By Kathy Murray
One hundred passengers and crew members, along with both the captain and second officer of Flight 401, died when the jet crashed in the Florida Everglades in December 1972. But that hasn’t stopped some of them from continuing to fly.
THE ACCIDENT
All the crew and passengers were accounted for on Eastern Airlines Flight 401. Captain Bob Loft and second officer D. Repo started the flight just like any other. But this time, something went wrong. There was a problem with the plane’s landing gear. While trying to fix the problem, the plane started losing altitude and by the time it was noticed, it was too late. Flight 401 crashed.
REUSING PARTS AND RESURRECTING SOULS
Those parts of the jet which were salvageable were placed on other planes and the time to mourn hadn’t even passed before the captain and second officer of doomed 401 were seen on these new planes. Although Repo was seen more often than Loft, sightings of the former captain weren’t any less dramatic. In fact, a vice president of Eastern Airlines chatted with the dead Loft in first class, who was decked out in his uniform, for quite some time before he realized just who the man really was. When this realization came to him, Loft disappeared right before the VP’s eyes. There was also an incident where a flight attendant saw a man in a seat that had been vacant just before and asked his name. When the man didn’t respond, she called for help and after attracting a crowd of crew members, the man again disappeared before their eyes! Some still had the chance though to recognize him as Captain Loft.
THIS IS YOUR CAPTAIN SPEAKING
Second officer Repo was also seen numerous times on the planes that had been built with 401’s parts. One time, he was spotted at the control panel by an engineer, where Repo proceeded to tell the man that he had already done the pre-flight check and that everything was in order. In 1974, Repo’s ghost appeared and warned the flight engineer to “watch out for fire on this airplane”. The plane, which then left Mexico City, had a problem which could have taken down the jet, but fortunately, didn’t. Repo had been right: the problem was that one of the engines had caught fire. Thankfully, it was extinguished while still in the air. On another occasion, the crew was baffled when, even though the intercom was turned off, a voice came over it and went over the pre-flight instructions with the passengers.
FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS
The parts that had been taken from the wreckage of Flight 401 were eventually taken from the new planes they had been placed on. Since then, reported sightings have grown fewer. So why were Loft and Repo haunting the later flights? It appears that they wanted to prevent more tragic accidents from happening. Repo, who had been dead for quite some time when he made this statement to a flight crew explained, “There will never be another crash. We will not let it happen.”