the Mysterious Ghosts of Flight 401
A children’s book by Burnham Holmes, Contemporary Perspectives Publishing, 1979
In 1973, an Eastern Air Lines aircraft crashed in the Florida Everglades. After the wreckage is removed, salvageable parts from the plane are used to repair other aircraft. Soon after, passengers and crew on those aircraft report seeing what they believe to be the ghost of the wrecked airplane.
Several sighting of mysterious cloud formations were reported outside the aircraft on the wing in flight, also cold air and formations inside. In one occasion a flight attendant reported seeing features of a human face appear over time to reveal Don Repo, one of the doomed pilots…
A stewardess on plane 318 was checking the passenger list before takeoff. A man dressed in the uniform of an Eastern Captain was in one of the seats. But no EAL captains were on the list. She greeted the man and asked his name. The captain continued to sit in silence. He kept looking straight ahead.
The stewardess went to the flight supervisor. They came back to the silent captain, again he would not answer their questions. Finally, the stewardess and the supervisor went to see the captain in the flight deck to talk with him about the problem. The captain was surprised, he knew almost all the captains that worked for the airline, something funny was going on…
The flight captain walked to the silent captain and by this time passengers had crowded around with interest. They had overheard the crew trying to talk to the silent captain…
Suddenly the flight captain stopped in his tracks. His eyes grew wide. His mouth dropped open. For a moment he couldn’t say a word. Then he spoke. Looking straight at the silent man in the uniform, he said, “Bob Loft!” And as though the name was a signal, the silent passenger disappeared. Suddenly all of them – the flight captain, the stewardesses, the passengers – found themselves looking at an empty seat!
