so far ahead of time
that I never know but Mikey is nodding yes at me yes there you go so keep listening for those we hope you keep
listening we hope you keep it weird but not so weird that uh you take things off of dead bodies when they die
because well that's really yucky but do keep it so weird that you take care of your fellow man if you were to ever God
forbid have anything happen to you in a plane crash I love you so much bye and there's a memorial so go visit it yes
leave some flowers thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Music]

Just before midnight on December 29, 1972, Eastern Air Lines Flight 401, traveling from New York to Miami, crashed into the Florida Everglades, killing nearly two thirds of the passengers on board. Crashing into the swamp softened the landing and likely saved dozens, but the remote location made rescue efforts complicated and required a cooperative effort between first responders and local civilians.

The crash came at a difficult time for the airline industry, following closely on a number of several high-profile hijackings and examples of equipment malfunctions that negatively affected ticket sales. This only got worse when the investigation into Flight 401 was concluded and the cause of the crash was determined to be operator error when the flight crew became distracted and unaware that the autopilot had switched itself off.

In the months and years that followed, several Eastern Air employees and survivors of Flight 401 began reporting sightings of the ghosts of crew members and passengers who died in the crash. Although Eastern Air went out of their way to deny any sightings, the stories spread and became a part of Florida folklore as the subject of books, television films, and even a public spectacle as part of Ed and Lorraine Warren’s Occult Museum in Connecticut.

Thank you to the glorious David White, of Bring Me the Axe podcast, for research assistance :)

References:

Aguila, Grethel. 2022. "'We're down.' Flight 401 crashed in Miami 50 years ago." Miami Herald, December 21: A3.

Associated Press. 1980. "Eastern still fighting ghost." Honolulu Star-Bulletin, August 28: 52.

Baxter, Mike. 1972. "Rescue armada mobilized within half hour." Miami Herald, December 31: 15.

Fuller, John. 1976. The Ghost of Flight 401. New York, NY: Berkley Publishing Corporation.

Jenkins, Greg. 2005. Florida's Ghostly Legends And Haunted Folklore: South And Central Florida (volume one). Sarasota, FL: Pineapple Press.

Kay, Jennifer. 2007. "Everglades jet crash haunts hero." Rocky Mountain News, December 26.

National Transportation Safety Board. 1973. Aircraft Accident Reports: Eastern Air Lines L-1011, N310EA. Aircraft accident report, Washington D.C.: National Transportation Safety Board.

Orlando Evening Star. 1972. "Stewardess sings carols to survivors." Orlando Evening Star, December 30: 1.

Star Services. 1972. "Many survive Everglades jet crash." Orlando Evening Star, December 30: 1. Times-News.

Brief Summary

Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed in 1972 due to pilot error, leading to haunting stories and a high survival rate among passengers.

Key points

Eastern Airlines Flight 401. A tragic plane crash that led to paranormal happenings.
The Autopilot Disengaged. The crew was unaware that the autopilot had disengaged, leading to disaster.
Survivor's Nightmare. Passengers faced a terrifying situation in the aftermath of the crash.
Survivor's Awakening. Mercy Ruiz regains consciousness after the crash, struggling to comprehend reality.
A Hero Emerges. Mark Marquis risks his life to rescue survivors from the crash site.
Christmas Carols Amid Chaos. Survivors sing Christmas carols to stay calm and help rescuers locate them.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

This entire crash came down to a 12 burned out light bulb.

18:33WatchOct 6, 2023

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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