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Astonishing Legends Podcast
The Ghosts of Flight 401

The Ghosts of Flight 401

Astonishing Legends vor 6 Jahren

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1:39:42

At 9:20 p.m. on December 29, 1972, a Lockheed L-1011 TriStar
commercial airliner, designated as Eastern Airlines Flight 401,
departed John F. Kennedy International Airport in Queens, New
York, bound for Miami, Florida. Onboard were 13 crew
members and 163 passengers, 176 souls in all. It was a
routine trip for Flight 401 until 11:32 p.m. when the plane began
its approach to Miami International Airport, and an indicator
light for the nose landing gear had not lit up. While the
Flight Crew tried to troubleshoot the faulty indicator, the
steering yoke was accidentally nudged, causing a function of the
autopilot to begin a descent so gradually that no one had
noticed. Ten minutes later, Flight 401 crashed into the
Florida Everglades, killing five crew members and 96
passengers. It would be the first crash of a “Jumbo Jet”
and have at the time, the highest number of fatalities from any
one-plane accident in U.S. civil aviation history. But this
tragic story doesn’t end there. A legend was born citing
more than 20 accounts from EAL employees and passengers that they
had interacted with the ghosts of Captain Bob Loft and Flight
Engineer Don Repo who had perished in the crash. These
stories mostly involved other Eastern Airlines L-1011s that had
refitted parts salvaged from Flight 401. Whether out of
guilt or an unstoppable sense of duty, these apparitions
reportedly appeared to be quite lifelike and were trying to
prevent further disasters. Although Eastern Airlines
management vehemently denied these claims, due to the prevalence
of these tales in the airline community, one must wonder if there
is any truth to them. Whatever the case, whether from real
testimony or a desire to entertain, the legend of the ghosts of
Flight 401 helped to make sure the victims and survivors are not
forgotten.

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