An Eastern Air Lines Lockheed Tristar crashed into the Everglades killing 103 people. In the darkness, the crew, preoccupied with a landing gear problem, failed to notice the autopilot had become disengaged and the plane was losing altitude until it flew into the ground.
The co-pilot was trying to replace the landing gear indicator light, while on autopilot and in a holding pattern. As the captain got up to help, he inadvertently pushed on the yoke releasing the autopilot. With no ground reference and under nighttime conditions, the aircraft gradually descended until it crashed into Everglades, 18.7 miles west-northwest of Miami. The accident wascaused by the failure of the crew to monitor the flight instruments during the final 4 minutes of flight and to detect a descent soon enough to prevent impact with the ground. After spare parts from the crashed L-1011 were used on other planes, apparitions of the dead captain, Bob Loft and the FE Don Repo, began to be reported by Eastern Air Line employees on the planes using the spare parts. The book and movie "
Ghost of Flight 401" is based on this accident.
| Date: | December 29, 1972 |
| Location: | Everglades National Park, Florida |
| Aircraft: | Lockheed L-1011 TriStar1 |
| Reg: | N310EA |
| Airline: | Eastern Air Lines |
| Flight No: | 401 |
| Fatalities: | 176 : 103 |
An Eastern Air Lines Lockheed Tristar crashed into the Everglades killing 103 people. In the darkness, the crew, preoccupied with a landing gear problem, failed to notice the autopilot had become disengaged and the plane was losing altitude until it flew into the ground.
The co-pilot was trying to replace the landing gear indicator light, while on autopilot and in a holding pattern. As the captain got up to help, he inadvertently pushed on the yoke releasing the autopilot. With no ground reference and under nighttime conditions, the aircraft gradually descended until it crashed into Everglades, 18.7 miles west-northwest of Miami. The accident wascaused by the failure of the crew to monitor the flight instruments during the final 4 minutes of flight and to detect a descent soon enough to prevent impact with the ground. After spare parts from the crashed L-1011 were used on other planes, apparitions of the dead captain, Bob Loft and the FE Don Repo, began to be reported by Eastern Air Line employees on the planes using the spare parts. The book and movie "Ghost of Flight 401" is based on this accident.
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