| - | ACCIDENT DETAILS |
| Date: | December 29, 1972 |
| Time: | 2342 |
| Location: | Everglades National Park, Florida |
| Operator: | Eastern Air Lines |
| Flight #: | 401 |
| Route: | New York City - Miami |
| AC Type: | Lockheed L-1011 TriStar 1 |
| Registration: | N310EA |
| cn / ln: | 1011 |
| Aboard: | 176 (passengers:163 crew:13) |
| Fatalities: | 103 (passengers:97 crew:6) |
| Ground: | 0 |
| Summary: | The crew was preoccupied with a landing gear problem and was trying to replace the landing gear light while on autopilot and in a holding pattern over the everglades. As the captain turned to tell the flight engineer to go below to check if the landing gear was down, he inadvertently pushed on the yoke releasing the altitude hold of 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 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 L-1011 were used on other planes, apparitions of the captain, Robert Loft and flight engineer, Don Repo began to be reported by Eastern employees. The book "The Ghost of Flight 401"and movies "The Ghost of Flight 401" and "Crash" are based on this accident. Three passengers and one crew member died in weeks following the accident making the total 103. |
Sources
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