Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed into the Florida Everglades on December 29, 1972, setting off a scrambled of reporters and rescuers in one of the biggest tragedies Miami has seen.

Angelo Donadeo, whose survival may be the most remarkable of all, says the only thing still bothering him is his back, but not very much.

NOTE - There is no official death certificates for "Mrs. McAvoy," which appeared in passenger lists released to the press at the time.

No one knows where we are? an anxious passenger asked Raposa.

Laying on the coat rack, Patty George. Then it dropped one hundred feet, and then again flew level for two more minutes, after which it began a descent so gradual it could not be perceived by the crew. (Calibrating to the nearest half second, the NTSB officially listed the moment of impact at 11:42:12.5 pm). Murray Yellin 6/9/11 Marquis used his airboat to transport rescue personnel and victims to and from the crash site, located in a remote are of the Everglades, 18.5 miles west of the Miami-International Airport, throughout the night and into the next day. Passenger Ron Infantino will join him. He found Capt. Marquis looked up and saw an explosion. Suffolk County, In the next seventy seconds, the plane lost only 250 feet, but this was enough to trigger the altitude warning "C-chord" chime, which is clearly heard on the CVR tapes.

The tragic night began routinely enough.

Flight 401 - Flight Log | That wasnt my first brush with death, he said.

Hurricane Wilma brought back the crash.

A total of 101 people died in the crash, but miraculously 75 survived. 104 cemeteries found in will be saved to your photo volunteer list. That was it, Xiomara Casado said.

He did well for a while had a big house in the Country Club of Miami and drove a Lincoln.

I told my friend Keep an eye on that spot, and we headed out there..

Johnson, Charles |

Some 15 minutes later, the two arrived at a surreal scene. Donald Louis Repo 5/10/21 The names of the 101 passengers who were killed were read in a ceremony that was attended by family members and some of the 75 who survived.

What you had was a situation where no one was flying the plane, said Eric Olson, a Barry University administrator and former air traffic controller who has studied the Eastern crash.

Any gator would have been frightened away by the crash and the jet fuel's stench.

Raposa, 60, hailed for her valor after the crash, eventually resigned from Eastern and worked in the travel agency industry.

Paranormal investigator Steve Shippy and psychic medium Cindy Kaza go deep into the heart of the Florida Everglades to uncover the haunting truth about the crash of Eastern Flight 401.

No road stretches that deep into the alligator-infested swamp.

Rescuers recovered his body in the light of the following day.

The tower instructed the L-1011 to pull out of its decent, climb to two thousand feet, and then make a U-turn and flight west over the darkness of the Everglades.

Loft's clock had stopped at 4:41:34 Greenwich time.

For over thirty years Charlie worked with the FAA as an Air Traffic Controller.

Ron and Fara Infantino, married for 20 days, were coming home from their honeymoon when Flight 401 crashed.

WebFlight 401 crash-landed into the Everglades at over 200 mph. He testified that the track starts about 50% of the way in, so if you start to push it in incorrectly, you don't realize it until the fixture is halfway in its housing and, by then, possibly jammed. Robert Albin Loft 3/17/17 He had the altitude hold function disengage on a flight on January 8th, ten days after the crash of flight 401. Preoccupation with a malfunction of the nose landing gear position indicating system distracted the crew's attention from the instruments and allowed the descent to go unnoticed.".

Guayas, Bud Marquis, the airboater who was first on the scene when Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed in the Everglades on Dec. 29, 1972, holds a plaque he received at his home in Homestead, Fla., onDec. 17. Back row from the left: Mercy Ruiz, Sue Tebbs, Adrienne Hamilton, Trudy Smith.

Carols as a homing beaconMarquis had recently turned to commercial frogging after years as a state game officer.

Although the crew was dealing with the landing gear indicator, they still could have noticed their surroundings and the aircrafts altitude. No one in the cockpit noticed.

By that time, the survivors had been taken out and all that was left were pieces of the plane. Yetta Cohn 3/17/16 He claims that the problem went uncorrected.

It didnt light. USA, North Bergen,

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The nose gear light assembly was found jammed on its side and protruding a quarter of an inch out of its normal position.

He looked me straight in the eye and said, Im going to die. I put both my hands on his forearms and said: Youre gonna make it..

When the light still did not come on, they aborted the landing to examine the situation.

Crash mostly a thing of the past Ninety-four passengers, the three pilots and two flight attendants were dead. All Marquis saw were the stars and the frogs' silver eyes before his headlamp. Nery Palma 7/12/34 USA, West Babylon, In lieu of flowers, please send donations to the, Hospice of Southern Maine 390 US Route One, Scarborough, ME 04074, Official Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 - History, Photos, Survivors and Tribute. Bob called Infantino, who loves to tell the story: He was a regional coordinator with AFLAC, American Family Life Assurance Co., and thats when I started - 16 years ago, and Ive been with them ever since. I guess I was always on the edge without knowing it. In 1972 he was a young carpenter who liked living fast.

Schneck, now 59, of Rogers, Ark., reached the front of the jet first and found two flight attendants, Adrianne Hamilton, 27, and Sue Tebbs, 28. Oakes testified that he and the co-pilot noticed the malfunction and proceeded to reset the autopilot and then trip it off by bumping the control column several times.

Real-time updates and all local stories you want right in the palm of your hand. Theres also interest in creating a memorial marker to honor those who died in the crash.

"They thought they hired me. From 10 miles away, Marquis and his friend saw a fiery orange flash and speeded toward it. Chapter 4 - Flight 401 Passenger List The following is a list of survivors and victims of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401. Marquis waved his headlamp in circles, guiding the pilots to the crash. Jose Carrasquillo 6/28/40

They know exactly where we are. Edward presented the ring in a glass of champagne.

They noted this behavior in their log book.

Lost - Passengers and Crew (Name and Birthdate), Elise Grace Agate 9/3/42 Little Christina was floating face up, cradled by luggage and debris, protected by a cage of mangled metal.

They married in 1974.

In the cockpit: Capt. I still wonder why we lived and all those other people died, said Coviello, who eventually moved to South Florida and now lives in Pembroke Pines. They have two sons and live in Dade City now, near Tampa.

Crash-induced back pains dont slow her down.

Strangely, killed. If you can hear me, come toward my voice. You can always change this later in your Account settings.

The left wingtip hit first. By the time the meetings were over, the computer printouts from the Flight Data Recorder had been deciphered, and the voices of men now two months dead had been resurrected from the recording tapes. Lockheed L-1011 Landing Gear Lever |

MIAMI SPRINGS, Fla. Exactly fifty years ago, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 mysteriously slammed into the Florida Everglades at over 200 miles per hour. Donadeo, an Eastern Airlines technical specialist on L-1011 aircraft, was returning to Miami that night from a trouble- shooting assignment in New York. It was like a mushroom cloud, but it died quickly, he said. Official rescuers soon followed.

Jesus Lorenzo 4/26/37

He also ran his own gun store in Seymour, Conn. During this time, he divorced and later met Alexandra (Sandra) Burt.

Ghosts of Flight 401 - 6 |

The report cited the cause of the crash as pilot error, specifically: "the failure of the flight crew to monitor the flight instruments during the final four minutes of flight, and to detect an unexpected descent soon enough to prevent impact with the ground.

A ringing in the ears when the engine was cut. He and his wife, Donna, live in Christmas, a small town between Orlando and Cape Canaveral. Marquis pulled survivors from the water and ferried rescuers. Lucille Cilles 1/30/24 Survivors - Crew and Eastern Employees Ann Connell, Barry Connell, Angelo Donadeo, Patricia R Georgia, Adrianne Ann Hamilton, Jennifer Larsen, Thomas Mulcahy, Mercedes V Ruiz, Beverly Jean Raposa, Trudy J Smith, Sue F. Tibbs, Sharon R Transue, Dorothy M Warnock. Deleting this Virtual Cemetery cannot be undone. I was wounded in World War II when the ship I was on was hit by a kamikaze. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

New Jersey,

Investigators and reporters stopped calling. Both were injured and trapped.

Had Loft bumped the column with more than 15, but less than 20 pounds of pressure, Loft's altitude hold light would have gone out, and Stockstill's light would remain on, giving him the erroneous impression that the autopilot was still engaged and holding the plane at two thousand feet.

Two passing pilots saw it and called the airport. Ive tried to throw [the suitcase] away many times, but something always holds me back. Flight 401 - First Response |

On Monday, Raposa, Ruiz, the Casados and others will attend a ceremony honoring Marquis, the frog hunter.

I was too young for that kind of stuff.

Infantino also won a large legal settlement and lost everything. It wasnt her son, but a baby boy whose parents, it was later learned, were killed. The cockpit radioed the tower. Eduardo Jaramillo 8/2/32

Muriel J. Ames 11/30/40 Bonnie Silverman, Donna Smith, Millie Soberon, Jerald Solomon, Larry Sumpkins, Marilyn Taylor, Edward Ulrich, Jesse C. Walker, Allen Weiss, Lorenzo Zetlin.

WebThe following is a list of survivors and victims of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401.

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