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hey weirdos I'm Elena I'm Ash and this is morbid [Music] it is it's morbid and afternoon
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we're having a really bad week so we're just gonna try to just send Good Vibes our way all right yeah just send Good
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Vibes this way we've got a lot of family stuff going on indeed can't take a break
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for many anything so we cannot do that so we are here and we're here for you and you are here for us yeah that's all
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that matters that's all that matters exactly and honestly after you hear this story
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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
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I have a little bit of a different case today I'm going to be talking about Eastern Airlines flight 401
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um it was one of the most tragic plane crashes in the United States history oh boy still is and um but it results in
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some some interesting paranormal happenings so that's what we're going to focus on the on and that's what we're
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going to focus on in the end I can't even talk but uh before we get to that I am gonna go kind of through what really
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happened before the Paranormal yeah it started opening so I'm sorry Elena I have to be here but
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if you are scared of flying or anything like that like it's cool if you want to like just go boop boop to the end and
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hear the Paranormal stuff I think yeah if you have any kind of phobia uh that is flight related or playing crash
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related if you have any phobia I really I don't think you should be here because
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we talk about the scariest [ __ ] ever and this is gonna be a lot but yeah I think
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we should dive on into it let's go I'm gonna disassociate a little bit totally I'll be here totally fine it's
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I found it interesting to kind of get into the mechanics of planes and it weirdly made me feel better about this
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because this was just kind of user error and it's from like the 70s 72 ago I think 51. things have
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gotten a lot better since then exactly you can all feel better about that so on December 29 1972 Eastern Airlines
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flight 401 it was scheduled to depart from JFK John F Kennedy International Airport in Jamaica New York at about 9
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20 p.m and it was bound for the Miami International Airport on what would roughly be or uh what would be roughly a
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three-hour flight yeah now the aircraft it was a Lockheed l-101101 TriStar it was a newly
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constructed medium to long range passenger passenger jet and the airline had actually just bought this uh
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aircraft about five months earlier oh so brand new brand new actually this kind of plane was very state of the art at
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the time in and Eastern Airlines was the first airline to even buy one of these wow
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they purchased their first one on April in April of 1972 and the one Bound for Florida that December evening had passed
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every inspection that they'd done on it it was up to date with all of the Federal Aviation Administration
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guidelines everything and by December 1972 this particular jet had accumulated 936 hours of flight time had landed 502
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times and that was pretty standard for several similar models okay so the captain scheduled for that evening was
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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
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since 1951 after you know doing all his training and everything and earlier that
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year actually he had passed the l-1011 simulation tests and even in the months leading up to
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this particular flight he had great ratings from every instructor he had they all sang his Praises I wish this
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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
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aircraft and procedures but one thing that they did insist upon was that he get corrective lenses before piloting a
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mid-sized aircraft oh okay they were very adamant that he gets some glasses okay so the additional flight crew for
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this particular flight included first officer Albert stockstill aged 39 and Second Officer Donald repo age 59. they
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both had similar a similar level of experience to Robert Loft they had also recently passed all the qualifying
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training and exams to Pilot this l-1011 The Only Thing Worth pointing out I suppose is that Donald repo's time with
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the l-1011 simulator it was about a quarter of that of the other two Airmen just uh he had logged 53 hours with the
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simulation okay so a bit less now in the 24 hours before flight 401's departure every single member of the
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flight crew had 14 hours of rest since their last nine hour shift per FAA regulations all 10 flight attendants had
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also received proper training and they were fully qualified and also in accordance with the faa's regulations
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for their positions okay so everybody was qualified yes once all 163 passengers had taken their
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seats Captain Loft was given clearance to depart and the plane took off for Miami just a little after 9 20 that
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night the flight was very uneventful everything was going swimmingly until the flight crew began preparing for
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their descent into the Miami International Airport so the first step in the process to land or get ready for
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landing was uh for Robert Loft to move the landing gear handle down and into the
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downward position which would prepare for the landing but when he did that the green light which would notify the crew
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that the wheels were locked in their landing position that light didn't come on and that light has got to come on for
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you to know that everything is locked and like you won't have a very horrific bad landing yeah because you need you
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need the wheels to be done and locked and yeah they can't bounce back up right that's what that light was supposed to
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be indicating so the light was burned out like it wasn't a working light it wasn't working at the moment so good boy
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so he tried again still no light so now he was concerned that something might actually he didn't it didn't maybe
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occur to him at this moment that it could be the light that had burned out something said to him maybe something's
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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
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like oh like something's wrong with the actual landing gear exactly and you would be probably right if you were a
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pilot so he did radio the tower at Miami International at 11 34 pm to report the
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issue he told them uh Tower this is Eastern 401 looks like we're gonna have to Circle we don't have a light on our
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nose gear yet so the air traffic controllers from Miami Airport responded a few seconds
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later and they just said climb straight ahead to 2000 feet and then they instructed them to begin The Descent
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again after that thinking it would give them ample time to work out whatever was holding up the
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release of this landing gear okay so one minute later Loft radioed this Tower again said they were back in position
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above the airport but still were unable to get that green light on the nose gear
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now luckily the aircraft was not in any danger of running out of fuel so Loft and his crew were advised to just turn
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around and begin The Descent pattern a third time once they worked out the problem this is already a nightmare to
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me because I [ __ ] hate Landing yes and so I just want to get there once once The Descent begins I'm like just
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get me safely on the ground that's the thing and once you hear especially I I'm sure if you have a fear of flying once
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you hear that you're ready to land you're like there's a room like good yeah but then when you're about to land
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and you and I actually watch something I'll link it it was like a little uh show about this I'll link it in the show
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notes and a man who was on board that night he ended up Surviving this crash and he said he could tell something was
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wrong based on the fact that they kept going away because they saw the lights of the airport when they were headed
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over there that's usually like the relief like huh and then they started moving away from the airport and he said
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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
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so a feel for these people so much because I can feel that anxiety that's the thing so Loft acknowledged the
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transmission from the from the tower there and then he instructed first officer Albert stockstill who was still
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flying the plane to turn on the autopilot and attempt to fix whatever was causing this problem with the
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landing gear and the light now at this time and this was 1972 remind you this kind of plane actually had the most
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sophisticated autopilot in history wow this autopilot could have landed the plane on its own if necessary damn like
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crazy so stock still acknowledged and engaged the autopilot and then he turned his
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attention to the the light there that they were having issues with and he pulled the face plate off of the nose
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gear light assembly light lens assembly which is literally just the little like green panel that yeah when the light
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turns on it glows green he took that that face panel off there to see if he could like literally blow into the area
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unscrew the light bulb please screw it like this is a simple light problem yeah so as he he did that and then he starts
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reassembling the panel but as he was doing so the light lens got jammed and he struggled to even get it back into
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place oh like they are having a lot of trouble and focusing very much on this light
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so while that's going on Loft then instructed a Second Officer Donald repo to go down into the forward Electronics
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Bay which on this particular plane is right below the flight deck and it's also referred to as the hell hole the
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hell hole they literally call this place the hell hole my guys don't call anything on a plane
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anything that's even remotely connotated as anything negative never always make it like the the bouncy house from
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McDonald's that we all love the party Bay like just don't do I just Chuck a sip of coffee at like the worst time
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ever go down into the party bag go check that out like figure out what's going on
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don't call it the hell pitch or the hell don't do that he wanted him to go to that hellhole quote to visually check
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the alignment of the note uh nose gear in dices I believe so you say that so basically they're trying to stay calm
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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
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position I was wondering if they would be able to do that like visually that you would if the lights were on eek uh
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they didn't realize that the lights were not even on actually to check this but as they sell like they have like cell
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phones with flashlights and stuff 1972. yeah this is a different situation completely and even then I think that
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would most likely just reflect back at you exactly so dark yeah but as they're circling onto autopilot they still can't
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figure out why this light isn't Illuminating they can't tell if their landing gear is engaged which that's
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what Donald repo was going down to check but the lights hadn't been turned on to
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see that particular like Vantage Point thing I guess now at 11 39 PM Loft radio the Miami tower crew
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once again to report that they were still trying to correct the problem and that after that was when he sent Donald
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repo back into the electronics Bay to check everything for a second time I think that was once they realized that
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they hadn't turned the lights on for him to even check him but two minutes later
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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
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little light I get nothing wow so he's basically saying I have no [ __ ] idea dude
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so from the tower at Mia which is a Miami International the traffic controllers noticed that even though
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they had told the pilots to maintain an altitude of 2000 feet the plane had started to descend in the last minute or
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two since they had last spoken at first it had just dropped a couple hundred feet but then there was a second drop of
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about 900 feet now this is terrifying so I'm sorry Elena and everybody else but what flight
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401 the crew didn't realize was that as they were all focused on the landing gear extension light and trying to fix
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this problem somehow the autopilot program had disengaged and the Jet was free-flying with nobody at the helm oh
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boy yeah so this is like user error kind of completely completely like and we'll
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we'll get into actually everything that when the investigation was done contributed to the crash it's honestly
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it's it's like it's knowing that it's like a human error and not a a thing with the play like a technical like
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everything look great on the plane and then oops it just broke it's like that's that's for some reason scarier to me
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yeah because I feel like they must have learned something from this experience yeah you use and you know what I mean
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like human errors you learn from a mechanical error sometimes it's like hope that doesn't happen again you know
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like it's just one of those things like right so I guess this is like something that at least I hope they took a lot
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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
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tragic uh 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
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lot and when you uh it's a lot so at 11 41 PM the tower radioed the flight crew and instructed them to
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course correct because they were like whoa you're like what's happening veered off Loft acknowledged and requested
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permission to get back into position for their descent but didn't still didn't realize that they had free Fallen as
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much as they had about 20 seconds later there was another transmission that came
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in from Flight 401 where stock still can be heard saying on the recording we did
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something to the altitude we're still at 2000 right that was second or two later loft's
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voice can be heard on the recording shouting hey what's happening before the transmission just cut out entirely oh I
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hate that so in the cabin flight attendant Beverly Raposa thought that she heard an unusual sound and it was
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the engines she looked over to her co-worker Stephanie stanich I believe is how you say it and told her those
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engines don't sound right and Stephanie replied this they sound fine but Beverly
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was like no they absolutely do not in just seconds before the plane tilted violently forward and began a rapid
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descent Beverly looked at Stephanie and said no they don't oh boy now just after that flight 401
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eventually crashed violently into the densely forested swamps of the Florida Everglades holy [ __ ] at 11 42 PM just a
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second or two after the last transmission went out to Miami International the last transmission to the aircraft
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from the airport's Tower actually went unanswered and another plane ended up radioing the tower to say that they had
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just seen a great flash out west and they weren't sure what it was but they wanted to report it
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that flash was part of the plane exploding as it crashed so in the evening of December 29th the
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temperature in Miami was a mild 72 degrees with clear weather and unrestricted visibility it was a perfect
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night other than the fact that there was no moon that night so of course the crash
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occurred in near total darkness now and the plane itself had crashed about 20 miles Northeast of Miami
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International Airport and about eight miles north of uh I think it's Tommy's uh Tamiami Trail it's a long
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stretch of highway that runs along the western end of edge of Florida okay now the area where the plane was now was a
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flat Marshland covered with soft mud under about 6 to 12 inches of swamp water oh my God which had helped soft in
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the soften the impact of the plane that when it hit the ground but it should be said that it was not an easier Landing
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because of this it was very much still a plane horrific in fact when the plane struck on the earth the left outer wing
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hit first then the main engine and then the left portion of the landing gear and
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that caused the plane that area of the plane to disintegrate into pieces and that destroyed almost every section of
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the passenger compartment oh now on top of that when the wing hit the muddy Earth it sent the plane into a pinwheel
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motion and that impact broke the plane into four sections which then scattered luggage and debris across an area of
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about 1600 feet long and 300 feet wide cool so people and things were just scattered everywhere
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later when investigators surveyed the wreckage they found the right landing gear to be down and in a locked position
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and then the right had been actually torn from the plane and the landing gear lever in the cockpit was still in the
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gearward down position meaning that it had been engaged before the crash and that's what told them like they were
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about to land oh so a search of the electronic split uh bay found that the visual indicator site and Wheel wall
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service light assembly were both fully operational and most disturbingly the bulbs in the
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nose gear assembly which had been the initial source of the trouble for Flight 401 had simply burned out so that's it
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it was just burned out light bulbs this entire crash came down to a 12 burned out light bulb
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wow wild so now the passengers who did manage to survive and there were quite a few that survived from this plane crash
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that's unbelievable because it's such a big plane it's actually called a jumbo jet oh okay that like while many people
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died a lot survived and now we're literally in a nightmare scenario some were still strapped into their seats
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others had been thrown from the row and everybody like I said found themselves either sitting or lying in a mix of
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Muddy swamp water that now had jet fuel leaking into it from the wreckage oh my God almost 22 tons of jet fuel had
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leaked into the swamp holy [ __ ] yeah one passenger Ron Infantino when he realized what was
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happening he started to panic and he called out to his new wife Lily they had been married 20 days earlier and she had
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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
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crash caused him to break his arm his knee and he his chest was wounded and all he could do was sit there helpless
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as he quote heard alligators and snakes Splash around him because remember they're in the Florida Everglades and
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now there's all these people who are injured and deceased yup and these alligators are like it's feeding time
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yeah holy [ __ ] because initially obviously the sound of the crash probably sent them kind of like yeah
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going away but now it's still smelling blood in the water they're seeing what's going like this is a true nightmare
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scenario and truly really really sadly Ron later found out that his wife Lily had passed away during the crash and was
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inconsolable for many reasons one being that they had switched seats at one point are you before the crash which I
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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
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to the bathroom and when whoever came back they switched seats how do you and it's like how do you
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write like you would never know or in a million years no of course you would hang on to that that's the thing it's
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absolutely terrible so in another part of the swamp flight attendant Mercy Ruiz regained Consciousness and found herself
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shivering and soaked with kerosene she was completely unable to move because she had fractured her pelvis
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Beverly Raposa who knew they were going down she survived the crash and she was laying nearby as Mercy looked over her
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to her and asked what happened and Beverly told her we crashed and mercy simply couldn't comprehend what she
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meant she said no we didn't crash it's a bad dream we're gonna wake up uh I would
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I can understand that completely can you imagine somebody telling you you're in a
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plane crash no I think you just survived a plane crash no how do you even know like your brain must be like no your
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brain isn't just your full survival mode I was gonna say it's in total survival it's just like no you didn't exactly
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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
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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
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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
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was bad now while Beverly Raposa did what she could to make everybody around her
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comfortable in the immediate aftermath of the crash the first of of Rescuers but
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um Mark Marquis I believe it is and his friend actually arrived on scene he had been out that night on the swamp
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in his airboat he was actually teaching his friend how to hunt frogs and he saw the bright flash of light when the plane
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hit and actually ended up steering the boat in the direction of the crash to see if he could help anybody all he had
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to guide him was the light of his headlamp to guide him through the through the dark holy [ __ ] and so he
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would travel a short distance and then cut the engine to listen for sound but he was so afraid to run over any bodies
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that he would just like move a little bit at a time now finally when he cut the engine for
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the fourth or fifth time he and his friend could hear distant chaos he said first it was a faint moaning and then he
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started to hear screams for help oh now the first thing he heard when they reached the crash site was a man
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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
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muddy water to pull the man out before he drowned because this man was literally lying in the water just like
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trying to keep his head up trying not to brown he's exhausted oh so as he scanned
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the scene around him all he could see in the light from his head lamp was just Twisted Metal and bodies everywhere oh
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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 well I I
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can't even fathom what would go through your mind but this guy bud is a [ __ ] hero he literally took all of that upon
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himself and then secondly when he hopped into the swamp because of the jet fuel his legs started burning instantly and
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he still managed to Wade through the water and help whoever he could and he's in there with like alligators and
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alligators I don't know the difference but everything everything and jet fuel oh he said he ended up having to treat
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burns on his legs for the next week oh my God by then though for the the win oh and without him the Coast Guard it would
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have taken them even longer to get to where they were because where the landing area was for them was like far
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away from where the crash actually happened so without the use of his airboat they would have been sitting
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there trying to figure out how to even get to the the plane crash site oh my God now by then the Coast Guard they had
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been alerted to the crash and they dispatched helicopters to search for the wreck and actually they wouldn't have
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even been able to find them because it was so dark the swamp had extinguished the fire and again because there was no
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moon that night and then combined with the density of the forest it obscured the location where the plane had crashed
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wow so petty officer John schneck told reporters I couldn't even see the crash it was pitch dark but fortunately Bud a
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true [ __ ] hero here recognized the sound of helicopters and raised his head lamp toward the sky to get their
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attention started waving it around and then ended up waving them in the direction of a nearby Levy where they
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were able to land and he ended up transporting them over to the crash site but yeah [ __ ] what a Hero true hero in
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every sense of the word one of the main heroes in this story now while the First
00:25:17
Responders started making their way around the scene of the accident flight attendants Beverly Raposa and Pat
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Georgia gathered those survivors who could move and the group in again singing Christmas carols oh my God are
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you kidding me just to keep everybody calm oh no at first that's so that's so that
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just [ __ ] me up because it's just a stark contrast oh Christmas carols next to anything dark and scary to me and
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it's I'm I'm gone and a lot of these people were traveling for the holidays it had just been Christmas like people
00:25:53
were going to Miami after Christmas to get warm and see family and celebrate with family that they hadn't seen But
00:26:00
like they're just trying to do anything they can to bring any kind of lightness to this and at first the thing was the
00:26:06
singing was actually intended to help Rescuers find their locations that's a good idea too but then it ended up like
00:26:12
you were just saying becoming a means of keeping people's problems exactly passenger uh Martin seminaro told
00:26:18
reporters after they'd been rescued it was nice people controlled themselves very well I've seen movies about this
00:26:23
sort of thing but it was nothing like this oh wow like they all just banded together I'm just saying Christmas
00:26:28
carols yeah so while ground Crews work to locate the survivors additional helicopters ended up flying overhead to
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provide light while the crews worked now once the Survivor was located and capable of being moved they would put
00:26:42
that person on bud um buds airboat and then take them to land where they could then be
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transported to the nearest hospital one of the first survivors discovered who was still sitting in the cockpit was
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Captain Robert Loft damn he was not in good condition though he had lacerations all over him and it was clear to one of
00:27:03
the First Responders schneck that he had broken ribs as well and schneck looked at him and said like hold on there's
00:27:10
more people coming but Captain Loft told him I'm gonna die oh and unfortunately he did pass away on the scene not too
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long after Don repo also also survived the crash and was taken to the hospital but he later passed in the hospital due
00:27:24
to his injuries so Rescuers were just watching in horror as several locals descended upon the
00:27:31
scene they had made their way to the site and began looting the bodies I'm sorry what
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literally locals came out to the Florida locals Florida men and started looting the bodies schneck told reporters I saw
00:27:47
them taking watches and things from dead people but what can you do we were there
00:27:51
trying to help their survivors and get them out of there so they couldn't even stop them because they were like we have
00:27:57
to just deal with the surviving members here Florida you're not okay you're not okay like like you're you're bleeding
00:28:05
you're not okay people are horrid holy [ __ ] I have never heard something like that Florida man established 1972. oh my
00:28:17
God isn't that a [ __ ] plane crash you show up at the scene and start stealing things off of dead bodies one
00:28:28
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 [ __ ]
00:28:37
luckily I'm sure hopefully all the people who did that are dead now I I would imagine if you're not
00:28:43
can't wait for that day my friend just like what the [ __ ] how low do you have to be to wipe something off of a dead
00:28:52
body a plane crash victim yeah any dead body but a plane crash victim While others victims and survivors are being
00:29:02
carted away unreal I'm just like my brain doesn't wrap around that that is shocking unreal
00:29:11
that's one of the most shocking amazing to the story humans need to get it the [ __ ] together and if we haven't by now
00:29:19
and fortunately what a species we are yeah [ __ ] yeah that is Bleak that's unlike anything
00:29:27
I've ever heard [ __ ] so Cruz worked through the night to locate the living and slowly move them out of the swamp
00:29:33
they had been instructed by the FAA to leave the dead and focus only on the living for the time being but at first
00:29:40
telling the living from the dead was difficult so the process was moving slowly eventually and very unfortunately the
00:29:48
bodies of those who had passed away began to sink under the water and those who were still living were able to be
00:29:55
identified and rescued more easily once that started happening which is just this is horrific really horrific by the
00:30:02
next morning rescue workers had found all 77 survivors wow 77 people damn survived which is wild and in the days
00:30:13
that followed a new crew was brought in to find the bodies of those who had not been so fortunate the process was really
00:30:19
slow due to the environment yeah they're in a swamp in a literal swamp but by the
00:30:23
afternoon of December 31st they had found the final body wow buried in the thick mud of the swamp and they were
00:30:29
able to find that body because a hand was sticking out oh my God in total 99 people were killed from the crash
00:30:37
including two flight attendants Stephanie Stanek and Pat gizzles and three members of the the flight crew in
00:30:44
the cockpit including cap Captain Robert Loft and Second Officer Don repo had passed away wow now those who had
00:30:51
survived were still hospitaled hospitalized sorry and then learned that they actually may have gotten a
00:30:57
life-threatening infection from the very mud that had clogged their wounds in the
00:31:02
swamp and saved them shut up because the Mud may have helped save their lives by
00:31:07
clogging their open wounds but then they got an infection from from that same mud
00:31:13
because that mud was found to have an organism that can cause gas Gang Green which can literally kill a person in 48
00:31:21
hours holy [ __ ] so it turned out that eight of the survivors who had uh it turned out
00:31:28
that eight of the survivors had been infected with this one of whom was Ron Infantino who had lost his wife Lily oh
00:31:35
my God he was told that if doctors couldn't locate a hyperbaric chamber for the gangrene to be treated they would
00:31:41
have to amputate his arm so this man got married 20 days prior to this plane crash
00:31:48
was feeling inconsolable from losing his wife switched seats with her so was blaming himself and then was told we
00:31:55
might have to amputate your arm it honestly doesn't get more Bleak than that like that's really [ __ ] up now
00:32:02
luckily they were able to find a chamber for him at a Navy base in Panama City and once he was transported there he
00:32:08
spent 40 hours in the chamber where and what happens when you have this particular infection is that they put
00:32:14
you in a hyper hyperbaric chamber and they put pressurized oxygen into the chamber and that's the only way to kill
00:32:23
this bacteria my God but imagine surviving a plane crash having every all of what I just mentioned happened and
00:32:32
then have to be put into a chamber that is somewhat reminiscent of a plane yeah after crashing one days earlier talk
00:32:39
about traumatic I can't even wow but luckily his arm was able to be saved now just weeks after the crash the
00:32:49
national Transportation safety board and TSB began its investigation to determine
00:32:53
the cross the cause of the crash sorry and what if any measures could be taken to avoid anything similar happening like
00:33:00
to avoid any similar catastrophes now at the time this was the first ever quote-unquote jumbo jet to crash and the
00:33:09
number of people who died it was actually the largest U.S civil aviation was the largest amount of people in U.S
00:33:16
civil aviation history wow so there was a lot of pressure on these investigators
00:33:21
to find out exactly what happened to think that it was a light bulb yeah and yeah so based on the radio
00:33:30
communications with the flight crew and the moments leading up to the crash investigators knew that they were having
00:33:35
a problem with the landing gear so they reviewed the Black Box data but that indicated that the aircraft was working
00:33:42
properly yeah there was nothing wrong with the landing gear oh is it mechanical according to the report the
00:33:47
aircraft power plants airframes electrical and pilot static instruments flight controls and hydraulic and
00:33:53
electrical systems were not factors contributing to this incident wow and that is directly from the NTSB
00:34:00
now having ruled out mechanical mechanical failure and acts of God investigators were left with only one
00:34:06
other cause operator error wow so during the investigation the NTSB reviewed the
00:34:12
autopsies and the medical histories of two members of the flight crew who had died in the crash at this point Don
00:34:18
repo's autopsy in history turned up really nothing significant but the postmortem examination of Captain Loft
00:34:25
did show that there was actually a tumor in his cranial cavity which the medical
00:34:30
examiner noted quote could have affected the captain's Vision particularly where
00:34:35
peripheral vision was concerned oh now that means he's looking at that light he's not seeing in his peripheral yeah
00:34:45
the the um autopilot happening with the autopilot thing exactly and wasn't he the one that they insisted he wear
00:34:51
glasses exactly uh so he so it sounds like he was obviously having difficulty with some parts of his vision well we're
00:34:59
not so sure because then it kind of gets tipped on its head so given the pathologist's findings the NTSB
00:35:06
investigators they did theorize that Captain loft's Vision could be impaired to the extent that he didn't notice the
00:35:12
changes to the alt uh ultimate readings explaining the accident so they were like okay this is it
00:35:19
however that theory was quickly dismissed when interviews with friends family and co-workers reported no
00:35:25
noticeable symptoms of impaired Vision or difficulty performing his duties as a pilot before this and then even the
00:35:32
Pathologists acknowledge that the type of tumor they had found typically presented itself in a very slow onset
00:35:39
giving the person ample time to adopt and compensate for any changes so then they said it was unlikely to be the
00:35:45
cause but then why did they need him to wear corrective lenses he was obviously having some Vision issues if they were
00:35:51
they it was a yes that had to exactly so I think it was in that it was a contributing factor but it wasn't the
00:35:59
only reason that makes sense yeah so as obviously there was something there yeah
00:36:03
he had to work they forced him to wear the lenses exactly so after months of Investigation the ntsp came to the
00:36:10
conclusion that the crash of Flight 401 was the result of a Confluence of Highly
00:36:15
unusual occurrences and errors that could ultimately be chalked up to lack of vigilance among the flight crew sadly
00:36:22
and the following were all taken into consideration and this is from the ntesb so one the approach and Landing routine
00:36:29
was interrupted by abnormal gear indication so that's the light yeah the autopilot was engaged to reduce workload
00:36:36
but positive delegation of aircraft control was not accomplished so they didn't put someone to make sure that
00:36:44
that autopilot was sitting nobody was musician nobody was making sure everything was because that's kind it it
00:36:51
popped into my head when you said like they they put it on autopilot and just went about really paying attention to
00:36:56
this other thing it's like yeah like put it on autopilot for sure it should totally be
00:37:01
figuring out what the hell's happening but one of you has to have on you should be sitting there going okay everything
00:37:07
is like keeping an eye on where you are what the plane's doing what the else what the altitude is doing what that
00:37:13
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
00:37:19
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
00:37:27
itself yeah it's like that autopilot is is there for that reason there too like you said it could Land by itself but you
00:37:34
have to be sitting there monitoring it yeah it's just like it's really nuts and especially that's it I don't think it's
00:37:40
supposed to do that in a situation where there's three people that aren't incapacitated exactly you know they did
00:37:45
find out after that there were certain issues with the autopilot on these particular Jets because it was so new
00:37:52
but they also found that pilots in previous flights on this particular jet had relied too much on the autopilot in a
00:38:02
survey they also again going back to the NT uh SB kind of their conclusion on this right the nose gear position light
00:38:11
lens assembly was removed and re-uh incorrectly reinstalled the captain divided his attention between attempts
00:38:18
to help the first officer and orders to the other crew members to try other approaches to the problem and finally
00:38:24
the flight crew devoted approximately four minutes to the distraction with minimal regard for the other flight
00:38:30
requirements yeah so essentially far too much Manpower and time was put to this one tiny problem and not delegated
00:38:40
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
00:38:46
pilot no way I can't imagine being a pilot to me it's like one of the scariest and most impressive [ __ ] kid
00:38:52
for jobs you could have and it's like so I don't know what you're supposed to be
00:38:56
doing but it just logically it makes sense to me that if there's more than one person and none of you are
00:39:01
incapacitated at the moment that you need to delegate that stuff to that's the thing because they're having eyes
00:39:06
everywhere there were four people four even so exactly yeah now in more simple terms essentially and I think we've made
00:39:13
it pretty clear the flight crew was so preoccupied with the failure of the nose gear indicator light and didn't notice
00:39:19
when without realizing it one of them had most likely accidentally bumped the autopilot control and turned the program
00:39:25
off that's chilling chilling that's really chilling now the second thing that investigators did want to look into
00:39:31
because May maybe it could be of help was the relatively High survival rate of the passengers yeah the crash of Flight
00:39:37
401 was and still is like I said one of the worst air disasters to ever occur in
00:39:42
the US and it did result in total loss of this particular aircraft but it was still surprising to investigators that
00:39:49
nearly half of the passengers lived yeah and many of them suffered relatively minor injuries that's
00:39:55
unbelievable truly now investigators couldn't say with a hundred percent certainty but they theorized that the
00:40:02
larger section of the uh mid fuselage I believe is how you say it that's where most of the survivors were seated it
00:40:09
managed to stay intact quote until the velocity was considerably reduced or until these sections came to a stop wow
00:40:16
so people seated in that section sustained way fewer injuries than those in other sections where the aircraft
00:40:22
broke apart okay literally like the direction like well they always say your safest where the
00:40:29
wings are and I think that could be why ah interesting now investigators also believed that the relatively new design
00:40:36
of the seat which quote Incorporated energy absorbers into the support structure could also explain the high
00:40:42
number of survivors interesting a lot I think went into it yeah I also think because the plane had been descending
00:40:49
for so long yeah it wasn't as high it didn't fall from like 2 000 feet in this guy abruptly into the ground round it
00:40:56
did fall it was dropping at a different rate exactly now after the release of the ntsb's
00:41:03
report on the investigation many survivors and family members of those who had not survived did file lawsuits
00:41:10
again yeah against Eastern air I would have done the exact same thing they eventually paid out more than 50 million
00:41:15
dollars in Damages that would be about 361 million today oh damn okay yeah so they paid a pretty penny now the tragedy
00:41:25
of Flight 401 was almost immediately incorporated into Florida's folklore but what is surprising is actually that the
00:41:32
supernatural phenomenon around this case started happening even before the flight
00:41:37
had taken off huh according to local Florida writer Greg Jenkins one of the flight attendants who was actually
00:41:44
scheduled to work on flight 401 started having nightmares and what she believed were psychic visions of the catastrophic
00:41:52
crash in early December wow now during these nightmares quote she heard sobbing and crying and echoing in her head and
00:42:00
eventually her dreams became so strong and Vivid that she started telling her friends and her colleagues about them
00:42:06
she said that she was completely convinced quote a Lockheed TriStar jet would be approaching the Miami
00:42:12
International Airport and crash killing everyone what yes now as her dreams and Visions went on they started including
00:42:20
things like Christmas present presents and holiday wreaths holy [ __ ] and that led her to believe that whatever was
00:42:25
going to happen it was likely to happen soon that's horrifying so on December 29th there was a last minute change in
00:42:32
Cruise schedules and that resulted in several flight attendants being put on this particular flight at the last
00:42:38
minute and three of them including this particular woman who had these premonitions about the accident ended up
00:42:45
declining the shift wow because she had talked to them and they were so freaked out about her dreams and Visions holy
00:42:52
[ __ ] and the woman who had been having these nightmares she actually didn't work at all that night because she was
00:42:58
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
00:43:04
sense the Christmas presents the holiday wreaths and the operation she had seen of quote hands stretched outward then
00:43:10
disappearing forever with muffled screams that's literally how the last body was
00:43:16
found a hand stretched upward my whole body is just gone can you imagine holy [ __ ] according
00:43:25
to author Greg Jenkins who wrote Florida's ghostly Legends and haunted folklore the first report of an
00:43:31
apparition associated with flight 401 which are quite frequent uh were quite frequent afterwards the first one was
00:43:38
from Eastern Air's own vice president he had boarded a flight to Miami just months after the crash on the exact same
00:43:46
kind of plane now some people actually said that this plane that he was on was made from
00:43:52
recycled parts of the plane that had crashed but Eastern Airlines was adamant that they never recycled any parts for
00:43:59
new aircrafts okay it is highly debated in this story but it is simply alleged okay also Eastern Airlines doesn't exist
00:44:07
anymore so whatever but still same kind of plain and same route that this guy was getting on no thank you no but
00:44:14
anyway this man vice president of Eastern air boards the plane at JFK in New York and he takes a seat in the
00:44:21
first class section of the plane and he noticed that he was sitting next to one of Eastern's pilots and he said this
00:44:26
guy's quote eyes were fixated on something outside the window so we ended up trying to make
00:44:31
conversation with the man but he said this man was so focused on something outside the window and when he finally
00:44:37
did look back the vice president first noticed quote the sad pale face before realizing he was staring at none other
00:44:45
than the Late Captain Robert Loft oh [ __ ] he said he quote got the feeling one gets when discovering a dead body or
00:44:52
seeing a ghost and he said just seconds later this vision of Loft literally evaporated right before his eyes and it
00:45:01
freaked him out so badly that he actually hopped out of his seat and alerted the flight attendant even went
00:45:07
out to the ticket agency to see who had been seated next to him on the flight and according to author John Fuller
00:45:13
quote a complete search of the plane and the area was made but there was no sign
00:45:18
of the man who resembled Loft and there were no other Eastern employees on the flight that day shut up
00:45:25
oh [ __ ] now he's just looking out the window like like that's just like sadly looking out the window it looked like he
00:45:34
was probably looking out the window at them doing their like before takeoff routines making sure everybody was
00:45:39
getting it right because remember same [ __ ] flight oh my whole body is chilling wild now according to Fuller
00:45:46
additional sightings of Loft followed soon after most often on flights from JFK to Miami for obvious reasons but
00:45:53
many of those who spotted the apparitions were actually Eastern Airline employees themselves several of
00:45:59
whom had worked with Loft on multiple occasions and they were always were shocked to see his face because they
00:46:04
knew what had happened there were actually so many sightings that allegedly Eastern Airlines warned their
00:46:11
employees not to speak about it wow they started happening so frequently holy [ __ ] now while Captain Loft was like I
00:46:18
said a frequently reported sighting on Eastern flights before long there were other ghosts reported including that of
00:46:24
Second Officer Donald repo and one instance a passenger traveling on Eastern Air Flight 318 which was also an
00:46:32
l-1011 aircraft they reported sitting next to an Eastern employee on her flight to Miami and she said she noticed
00:46:39
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
00:46:45
not respond to her and just kept looking straight ahead and still concerned the woman pushed the call button to get the
00:46:51
flight attendant because she's like something's wrong with this guy like I don't is he gonna throw up or something
00:46:56
by the time the flight attendant arrived the man next to her had simply disappeared no gone no can you imagine
00:47:05
no I can't now later when the plan landed because then this poor woman actually went through with the flight
00:47:11
yeah just like what the [ __ ] did I just see like what is that like I said earlier like almost a four-hour flight I
00:47:16
think you're just like what like what the flight attendant asked the woman if she wanted to look over some recent
00:47:22
photos of Eastern air employees because she's like who did you see and the woman
00:47:26
agreed and eventually they came across a group photo of Eastern pilots and one of
00:47:32
those Pilots the woman pointed to and she said that was the man sitting next to me that was absolutely him and the
00:47:37
flight attendant and the woman were both stunned when they turned the photo over
00:47:41
and saw the inscription which read in Memorial Flight 401 December 29 1972. the man that she had pointed to was
00:47:50
Second Officer Donald Ripa holy [ __ ] sat next to her I've never gotten more chills in my life than I've gotten
00:47:58
during this story like holy [ __ ] this story is insane wow now strangely in the
00:48:03
years that passed and remember this previous thing happened on Flight 318 but it seems that Flight 318 became a
00:48:11
frequent host for Spirits with a connection to flight 401 in one instance a crew of Marriott Caterers loaded food
00:48:18
into the gallery and left that's what they were doing and then they all left the plane abruptly and refused to get
00:48:25
back on board and the flight crew was like what is going on and they quote told them that they saw a flight
00:48:31
engineer standing in the galley who instantly disappeared right before their eyes and that's like a group of people
00:48:36
being like uh just a group of caters and they're like I'm not getting back on that plane no no then on another flight
00:48:44
from New York to Miami while the aircraft was flying over the Everglades a male voice came over the PA and
00:48:50
announced that they'd be landing soon instructing everyone to fasten their safety bill results
00:48:54
now later one of the crew members said they they hadn't recognized the voice but it was discovered that none of the
00:49:01
flight crew had made that announcement holy [ __ ] and remember they were most likely flying over the Everglades on the
00:49:07
flight that crashed when they said like like safety yeah belts on were about to land yeah
00:49:14
now as time passed there were more and more sightings most often of laughter uh repo but also unusual circumstances that
00:49:22
eventually led a lot of people to wonder if flight 401 was like a jinxed number huh this became a source of serious
00:49:29
speculation in 1980 when Eastern Air flight 401 from New York to Miami was hijacked and it was flown to Cuba with
00:49:39
225 passengers on board for passenger Jerry Steinem the hijacking was especially troubling because in 1972 he
00:49:48
had traveled to New York and he was scheduled to return to Miami on board Flight 401 that had crashed but a bout
00:49:56
of a pneumonia kept him from getting on the plane that day holy [ __ ] no eight years later here he was in New York
00:50:03
again this time for a wedding and he was planning to return on air Florida but on
00:50:07
the morning of the flight he overslept and had to take a different flight ended up on this particular Eastern Air flight
00:50:15
401 which was then hijacked oh [ __ ] that so this guy wasn't even supposed to be
00:50:21
on this fight in the first place yeah I don't like that and had almost been on the plane that crashed damn
00:50:28
which I would be like I'm never flying yeah that would be the end of me flying so reports of supernatural phenomena
00:50:34
related to Flight 401 they were vague but they did happen quite frequently most of the time it was people spotting
00:50:39
loft or repo in a crowd but in other cases uh one or the other of the pair appeared to point out malfunctioning
00:50:46
systems or other problems to the flight Crews on these Eastern air flights oh I love that like they're like guardian
00:50:53
angels and one of the last ever recorded stories Don repo appeared to an Eastern
00:50:58
Airline pilot and warned him to watch out for fire on his plane oh a few days later there was a small fire in the
00:51:06
cockpit of the plane holy [ __ ] similarly repo again appeared to a different Eastern employee and informed the
00:51:13
Navigator quote there will never be another crash on a TriStar we will not let that happen before disappearing I
00:51:19
just got chills and according to Jenkins this was the last reported sighting of Donald repo
00:51:25
the chills have gone up to my scalp my scalp it says chills on it like we will not let it happen
00:51:33
like oh my God and I'm It's like because it's like operator error so sad feel like they have to like make a makeup for
00:51:41
it oh my God Oh Oh So eventually there were the reports of ghostly visitors and psychic
00:51:49
premonitions had become so common that author and paranormal Enthusiast John G Fuller con excuse me collected them in a
00:51:55
book along with his experience investigating the phenomenon his book The Ghost flight of 401 was published
00:52:02
just four years after the crash and he purports to tell quote the supernatural aftermath more awful than the crash but
00:52:09
not everybody was so enthusiastic about his particular publication and those critics became even more vocal a few
00:52:16
years later when the book was adapted into a TV movie of the same name starring Kim Basinger and Ernest uh
00:52:23
Borgnine huh they just weren't super happy about it it was just a TV film yeah but in an effort to mitigate any
00:52:29
negative press officials at Eastern air tried to keep ahead of the story and they refuted any claims of paranormal
00:52:34
experience related to Flight 401 they told reporters the ghost stories may have begun as a joke among employees but
00:52:40
the airline has found the legend unshakable now they never took any formal steps to
00:52:46
shut down Fuller's book or stop any rumors from spreading but they did consider doing so when they said Fuller
00:52:52
began reporting that parts from the destroyed plane were recycled and put into other other Eastern aircrafts but
00:52:59
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
00:53:06
yeah but they said absolutely not alleged alleged now the rumors obviously could have negative negatively affected
00:53:13
Eastern's business and like I said earlier they were adamant that they did not do this but I also don't really know
00:53:20
how they could have because a lot of the plane was destroyed I was gonna say yeah
00:53:24
there were certain things that did survive and actually when when the investigation took place people were so
00:53:30
shocked that they had been preserved so beautifully but who am I to say who who knows who Among
00:53:37
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
00:53:44
2022 the remaining survivors actually fundraised and lobbied the state until they received the approval to install a
00:53:51
memorial on Curtis Parkway in Miami Springs which lists the names of the Dead and actually Beverly reposa spearheaded
00:54:00
the effort to get the monument placed and said I carry these folks in my heart every single day there has not been one
00:54:07
day in the last 50 years that they haven't been in my heart and that I haven't wanted to make sure that I keep
00:54:11
my promise to them like the fact that she was the one who knew this plane was going down and then
00:54:19
was like it is my duty to make sure that these people got remembered and Then followed through with it yeah there's so
00:54:25
many heroes in this I know that's the thing now uh you will probably be happy to hear that Eastern Airlines did close
00:54:32
their doors forever in 1991 because they did fail to keep up with new competitors
00:54:37
who were offering lower rates you know that's okay and hopefully that means now that Don repo and uh Captain loft there
00:54:46
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
00:54:52
making sure that doesn't happen on those flights again exactly wow so that is the
00:54:58
tragic and wildly paranormal story of Eastern Airlines flight 401. that was the chills I got during that like that
00:55:09
was harrowing that was tragic that was terrifying but then just to hear like it was all those things but I love the
00:55:16
highlights of just people coming together and taking care of each other in such a tragedy that's the stuff you
00:55:22
need to hear because then when you hear the the bleakness of people stealing things off of dead bodies like what is
00:55:29
wrong you gotta hear a little bit of people coming together to be good people because
00:55:34
everybody remember like even that was shocking to hear that part yeah those are the minority oh absolutely in
00:55:42
general we we all have to believe that humans are are good in that the shitty ones just are the ones that shock you so
00:55:50
they're the ones that get all the all the talk but for this one forget about those people forget about it forget
00:55:57
about them and think about the people who you know bud there who went running into jet fuel swamp my guy without a
00:56:04
second thought like I butt and all these kind of people and think about you know
00:56:07
like you know Captain Loft and Don repo who were just trying to make up for the the errors that happened in that flight
00:56:16
it's amazing it's so sad but [ __ ] I know it's such a tragic story but it's also
00:56:22
so beautiful in the end when you hear that they were like we're never gonna let this happen again yeah but then also
00:56:27
so tragic that their afterlife was spent making sure that this did trying to stop
00:56:32
it from happening again just a human error like it's not like anybody did anything maliciously no it's
00:56:38
not like they were bad at their job it's like it was no the human error and they
00:56:42
had flown many many flights yeah landed and took off safely millions of times and again they're just human beings it
00:56:50
was just a mistake of delegating so it's like that's really it it's a wild story
00:56:54
but we're gonna get a little more haunted and I don't know about uplifting but we're gonna get a little more
00:57:00
haunted for spooky season because it's official I think we're in spooky season no we record these so far ahead of time
00:57:06
that I never know but Mikey is nodding yes at me yes there you go so keep listening for those we hope you keep
00:57:13
listening we hope you keep it weird but not so weird that uh you take things off of dead bodies when they die
00:57:21
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
00:57:26
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
00:57:31
leave some flowers thank you [Music] foreign [Music] [Music]