Episode 500: Eastern Air Lines Flight 401

I'm Dan Taberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at a high school in upstate New York. A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast. What's the answer, and what do you do if they tell you it's all in your head?

Hysterical, a new podcast from Wondery and Pineapple Street Studios, binge all episodes of Hysterical early and ad-free on Wondery. Plus. Hey weirdos, I'm Alayna, I'm Ash, and this is morbid.

It is, it's morbid in the afternoon. We're having a really bad week, so we're trying 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 from anything. So no, we cannot do that.

So we are here, and we're here for you, and you are here for us. Yeah, and 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..

It was one of the most tragic plane crashes in United States history. Oh boy, still is, but it results in some interesting paranormal happening, so that's what we're going to focus on.

In the end, I can't even talk. But before we get to that, I am going to go kind of through what really happened before the paranormal started happening. So I'm sorry, Alina, I have to be here. But if you are scared of flying or anything like that, it's cool if you want to just go boop boop to the end and hear the paranormal stuff, I think.

Yeah, if you have any kind of phobia that is flight related or plane crash related, if you have any phobia. Really. I don't think you should be here because we talk about the scariest shit ever. And this is going to be a lot, but I think we should dive on into it. Let's go. I'm going to disassociate a little bit, but I'll be here.

Totally fine, totally fine, it's, 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, so it's a long time ago.

I think 51 years ago things have gotten a lot better since then, exactly, we can all feel better about that. So, on December 29th, 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 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 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 planes.

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 similar models. 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 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 get some glasses, okay, so. The additional flight crew for this particular flight included first Officer Albert Stockstill, aged 39, and second officer Donald Repo, aged 59. They both had 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. He had logged 53 hours with the simulation, 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 for Robert Loft to move the landing gear handle down 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 you won't have a very horrific bad landing, yeah, because you need the wheels to be down and locked in place.

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. Oh boy, so he tried again, still no light. So now he was concerned that something might actually 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, uh-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 p.m. To report the issue, he told them. Tower This is Eastern 401. Looks like we're going to 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 2,000 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. 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 fucking hate landing, yes.

And so I just want to get there. Once the descent begins, I'm like, just get me safely on the ground, that's the thing. And once you hear, especially, I'm sure if you have a fear of flying. Once you hear that you're ready to land, you're like, Okay, good, but then when you're about to land and I actually watched something, I'll link it.

It was like a little 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 the airport. And that's usually like the relief, like, Oh.

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 I feel for these people so much because I can feel that anxiety, that's the thing.

So Loft acknowledged the transmission 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. This autopilot could have landed the plane on its own, if necessary, like crazy.

So Stockstill acknowledged and engaged the autopilot. And then he turned his attention to 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 green panel that when the light turns on, it glows green. He took that face panel off there to see if he could literally blow into the area, unscrew the light bulb, re-screw it. This is a simple light problem.

So as 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. Like, they are having a lot of trouble and focusing very much on this light. So while that's going on, Loft then instructed 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 Bouncy house.

The ball pit from McDonald's that we all love the party Bay. Like, just don't. I just took a sip of coffee at like, the worst time ever.

Go down into the Party Bay, check that out, figure out what's going on. Don't call it the hell pit or the hell hole, don't do that.

He wanted him to go to the hell hole. A quote to visually check the alignment of the nose gear indices, I believe, is how 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 you would if the lights were on.

They didn't realize that the lights were not even on actually to check this. But as there's, it's not like they have, like cell phones with flashlights and stuff. You know, that, like, No, this is 1972. Yeah, this is a different situation completely.

And even then, I think that would most likely just reflect back at you because it's so dark, yeah. But as they're circling on 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 1139 p.m. Loft radioed 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. 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 fucking idea, dude. So, from the tower at MIA, which is at 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.

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Oh boy, yeah, so this is like user error kind of thing, completely, completely.

Okay, and we'll get into actually everything that, when the investigation was done, contributed to the crash. It's honestly it's like, it's knowing that. It's like a human error and not a thing with the plane, like a technical error. That, like, everything looked 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 to use. And you know what I mean, absolutely 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, 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 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, it's a lot.

So at 1141 p.m. the tower radioed the flight crew and instructed them to course correct because they were like, Whoa, you have 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 Stocksdale can be heard saying on the recording. We did something to the altitude. We're still at 2000 right now. A 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 coworker, Stephanie Stanich, I believe, is how you say it, and told her, Those engines don't sound right? and Stephanie replied, They sound fine. But Beverly was like, No, they absolutely do not.

And 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 Shit. At 1142 p.m. 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, on 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 the crash occurred in near total darkness and the plane itself had crashed. About 20 miles northeast of Miami International Airport and about eight miles north of. I think it's Tamiami Trail, it's a long stretch of highway that runs along the western edge of Florida. Now, the area where the plane was now was a flat marshland covered with soft mud under about six to 12 inches of swamp water.

Oh, my God. Which had helped soften the impact of the plane 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 crash. 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. 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. 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 gear word down position, meaning that it had been engaged before the crash.

And that's what told them, like they were about to land. So, a search of the electronics 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 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 shit, 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 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 shit. Because initially, obviously the sound of the crash probably sent them kind of like, going away, but now it's still. But now they're smelling blood in the water, they're seeing what's going on.

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 kidding me?

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 read?

Like, you would never, never 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 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 going to wake up.

I would, I can understand that completely. Can you imagine somebody telling you you're in a plane crash? No, like you just survived a plane crash? No.

How do you even no, like your brain must be? like, No, your brain isn't just in full survival mode, I was going to 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 rescuers, Bud Markey, 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 dark holy shit. 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. 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 above.

But he's exhausted, so as he scanned the scene around him, all he could see in the light from his headlamp 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. Oh well, I can't even fathom what would go through your mind, but this guy, Bud, is a fucking 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 shit, alligators, snakes, crocodiles. I don't know the difference, but everything, everything.

And jet fuel. He said he ended up having to treat burns on his legs for the next week. Oh my God. By then, though, one for 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 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 Don Schneck told reporters. I couldn't even see the crash. it was pitch dark.

But fortunately, Bud, a true fucking hero here, recognized the sound of helicopters and raised his headlamp toward the sky to get their attention. WOW started waving it around and then ended up waving them in the direction of a nearby levee, where they were able to land. And he ended up transporting them over to the crash site, Bud.

Yeah, fuck what a hero. He is truly a 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 began singing Christmas carols. Oh my God, are you kidding me? just to keep everybody calm? oh?

Now, at first, the singing.

That's so bleak, that's so that just fucked me up, just like...

Because it's just a stark contrast of.

You put Christmas carols next to anything dark and scary to me, and it's I'm gone. And a lot of these people were traveling for the holidays for Christmas.

For the holidays, it had just been Christmas. Yeah, people were going to Miami after Christmas to get warm and see family and celebrate with family that they hadn't seen. But 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 location. Oh, that's a good idea, too. But then it ended up like you were just saying, becoming a means of keeping people calm. Kind of a nice byproduct, exactly.

Passenger Martin Ciminero 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 worked to locate the survivors, additional helicopters ended up flying overhead to provide light while the crews worked. Now, once a survivor was located and capable of being moved. They would put that person on Bud's 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 going to die and unfortunately, he did pass away on the scene. Not too long after. Don Repo 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 of these people.

I'm sorry, what? Literally locals came out to this area, 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, Florida.

You're not okay like, you're bleeding, you're not okay. People are horrid, holy shit.

I have never heard something like that. Florida Man established 1972. Oh my god, isn't that a fucking plane crash? You show up at the scene and start stealing things off of dead bodies.

What, what? 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 fuck. Luckily, I'm sure, hopefully all the people who did that are dead now.

I would imagine if you're not, can't wait for that day, my friend. Because who? Like, what the fuck, how low do you have to be to rip something off of a dead body?

A plane crash victim, yeah, any dead body, but a plane crash victim, while other victims and survivors are being carted away. Unreal. I'm just like, my brain doesn't wrap around that.

That is shocking, unreal. It's one of the most shocking aspects to the story. Humans need to get it the fuck together, and if we haven't by now, I unfortunately don't think we will.

What a species we are. Yeah, fuck yeah, that is bleak.

That's unlike anything I've ever heard. Shit. 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.

Yeah, so the process was moving slowly.

I'm Dan Taberski. In 2011, something strange began to happen at the high school in Leroy, New York. I was like, at my locker and she came up to me and she was like, stuttering, super bad. I'm like, stop fucking around. She's like, I can't.

A mystery illness, bizarre symptoms and spreading fast, like doubling and tripling. And it's all these girls with a diagnosis. The state tried to keep on the down low. Everybody thought I was holding something back.

Well, you were holding something back intentionally. Yeah, well, yeah, it's hysteria, it's all in your head.

It's not physical. Oh my gosh, you're exaggerating. Is this the largest mass hysteria since the Witches of Salem, or is it something else entirely? Something's wrong here, something's not right.

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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 horrific. By the next morning, rescue workers had found all 77 survivors.

77 people 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 in a literal swamp. But by the afternoon of December 31st, they had found the final body buried in the thick mud of the swamp. And they were able to find that body because a hand was sticking out. In total, 99 people were killed from the crash, including two flight attendants Stephanie Stanek and Pat Gizzles. And three members of the flight crew in the cockpit, including Captain Robert Loft and second officer Don Repo, had passed away. Those who had survived were still hospitalized. 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 that, from that same mud. Because that mud was found to have an organism that can cause gas gangrene, which can literally kill a person in 48 hours, holy shit.

So 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.

That's really fucked 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 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 happen. And then have to be put into a chamber that is somewhat reminiscent of a plane 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 NTSB began its investigation to determine the cause of the crash. 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. It 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.

Yeah, so, based on the radio communications with the flight crew in 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.

What was the 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 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 and 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. The autopilot, the thing happening with the autopilot thing, exactly. And wasn't he the one that they insisted he wear glasses?

Exactly, Ah, 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 ultimatum readings explaining the accident.

So they were like, Okay, this is it. However, that theory was quickly dismissed when interviews with friends, family and coworkers reported no noticeable symptoms of impaired vision or difficulty performing his duties as a pilot before this. And then even the pathologist acknowledged that the type of tumor they had found typically presented itself in a very slow onset, giving the person ample time to adapt 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?

That's the thing. He was obviously having some vision issues. If they were, it was a necessity, they said. He had to.

Exactly so. I think it was a contributing factor, but it wasn't the only reason that makes sense, yeah.

Because obviously there was something there. Yeah, he had to wear, they forced him to wear the lenses, exactly.

So, after months of investigation, the NTSB 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 NTSB. 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 in the right position. Yes, nobody was making sure everything was...

Because that's kind of.

It popped into my head. When you said they put it on autopilot and just went about really paying attention to this other thing, it's like, Yeah, put it on autopilot. Three of you should totally be figuring out what the hell is happening, but one of you has to have eyes on that. But one of you should be sitting there, going. Okay, everything is keeping an eye on where you are, what the plane's doing, 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 very powerful and is there to, 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 not, and especially that's. I don't think it's supposed to do that in a situation where there's three people that aren't incapacitated, exactly.

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 NTSB, kind of their conclusion on this right. The nose gear position light lens assembly was removed and 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 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 fucking 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 in this cockpit.

Four even 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 maybe it could be of help, was the relatively high survival rate of the passengers. The crash of Flight 401 was, and still is, like I said, one of the worst air disasters to ever occur in the U.S.

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, and many of them suffered relatively minor injuries. That's unbelievable, truly.

Now, investigators couldn't say with 100 certainty, but they theorized that the larger section of the 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. Oh, okay.

Was that in, like, the middle of the plane? do you think, literally like the direct middle? Well, they always say, you're 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. Hmm, interesting. A lot, I think, went into it. 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 the sky abruptly into the ground, it did fall abruptly. 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 against Eastern Air.

I would have done the exact same thing. They eventually paid out more than $50 million in damages. That would be about $361 million today. Oh, damn, okay.

Yeah, 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, yes. Now, as her dreams and visions went on, they started including things like Christmas presents and holiday wreaths.

Holy shit. 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 crew 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 shit. 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 apparition 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?

Just holy shit, 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 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 plane 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 his 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 he 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, fuck, 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, holy shit. He's just looking out the window, 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 fucking flight, 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 shit 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. In 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 going to throw up or something? Yeah.

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 fuck 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 you're like, what now? 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 29th, 1972. The man that she had pointed to was second Officer Donald Repo.

Holy Shit sat next to her. I have never gotten more chills in my life than I've gotten during this story. Like, Holy shit, 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 caterers, and they're like, I'm not getting back on that plane.

Like, 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 belts. Now. Later, one of the crew members said they hadn't recognized the voice, but it was discovered that none of the flight crew had made that announcement. Holy shit.

And remember, they were most likely flying over the Everglades on the flight that crashed when they said, like, safety belts on, we're about to land, yeah, now. As time passed, there were more and more sightings, most often of loft or repo. But also unusual circumstances. That eventually led a lot of people to wonder if Flight 401 was like a jinxed number. 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 pneumonia kept him from getting on the plane that day. Holy shit. Now, 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, fuck that, so this guy wasn't even supposed to be on this flight 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 again. 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, 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.

A few days later, there was a small fire in the cockpit of the plane. Holy shit. 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. I'm covered, the chills have gone up to my scalp, my scalp has chills on it. We will not let it happen.

Oh my God, because it's like operator error and it makes me so sad. I feel like they have to make up for it. Oh my God, I know, oh.

Oh so, eventually. The reports of ghostly visitors and psychic premonitions had become so common that author and paranormal enthusiast John G. Fuller, 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 Borgnine, they just weren't super happy about it, it was just a TV film. 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, but they said absolutely not.

Alleged alleged Now, the rumors obviously could have 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 going to 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 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 then 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 get remembered and then followed through with it. Yeah, there's so many heroes in this story, 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 of those things. But I love the highlights of just people coming together and taking care of each other. And 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 with you? You've got to 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 good and 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 them, 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, my guy, Bud and all these kinds 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 fuck, I know.

It's such a tragic story, but it's also so beautiful in the end when you hear that. They were like, Well, we're never going to let this happen again. But then also so tragic that their afterlife was spent making sure that this didn't possibly happen. Trying to stop it from happening again, when it was really 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 just human error. And they had flown many, many flights that 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 going to get a little more haunted and I don't know about uplifting, but we're going to get a little more haunted. For spooky season because it's official, I think we're in spooky season. We've recorded 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, and we hope you keep it. Weird, but not so weird that 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.

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