|
  Perhaps
the most extraordinary and credible research into
the ghost phenomenon ever documented is the so-called
"Ghosts of Flight 401." On December of 1972, an
Eastern Airlines Tri-Star jetliner, Flight 401,
crashed into a Florida swamp. The pilot, Bob Loft
(on the left), and flight engineer Don Repo (on
the right), were two of the 101 people who perished
in the air crash. Not long after the crash, the
ghosts of Loft and Repo were seen on more than twenty
occasions by
crew members
on other Eastern Tri-Stars, especially those planes
which had been fitted with parts salvaged from the
Flight 401 wreckage. The apparitions of Loft and
Repo were invariably described as being extremely
lifelike. They were not only reported by people
who had known Loft and Repo, but their ghosts were
also subsequently identified from photographs by
people who had not known Loft and Repo.
The strange tales of
the ghostly airmen of Flight of 401 circulated in
the airline community. An account of the paranormal
happenings even appeared in a 1974 US Flight Safety
Foundation's newsletter. John G. Fuller, the best-selling
author of
The Ghost of Flight 401,
carried out an exhaustive investigation into the
hauntings with the aid of several cautious airline
personnel. A mass of compelling testimony was produced
as a result. The website
Flight 401 – The Black
Box Story
provides an account of the crash as told using material
from the Black Box. It highlights how poor cockpit
resource management caused a tiny light bulb to
distract the pilots and bring down a Tristar jetliner.
The cause
of the crash was found to be a couple of minor design
faults in the controls, and Lockheed rapidly corrected
them. However, it was after some of the undamaged
parts of the aircraft were subsequently recycled
onto other planes that the mysterious incidents
began to be reported.
Although
Eastern Airlines refuses to discuss the matter,
researchers have interviewed numerous individuals
claiming to have encountered the ill-fated pair
on L-1011s. As the reports would have it, Loft and
Repo have devoted their after-lives to watching
over the passengers and crew of these Lockheed passenger
planes.
Many of
the testimonies are extremely persuasive. Many come
from people in highly responsible positions: pilots,
flight officers, even a vice president of Eastern
Airlines, who allegedly spoke with a captain he
assumed was in charge of the flight, before recognizing
him as the late Loft.
Other sightings
are convincing because they have multiple witnesses.
A flight's captain and two flight attendants claim
to have seen and spoken to Loft before take-off
and watched him vanish - an experience that left
them so shaken they cancelled the flight.
One female
passenger made a concerned enquiry to a flight attendant
regarding the quiet, unresponsive man in Eastern
Airlines uniform sitting in the seat next to her,
who subsequently disappeared in full view of both
of them and several other passengers, leaving the
woman hysterical. When later shown a sheet of photos
depicting Eastern flight engineers, she identified
Repo as the officer she had seen.
Another
incident occurred when one of the L-1011 passenger
planes that had been fitted with salvaged parts
was due for take-off. The flight engineer was mid-way
through carrying out the routine pre-flight inspection
when Repo appeared to him and said, "You don't need
to worry about the pre-flight, I've already done
it."
Repo and
Loft are apparently not content merely to be present
on these airplanes. Often their style is far more
hands on, particularly in Repo's case. Aside from
his appearance to a pre-flight engineer who he appeared
to have been assisting, there is testimony from
a flight attendant who observed a man in a flight
engineer's uniform, whom she later recognized as
Repo, fixing a galley oven. The insistence of the
plane's own flight engineer that he had not fixed
the oven, and that there had not been another engineer
on board, would seem to lend weight to her claim.
Repo was also seen in the compartment below the
cockpit by a flight engineer who had accessed it
in order to investigate a knocking he heard coming
from there.
On another
occasion, Faye Merryweather, a flight attendant,
saw Repo's face looking out at her from an oven
in the galley of Tri-Star 318. Understandably alarmed,
she fetched two colleagues, one of whom was the
flight engineer who had been a friend of Repo's
and recognized him instantly. All three heard Repo
warn them to, "Watch out for fire on this airplane."
The plane later encountered serious engine trouble
and the last leg of its flight was cancelled. It
is interesting to note that the galley of Tri-Star
328 had been salvaged from the wreckage of flight
401.
The sightings
were all reported to the Flight Safety Foundation
(an independent authority) which commented: "The
reports were given by experienced and trustworthy
pilots and crew. We consider them significant. The
appearance of the dead flight engineer (Repo) ...
was confirmed by the flight engineer." Later, records
of the Federal Aviation Agency recorded the fire
which broke out on that same aircraft.
One of the
vice-presidents of Eastern Airlines boarded a Miami-bound
TriStar at JFK airport and spoke to a uniformed
captain sitting in First Class. Suddenly, he recognized
the captain was Loft, at which point the apparition
vanished.
Another
incident occurred when Repo appeared to a captain
and told him, "There will never be another crash.
We will not let it happen."
A female
passenger found herself sitting next to an Eastern
Airlines flight officer who looked pale and ill,
but would not speak; she called a stewardess but
before the eyes of several people, the man disappeared.
The woman was later shown photographs of Eastern
Airlines engineers and she identified the man as
Repo.
Unfortunately,
further research into the well-witnessed paranormal
incidents was severely hampered by the airline company
which steadfastly refused to co-operate with the
ghost investigators.
It should be
noted that ghost sightings have been reported many
times throughout recorded history. During the 1990's,
research into "after-death
communications" (ADCs) by near-death researchers,
Bill and Judy Guggenheim, helped to make the phenomenon
of ghost sightings more mainstream.
|
