The First EVER Crash Of A Jumbo Jet | Eastern Airlines Flight 401 | Mayday: Air Disaster
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- Опубликовано: 20 сен 2024
- This is the first-ever crash of a jumbo jet and, at the time, the largest death toll in US civil aviation history. Investigators need to figure out why this sophisticated jet, fell from the sky without anyone in the cockpit noticing.
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From Season 5 Episode 9 "Fatal Distraction": December 29, 1972 - Eastern Airlines Flight 401 is preparing to land in Miami. 163 passengers are on board the sophisticated new L-1011 jet. When the crew tries to lower their landing gear, only two of three indicator lights turn green. The crew can’t be sure their landing gear is locked. Without the confirmation, it would be dangerous to land.
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Mayday: Air Disaster is a dramatic non-fiction series that investigates high-profile air disasters to uncover how and why they happened. Mayday: Air Disaster follows survivors, family members of crash victims and transportation safety investigators as they piece together the evidence of the causes of major accidents. So climb into the cockpit for an experience you won’t soon forget.
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Cockpit resource management did not exist at the time. The captain had the plane in "autopilot" mode. When the landing gear light didn't light, the captain took over the troubleshooting process, but did not assign anyone to fly the plane. What he didn't know was Eastern maintenance had set the Pilot's and First Officer's yolks to release the autopilot at different pressures. When he bent over to deal with the light, he unknowingly disengaged the autopilot. The plane gradually descended to the point where, when the pilot made the change of course from south to east, the left wing hit the ground and spun the plane. I remember the resulting horror, especially of one passenger who had all four limbs removed and still died. There was nothing wrong with the plane, except for a burned out light and an inappropriate crew response. Since then, cockpit resource management has prevented many a tragedy.
Is that a Cop with a cigarette in his mouth? 21:08 Why YES! it is.
Hero Robert Marcus, the people who helped and NTSB it's a team
@@quashiesuzannek”0
@@Thinker2-truth🇻🇳🇻🇳🇿🇼🎉😢
Bob Marquis, the airboat rescuer, died in 2008. He and some survivors met the prior year and took airboats, led by Bob to the crash site. Bob Marquis was given an award. A year later he died of injuries resulting from a fall.
How sad
❤❤❤❤hero
@@MeMe3-v9x a man has to know his limitations
I’m glad to know that. It’s a shame we lost such a selfless man but so wonderful to know he was appreciated and he knew it…even tho that was certainly the furthest thing from his mind when it was time to act
He is a Saint!
Such a relief when I see a passenger being interviewed, means there were some survivors
I always like to not know if there were any survivors until after the event's timeline is over. It kinda ruins the "are they gonna make it?" Suspense. I'm always HAPPY when it ends with people surviving, but I do like a bit more consistency in the drama than mayday pulls off.
I always feel that way too. I love the fact that I see the survivors, and I feel more at peace. I always feel for the pilots and first officer, they rarely survive.
@@colinmartin9797they'd probably lose some viewers if it was too intense and worrying
@@adamaviation6236 Fair point, but I really hope that people can handle that... Not many of these episodes end happily, lol.
Yes, same here!
That Floridian who sped off immediately into God knows what to rescue any & everyone possible is a hero. He deserves a medal. 🏅
He was probably going to see if anyone had a Rolex in their luggage.
He did end up getting honored and even more than that..
“The National Air Disaster Alliance/Foundation gave Marquis a humanitarian award for being the first to respond to the crash, and in a touching tribute, members of The Southern Airboat association presented Marquis with a completely rebuilt airboat - the same one he had used to rescue crash victims in 1972.”
I think his name is Bob Marquis. He got burn injures on his legs. He still continued on towards the passengers even though the jet fuel was burning his legs. He really is a hero.
I was about to say the same thing. Bob Marquis is a real hero 💖👍
@@TheOriginalCFA1979 The discussion is about what he did, not what you would do.
I am a retired B727 captain. The crash of Eastern 401 affected how I operated my aircraft. It changed how I treated in flight emergencies. My thought processes switched to more like a triage of any abnormal or emergency situation. Any time I had an emergency after that crash happened, I decided that I would focus mainly on flying and would not hesitate to call for a checklist and delegate the handling of the problem to the engineer and copilot. I think ego can get in the way of sound flying and CRM. The desire to be the lead part of finding a solution to a problem can cause a sort of tunnel vision. It appears that is what happened here with E 401. This accident shook me up and woke me up at the same time. I thought if these guys could make this kind of mistake, anyone can.
Gold bless y’all for keeping us safe. Do planes still not have landing gear cameras? So many accidents could be avoided if the pilots could see the problem like tail, wing, landing gear condition
I'm a retired Delta flight attendant, and in training they really emphasized CRM (crew resource management) as something that we should always keep in mind. It's been proven over & over that tunnel vision can and will sink you. In life, in general, it's always good to keep in mind those that may be there to be of help. I really appreciate the calm and humble manner of most pilots that I flew with.
I'm a controller who retired 25 years ago, and I wish I had been there. When he saw the readout of 900, that controller should have immediately said "say altitude", whether he thought it was probably a glitch or not. Just two words would have saved them all.
Agreed...that controller should have found another line of work.@@fiddlermargie
Lesson No 1 my instructor pilot taught me was: "No matter what is happening, continue to fly the aircraft." It stuck and helped me many times.
ATC 'Eastern 401 check your altitude ' words that could have saved lives.
Exactly! Verify your radar, instead of just assuming it's a false reading.
@@davelowets Sadly, the ATC had no idea how 401 had lost all that altitude, let alone the lightbulb issue on 401's instrument panel. He went with his gut feeling and his case is not the only one. Just take a look at the mid-air collision of both Bashkirian 2937 and DHL 611 (2002) and see how that incident cost the ATC attendant's life.
Exactly! He was giving him a vector back to the airport anyway, go ahead and throw in "confirm altitude at 2 thousand, radar shows you tires getting very muddy" or something.
“Eastern radar showing you at 900 feet please confirm “
guys real life radar doesnt work like those in video games or in movies, and back in the 70's their radars would have been very inaccurate and delayed, also in such a busy airport one controller cannot babysit one aircraft unless they declare an emergency,
Honestly, had the controller said something about the altitude, something like “my radar here says you’re at 900ft, can you confirm?” And that probably would have been enough to save the plane
I bet he's spent the last 50 years living with that thought.
Too bad the air controller was following the rules and not trying to overstep by inquiring about altitude. I hope the industry standard has changed since then
@@delightfulsunny as iterated in the episode, industry standards have changed drastically.
Basic communication failure causes most problems
@@sto1asgoetia600 totally agree takes 3 seconds
The flight attendant that began to sing “Silent Night” was truly an angel.
When I heard that part of the girl singing. All I could think of was my daughter.
That is something she would do without a doubt.
She has a beautiful voice and loves to sing. She is always sending me songs that cheer me up, seeing how I have a fatal condition. I save every one of them so I can hear her calming voice. It helps bring life into me.
She just joined the Navy,to defend our country, and she has her guitar and still sends me songs.
She is going into Submarines. She is so brave and caring for all people.
Even in our darkness days, she still finds ways to bring joy to the world. I am honored to be her mother. 🙏
After 4 boys, I finally got a girl. But she came with a boy too 😂 twins. Just like mother.
She writes her own songs and loves singing songs from the church 🙏💜.
❤😊
Yes. It was a moving part of the show.
Reminds me of Christmas 1914 on the Western Front..
Amen
My father worked for Eastern and was supposed to be on this flight, he and his best friend (also an Eastern employee) just got their life insurance from a machine they had in the airports back in those days (they bought it before every fight) and my dad realized he locked his keys in his car & decided to to stay back and hop on the next flight. His best friend got on the flight and miraculously survived the crash but the mental and emotional effects were debilitating for the remainder of his life.
Oh my. This is terrible. Such a sad day. Bless each and every one of the ppl who lived and died that evening.
Life insurance from a machine in the airport?
@@AChannelonRUclipseeba01OvOw01 yes, there used to be life insurance vending machines within the airport that anyone could purchase a policy before their flights.
A miracle for Dad!
I was a flight attendant for NorthWest merging with Delta from 1973-2018. I remember this horrible disaster. If I recall after that crash all aircraft at leseast NWA installed a indicator that if aircraft got to a dangerously low altitude a loud voice comes on PULL UP, PULL UP, PULL UP.
OK Capt. Deb🙄
@Jonas Hilty when you cant breath, nothing else matters.
@@smf2072 she's correct. so... ?
@@KayG1029
Which she, Capt. Deb or Hungry Jonas?
I guess either way, I don't recall telling either of them they were wrong..... sooooooooooo....??
Hey flight attendant. Im still waiting for my coffee.
I was only 6 when this happened and, though my parents shielded me from the news reports, I overheard them and a visiting friend talking about it. I still remember how somber the mood was amongst the adults. Now, watching this video, I realize why. What a horrific situation - the first ever crash of a jumbo jet, the crash site in the everglades fraught with crocodiles and late at night, and the heroism of Robert Marquis and Ray Dickinson taking their airboat out into the everglades to rescue people.
From Wiki: Robert "Bud" Marquis (1929-2008), an airboat pilot, was out frog-gigging with Ray Dickinsin (1929-1988) when they witnessed the crash. They rushed to rescue survivors. Marquis received burns to his face, arms, and legs-a result of spilled jet fuel from the crashed TriStar-but continued shuttling people in and out of the crash site that night and the next day. For his efforts, he received the Humanitarian Award from the National Air Disaster Alliance/Foundation and the "Alumitech - Airboat Hero Award", from the American Airboat Search and Rescue Association.
What unbelievably brave, caring MEN!
I was 10, I remember it.
And I'm sure God awarded him with a palace in Heaven, he earned it!
Thank you for the information on Bud.
Alligators this was Florida.
My uncle worked for Eastern at MIA as an engineer. I even toured this plane when they took delivery brand new. As a kid of 11, it was an amazing sight, inside and out. I loved my uncle & often talked with him about aviation for hours, but on this, he always was reverently quiet and sad.
Was he away from his family and yours often? I hear pilots travel a lot and aren’t home much
@@jilla-dr9huNo, he always wanted to, but had busted eardrums kept him from ever flying as pilot. He was the one who kept them flying, but had to keep civilian aircraft parts separate from military. Apparently such cross-contamination was either a serious breach in protocol or worse. But as supervisor, he his mind was like a computer when it came to assembly of the aircraft.
Thank you Cottage for sharing. Your uncle sounds amazing. I love Eastern! Back when I used to fly, it was the only one I'd fly. (A little accident keeps me away from flying now, but I sure loved Eastern).
My dad had to call all the families to break the news of their deceased or injured family, he was a wreck when he got home. He was alone in his office calling all those families, I was in junior high. I let him in the door when he got home, he was totally wrecked.
Cap
I'm so sorry for this accident's impact on him and your family.
I hope he got support for having to go through that. I don't understand how they could think having one person do that for all those people would not just about destroy him.
I’m so sorry for him. It must have been deeply traumatizing for him.
So sorry he had to do that. That truly takes compassion. I'm sure he did all he could do help them.Thank you sir.
Imagine surviving a plane crash and on top of that having to deal with gators and snakes.... what a day
I remember I saw a video of this accident where one guy in a boat pull a body with a stick and the other end was a alligator that don't want to leave... terrible!
What a night...
Every time I view this episode, I tear up when I hear them singing. To go from blithely flying to then waking up in a jet fuel doused swamp must’ve been absolutely terrifying. And Christmas carols being the only source of comfort for the survivors in that situation is heartbreaking.
That was the silliest question ever, "is everything alright?!" Instead of telling them they are losing altitude. To alert them of the problem. That should have just been common sense in that situation. But there should have a only been one person working on landing gear.
I can't believe the controller did not tell the piolet he was at 900 ft 😮
True and the fact that there were 4 pair of eyes in that cockpit
That frog fisherman is awesome. I don’t know about his choice in food…but he’s a hero.
He’s probably a trump supporter
@@Ihategobblegum what?
@@jordannewman177 you tell he’s a Trump supporter by his whiteness
Dude. Frog legs are awesome!
@@Ihategobblegum And I suppose, because you're an illegal, you would have gone throught the pockets of the dead taking wallets and watches.
As a retired computer programmer (no relation to aviation), my first impulse was dismay at there being no warning beyond a single tone (and fairly innocuous sounding) at the 250ft mark. Why not also at 350, 400, 500, 600....? And increasingly urgent sounding? I started programming in 1976, so I don't know the programming world of late-60's/early-70's. But jinkies! Was this not part of the NTSB findings? And zero feedback when autopilot is disengaged? Inconceivable!
@Karl with a K I agree. But, I suspect that a good portion of that is that those programmers are not as familiar with aviation as they need to be. My complaint is that the requirements seem incomplete. Those come from the user's - pilots, plane manufacturers, ATCs, refuelers, etc. I don't propose that programmers code up whatever features they dream up. I've been in contexts in which we programmers werre begging for access to those who should be providing the requirements. We end up doing the best we can and crossing our fingers. If we guess wrong on something then we look like the "idiots" to those who don't know the root cause of the breakdown. That's due to a failure of management to allow the whole process to work as it should.
Not realizing what autopilot is doing is still causing crashes even now. It's a big component in many RUclips crash videos.
This also bothered me. To me that sound is a routine indicator, like the kind of thing that goes off when you press a button to confirm that it worked, not an alarm. If I was doing my own thing and heard that at a colleague's workstation I probably wouldn't even look over, never mind assume there's a potentially dangerous situation
Remember that your phone is more powerful now then any computer in the 60’s.
Precisely!
What languages do you program in?
Frank Borman got in the water to help rescue my dad was his assistant, this was horrific.
The Right Stuff.
Yeah... maybe "Eastern 401, confirm your altitude" would have been a little more useful than "How are things coming along?" Props to the controller for noticing something iffy though.
I always appreciate the contributions of John J. Nance to these documentaries. One of the nicest people you could hope to meet and a damn fine writer to boot. If you haven’t already, I recommend picking up a novel or two of his and settle in for a cracking good aviation tale. And do make sure your seat is in the upright and locked position with seat harness securely fastened as you start to read.
I'm always down for a book recommendation! I'll check him out.
Two things strike me watching this:
One, i remember the 70', 80s and 90s. Planes crashed all the time. Several every year. Now days It is extremely rare to have any commercial planes crash.
Two, flying in those days was a great experience (except for all the crashing and burning). The food was very good. Desserts ranged from ice cream and chocolate cake to danishes and fresh cookies. Crazy leg room, comfortable seats and couches on 747s.
In late 50s- early 70s.....sometimes threw in a bit of 'sightseeing"!!!
I prefer to eat cereal bars in a sardine can tight space and land safely.
@@bjt81366 I've been thinking about that. I flew quite a bit growing up but I was small so I wasn't sure about my space perception. I did fly from Dallas to Tulsa in 80 and I don't recall being cramped. We flew charter from Tulsa to Maui and it was so cramped and miserable. And I'm only 5"3 about 130 so it wasn't me!
I was born in 1969 and I remember the same thing while growing up in the 70's and 80's. I guess it was an era of learning when it came to lowering the number of future plane crashes.
I absolutely love John Nash. As part of an orientation for a healthcare job, we watched a TED talk that featured him. He spoke about that as in aviation, healthcare workers always needed to check and recheck little details, like medication doses, patient ID bands, test orders, etc...3 times. He spoke about some great parallels between aviation and the medical field. He's a smart man
Plus he's kind of Hot. I find gin a very attractive man lol
I read the book “the ghost of flight 401” right after this happened. There were some life-saving but frightening appearances of Don Repo-that kept happening after this crash on other eastern airlines flights. There were parts from the plane that were not damaged at all and due to the demand for the L-1011, Eastern agreed to let things (like the galley) be reinstalled into a new plane that was being built for them. They later had those parts switched out of the new planes. I also read where CEO Frank Borman flew out to the crash site making sure that as many people as possible were being helped. He was the one man who really tried to save eastern airlines and was a giant when he ran that airline, I flew them quite often on business all over the country and he made a big difference while he was head of Eastern!
Just like Braniff, the media worked hard to see their demise.
@@tomperkins5657 Braniff was a class airline! I flew them many times. Far superior to many other carriers including American Airlines. The fact is American had many employees who booked reservations on Braniff but it was fraudulent! They loaded up the planes with phony reservations to take Braniff out of business and were never prosecuted for those dastardly actions! American will never be even a bump on Braniff’s elbow as crooked as they have been taking over carriers like US Air (that absolutely ruined Piedmont Airlines). All monopolization of the airlines so they can hike fares! 😡
My Dad worked for Eastern. I guess they saved his job too. 1967.
Frank Borman was all about completing the mission successfully. With Eastern, he was given a mission that was impossible to complete successfully.
There may have been 'reports' of Don Repo appearing, but he didn't actually appear because there's no such thing as ghosts.
Bob Marcus is a true American hero! He deserves the Congressional Medal Of Honor.
This crash has always sort of haunted me. Three houses down from my grandfather's house in North Fort Myers, FL was a retired American Airlines pilot. Every time I come across this crash, I think that Loft should have also been retired in a three bedroom single level ranch in Florida, but no, he lost the plane and his own life in a swamp. I really do feel bad for him.
Yeah my Grandpa lived in the swamp right where they crashed , & was still working , so your grandpa was clearly one who chose to skate through life & was truly a burden to the rest of us. that had to support your grandparents.
You're unbelievable to even think that's cool.
Let me guess, you've carried on the Legg family tradition.
IIRC I read somewhere that Bob Loft had a undiagnosed brain tumor at the time of the crash.
This crash is embedded in my mind. I was 9 years old when it happened. I had always wanted to be a flight attendant when I grew up. My stepmom worked for Delta and I became an airline brat. After college, I interviewed for American and Eastern.(couldn't be hired with Delta because I had a family member who worked there). Anyway, I took the job with American and became a flight attendant, my dream job. I could never get this crash off my mind, as it haunted me, which was the reason I didn't choose Eastern to work for. All I could ever think about were dead bodies, alligators and snakes.
Bob Loft was an ass to fly with. Things had to be his way. I'm glad the FAA started CRM...
@@redlady8296 they said that in this video but per the video did not impact his site. Give a listen.
@@tracycolvin7789j8n
One of the biggest fears a human can endure is the feeling of helplessness.
I find it amazing that atc didn’t call the pilot and say… hey, you’re kinda getting low there, what’s up?
Shouldn't have neglected mentioning Ray Dickinsin...he was there with Bob Marquis and helped rescue people too.
One big problem is the captain didn't do the first rule of flighting; fly the plane, non of them flew the plane.
Exactly. I hear a lot of they were not trained to do this and do that but they main job is to fly the plane. For experienced pilots, they showed a lot of incompetance.
Aviate, navigate, communicate - in that order.
The Controller should have asked what their altitude actually was when he first noticed something was wrong. 🧐
My dad used to fly Eastern to visit his parents in Miami. When I was a baby, there was a problem aboard an Eastern flight we were all on. Unlike these guys they were able to return back to the airport, or else I wouldn't be sitting here
The pilot's tunnel vision on the landing gear light reminds me of the pilot that crashed in Portland Oregon who was also so focused on a landing gear indicator issue that he ran out of fuel.
I guess they didn't have ground alert warnings back then.
That poor man survived that crash in Portland and lived with the regret the rest of his life.
The crash of Flight 401 brought about the ground alert warning, "Low terrain. Pull up. Pull up."
Or the Air France co-pilot who panicked, tensed up in his seat, pulled the side-stick back (nose up) and stalled the jumbo jet all the way into the Atlantic Ocean.
Yeah I thought the same thing. And I want to say that was right around Christmas time as well.
I remember that episode. He circled forever in a holding pattern and they were afraid to be assertive with the captain.
Can you even imagine surviving a plane crash like this and wind up in a swamp? Then have to be terrified of being eaten alive by a crocodile or bit by a snake? Gives me the shivers.
*🕊Rest In Peace Robert, passangers and crew of Eastern Airlines 401🕊*
Your deaths saved many more lives around the world.
nonono. before industrial thinking took over, and death was an acceptable price to pay for industrialization, the collective priorities contained a sanctity for life. Today's lack of compassion and care for the next individual began years ago.. at the beginning of civilization. As a hostage to the situation, I have to lend my voice to the idea that NO LIFE should be sacrificed, so that others can fly. Incorrectly still, with flawed technology.. since pilots don't fly the plane anymore.
I see how you can rationalize with that point of view. However, that will only work as long as it's someone else and nobody you know that has to do the sacrificing..
@@keetahbrough Reality tells us different. Sacrifices happen by nature while NOBODY is perfect and knowledge in every respect undergoes an evolution.
@@jobesd Nobody has willingly said "I'm going to sacrifice myself on this flight so others can fly safer".🙄 People die every day in various circumstances for the living to learn from and in the least appreciate the lessons from such events more deeply. It is indirectly a sacrifice nevertheless whether you like that reasoning or not. It is the truth!
As an ATC from 1968-1981 an then again from 1995-2003 I must comment. Even back in the 70s our radar showed when an a/c was getting close to the ground. I worked at DTW, ORD, LAX, Bay Tracon, LAS, SoCal, and, MIA. Having worked at Mia approach control, it is my belief the controller should have advised EAL of “ low altitude alert, check you altitude immediately “! Just saying. GV
Nice to see the Captain familiar face from these types of videos. Also the narrator's familiar voice makes all these episodes worth watching.
as soon as I heard someone start singing "Silent night" I got a lot of cold chills. my mom used to sing that to me as she rocked me when I was little before carrying me to bed.
Truly almost unreal to believe a 12$ light bulb crashed two airliners from two different major airlines like United 173. UA173 went down from fuel exhaustion due to lack of situational awareness, no one was flying the airplane they all had there mind on the landing gear light aswell.
Wow, that really is sad!
I want to know what kind of light bulb cost $12 in 1972. 12 cents, maybe.
@@BRTowe they meant .12$. Learn to use your brain
The guy at the radar station was trying to be polite with conversation, but rather should have said did you realize that you are at 900 feet above the ground instead?!
Correction: Flight tower not radar station.
He was handling 5 ✈️ but of course he was part of these chain of errors... captain included!
@@omarjason1255 Regardless of 5 planes it only takes one mistake to ruin a career and having a commercial plane under 1000 ft I would have asked then why do I see you at 900 feet? That job is very stressful and one little detail gets by you planes are lost.
Cockpit resource management did not exist at the time. The captain had the plane in "autopilot" mode. When the landing gear light didn't light, the captain took over the troubleshooting process, but did not assign anyone to fly the plane. What he didn't know was Eastern maintenance had set the Pilot's and First Officer's yolks to release the autopilot at different pressures. When he bent over to deal with the light, he unknowingly disengaged the autopilot. The plane gradually descended to the point where, when the pilot made the change of course from south to east, the left wing hit the ground and spun the plane. I remember the resulting horror, especially of one passenger who had all four limbs removed and still died. There was nothing wrong with the plane, except for a burned out light and an inappropriate crew response. Since then, cockpit resource management has prevented many a tragedy.
Thanks I watched the video too
I remember this accident. Being reminded that 4 well-trained aviation professionals were so fixated with a light bulb that they all forgot they were flying a plane, and that a flight controller who had seen that the plane had descended to a mere 900 feet didn't say a word about it, is still shocking to this day.
It always breaks my heart that people can come in work one day and put their all into there job but still make mistakes that can rip people from their lives. It seems that the crew really love their jobs no matter how frustrated they could have been in the moment.
That’s the part of life that turns my spirit into a hangry toddler who just can’t handle reality and so screams and flails on the floor in confused, misdirected rage. And awful confluences of factors will keep on killing or hurting or ruining as long as life exists- but thank goodness there are things like gorgeous sunsets and tasty food and cute bunnies hopping in the yard, etc. at least there’s still moments of random sudden beauty and happiness- and hopefully we get lots of them before it’s our turn to move on to the next adventure of being!
*their* job, not there.
I enjoy the series ‘Air Disasters’. As they often state on the show “Nobody was flying the plane”.
Absoultely incredible for the heroism of Bob Marquis, as is the scope of the tragedy. Based on this telling, I believe the NTSB, EAL, and all other agencies arrived at the root causes of the crash, and did so in a straightforward, unvarnished manner. Imagine how small of a nudge that the Capt. apparently gave the autopiolet to disengage it, and the results were catostrophic. I was also stuck by the poignancy of flight attendant Trudy Smith initiating 'Slient Night' and other Christmas carols in the aftermath of the disaster in the swamp. She is an unsung hero. Rest In Peace to all who perished.
❤
Those two fellas in the air boat are HEROES!
This infuriates me no end. TG to the brave man who boated in to the swamp to rescue so many!!
It's difficult to believe that the crew was so focused on a light bulb problem and a possible front landing gear problem that ignored the altimeter. Landing at the airport with or without the front landing it would have been much less catastrophic crashing in the swamp. In some distorted Way this is like straing at a gnat and swallowing a camel.
Wow! Everything was chaos. And the lightbulb was only 12.00.
Textbook case of terrible & lethal CRM failure. Simply awful. And, another reason why I never take an airline flight at night. In full daylight, the chap who went down to check the gear would have seen it, and also, one of the crew might have looked out to see that the aircraft was not at 2000'.
Probably not, they were incompetent to the end.
Exactly… this is as ridiculous as the plane that crashed due to duct tape left on one of the pitot tubes. This is why hyper-focusing on something should be heavily discouraged, even when it’s not anywhere near a life/death situation.
Yes...but you have to remember, CRM didn't exactly exist at that point--not as we'd understand it today. You still had a lot of "The captain the master after God of that aircraft" mentality in the industry. CRM as we'd know it didn't really come about until after this crash--and a few others like it, unfortunately--that demonstrated the need for a different way of managing the crew that was less like a military chain of command (a holdover from the early days when most civil aviation pilots had been military pilots first) and be more like the comprehensive team effort it's become since.
@@nightrunnerxm393 Nightrunner, The horrible disaster at Tenerife in 1977 finally forced the airlines to implement CRM.
@@nightrunnerxm393 The Captain wasn't acting like an arrogant little dictator, but he did allow everybody on the flight deck focus on that one lamp, all four men.
In February of 1980, in my first ever flight, I was a passenger on an L-1011 from NYC to Miami at night. The only difference was my flight departed from LaGuardia rather than Kennedy. I saw no apparitions. Thankfully, I was blissfully unaware of the story of Flight 401 at the time.
sometimes ignorance id bliss!
The fact that one small instrument panel light bulb cost $12 in 1972 dollars was a crime to begin with.
Why aren't there 2 indicator lights as a back up if one should burn out? seems like common sense to me.
if you listen to the CVR recording, the captain says "20 cent bulb"
1972 that's a lot of groceries!
blame the controller for not questioning the pilot when he saw them below 1000ft.
yea if he spoke up he would have saved them
So basically ATC could’ve saved them by alerting them of their dangerously low altitude when he first spotted them at 900ft. Wow….
I know right. That controller was like "radar says he's at only 900 ft? eh, whatevs. not worthy of a mention"
Even if he thought the radar was giving the wrong information, it only takes a second to ask the captain to check his altitude to make sure.
@@pauldavis5665the thing is, as they point out, it was quite normal for there to be odd readings on the radar and so it wasn't unusual and he did reach out to the crew. Sure, in hindsight it seems like a simple thing but in the moment when it's just something you've seen before and "know" that it's probably just a wacky signal especially when the crew responds normally and you have no training that says you need to be double checking on this with them, it makes sense that he wouldn't pursue it further.
If I was the air controller, it would have haunted me for the rest of my life.
@@Fordry No. I was a controller, and that's no excuse. I would NEVER assume an equipment malfunction, and there were a great many. You double-triple-quadruple-check EVERYTHING, most especially something like this. And you don't beat around the bush either. "Say Altitude" would have saved all those lives.
@@fiddlermargiethey literally said in the video that this was a factor... You're looking at it with hindsight and modern viewpoints. This was a long time ago and the tech was nowhere near what it is now.
This was one of the most touching air crashes I've watched. Even more so, was the Air Crash: "A Wounded Bird."
Yeah exactly, the rest didn't matter, no one cared & should've been played with a laugh track.
Jesus lady.....you're so twisted.
What a horrible disaster. Of all places to crash and land “in a swamp with alligators “. How horrific this must have been for all of those souls,,.living and dead.💔
Well, one crash on a freezing mountain resulted in the survivors having to eat the dead to survive. On a mountain in Japan they waited until morning to even begin the rescue, so the survivors of the crash died of exposure and their injuries during the night. In the jungle of one crash a survivor walked out of the jungle- not sure if anyone else from that plane lived. A plane crash in the ocean ended up with only a handful of survivors. Aside from an open field right next to someone with a telephone and very close to a hospital and a fire station there aren't many GOOD places to have a plane crash.
@@amberkat8147 The crash in a freezing winter was in Chile (pretty sure) and after the live passengers were found it was discovered that they did that! I can’t even write that, but none of us know what we’re capable of doing to survive. The Japanese didn’t even allow the Boeing officials check their plane. After a day or two Japanese officials allowed the American team to look at their plane.
In 1969, a passenger jet crashed into shark-infested Santa Monica Bay
The alligators ate and slept well that night.
@@amberkat8147 Apparently there was a good crash on he Hudson with Sully and all those boats around but nothing to be done about 191.
27:50 We didn't have diagnostic CAT, as shown here, in 1972. His tumor was found on autopsy.
Don’t know how many of us can imagine how difficult getting to this crash site was. Besides an airboat, it’s like totally inaccessible.
I can’t fathom what it was like ferrying survivors to safety.
@@karlwithak1835 I live fairly close to here (I’m in Coral Springs), but I wasn’t here for this accident. At that time, Alligator Alley…the east-west highway between Ft. Lauderdale and Naples…was just a 2-lane death trap. Not lighted, no guard rails, one lane each direction, and dozens of cars disappeared into the Glades every year, not to mention hundreds of mafia victims.
South of Alligator Alley is Tamiami Trail, paralleling Alligator Alley, and not much better.
They wanted to expand Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood international airport into this area, but couldn’t do it because of environmental concerns.
The ghost sightings of Bob Loft and Don Repo are some of the best documented ever. Both were seen by multiple crew members who had worked with them and knew them well. In one instance the voice of one of the ghosts was captured by the cockpit voice recorder of an L-1011, and in another sighting Don Repo was heard to say "There will never be another L-1011 crash". A passenger also saw a captain in uniform in the adjacent seat who suddenly vanished.
Ghosts aren’t real.
@@andreseh87oh yes they are. I've seen many. One ripped the shoulder off my 1300# stallion. He was about 20 ft tall and had about a 30 foot arm span. My dog saw him at the same instant I did and cried and ran. She's a trained German Shepard guard dog that never backs down.
Not true. Research it.
Bob Markus the airboat driver frogging in the Glades is indeed a hero. Many more people might have died were it not for the only nearby soul who became an inadvertant First Responder. The bump control disengaging the autopilot was indeed dangerous. The airlines and EAL were at fault to not train pilots, but indeed airlines training and coordination of pilot information was not to the level then that it has become today, unfortunately........✈✈✈ 😥😥😥
The actor portraying Captain Bob Loft has appeared as a captain in several of the Mayday/Air Crash Investigations episodes.
Lol that’s kinda weird.
Yeah and there is this one guy who plays 1st officer in a few dupes as well
He's very captain-y indeed
Captain Crash has a ring to it
@@karlwithak.o, they use actors for the re-enactments.
That’s why you have a co-pilot, and should have a navigator, with a couple of more sets of eyes on the instrument’s. Not to mention the controller. The great thing of the FAA, they correct problems with new rules. Like flight 182 in San Diego. No small talk under 10,000 feet.
I remember the smoke, being miles away. My future wife living a few miles away heard the crash, and remembered the widows in her apartment rattling. My Brother was in North Park working construction, and saw the planes come down. He was saying, “ come on, come on,” hoping it could recover. RIP
Sully violated that sterile cockpit rule admiring the Hudson but hid out for three days with copilot in a hotel room until they were legends. He could have landed back at LaGuardia by following a small river. He also didn’t flip the ditch switch or use crew resource management and inform the crew he was ditching. They all almost drowned
The air traffic controller should have asked one simple question. Altitude check flight 401!
"Eastern 401 I can slot you into the pattern for a low pass to visually confirm your nose gear." Not the controller's duty, but would have broken the cockpit fixation.
@@fluffskunk IT WAS A DECENTING MOON FASE! DARK, DARKNESS!
This crash helped lead to airlines establishing new operational guidlines for flight crews called "Crew Resource Management" (CRM). Flight crews are now trained to operate as a team. The problem with Eastern 401...the whole crew got totally distracted by the burned out bulb that they totally forgot to do the primary thing they're responsible to do....FLY THE DAMN PLANE! There was absolutely nothing wrong with that Lockheed L-1011 that night except for a light. Crew distraction crashed a perfectly good aircraft.
21:07 One of the rescuers was smoking a cigarette as he hauled passengers out of the jet fuel saturated swamp.
I remember reading in Frank Borman's autobiography (Apollo 8 Commander) that he was President of Eastern when this accident occurred.
Incredible story! So sad. RIP to those who died. May the survivors be at peace now. At least they were able to figure out what went wrong and act upon it!❤
I am amazed that the pilot didn't perform an immediate light bulb check, then realize that the light bulb was simply burned out.
The level of ignorance is unmatched
3:36
Yeah, That air traffic controller shares some Blame I think, he Noticed that the plane Descended very low and said Nothing. He Could have, Should have Simply said, " 401 you're at 0900 ?" Further, Why does a Multi- million dollar Jumbo-jet have a Ground proximity warning bell activated at such a low altitude when it is likely impossible for the plane to recover?
I've said before, and I'll say it again. Every commercial pilot should be required to frequently fly a light aircraft so they remember how to fly! Ie., don't fly into the ground! Db
That’s a great idea. When I was flying 40 years ago, we flew the airplane. There was no fancy auto pilot or navigation equipment in the small airplanes.
@@VLove-CFII I had a Cessna 150 on a local grass strip in Washington, when we still had open airspace. Radio, not required! Nice 45 minute trip around Mt. St. Helens and back, to watch the antelope. 5 gallons of av gas at $1.05/gallon! God I miss flying!! Db
I've heard that today's pilots are getting flight experience in the flight simulator training modules and can be hired to fly commercially without any light plane experience ! If true, that needs to end clearly...there's no gain in hiring "video game" trained pilots because when the electronics start to fail...Joe Pilot isn't prepared much to fly manually.
@@Garth2011 I'm an old and bold pilot, a rarity. When it was still legal, I'd fly just above stall speed down the Columbia and fly with flocks of Canada geese. They would look at me. I also flew with Bald and more often Golden eagles, they were slightly faster!. Speed and altitude are safety They would look at me! You had to know your aircraft's limits, meaning, I had to know how to FLY!!! Fly or die! Db Pay attention, it's not that hard!
As someone who worked at Atlantic Southeast Airlines, I can say that pilots can be some of the cockiest ppl. Yes, they were smaller airlines but when you are marshalling in or out planes and the pilot just disregards and does what they want....its frustrating to have to tell A PILOT who should know better, actually yell at them to stop or they will be stopped..Its not fun when Im a peon having to yell at ppl whoul have lives in their hands.
There were a few ghostly sightings of the Flight Engineer on several other Eastern L-1011’s after the crash. It was determined that parts salvaged from the crashed L-1011 and installed into other Eastern L-1011’s were where the sightings occurred. Once those parts were removed, the sightings stopped.
I "heard" that the flight recorder actually recorded one of the ghosts talking and the Airline buried it!! But like anything else, it's s great story, but we need the proof.
Eh a boring ghost.
Ghost believers keep coming up with the worst afterlife where you don't have peace even when you're dead.
Yeah if ghosts were real you wouldn't be able to hold a thought with the multitude of dead people making noise. If you think you hear a ghost it is probably an entity like a demon that mimics humans.
@@fluffskunk Ghosts are likely just souls stuck in purgatory who try to remind people on earth that they need prayers from us to get out of there.
The guy smoking a cigarette while evacuating victims was scary.
Edit: officer on right at 21:11-he could’ve killed everyone!!!
Well, that's terrifying.
I saw that! I hope it’s pen light or something else, but I sure looks like a cigarette! 😮 🔥
Yes, for sure!
When I was 9 years old I was on Eastern’s last flight into LaGuardia and we had no idea that it was their last flight. I remember getting off the plane at LaGuardia and the terminal was dark and there were locked fences closing off Eastern’s terminal from the rest of their airport and major pandemonium was going on bc Eastern didn’t give any notice to their employees or passengers. We weren’t even supposed to be on that flight originally, we always flew on AA passes but we got bumped and bc we also had family that worked for Eastern we wound up hopping on the Eastern flight. My dad came to pick us up at the airport (he worked for Eastern in the 70’s) and I just remember him saying it was the end of an era.
I would think ATC or the pilot of another airliner could confirm whether the nose wheel was down, even at night. Also I thought the L-1011 was capable of safely landing without the nose landing gear retracted.
Hats off to Mr. Robert Marcus, the airboat pilot fishing in the swamp that night who helped save many injured passengers at the crash site.
Sad that the newlywed man lost his wife.
They switched seats before the accident...
@@omarjason1255 Imagine living with that, "what if" for the rest of your life? Poor guy:(
And the video indicated she drowned under the wing...
Same. I hope he's doing well.
Mr.Ballen covered this story in great detail!
Well I didn't expect this to turn into a ghost story!
Every plane should be equipped with cameras. So many accidents could be avoided if the pilots could see their landing gear, wing, tail etc
I flew that same route on Eastern back in `78 Just a weekend getaway from what I recall as a cold NY winter.I was still a young man than. I have flown many times to many different parts of the world Some where along the line I became too uptight about it and now I will never,ever fly again. Maybe videos like this have something to do with it.
John Nance’s analysis is awesome! Love that guy!
I immediately knew what crash this was. I remember it like it was yesterday...I lived in Miami and was in my early 20s. Watching this now gives me chills and I have tears running down my face...all these years later.
Quality instrument incandescent (IC) light bulbs in the past were only made by CM (Chicago Miniature) and never saw problems unless one was dropped when installing. Other brands were at times found DOA when installed or were short-lived. Used CM for over 50 years and never found a defective new bulb. IC lamps are now superseded by superior LED design types.
Imagine if the TriStar was equipped with a voice that said "Autopilot On" and "Autopilot Off"
The one thing I takeaway from this video is that back in 1972, all newspaper columns were printed in latin.
Back in the late 70s I was flying on a Eastern Airlines L1011 from San Juan PR to Orlando Fl.i was with my mom and grandma. When we took off from PR I believe if not mistaken from runway 8 as soon as the gear goes up the plane turns left towards the ocean as its climbing. Once it completed that turn and I could see the beach out my window on the left side of the plane the lights in the cabin went out.about a minute later the captain got on the PA and said that as a precaution we where returning to the airport. I remember flying in a few large circles over the Atlantic Ocean. Then the captain said not to worry and that it was all because of a low oil pressure reading in one of the engines and that they shut it down. He also said that we had 2 good engines and everything was good. We landed perfectly. After around 80 minutes on the gate they said everything was good after they changed some filters.because of the incident adults had free drinks. I also remember that back then smoking was allowed on the commercial aircraft and they had ashtrays on the arm rest of the seats.they also served a full meal.they would ask you chicken or steak then serve you a small tray with the meal.
Yup. Made the mistake of taking a seat in a smoking section. When the no smoke light went out, it was like The Great Chicago Fire. Never again.
@@tomperkins5657 are Delta flight that crashed at Dallas-Fort Worth, a gentleman credits his survival on his being in the smoking section in the rear of the plane, the tail section which survives mostly intact after the crash.
@@4bibimimi I have heard that those sitting in the rear have a better chance of surviving. However, I did hear recently that gentleman died of lung cancer.
@@tomperkins5657 some deaths move faster than others, non?
@@4bibimimi Harrrr, Nice one 4Bib!
The love of my life was one of the structural design engineers on the Boeing L-1011 Tristar!
It was my favorite Plane, before i knew he had helped with the design of this MAGNIFICENT AIRCRAFT!
Lockheed.
As a controller its pretty shocking the controller working the flight didnt interrogate the crew about being a thousand feet over the ground.
Captain Bob, if accurately portrayed here, needed to retire yesterday.
It's pilots and ATCs that people should be more scared of..not so much the planes.
So let me understand this correctly. An L10-11 goes down within a half hour CG flight of a major metroplitan area, and they send ONE freakin chopper out to perform a rescue mission. Sweet Jesus on the Cross.!!!!
An audible alarm and indicating light should be activated when the auto-pilot is disengaged "automatically". The audible alarm can only be reset by moving the auto-pilot switch from "engaged" to "disengaged" position. Also indicating lights for the critical equipment should have two light bulbs. Yes, some of the designs of these lights need a lot of effort and skills (or even special tool) to change a burnt light bulb.
This change was made, partially due to this accident
@@derpaholic_rex756 Thanks for the update. Glad to hear that. Anything that has a potential to improve safety is a good news.
I learned this some years ago: Astronaut Frank Borman (Apollo 8) was a VP of Eastern at the time of this crash. He lived in the Miami region. He ordered a Helicopter to fly him to the accident scene. He jumped into the swamp to assist survivors. One man he came across was unable to be freed from twisted metal and died in Borman's presence. This is perhaps one of the only times a high profile individual (Executive Employee) extended himself beyond safety to help others !! Borman later became CEO of Eastern but also sternly denied the issue of the ghost stories which persisted about this crash in later years. He also shunned any recognition for his personal involvement in the crash aftermath. This story should have included him. The L-1011 which crashed was brand new at the time. The story also goes the L-1011 Autopilot was, indeed, DESIGNED to perform as it did here: To disengage when the yolk was moved (Bumped). Other jets did not have this feature so pilots were not aware of it overall.
So many things had to go wrong for this crash to happen.
Swiss cheese effect. Everything went wrong at precisely the key moment.
Right! What are the odds of everyone including ATC being so distracted at exactly the same time..that they didnt realize altitude until too late ? 😮
If, as Eastern claimed, the ghost stories were complete nonsense, why remove the recovered parts?
It's scary to think that from the time there were air traffic controllers to 1972, none of them had according to the FAA a duty to monitor the altitude of an aircraft. What a mindboggling bureaucratic BS.
Are you trying to infer this crash occurred because ATC didn't have to monitor their altitude because of bureaucratic BS? You are making excuses for the flight crew and trying to shift blame to others, that is BS. What is mind boggling is the flight crew allowing this to happen. This is 100% on the captain and the crew. The captain is ultimately responsible and this accident is 100% his fault regardless of what ATC did or didn't do. What the captain and crew did here is absolutely inexcusable, no one else to blame in any way. No responsible captain would ever rely on ATC to tell them their altitude.
Your comment is beyond ignorant.
This is mostly moot. The vast majority of ATC facilities in 1972 still didn't have any way to monitor altitude except by asking. Miami was one of the first.
Years ago I would fly Eastern Airlines. Flying into Louisville we had an electrical problem. Foamed runway scary as all get out. Couldn’t fly again for 18 years
Hey eastern 401 what’s your altitude??
Even though it wasn't the controller's direct responsibility to monitor a plane's altitude, it was part of his overall responsibility to keep the plane from reaching altitude zero. 900 feet is an alarming altitude. "How's it goin' up there" implies he wasn't even thinking about altitude.
Right one question could have saved this plane
i find it very interesting that the worst and most deadly aviation accident in history didnt happen from a plane crashing out of the sky , but it actually happened on the GROUND
Canary island, two 747s collide?
Capt. Loft accidently disengaged the autopilot when he turned to talk to Don Repo. Tragic. And the rescuer with the airboat was a great hero. And we all know the stories about the ghosts of the crew that were seen later. The real tragedy was the flight controller who didn't think to query about 401's altitude when he noticed. I'm certain that the rest of his life was consumed with guilt but it wasn't his fault because it was outside his normal areas of responsibility.
Pilots have a hard job. Their usual calm is astonishing.