Captain Loft had been with the airline for 32 years and had accumulated a total of 29,700 flight hours throughout his flying career. Please try again later. Copyright 2023 UFO Insight, All Rights Reserved. Also known as Robert Laudat, Robert Loft. Please contact Find a Grave at [emailprotected] if you need help resetting your password. However, they appeared to be fixing the oven. Flight 401 made three trails through the sawgrass, breaking into pieces as it circled on its axis in the Everglades National Park. While the crew was focused on the landing gear indicator, the plane unknowingly came down at a lower altitude and abruptly crashed. Learn more about managing a memorial . Those were the last words of Captain Robert Loft, 38 years ago tonight. Therefore, the crash was due to the pilot-error. Sightings of the spirits of Don Repo and Robert Loft spread throughout Eastern Air Lines to the point where Easterns management warned employees that they could face dismissal if caught spreading ghost stories. 27 January 2016 by Iain Russell. Lived In Bonita Springs FL. There was nothing particularly memorable about the route, every pilot and flight crew in Eastern Air Lines had one time or another cut their teeth on that routine flight path. The pilots and the flight engineer, two of 10 flight attendants, and 96 of 163 passengers died. Back row: Pat Ghyssels, Trudy Smith, Adrianne Hamilton . Your account has been locked for 30 minutes due to too many failed sign in attempts. Only small fragments of metal marked the wingtip's first contact, followed 49ft (15m) further on by three massive 115ft (35m) swaths cut through the mud and sawgrass by the aircraft's extended undercarriage before two of the legs were sheared off. MYSTERIESRUNSOLVED & MRU MEDIA, 2019-2022. Although 75 people survived, the accident still resulted in the deaths of 101 occupants, including Captain Robert 'Bob' Loft and Flight Engineer Donald 'Don' Repo. The home is a 2-pen structure with a large sleeping loft running the entire second floor. An email has been sent to the person who requested the photo informing them that you have fulfilled their request, There is an open photo request for this memorial. 50 seconds later the plane, once more nosedived, again, this time losing more than half its assigned altitude. As it turned out, Robert Loft was in fact the name of the pilot and Don Repo was the flight engineer who both passed away in the crash. Lived In Saint James NY, Osprey FL, Nokomis FL, Nesconset NY. 6 min read. The three major sections of the fuselagethe most intact of which was the tail assemblylay in the mud towards the end of the wreckage trail. Now, though, it seemed they were acting as guardians over their former employers flights. Share this memorial using social media sites or email. Read more about how we fact-check content here. Loft, a tall and trim 55 year old had been flying for Eastern Airlines since the days of Eddie Rickenbacker. Cockpit area microphone (CAM): [Sound of click], CAM: [Sound of six beeps similar to radio altimeter increasing in rate]. On December 29, 1972, Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 took off from New York on its way to Miami. Are you looking for something? By the time the person walked away, Don had also disappeared and the older woman was visible in her seat again. Darrell H. Bardstown, Kentucky. Captain Robert Loft and First Officer Don Repo were among those who had perished in the crash, and the crew of other Eastern Airlines planes insisted their ghosts made appearances on-board later . Most believe their presence was a result of the fact that Eastern Airlines, to save money, used salvaged parts from this crashed plane. As spine-tingling as other ghostly aerial sightings are, however, the ones connected to Flight 401 are arguably the most consistent. By 11:41 p.m., Capt. . Cremated, Ashes given to family or friend, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/17211647/robert-albin-loft. Husband of Sarah Roberts; Sarah Frost (Roberts) and Sarah Frost. Captain Bob Loft was also seen on a few occasions, but never as often as Repo. Robert Loft, 55; First Officer Albert Stockstill, 39; and Second Officer Donald Repo, 51, all of Miami-Dade. 1) He was from the County of Culpeper in Virginia being born about the year 1750. Fourteen survivors had various degrees of burns. The . This is the tragic tale of Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 and the madness it left in its wake. No complete cross-section of the passenger cabin remained, and both the port wing and tailplane were demolished to fragments. The flight is uneventful. Jocelyne LeBlanc works full time as a writer and is also an author with two books currently published. Try again. The passengers enjoyed a routine flight until 11:32 PM when the flight was near its destination in Florida and the crew were preparing for landing. We do not aim to prove nordisprove any of the theories, cases, or reports. It was the Lockheed L-1011-1 Tristar model which, on December 29, 1972, left New Yorks John F. Kennedy airport and crashed into the Florida Everglades, causing 101 fatalities. Flashlights are now standard equipment near jumpseats, and all jumpseats are outfitted with shoulder harnesses. A TV movieThe Ghost of Flight 401,aired in February 1978. Subsequent to these press stories, The Ghost of Flight 401 was published in 1976. At 6:30 p.m., the event will begin with a program in John and Alice Butler Hall featuring speakers who will underscore the life and legacy of . For more tales of the macabre, check out our blog. This relationship is not possible based on lifespan dates. Get notified of the best booming posts weekly. The crew didnt react. The flight departed JFK Airport on Friday, December 29, 1972, at 9:20 PM, with 163 passengers and a total of 13 crew members on board. She has written articles for several online websites, and had an article published in a Canadian magazine on the most haunted locations in Atlantic Canada. Your email address will not be published. On Dec. 29, 1972, Eastern Flight 401 from New York to Miami took off from . When the individual walked across the aisle to get a better look at this man, the apparition said, Hi, Im Don. Photos larger than 8Mb will be reduced. It turned out that the passenger was Bob Loft, the captain who died on a flight from New York to Miami in December of 1972. . We can only imagine how many more accounts might be on record if not for the eventual ban by Eastern Airlines on any of their employees speaking publicly of their sightings. The aircraft he flew that night was a state-of-the-art Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, one of a dozen new wide-body "Whisperliners" delivered to the airline that year. The landing gear could have been manually lowered nonetheless. Captain Robert L. Martin. He was a member of Gold Prospectors of the Rockies and the National Rifle Association. Try again later. Under the command of Captain Robert Albin Loft, an expert navigator rated 50th in seniority at Eastern. All photos appear on this tab and here you can update the sort order of photos on memorials you manage. JAMES ROBERT ''BOB'' LOFT , 55, of Aurora died Nov. 23. [8], In all, 75 survived the crash67 of the 163 passengers and eight of the 10 flight attendants. Repo was evacuated to a hospital, but later died from his injuries. This was the first fatal crash of a wide-body aircraft. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. [11] The swamp absorbed much of the energy of the crash, lessening the impact on the aircraft. The hauntings of Eastern Airlines planes is certainly the most well-known. After graduating Dubuque Senior High School in 1936, Captain Martin enrolled at Iowa State University where he graduated with an electrical engineering degree and a pilot's license. Are you sure that you want to remove this flower? 75 survived the crash67 of the 163 passengers and eight of the 10 flight attendants. Includes Address (11) Phone (6) Email (2) See Results. Robert Bain Loft in England & Wales, Death Index, 1837-2005. [21] A television film, also titled The Ghost of Flight 401, aired on NBC in February 1978. Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 was a scheduled flight from New York JFK to Miami. Aside from Casper The Friendly Ghost, Slimer from The Real Ghostbusters cartoon series and romantic comedies involving pottery wheels, when we hear about ghosts, the first thing that comes to mind normally is fear and being in danger. [5]:4 For the next 80 seconds, the plane maintained level flight. Robert Bain Loft was born circa 1863. While Eastern Airlines publicly denied some of their planes were haunted, they reportedly removed all the salvaged parts from their L-1011 fleet. Investigations into the sightings would prove not only that the witnesses were of sound mind (and some very high-ranking, to boot), but the details and descriptions offered of these apparent visitors from the other side matched the former pilots almost exactly. Quickly see who the memorial is for and when they lived and died and where they are buried. Thank you for fishing with us! But the rumours of the flight haunting had already spread far and wide. Some high-ranking employees and pilots would do so only under the cover of anonymity. At this moment, the First Officer Albert Stockstill noticed that the landing gear indicator was not illuminating. The Everglades were rushing towards them. By Isabelle Resnick In 1979, Captain Robert R. Singleton published the first edition of You'll Never Get Lost Again. The film was based on Fullers book, and it concentrated on the ghost sightings that came into being after the incident. Investigators concluded the planes lower altitude by saying, the crew was distracted by the nose gear light, and because the flight engineer was not in his seat when the lower altitude warning sounded, so would not have been able to hear it. Robert B Loft was born circa 1864, at birth place, Kentucky. When the main part of the fuselage hit the ground, it continued to move through the grass and water, breaking up as it went. Coincidentally or not, the entire galley area where the flight attendants saw Repos face was made from materials recovered from the downed Flight 401. Scared but calm, she went to find other colleagues and returned with two other flight attendants. I look forward to seeing you guys again! aired in February 1978. based on information from your browser. [4] Despite their own injuries, the surviving flight attendants were credited with helping other survivors and several quick-thinking actions such as warning survivors of the danger of striking matches due to jet fuel in the swamp water[9] and singing Christmas carols to keep up hope and draw the rescue teams' attention, as flashlights were not part of the standard equipment on commercial airliners at the time.