The Ghost Of Flight 401

(Above. That's Loft on the left and Repo on the right)

I’m totally giving away my age when I say, I recall when this made-for-tv horror movie “The Ghost of Flight 401” (I believe it's easier to find on VHS) came out in 1978. Starring Ernest Borgnine, Kim Bassinger and many other familiar 70s faces, this movie had a huge urban legend surrounding it.

Here's the movie -




Was there ever a flight 401 that started an airplane haunting?

The movie premise: An aircraft crashes in the Florida Everglades, killing 103 passengers. After the wreckage is removed, salvageable parts from the plane are used to repair other aircraft. Soon passengers and crew on those aircraft report seeing what they believe to be the ghost of the wrecked airplane's flight engineer.

Here’s some info I got on the true story here:

On the night of Friday, December 29th, 1972 Eastern Airlines Flight 401 was carrying 176 people as it neared it's destination of the Miami Airport. Flying the L - 1011 jumbo jet were Captain Bob Loft and Second Officer Don Repo, who were engaged in routine landing procedures when a warning light flashed on the control panel indicating a problem with the landing gear. It is possibly that this is the reason neither of them noticed that the plane was actually descending around 200 feet per minute faster than what they thought. Seconds later the airliner slammed into the Florida Everglades, killing 101 people immedietly. Both Captain Loft and Officer Repo survived the initial impact, but both were mortally wounded. Captain Loft died before he could be pulled from the burning, twisted wreck and Officer Repo died a day later. The story of these men should have ended right there, but this was not to be the case. Eastern Airlines salvaged much of the stricken airplane and redistributed them among similar aircraft in their fleet.

Soon, reports of ghostly hauntings began to come in from the planes who had received spare parts from Flight 401. Most of the apparitions were reported by Eastern's crew members, especially those on one particular plane of the airline's fleet. Repo's ghost appeared frequently, both in the cockpit as well as in the galley, the area where flight attendants prepared passengers meals. He seemed to be especially concerned with flight safety, and reportedly fixed a faulty oven circuit on one occasion. In other instances, he pointed out a potential fire hazard and a hydraulic leak.

Loft's ghost was also seen on various flights, usually sitting in first class or in the crews cabin. A stewardess once confronted Loft, asking what he was doing on the plane as she had not seen him board and could not identify him on the passenger manifest. Receiving no reply, she reported it to her flight captain. He walked back with her and recognized Loft, who disappeared immediately in front of a dozen people!!! The airline was (at least outwardly) a bit skeptical of people who reported the sightings, and suggested that they seek psychiatric counseling at the company's expense. Nevertheless, skeptical or not, the airline removed all of the salvaged parts of the ill - fated Flight 401 from the aircraft they had been put into. The paranormal sightings ended with that. Eventually, the sightings were turned into a best selling book by newspaper reporter John G. Fuller.

Fictionalized movies are fantastically delightful, like "The Amityville Horror," but don't consider them accurate information. Do a little reading on your own on the subject of mechanical parts being cursed or haunted. Here's some great ones:

"Ghosts of the Air" by Martin Caidin
"The Ghost Of Flight 401" by John Fuller
"Mystery of The Medallion: Death of James Dean Sparks a Curse" by Jeff Edwards
"The Winchester Mystery House" by Cynthia Winchester Anderson

Here's a lot of detailed info on the Flight 401.