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Coordinates: 25°51′53″N 80°35′43″W / 25.86472°N 80.59528°W / 25.86472; -80.59528
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In response to the accident, many airlines started [[crew resource management]] training for their pilots. The training is designed to make problem solving in a cockpit much more efficient, thus causing less distraction for the crew.
In response to the accident, many airlines started [[crew resource management]] training for their pilots. The training is designed to make problem solving in a cockpit much more efficient, thus causing less distraction for the crew.

== Reported ghost sightings ==
Over the following months and years, employees of Eastern Air Lines began reporting sightings of the dead crew members, captain Robert Loft and second officer (flight engineer) Donald Repo, sitting on board other L-1011 (N318EA) flights.<ref name="Jenkins, Greg 2005 pp 35-40">Jenkins, Greg. (2005) ''Florida's Ghostly Legends and Haunted Folklore, Vol 1" pp 35-40 Sarasota, FL: Pineapple Press, Inc.</ref><ref name="Floyd, E. Randall 2002 pp 64-67">Floyd, E. Randall. (2002) ''In the Realm of Ghosts and Hauntings" pp 64-67 Boyne City, Michigan: Harbor House</ref><ref name="Hauck, Dennis William 2002">Hauck, Dennis William. (2002) ''Haunted Places" London: Penguin</ref>

Parts of Flight 401 were salvaged after the crash investigation and refitted into other L-1011s.<ref name="Jenkins, Greg 2005 pp 35-40"/><ref>Floyd, E. Randall. (2002) ''In the Realm of Ghosts and Hauntings" pp 64-70 Boyne City, Michigan: Harbor House</ref> The reported hauntings were only seen on the planes that used the spare parts.<ref name="Jenkins, Greg 2005 pp 35-40"/><ref name="Floyd, E. Randall 2002 pp 64-67"/> Sightings of the spirits of Don Repo and Bob Loft spread throughout Eastern Air Lines to the point where Eastern's management warned employees that they could face dismissal if caught spreading ghost stories.<ref name="Floyd, E. Randall 2002 pp 64-67"/>

While Eastern Airlines publicly denied some of their planes were haunted, they reportedly removed all the salvaged parts from their L-1011 fleet.<ref name="Hauck, Dennis William 2002"/> Over time, the reporting of ghost sightings stopped. An original floor board from Flight 401 remains in the archives at History Miami in South Florida.<ref name="Mysteries At The Museum">{{cite episode|title=Mysteries at the Museum: Lotto Scam, Somali Pirates, Haunted Plane|network=[[Travel Channel]]|airdate=2010-10-04}}</ref> Pieces of Flight 401's wreckage can also be found in Ed and Lorraine Warren's Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut.<ref>https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Warrens-Occult-Museum/126070474135029?sk=photos_albums</ref>

Eastern Air Lines CEO (and former [[Apollo program|Apollo]] astronaut) [[Frank Borman]] called the ghost stories surrounding the crash "garbage".<ref>Serling, p. 490</ref>


==In popular culture==
==In popular culture==
Line 89: Line 80:
== See also ==
== See also ==
{{Portal|Miami|Disasters|Aviation|1970s}}
{{Portal|Miami|Disasters|Aviation|1970s}}
* [[Lady Be Good (aircraft)]], a [[Consolidated B-24 Liberator|B-24]] reputed to be cursed after salvaged parts from it were reused in other aircraft
* [[Scandinavian Airlines Flight 933]], a 1969 accident in which the crew were distracted by possible landing gear problems
* [[Scandinavian Airlines Flight 933]], a 1969 accident in which the crew were distracted by possible landing gear problems
* [[United Airlines Flight 173]], a 1978 accident in which the crew were distracted by possible landing gear problems
* [[United Airlines Flight 173]], a 1978 accident in which the crew were distracted by possible landing gear problems

Revision as of 04:53, 6 September 2013

Eastern Air Lines Flight 401
The aircraft involved in the accident, photographed in March 1972
Accident
DateDecember 29, 1972
SummaryPilot error and CFIT
SiteFlorida Everglades
Miami-Dade County, Florida
United States
Aircraft
Aircraft typeLockheed L-1011-385-1 TriStar
OperatorEastern Air Lines
RegistrationN310EAdisaster[1]
Flight originJohn F. Kennedy Int'l Airport
DestinationMiami International Airport
Passengers163
Crew13
Fatalities101
Injuries77
Survivors75

Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was a Lockheed L-1011-1 Tristar jet that crashed into the Florida Everglades at 11:42pm December 29, 1972, causing 101 fatalities (99 initial crash fatalities, two died shortly afterward). There were 75 survivors. The crash occurred as a result of the entire flight crew becoming preoccupied with a burnt-out landing gear indicator light and failing to notice the autopilot had inadvertently been disconnected. As a result, the flight gradually lost altitude and eventually crashed while the flight crew was distracted with the indicator problem. It was the first crash of a wide-body aircraft and at the time, the second deadliest single-aircraft disaster in the United States.[2][3]

The crash

The aircraft flightpath summary, as shown in the NTSB report

Eastern Air Lines Flight 401, operating a four-month-old Lockheed L-1011-1 TriStar[4][5] (the tenth example delivered to the carrier)[6] carrying 163 passengers and 13 crew members,[4] left New York's JFK Airport on Friday, December 29, 1972 at 9:20 p.m., en route to Miami International Airport.[7] The flight was under the command of captain Robert Albin 'Bob' Loft, 55, a veteran Eastern Air Lines pilot ranked 50th in seniority at Eastern. His flight crew included first officer Albert John Stockstill, 39, and second officer (flight engineer) Donald Louis 'Don' Repo, 51.[8] A company employee—technical officer, Angelo Donadeo, 47, returning to Miami from an assignment in New York—accompanied the flight crew for the journey.[9] The ten woman flight attendant crew on Flight 401 included: Mercedes Ruiz, Sue Tebbs, Adrienne Hamilton (lead flight attendant), Trudy Smith, Dorothy Warnock, Patricia Ghyssels, Beverly Jean Raposa, Patricia 'Patty' Georgia, Stephanie Stanich and Sharon Transue. Pat Ghyssels (seated on jumpseat 3L) and Stephanie Stanich (seated on jumpseat 4L) died in the crash.[citation needed]

The flight was routine until 11:32 p.m., when the flight began its approach into Miami International Airport. After lowering the gear, first officer Stockstill noticed that the landing gear indicator, a green light identifying that the nose gear is properly locked in the "down" position, did not illuminate.[7] This was discovered to be due to a burned-out light bulb.[10] The landing gear could have been manually lowered either way.[11] The pilots cycled the landing gear but still failed to get the confirmation light.[7]

Loft, who was working the radio during this leg of the flight, told the tower that they would discontinue their approach to their airport and requested to enter a holding pattern. The approach controller cleared the flight to climb to two thousand feet (610 m), and then hold west over the Everglades.[7]

The cockpit crew removed the light assembly[12] and second officer Repo was dispatched into the avionics bay beneath the flight deck to check visually if the gear was down through a small viewing window.[13] Fifty seconds after reaching their assigned altitude, captain Loft instructed first officer Stockstill to put the L-1011 on autopilot.[13] For the next eighty seconds, the plane maintained level flight. Then, it dropped one hundred feet (30 m), 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.[13] In the next seventy seconds, the plane lost only 250 feet (76 m), but this was enough to trigger the altitude warning C-chord chime located under the engineer's workstation.[13] The engineer (second officer Repo) had gone below, and there was no indication by the pilot's voices recorded on the CVR that they heard the chime. In another fifty seconds, the plane was at half its assigned altitude.[14]

As Stockstill started another turn, onto 180 degrees, he noticed the discrepancy. The following conversation was recovered from the flight voice recorder later:

Stockstill: We did something to the altitude.
Loft: What?
Stockstill: We're still at 2,000 feet, right?
Loft: Hey—what's happening here?[14]

Less than 10 seconds after this exchange, the jetliner crashed at 25°51′53″N 80°35′43″W / 25.86472°N 80.59528°W / 25.86472; -80.59528. The location was west-northwest of Miami, 18.7 miles (30.1 km) from the end of runway Nine Left (9L).[14] The plane was traveling at 227 miles per hour when it flew into the ground.[citation needed] With the aircraft in mid-turn, the left wingtip hit the surface first, then the left engine and the left landing gear,[15] making three trails through the sawgrass, each five feet wide and more than 100 feet (30 m) long. When the main part of the fuselage hit the ground, it continued to move through the grass and water, breaking up as it went.[16]

Rescue and aftermath

Robert "Bud" Marquis, an airboat pilot, was out frog gigging with Ray Dickinsin when they witnessed the crash. They rushed in to rescue survivors. Marquis received burns to his face, arms and legs—a result of spilled jet fuel from the crashed TriStar—but continued shuttling people into and out of the crash site that night and the next day. For his efforts, he received the Humanitarian Award from the National Air Disaster Alliance/Foundation and the "Alumitec – Airboat Hero Award", from the American Airboat Search and Rescue Association. In 2007, the Homestead, Florida resident was given an award plaque.[17] He died on November 21, 2008, from complications stemming from injuries he sustained in a fall a month earlier.[18]

In all, 77 had lived through the ordeal—69 of the 163 passengers and 8 of the 10 flight attendants survived the crash, with 99 initial fatalities.[19] Of the cockpit crew, only flight engineer Repo survived the initial crash, along with technical officer Donadeo who was down in the nose electronics bay with Repo at the moment of impact.[20] Stockstill was killed on impact, while Captain Loft died in the wreckage of the flightdeck before he could be transported to a hospital. Repo was evacuated to a hospital, but later succumbed to his injuries.[21] Angelo Donadeo, the lone survivor of the four flightdeck occupants, recovered from his injuries.[citation needed] An autopsy of Loft showed that he had a brain tumor but it was not a factor in the accident.[22]

Of the deaths that occurred, most were of passengers in the mid-section of the aircraft.[23] The swamp absorbed much of the energy of the crash, lessening the impact on the aircraft. The swamp itself saved many lives as mud blocked wounds sustained by survivors, preventing them from bleeding to death. However, it also complicated the survivors' recuperation, as organisms in the swamp caused infection, with the potential for gas gangrene. Eight passengers became infected; doctors used hyperbaric chambers to treat the passengers and kill the infections.[2] All the survivors were injured; 60 received serious injuries and 17 suffered minor injuries and did not require hospitalization.[21] The most common injuries were fractures of ribs, spines, pelvises, and lower extremities. 14 survivors had various degrees of burns.[24]

Cause of the crash

The NTSB investigation discovered that the autopilot had been inadvertently switched from altitude hold to CWS (Control Wheel Steering) mode in pitch.[25] In this mode once the pilot releases pressure on the yoke (control column) the autopilot will maintain the pitch attitude selected by the pilot until he moves the yoke again. Investigators believe the autopilot switched modes when the captain accidentally leaned against the yoke while turning to speak to the flight engineer, who was sitting behind and to the right of him. The slight forward pressure on the stick would have caused the aircraft to enter a slow descent, maintained by the CWS system.[26]

Investigation into the aircraft's autopilot showed that the force required to switch to CWS mode was different between the A and B channels (15 vs 20 pounds respectively). Thus it was possible that the switching to CWS in channel A 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).[27]

After descending 250 feet from the selected altitude of 2000 feet a C-chord sounded from the rear speaker.[13] This altitude alert, designed to warn the pilots of an inadvertent deviation from the selected altitude, went unnoticed[25] by the fatigued and frustrated crew. Investigators believe this was due to the crew being distracted by the nose gear light, and because the flight engineer was not in his seat when it sounded and so would not have been able to hear it.[26] Visually, since it was nighttime and the aircraft was flying over the darkened terrain of the Everglades, there were no ground lights or other visual indications that the TriStar was slowly descending.

It was also discovered that Captain Loft had an undetected tumor in his brain,[28] and this was later found to be in an area controlling vision,[2][29] but this was not thought to have contributed to the accident.[30][31]

The final NTSB 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. 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."[32]

In response to the accident, many airlines started crew resource management training for their pilots. The training is designed to make problem solving in a cockpit much more efficient, thus causing less distraction for the crew.

The story of the crash and its aftermath was documented first in John G. Fuller's 1976 book The Ghost of Flight 401. Eastern considered suing for libel, based on assertions of a cover-up by Eastern executives, but Borman opted not to, feeling a lawsuit would merely provide more publicity for the book.[33] Loft's widow and children did sue Fuller, for infringement of Loft's right of publicity, for invasion of privacy, and for intentional infliction of emotional distress; but the lawsuit was dismissed and the dismissal upheld by the Florida Fourth District Court of Appeal.[34]

The crash was also documented in Rob and Sarah Elder's 1977 book Crash.

Two made-for-television movies based on the crash were aired in 1978: Crash of Flight 401, aired in October, was based on the Elders' book, and dramatized the crash, rescue efforts and NTSB investigation; while The Ghost of Flight 401, aired earlier in February, was based on Fuller's book and focuses more on the ghost sightings surrounding the aftermath.

Musician Bob Welch recorded a song on his 1979 album Three Hearts titled "The Ghost of Flight 401".

The crash also appeared in a Season 5 episode of Mayday (also known as Air Crash Investigation). The episode was titled "Who's at the Controls?" (In some countries, the title "Fatal Distraction" was used.)

The flight was also mentioned in Season 1 episode 4 (entitled Phantom Traveler) of the television show Supernatural.

See also

References

  • NTSB report: Eastern Airlines, Inc, L-1011, N310EA, Miami, Florida, December 29, 1972 (PDF), NTSB (report number AAR-73/14), June 14, 1973, retrieved October 9, 2012
  • Job, Macarthur (1994). "Chapter 12: Hey - what's happening here?". Air Disaster Volume 1. Aerospace Publications Pty Ltd. pp. 98–111. ISBN 1-875671-11-0.
  • Elder, Rob and Elder, Sarah (1977). Crash. Atheneum, New York. ISBN 0-689-10758-7.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  • Serling, Robert J. (1980). From the Captain to the Colonel: An Informal History of Eastern Airlines. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-27047-X. OCLC 5447734.

Footnotes

  1. ^ "FAA Registry (N310EA)". Federal Aviation Administration.
  2. ^ a b c "Who's at the Controls?" ("Fatal Distraction") Mayday
  3. ^ Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network. Retrieved on 2012-06-09.
  4. ^ a b NTSB report, page 1 (PDF page 9 of 52)
  5. ^ NTSB report, appendix C (pages 30-31, PDF pages 38-39 of 52)
  6. ^ Job, Macaurthur. Air Disaster - Volume 1, p. 99
  7. ^ a b c d NTSB report, page 3 (PDF page 11 of 52)
  8. ^ NTSB report, appendix B (pages 27-29, PDF pages 35-37 of 52)
  9. ^ Job, Macaurthur. Air Disaster - Volume 1, p. 98. Note: Donadeo was not a member of the flight crew, his official status was as a "non-revenue passenger"
  10. ^ NTSB report, page 9 (PDF page 17 of 52)
  11. ^ Job, Macaurthur. Air Disaster - Volume 1, p. 101
  12. ^ Job, Macaurthur. Air Disaster - Volume 1, p. 102
  13. ^ a b c d e NTSB report, page 4 (PDF page 12 of 52)
  14. ^ a b c NTSB report, page 5 (PDF page 13 of 52)
  15. ^ NTSB report, page 8 (PDF page 16 of 52)
  16. ^ Job, Macaurthur. Air Disaster - Volume 1, p. 109,107. Paraphrased excerpt on Flight 401's crash sequence: "The TriStar's port outer wing structure had struck the ground first, followed by the No. 1 engine and the port main undercarriage. The disintegration of the aircraft that followed scattered wreckage over an area 500 meters long and 100 meters wide in a southwesterly direction. Only small fragments of metal marked the wingtip's first contact, followed 15 meters further on by three massive 35 meter swaths cut through the mud and sawgrass by the aircraft's extended undercarriage before two of the legs were sheared off. Then came scattered parts from the No. 1 (port) engine, and fragments from the port wing itself and the port tailplane. 150 meters from the wingtips initial contact with the ground, the massive fuselage had begun to breakup, scattering components from the underfloor galley, the cargo compartments, and the cabin interior. At 250 meters along the wreckage trail, the outer section of the starboard wing tore off, gouging an 18 meter long crater in the soft ground as it did so. From this point on, the breakup of the fuselage became more extensive, scattering metal fragments, cabin fittings, and passenger seats widely. The three major sections of the fuselage—the most intact of which was the tail assembly—lay in the mud towards the end of the wreckage trail ... The fact that the tail assembly—rear fuselage, No. 2 tail-mounted engine, and remains of the empennage—finally came to rest substantially further forward than other major sections, was probably the result of the No. 2 engine continuing to deliver thrust during the actual breakup of the aircraft ... No complete cross section of the passenger cabin remained, and both the port wing and tailplane were demolished to fragments ... Incongruously, not far from the roofless fuselage center section with the inner portion of the starboard wing still attached, lay a large, undamaged and fully inflated rubber dingy, one of a number carried on the TriStar in the event of an emergency water landing. The breakup of the fuselage had freed it from its stowage and activated its inflation mechanism."
  17. ^ "35 years after jetliner crash, hero gets his due". MSNBC. Associated Press. December 25, 2007. Retrieved October 9, 2012.
  18. ^ Press Release Point - Hero of Flight 401 - "Angel of the Everglades” Dies
  19. ^ Accident description at the Aviation Safety Network
  20. ^ Job, Macaurthur. Air Disaster - Volume 1, p. 102,108
  21. ^ a b Job, Macaurthur. Air Disaster - Volume 1, p. 108
  22. ^ Yanez, Luisa. 'PART FOUR: THE AFTERMATH 101 lives lost. 75 survived: "We're miracles.".' Miami Herald. Retrieved on December 30, 2012.
  23. ^ Yanez, Luisa. 'PART TWO: THE CRASH "It felt like a wild rollercoaster ride..."' The Miami Herald. Retrieved on December 30, 2012.
  24. ^ NTSB report, page 6 (PDF page 14 of 52) Note: the NTSB classified the injuries of one non-revenue passenger and one other passenger as nonfatal as their deaths occurred more than 7 days after the accident, so it has 99 as the death count in the final accident report.
  25. ^ a b NTSB report, page 23 (PDF page 31 of 52)
  26. ^ a b Job, Macaurthur. Air Disaster - Volume 1, p. 110
  27. ^ NTSB report, page 13 (PDF page 21 of 52)
  28. ^ NTSB report, page 6 (PDF page 14 of 52)
  29. ^ NTSB report, page 16 (PDF page 24 of 52)
  30. ^ NTSB report, page 22 (PDF page 30 of 52)
  31. ^ Job, Macaurthur. Air Disaster - Volume 1, p. 109
  32. ^ NTSB report, pages 23-24 (PDF pages 31-32 of 52)
  33. ^ Serling, p. 491
  34. ^ Loft v. Fuller, 408 So. 2nd 619 (Fla. App. Dec. 16, 1981).
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