Re: I had no idea.
mar said:
You're kidding. That movie was based on an actual story? I had no idea. I just consider every airplane movie with Borgnine kinda silly. Maybe in the spirit of Halloween you could tell us that ghost story.
It was a dark, calm night...
Eastern 401 was being operated by Tristar N310EA on December 29, 1972. Bob Loft was the captain. His first officer was Al Stockstill (a classmate of my father's), and the F/E was Don Repo. I think we all know the story. In the days before GPWS and autopilot disconnect horns, these gentlemen got so busy with a faulty nose-gear position light that they let their L-1011 crash into the Everglades west of Miami.
Certain non-critical components that survived the accident (cosmetic cabin fittings, overhead bins, baggage containers, etc.) eventually found their way into other Eastern L-1011's. The story goes that on aircraft carrying those components, the ghost of Flight Engineer Don Repo could be seen...sometimes sitting in a passenger seat...maybe in one of the galley elevators.
The ghost appears to be a creation of novelist John G. Fuller, since no Eastern pilot I've spoken with remembers seeing a ghost, nor do they remember anyone else ever having claimed to see a ghost.
If I remember right, the ghost supposedly saves another L-1011 from suffering the same fate as ship 310.
(Actually, there may be something to this...there're a couple CRJ-200's at my company that I'm pretty sure are haunted...strange noises that don't repeat themselves...components that refuse to work unless a mechanic is looking at them...
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P.S. There's been talk in a lot of CRM classes about how Loft intimidated Stockstill so badly that he could hardly function. B.S. My father knew Stockstill well and had flown with Loft on a couple of occasions. Loft had a temper and would fly off the handle about little things, but he was hardly feared. Most guys just rolled their eyes behind his back.
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