The Ghost of Flight 401: do you believe it happened?

[CatWoman]

Last night I watched this movie, as I needed a distraction from the Primaries. It's a made-for-tv movie that I was able to obtain a copy of from IOffer.com. Here's the "true" story.

Spooky.

The Ghosts of Flight 401

On the night of Friday, December 29th, 1972 Eastern Airlines Flight 401 was carrying 176 people as it neared it's destination of the Miami Airport. Flying the L - 1011 jumbo jet were Captain Bob Loft and Second Officer Don Repo, who were engaged in routine landing procedures when a warning light flashed on the control panel indicating a problem with the landing gear. It is possibly that this is the reason neither of them noticed that the plane was actually descending around 200 feet per minute faster than what they thought. Seconds later the airliner slammed into the Florida Everglades, killing 101 people immedietly. Both Captain Loft and Officer Repo survived the initial impact, but both were mortally wounded. Captain Loft died before he could be pulled from the burning, twisted wreck and Officer Repo died a day later. The story of these men should have ended right there, but this was not to be the case. Eastern Airlines salvaged much of the stricken airplane and redistributed them among similar aircraft in their fleet.


Soon, reports of ghostly hauntings began to come in from the planes who had received spare parts from Flight 401. Most of the apparitions were reported by Eastern's crew members, especially those on one particular plane of the airline's fleet. Repo's ghost appeared frequently, both in the cockpit as well as in the galley, the area where flight attendents prepared passengers meals. He seemed to be especially concerned with flight safety, and reportedly fixed a faulty oven circuit on one occasion. In other instances, he pointed out a potential fire hazzard and a hydraulic leak.


Loft's ghost was also seen on various flights, usually sitting in first class or in the crews cabin. A stewardess once confronted Loft, asking what he was doing on the plane as she had not seen him board and could not identify him on the passenger manifest. Receiving no reply, she reported it to her flight captain. He walked back with her and recognized Loft, who disappeared immedietely in front of a dozen people!!! The airline was (at least outwardly) a bit skeptical of people who reported the sightings, and suggested that they seek psychiatric counceling at the company's expense. Nevertheless, skeptical or not, the airline removed all of the salvaged parts of the ill - fated Flight 401 from the aircraft they had been put into. The paranormal sightings ended with that. Eventually, the sightings were turned into a best selling book by newspaper reporter John G. Fuller.

That's Loft on the left and Repo on the right:



http://www.subversiveelement.com/Flight401EasternAirLines.html

[DS1]

1. oh great, now he's a ghost with nothing to do

:cry:

[CatWoman]

2. where's that evil monkey when you need him????

:hi:

[redwitch]

3. I remember reading the book years ago. Eerie story.

I have no explanation for the events people told of haunted flights, I don't think they could have all been crazy or lying. There are more things in Heaven and Earth...

[CatWoman]

4. and the airline (Eastern) threatened the crew who reported the sightings

and made them visit a shrink.

[underpants]

5. Explain this!

[CatWoman]

AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

:loveya:

[mainegreen]

6. No.

[ChickMagic]

7. The first paragraph is true, at least

My Dad, I remember, was supposed to be on that flight.

[Parche]

8. L-1011

I read the book when a few years back, very creepy
since i love airplanes and airliners i was curious!!
people see all sorts of things, but when a woman who didnt have any connection to the crew
sees a captain and then he vanishes, that is freaky....
who knows, maybe there are ghosts like that?

I flew Eastern a few times, free first class to FLL once, the food was fantastic!!!!


OH MEOW

[texas1928]

9. I believe it, since I had that license plate show up...

I believe spirits can be attached to objects.