The reason this plane crashed is absurd, basically the entire crew put it on autopilot and left the controls to try and fix a light. One of them bumped off the autopilot while getting up.
They did notice the altitude was not at the 2000' they set it at and tried to pull up but it was way too late, I think within seconds and not minutes
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Stockstill: We did something to the altitude.
Loft: What?
Stockstill: We're still at 2,000 feet, right?
Loft: Hey—what's happening here?
— Transcript, Eastern Air Lines Flight 401 Cockpit Voice Recorder[6]: 5
Less than ten seconds after this exchange, Flight 401 crashed. The location was west-northwest of Miami, 18.7 mi (30.1 km) from the end of Runway 9L.[6]: 5 The aircraft was traveling at 227 miles per hour (197 kn; 365 km/h) when it hit the ground. With the plane in mid-turn, the left wingtip hit the surface first, then the left engine and the left landing gear,[6]: 8 making three trails through the sawgrass, each 5 ft (1.5 m) wide and more than 100 ft (30 m) long. When the main part of the fuselage hit the ground, it continued to move through the grass and water, breaking up as it went.
At first your comment shocked me, but then I saw that the plane's wing is what hit the ground at that speed. That definitely changes things. I thought the plane went into a nosedive, which usually results in the nose of the plane hitting first. That's lucky for the survivors.
I covered this on my podcast a few years back. It's a creepy story but they did not reuse any parts on other planes. I think one example was a toaster oven or some cooking device. 1) it wouldn't still be operating after a crash and 2) they don't need to recycle toaster ovens on planes.
There is no record of anything being reused, and it would be something they would have to record since aircraft are not something you can slap stuff in without a written maintenance log.
According to Robert J. Serling's 1980 book From the Captain to the Colonel: An Informal History of Eastern Airlines, the claim that wreckage from Flight 401 was installed and later removed from other Eastern aircraft was false, and no Eastern employees had ever claimed to have seen or believed in the alleged ghost sightings. Skeptic Brian Dunning claims that the origin for the ghost sightings may have been a joke made by an Eastern captain after an emergency landing in which he quipped that he "thought [Don] Repo's ghost was on the plane".
Huh, that's weird. I wonder why so many people are adamant this story is real...
Pieces of the plane's wreckage can also be found in Ed and Lorraine Warren's Occult Museum in Monroe, Connecticut.
Ah, maybe because it's a ghost story with a very successful marketing team. Also worth noting that every source cited to support the ghost claims comes from works like "Florida's Ghostly Legends and Haunted Folklore" and "In the Realm of Ghosts and Hauntings", which aren't bad sources in this context but should still be taken with a good pinch of salt.
I read a book about this when I was a kid. It was creepy and I enjoyed reading it, but something felt off about the stories.
One of the ghosts allegedly said that there would never again be a fatal crash involving an L-1011. I realized later that the entire book could have been a PR stunt to convince airline customers that the L-1011 was still safe to fly.
There’s one account that, for my money, is credible. The ghost of the Captain was observed by multiple crew in the plane pre-flight, and spoke to them.
Yeah, too many people with bona fide first-person encounters with more than one witness is absolutely credible in my book. The question is who or what exactly those ppl were seeing.
For anyone interested, The Ghosts of Flight 401 is a documentary on Discovery+ that focuses on the paranormal aspect of this tragedy. Take it with a grain of salt, but I found it interesting nonetheless.
Arrogance and complacency. There was an actual dilemma in trying to confirm the gear was down but the fuck up was not having someone actually stay and fly the plane. That's a huge no-no.
They took every still working part and put them in other planes. The ghosts appeared on every single flight those parts were used. And there are dozens of sightings of the ghosts. Now i dont believe in the text book definition of ghosts. But those ppl were seeing something. The ghosts stopped showing when they removed all the parts. So who can truly know what lies beyond the grave....
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The reason this plane crashed is absurd, basically the entire crew put it on autopilot and left the controls to try and fix a light. One of them bumped off the autopilot while getting up.
Did they not notice at some point and try to correct things?
I don't remember exact timing but this covers it moment to moment using the flight tapes/black box recreated in Microsoft flight sim
They did notice the altitude was not at the 2000' they set it at and tried to pull up but it was way too late, I think within seconds and not minutes
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Well... I don't have to look it up or click the wiki page to know that nobody survived that.
75 people survived
At first your comment shocked me, but then I saw that the plane's wing is what hit the ground at that speed. That definitely changes things. I thought the plane went into a nosedive, which usually results in the nose of the plane hitting first. That's lucky for the survivors.
I covered this on my podcast a few years back. It's a creepy story but they did not reuse any parts on other planes. I think one example was a toaster oven or some cooking device. 1) it wouldn't still be operating after a crash and 2) they don't need to recycle toaster ovens on planes.
There is no record of anything being reused, and it would be something they would have to record since aircraft are not something you can slap stuff in without a written maintenance log.
What's your podcast
Dead Rabbit Radio: The Daily Paranormal Podcast
Do you remember the name of your episode?
Look forward to listening to your content.
Huh, that's weird. I wonder why so many people are adamant this story is real...
Ah, maybe because it's a ghost story with a very successful marketing team. Also worth noting that every source cited to support the ghost claims comes from works like "Florida's Ghostly Legends and Haunted Folklore" and "In the Realm of Ghosts and Hauntings", which aren't bad sources in this context but should still be taken with a good pinch of salt.
Rod Serling's brother.
I read a book about this when I was a kid. It was creepy and I enjoyed reading it, but something felt off about the stories.
One of the ghosts allegedly said that there would never again be a fatal crash involving an L-1011. I realized later that the entire book could have been a PR stunt to convince airline customers that the L-1011 was still safe to fly.
There’s one account that, for my money, is credible. The ghost of the Captain was observed by multiple crew in the plane pre-flight, and spoke to them.
Yeah, too many people with bona fide first-person encounters with more than one witness is absolutely credible in my book. The question is who or what exactly those ppl were seeing.
For anyone interested, The Ghosts of Flight 401 is a documentary on Discovery+ that focuses on the paranormal aspect of this tragedy. Take it with a grain of salt, but I found it interesting nonetheless.
I read this book as a precocious 8yo.
I am still scared of FA gallies on planes.
Didn’t know they salvaged parts from crashed aircraft. Especially if there were fatalities. Morose.
What led up to the crash is suspicious. How could something like that happen when you have that much flying experience?
Tunnel vision. They were fixated on a problem and forgot to manage the rest of the flight. It's just human.
It's actually a part of crm courses nowadays to counter that.
Arrogance and complacency. There was an actual dilemma in trying to confirm the gear was down but the fuck up was not having someone actually stay and fly the plane. That's a huge no-no.
You'd think some kind of delegation would've happened. I wonder what their BAC was. The "drunk pilot" stereotype must've come from somewhere.
They took every still working part and put them in other planes. The ghosts appeared on every single flight those parts were used. And there are dozens of sightings of the ghosts. Now i dont believe in the text book definition of ghosts. But those ppl were seeing something. The ghosts stopped showing when they removed all the parts. So who can truly know what lies beyond the grave....
Thanks Vincent Price for the lovely narration.
My other comment has 10 upvotes. So eh.