The scene they discovered was hellish beyond all imagination. Initially, 79 people survived, as well as a dog, which was the first victim to arrive at Mercy Hospital in Hialeah. Mercy saysI have carried a darkness in my heart for as far back as 50 years: suddenly I feel that that dark cloud has lifted from my soul, just like the shadows of the night turn to golden light by the miracle of the sun rising in all it's splendor. This flight had been booked solid. A fundamentalist Christian airline pilot had even performed an exorcism on a L-1011 jet with the most ghost sightings. Naw, I dont think itll fit, said Stockstill. Although testimony from Angelo Donadeo put them on the right track, it was only after examining the contents of the black boxes including the L-1011s advanced flight data recorder, which kept track of far more parameters than contemporaneous models that the frustrating sequence of events began to emerge. Please log in if you don't want to post El comandante del vuelo era el Capitn Robert Loft, de 55 aos de edad, un piloto veterano de Eastern, acompaado por el Primer Oficial Albert Stockstill, de 39 aos y por el Segundo Oficial (ingeniero aeronutico) Donald Repo, de 51. Given the lack of training on CWS, combined with pilots trust of the automated systems, it was probably just a matter of time before an L-1011 was involved in accident or near miss due to this quirk. The white jet inched upward toward a night of stars. Upon the conclusion of its inquiry, the NTSB issued three recommendations, including that procedures be developed to allow air traffic controllers to help flight crews when an altitude deviation is noticed; that all crewmembers have seat belts and be required to wear them; and that the flashlights issued to flight-attendants be stored in a consistent and secure location where they can be found after a crash. Large altitude deviations were sometimes displayed for up to three sweeps of the radar before returning to normal. Durante los siguientes ochenta segundos el avin mantuvo su nivel de vuelo. "I always knew retailing was what I wanted. Jerry wore a gold Star of David his mother had bought him a few weeks earlier while in Israel. This altitude alert, designed to warn the pilots of an inadvertent deviation from the selected altitude, went unnoticed by the fatigued and frustrated crew. Marc Leshay, twenty one, a University of Miami student headed back to class after the holidays. Technical officer Angelo Donadeo, who had until now been silently watching, finally chimed in. What he didnt know was that the autopilot would not compensate for this drop in power by using the controls to keep the plane at 2,000 feet. La historia del accidente y sus consecuencias fue documentada primero en el libro de 1976 El fantasma del vuelo 401, escrito por John G. Fuller, y ms tarde en el libro Crash de 1977, escrito por Rob y Sarah Elder. Braving jet fuel burns on their legs, the two frog hunters jumped into the water and set about saving anyone they could. The NTSB investigation discovered that the autopilot had been inadvertently switched from altitude hold to CWS (Control Wheel Steering) mode in pitch. Ethel Jackson, 64, a housekeeper from Liberty City, brought her white uniform in a carry-on bag. While the survivors recovered from their injuries in hospital, the National Transportation Safety Board launched a major investigation to determine the cause. As rescue teams continued to arrive at the scene, more and more survivors were pulled from the battered wreckage and from the surrounding swamp. The scenes in this video are from the documentary series Air Crash Investigation.None of them belong to me.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Air_Lines_. An inspection of the wreckage revealed that the two bulbs in the nose gear light had burnt out and the gear was down and locked the whole time, but the pilots could not have known this without additional verification. Their decision to enter a holding pattern until they figured out the status of the nose gear was entirely prudent. It was later discovered that the bulb had burned out. The 55-year-old Captain Loft was a veteran pilot who had been flying for decades, a true old guard captain who had begun his career in the propeller era. Their first priority: to find anyone stuck upside down in their seats, and if their legs were still kicking, to turn them the right way around. All told, of the 176 people on board, 101 died and 75 survived. On 29 December 1972, Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 is on a flight to Miami International Airport. Not shown, Sharon Transue (she was taking the photo). Some thirty seconds later, flight 401 arrived at 2,000 feet. Back row: Pat Ghyssels, Trudy Smith, Adrianne Hamilton, Mercy Ruiz. She had been replaced by another Eastern flight attendant, Sharon Transue. MIAMI Thursday marks 50 years since Eastern Airlines Flight 401 crashed into the Florida Everglades. The crew made just two small entries on log sheet 427443: the tail skid light came on several times during the trip, and the pressure was low in the crews portable oxygen bottle. [1] Los efectos de este accidente en la industria aeronutica continan en la actualidad y derivaron en la creacin del Crew (o Cockpit) Resource Management (CRM),[2] una tcnica que requiere que las tripulaciones de vuelo dividan el trabajo en la cabina entre los tripulantes disponibles, para asegurarse de que alguien contine hacindose cargo de pilotar el avin cuando se tienen problemas. She explained that she would be happy to help any passengers with re-ticketing for return trips. Pat Ghyssels (asignada al jumpseat 3L) y Stephanie Stanich (jumpseat 4L) fallecieron en el accidente. It would hold them at 2,000 feet while they solved the landing gear problem, and whenever ATC gave them a new heading, they could enter it using the heading select knob and the plane would turn by itself. Together the crew started the L-1011s engines. Directly ahead of them were a row of seats and the first class lounge, where there were several additional empty seats and a buffet of cheese and crackers. ste se encontraba debajo de la cabina, y no hay indicaciones por los datos obtenidos en la caja negra de que el comandante haya odo el pitido. Therefore, when Captain Loft bumped the control column and accidentally disengaged the altitude hold function, the autopilot stopped holding the plane at 2,000 feet and ceded full command of altitude and descent rate to the pilots. El Flight Data Recorder permiti recuperar la siguiente conversacin: La aeronave se estrell en los Everglades, al noreste de Miami, en las cercanas del aeropuerto. The lights flickered and went out, and the pitch-black cabin filled with a cacophony of rending metal as the violent impact tore the plane apart. [4] Angelo Donadeo, el nico sobreviviente de los cuatro ocupantes de la cabina, finalmente se recuper de sus heridas y falleci el 4 de octubre de 2004. He began to doze as the seat belt sign was lighted and a voice came from the cockpit. He decided: Go. The slight forward pressure on the stick would have caused the aircraft to enter a slow descent, maintained by the CWS system. As Marquis and Dickinson used their airboat to ferry survivors to the levee, rescuers from the helicopter hurried into the apocalyptic debris field. MUC. The captain had ordered that the landing gear be lowered in preparation for landing. . To that end, he had brought computer print outs on his trip to Miami. It was when they leveled off at 2,000 feet that events began to go downhill. Final moments on Eastern Flight 401 Thirteen seconds past 11:42 p.m., the plane flew into the Everglades and crashed almost 20 miles northwest of Miami International Airport and eight miles. But when Loft attempted to lower the landing gear, there was an immediate problem: the light indicating that the nose gear was down and locked did not illuminate. El vuelo 401 de Eastern Air Lines, un Lockheed L-1011-1 Tristar de cuatro meses (el duodcimo entregado a la empresa)[4] con 163 pasajeros y trece tripulantes a bordo, parti del Aeropuerto John F. Kennedy en Nueva York el viernes 29 de diciembre de 1972 a las 9:20 p.m., con destino al Aeropuerto Internacional de Miami. 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. Initially, nothing about the aircrafts trajectory changed, since no one made any further inputs. When the crew first attempted to lower the landing gear, they received no indication that the nose gear was locked. Tambin se descubri que el Capitn Loft tena un tumor cerebral que no haba sido detectado y que ste podra haberle afectado la visin, aunque los mdicos descartaron el tumor como provocador del accidente.[1]. The investigation would paint a picture of a cockpit crew so focused on a burnt-out lightbulb that they forgot to fly the airplane, letting their massive jet slowly descend from 2,000 feet until it struck the ground. You want me to test the lights or not? he asked. Ah, Miami tower this is National 611, he said. The Eastern Iowa Airport. Mercy and I want to thank you all so very much for your contributions and participation to establish the permanent Eastern 401 Memorial Monument at Miami Springs!!!! Mercy and I have carried our 101 passengers and fellow crew members in our hearts for 50 years and will continue to do so until we meet them again. Operated by Qantas 401. She had been sitting next to the center divider, with her husband, Ron, at the aisle. Marquis sufri quemaduras en su cara, brazos y piernas, como resultado el combustible de avin esparcido en el pantano, pero continu rescatando personas del sitio durante toda la noche y el da siguiente. You better do that.. With the plane now on autopilot, all three pilots turned their attention back to the broken light bulb. Lockheed had delivered it on August 18th, and Eastern put it into service on August 21st. . Un error en el funcionamiento de la luz indicadora de la posicin del tren de aterrizaje delantero distrajo la atencin de los tripulantes hacia los instrumentos y provoc que no se notara el descenso". The other 101 people on Eastern Airlines Flight 401 died quite horribly -- 98 in the Everglades where the airplane crashed, three later in hospitals. Esta advertencia, diseada para advertirles a los pilotos de una desviacin involuntaria de la altitud seleccionada, no fue escuchada por los fatigados y frustrados tripulantes. However, the indicator light failed to show that the landing gear was locked down. This article is written without reference to and supersedes the original. Survivors - Crew and Eastern Employees La leve presin sobre la palanca puede haber causado que la aeronave comenzase un descenso lento, mantenido por el sistema automtico. Put power on it first, Bert. A computer-stored flight plan would bring the great white Whisperliner inland over West Palm Beach, and then south to Miami - a long, dense galaxy of lights glittering on a north-south axis between two black voids, the Atlantic ocean and the Everglades. Eastern Airlines Flight 401 was on its way from New York to Miami on December 29th, 1972, with 13 crew and 163 passengers onboard. 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