January 23, 2025 • 32 mins
Welcome to the Oddity Shop....Archives. We are taking a short Hiatus for the month of January! Please enjoy a month of some of our favorite throwback episodes!
In The shop this week, Zach has the tragic tale, and following hauntings surrounding Eastern Airlines Flight 401
Listen as we recount how a completly normal flight takes a dubious turn when coming in to land in 1972. After the crash, find out what happens to parts of the wreckage, and learn that some of the crew may still be working in the afterlife. Are the ghosts there to scare, or to help future passengers?
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What's up, you oddballs?
Welcome back to the Oddity Shop.
Throwback style, kara.
Why are we doing somethrowbacks?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
So here's the thing Everybody loves a good throwback
, you know.
It makes you appreciate thecurrent of where we're at, the
current states, right?
So everybody appreciates athrowback.
However, we're doing athrowback just for our mental
health, to give us a nice littlebreak.
So, oddballs, we hope that youunderstand, but we are taking
off the month of January and wehave purposely never taken off
(00:30):
because we feel guilty.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
And we feel terrible about this, but we do.
We have picked what we thinkare the four best of our older
episodes for y'all to enjoy foreach week of the month of
January.
Stay tuned, though we are goingto bring you a new bonus
episode at the end of the month,and, if you are on Patreon,
we're going to have fresh thingson there for you, but until
then, enjoy this littlethrowback episode that's just
(00:53):
about to get started.
After Kara says our magic words.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I love and appreciate you and I hope you're not mad
at us, but the most importantthing you can do for me is to
creepy, really add balls.
Goodbye, bye for now.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
We'll see you in four weeks welcome to the oddity
shop, where the bizarre isalways on sale.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
All right, everybody, welcome back to the Oddity Shop
, or welcome to the Oddity Shopif you're new here, if you're
old here, if you are beingforced to listen to it by me or
Kara because we have no otherlisteners, welcome.
We're here to tell you somecreepy tales.
Sorry, carlos, sorry, CarlosWoo.
All right, I am Zach and I'mhere with co-host Kara and we
have a tale for you today.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (02:04):
The tale is Eastern Airlines Flight 401, which is a
little bit of a sad story tostart, but we get into a little
bit of a creepy ghost actiontoday.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I don't know about this.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
I am going to set the scene for you.
I want you to feel like you arepart of the experience.
All right, so you get on aplane, you're flying from New
York to Miami, everything isgoing great, you're coming into
land and next thing you know,you wake up upside down, still
strapped in your seat, with yourhead underwater.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Are you kidding me?
So I'm drowning.
I wake up drowning.
After a plane crash yes, Okay,I know you're going to elaborate
, but I need to understand.
So I was just sleeping.
What was I doing?
I was just sitting on my planeseat and then, all of a sudden,
I wake up underwater.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
It's about midnight In fact.
No, you weren't sleeping.
This person was actuallywriting a letter to the airlines
about how great the flight hadbeen because it was a brand new
aircraft.
Stop it right now.
All right, so we're going toget into it.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I'm not going to stop it right now, so I'm just
sitting there I'm sitting therewriting a thank you letter like
this has been a great experience.
I'm so great and happy to getto Miami, and then I wake up,
upside down in water.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Pretty much Ready to figure out how you got there.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
No, but I know you're going to tell me anyway.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I'm going to tell you All right.
So the year is 1972, and thisplane crash happens.
It should never have happened.
But what happens afterwards iswhere things get really, really
weird.
Okay, but in the late 60s,early 70s, lockheed, who creates
a bunch of aircrafts they comeout with a new airplane.
(03:50):
It is called the L-1011-1TriStar.
Okay, it's a bulky name for abulky plane.
Like this thing is humongous.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Is this the Titanic of planes?
Speaker 1 (04:03):
It is, and it's also unsinkable.
Okay, so this plane is superadvanced for its time.
It holds up to 400 passengers.
There's eight seats per row, soyou've got two on each side,
four in the middle.
It also has two levels In thelower level is a lounge a
kitchen and it actually has twoelevators that go up and down,
(04:25):
but these elevators are liketeeny tiny this is unnecessary.
It's all part of the plane.
It's brand new, top of the line.
Is this supposed to be like aluxury plane?
No, it's pretty much just astandard passenger flight.
So it's affordable to all.
Yeah, I mean it's just standardflight, but they made very few
(04:46):
of them because it was reallyreally expensive to build.
That comes back later.
December 29th 1972, 8.30pm, theEastern Airlines flight leaves
New York heading to Miami.
Of the 400 capacity, there'sonly 176 on board, because New
York actually had really badweather right before this
happened.
(05:06):
Oh, God 13 of the 176 people arecrew members.
So, like I said at thebeginning, Wait hold on.
I'm sorry there was bad weatherin New York, so that's why all
the passengers didn't get on.
Yeah, like a lot of peopledidn't even show up to the
airport because the weather wasbad getting there.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Right, or like other flights coming into New York
were canceled.
This thing just wasn't at fullcapacity.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
When was this?
Speaker 1 (05:31):
1972, December 29th.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
December, so it's probably snow.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Okay, yep.
So everything goes reallysmooth.
Takeoff goes well and, like Isaid, one passenger even starts
to write a letter to EasternAirlines to applaud them for how
comfortable and safe he felt ontheir new airplane.
As the plane comes into land,though, things take a little bit
of a deadly turn.
He jinxed everybody, he jinxedeveryone.
(05:55):
But let's talk about thecockpit first.
So the cockpit on this planehas four seats instead of the
standard two.
On this night, december 29th1972, we have the Captain, bob
Loft.
Bob Loft is 55 years old and hehas clocked over 30,000 hours
of flight experience.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I can't even comprehend that.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
No, I mean they say what?
10,000 hours for mastery ofsomething?
This guy is three times that at55.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Is that what they say ?
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
We're not going to be good at this for a while.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
It's going to take us a minute, but thanks for coming
along on the ride, guys.
But Bob is known as beingconfident.
He's known as being aperfectionist.
This guy knows what he's doingbehind the controls of the plane
.
His co-pilot is Bert Stockstill.
He's also really experiencednot anywhere near Bob Loft, but
he knows what he's doing behindthe controls.
(06:47):
They also have on board DonRepo.
Don Repo is a flight engineerand he's known as being really
soft-spoken and reallyapproachable.
And finally, the last guy inthe cockpit has no business
being in the cockpit other thanthe fact that he's an employee
of Eastern Airlines and heneeded to get to Miami.
It's a new plane.
They invited him up front.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Okay, so he's not actually doing anything.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Nope, he's just kind of along for the ride.
Okay, I have anxiety about thisalready.
So it's 11.32 pm, Captain Bobbegins the approach to Miami,
and this is when Bert, theco-pilot, notices a little bit
of an issue.
So the plane has on its controlpanel three indicator lights
(07:29):
for the landing gear.
There's one piece of landinggear in the front of the plane,
two pieces in the back andthere's a light for each one of
them on the controls.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Can we just pause for a second and just comprehend
pilots?
I can't get it.
I don't understand.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I know this is bad timing right, but one of the
dreams of mine has always beento get my private pilot's
license.
I think it's so cool, becauseit's also so terrifying.
I still don't really understandhow planes work.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
No To be a pilot.
Oh, I haven't got any pilotsout there.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
But disasters don't happen often, which is, I think,
why there's such a big storywhen they do.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Well, that is true, but I'm just saying in general.
Flying a dang plane isfascinating, so anyway, continue
.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Okay.
So we're back in the cockpit,we're looking at the three
indicator lights and the frontindicator light is not coming on
for the landing gear.
Bob radios the flight controltower and they tell him, until
they can confirm that thelanding gear is down, they need
to get out of the way of otherincoming traffic and he tells
them just to do circles over theEverglades.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Oh, I don't like this .
Speaker 1 (08:36):
So the pilots begin circling over the Everglades,
they put the plane in autopilotwhile they work to resolve the
issue.
So autopilot should have keptthem at 2,000 feet, going at a
single constant speed, but theycan come off the controls.
They can figure out the issue.
The crew, knowing that theplane was brand new and it had
already been like, completelychecked out top to bottom.
Everything was fine with it,right.
(08:57):
They kind of determined thatit's not faulty gear, that it's
a faulty indicator light causingthe issue.
So Bob and Bert and the othertwo, don Repo and the guy who
shouldn't even be in there right, that poor guy they are trying
to repair the light.
So they are taking it out,they're plugging it back in, and
(09:18):
then Bert takes it out andplugs it back in sideways,
breaking not only the light butthe entire socket.
Now they have no way, like theyhave no controls, or just Just
the light light.
So they were trying to fix thelight to get it to turn on but
you technically can't landunless all three of those lights
are working right.
(09:39):
You need to know if you havelanding gear.
But there's one other option.
Okay, they realize that theonly way to see if the landing
gear down is to physically seeit.
So in the l10 11 one I reallyhate this hall already there's a
trap door in the cockpit.
Nope, um, it's literally calledthe hellhole.
(10:02):
Yep, no.
So going down into thishellhole goes down to the lower
level I was telling you aboutearlier.
It's behind the lounge, butthere's a tiny window that looks
out to the front of the plane,so technically they should be
able to see if the landing gearis down.
Engineer don repo, he's the onewho has to go down into the
hellhole oh god it's a tinylittle trap door goes into a
(10:25):
tiny area.
Um, so don gets up and he beginsto descent down into the
hellhole.
We're going to go outside theplane now.
Oh no, no, no.
So there's two gentlemenfishing in the Everglades late
at night.
Oh no, it is completely pitchblack, it's 1130-ish.
It's going on.
Oh, it's later now.
(10:46):
Okay, Yep, it's actually about1140.
So it's pitch black.
The two guys are fishing.
They only have their headlampsfor light.
One of them's looking out theboat to their left.
One of them's looking to theright.
The one to the right sees ahuge, bright orange flash and
moments later it's gone.
So he's like dude, we have togo see what that was.
The other guy really doesn'tbelieve him at first.
(11:08):
So they are flying across theEverglades.
They have one of those boatswith the fan on the back of them
, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Oh, oh, my god.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I can't think of what they're called what you see in,
like every alligator movie ever.
So it takes them a coupleminutes to get there to five
miles down the Everglades andthey are completely shocked at
what they find.
These two fishermen come upupon the crash of Eastern
Airlines Flight 401.
All right, we're going to leavethe fishermen for a minute.
(11:36):
We're going to go back insidethe plane.
As Bob turned around to tellDon to go down into the hellhole
, his knee hits the controls.
It only takes a few pounds ofpressure at this point to
disengage an autopilot.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I can't with this story.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
So the plane starts to go into a slow descent
instead of staying at a constantaltitude.
But it was descending so slowlythat not one person noticed it,
just slightly cocked it down,being over the Everglades.
It's completely pitch black sonobody knew that they were kind
of coming up upon the ground,except for Bob.
Bob notices in the last coupleseconds he tries to pitch the
(12:15):
plane up.
It's too late and at 11.42pmthe plane crashes into the
ground.
It explodes into a bright flashof orange light, but it's
quickly extinguished because ofthe watery Everglades.
So that's why the fishermansees a bright flash that
immediately goes away okay, Ihate this.
Back to the fisherman.
They come up on the scene andit's wreckage body is all over
(12:39):
the place.
Most people are dead, some arealive and screaming.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Uh, the fisherman described body parts everywhere
can you imagine you're just likeout late night in the
everglades just getting somefish, getting whatever, what
tropical, what fish are there?
I don't freaking know, you'regetting some fish, you're just
chilling with your homie andthen that's what you, I was
(13:06):
gonna say, row up on, but theykind of drove, but and then
that's the site that you knowyeah, they're shocked.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Um, they're able to save one person.
This person was that's trappedin his chair, upside down with
his head underwater.
Uh, their flashlights hit himand they realize he's alive.
So they get this guy back intotheir boat.
This this is the gentleman whowas, of course, writing a letter
to the airline about how safehe felt on the flight.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
How many people were on this?
A hundred and what?
Seventy, eight or something.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
There was 176.
Of the 176, 75 people weresaved by the fishermen and the
Coast Guard, but 101 people,including all four in the
cockpit, lose their lives.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Okay, I thought you.
Okay, I see what you mean.
They found that guy first, theysaved him first.
I thought you meant they onlysaved one person.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Nope, they save him first.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
They take him.
I don't know where the nearestland is right, but they're able
to get a hold of the Coast Guardand then the rescue starts.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
So 75 of 176.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
So it's a terrible, it's sad and it's all due to.
What's insane to me is it's areally, really experienced pilot
who knocks this.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Do they ever actually , are they ever able to figure
out what was wrong with thatlight?
Speaker 1 (14:29):
No, because they broke the light.
Remember when they were tryingto fix it.
Yeah, but they ever able tofigure out what was wrong with
that light.
No, because they broke thelight.
Remember when they were tryingto fix it.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Yeah, but do they actually really think that it
was just a faulty light?
Speaker 1 (14:37):
It was a faulty light because upon getting to the
wreckage, all three pieces oflanding gear were out.
Ugh, so after the crash.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
That's really horrible.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
It's horrible, it's just a bad, sad story.
I mean, this is a couple daysafter Christmas, oh, my God, Not
a great situation.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
People are probably still traveling to their family
for, like the holiday.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Absolutely Ugh.
So after the plane crash, theaircraft as typically happens
when there's crashes oraccidents it's retrieved and
they start to put everythingback together to figure out what
happened, right.
So that's when they're able topull the black box and match
when the plane starteddescending up with.
When Bob turns around there'salso there's an alarm that
(15:27):
happens when they're gettingclose to the ground, but it only
goes off for five or sixseconds and these guys are so
preoccupied with Don going downto the hellhole to see if they
could have the landing gear andthe alarm is just.
Unfortunately it's not veryloud.
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Speaker 2 (16:22):
This, I feel like, is there like a movie or a show
that did this.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
There is Yep, there is a movie.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
But I don't know if I would have watched a movie
about it.
But this also like I'm visuallyseeing this really oddly, like
maybe I listened to some.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Okay, continue really oddly, like maybe I listened to
.
Okay, continue as they retrievethe part or the plane because
of the the fact that there's twolevels to it.
A lot of pieces of the planeare actually in like perfect
condition.
Now, this was one of the firstof this model.
They were expensive and slow tobuild, so they decide to take
(16:56):
the pieces they can salvage andinstall them into other planes
that were being manufactured atthe time.
Okay, so they all go into otherEastern Airline flights.
This doesn't sound good.
It's not great.
This is where things get alittle bit weird, because we
might have some attachments tothese parts.
Flash forward.
(17:17):
The vice president of EasternAirlines boards a flight from
New York and begins chattingwith the gentleman that he
thinks is the pilot of hisflight.
The whole time in his head he'sthinking this guy looks
familiar to me.
Stop it right now.
No, I can't make this up.
Okay.
So he's saying, wow, this guylooks familiar.
All of a sudden he realizes heis chatting with Bob Loft.
(17:40):
He goes to turn around to like,talk to him again and be like
how he's gone.
This guy has just completelydisappeared.
I'm shook.
On another flight a woman issitting next to a man dressed as
a pilot.
She at first thought he wassleeping but then realized he's
dazed, unresponsive and has likea concerned look on his face.
(18:02):
So she alerts the crew.
The crew realized that thisperson sitting next to her is
not on the passenger list.
It's supposed to be an emptyseat wait.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Can they see him though, or they're just going
off of her.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Everyone is seeing him, so the crew goes to get the
captain to come and confrontthe man who shouldn't be on
their flight.
As the captain walks up,dematerializes right in front of
all these people's eyes.
Before he dematerializes, thecaptain recognized Bob Loft.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Bob's just hanging out man Bob is hanging out, but
turns out bob might be hangingout for a reason okay, I was
just gonna say is he like awarning, like he pops around
like mothman when bad things aregonna happen?
Speaker 1 (18:47):
we'll find out.
Oh god, so another easternairlines flight.
Part of the crew is down in thegalley.
You know.
I told you that's downstairsright, so you have to take a one
person elevator down, whichjust seems so.
Told you that it's downstairsright, so you have to take a
one-person elevator down.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Which just seems so ignorant to me.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
It's also kind of creepy and you're in basically
like an industrial kitchen.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
No, I yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
She goes to open the oven door and as she opens the
door, she sees the reflection ofBob Loft's face.
Oh my god, turns around, notthere.
While she's down there, anothercrew member opens up upstairs,
the overhead compartment.
Instead of seeing luggage, shesees Bob Loft's face looking at
her In the little luggagecompartment Right.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
That's so odd.
It's a really odd place, Bob.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
It seems like almost like one of those comical horror
movie scares, like those oldB-horror movies.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Well, I think the oven that's creepy because
that's like a reflection, butwhen you just open the luggage
compartment that's really kindof odd.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
There for a second, it dematerializes.
So this is happening, though onnot one flight.
This is multiple flights, allEastern Airlines that have the
parts, that all have thesalvaged parts from the crash.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
So this, sorry, this is like James Dean's car Little
Bastard.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Oh, yeah, for sure.
This is where, though, like yousaid, you thought Bob was kind
of a warning right, so I havetwo specific flights to talk
about with that.
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Hold on.
Can I ask you, is this stillthe same year or when is this?
Because they rebuilt everything, so how long do you know when?
Speaker 1 (20:22):
It's like a couple years around.
Okay, right, so once again,eastern Airlines flight.
This one received a couple ofstoves from the galley of flight
401.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
That's also horrifying.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
This flight takes off from New York and is going to
Miami.
Oh no, Crew member goes downinto the galley and they see an
engineer fixing one of thestoves.
Later on in the flight she runsinto the engineer again and she
goes hey, I saw you in thestove Like it was working fine
earlier, what's wrong with it?
And he goes I didn't touch thestove, I wasn't even downstairs,
(20:57):
I wasn't near the stove.
I wasn't even downstairs.
I wasn't near the stove.
I guess there's no stairs rightIn the lower level.
So she tells the story to Piersright and later picks out a
photo of Don Reaper as the manthat she saw.
When they're like trying tofigure out who she saw, oh my
god.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, can I ask you do?
Is there any talk about this?
Like, do passengers realize atthis point that these might be
haunted, or does that ever notget to?
I'm sure the crew now knowslike people talk.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
People talk and it's a big rumor.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
We'll come to that in a little bit.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Um, so once again, as they're seeing the ghost down
in the stove, a flight attendantup in the upper level gets a
glimpse of Bob again and he sayswatch out for fires Like the
stove.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
What.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yep On this flight.
So the return flight.
The same plane has an enginefailure and the crew shut off
the engine moments before itcaught on fire.
So bob was in fact trying towarn them.
Bob and don are still trying tosave lives, even from beyond the
(22:11):
grave I have goosebumps forsure I've got another one for
you, then if your hair isn'tstanding up already, this one
gets it.
It is Okay.
So another Eastern Airlinesflight Crew is in the cockpit.
They're discussing the plane'sengineering before takeoff and
one of them pipes up and sayshey, I think you have a faulty
(22:32):
electrical circuit.
They turn to look at him,realizing there shouldn't be
four people in here.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Who just said that?
Speaker 1 (22:39):
And it's our boy, don .
The engineer disappears again.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Oh, I do have goosebumps.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
They bring an actual engineer in to check out the
flight and they do find anelectrical issue, same flight
while this is all going on theground crew are losing their
minds because they see Bob Loftoutside of the airplane doing
the pre-flight check.
(23:05):
The staff is so unnerved atthis point that they straight up
cancel the flight.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
You're totally right Now my hair is completely
standing up that they canceledthe flight.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Oh, my God.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
One, last one for you , if there's not enough.
I can't.
Pilot and co-pilot are sittingin the cockpit Same plane, same
model and they start to hearknocking on the trap door
leading to the hellhole.
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Was it three knocks.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
They open it up.
Don is there staring up at theminstantly vanished.
At this point, the stories arerunning rampant.
So they're like we need tocheck out this plane.
They discovered an issue thatcould have caused a serious
accident and the plane couldhave created mass casualties.
Now, unfortunately, theresearch I have didn't explain
(24:03):
what the the issue was bob anddon, and they come back from
beyond the grave to just stopother disasters from happening I
don't even know.
I have no words like you saidearlier, the ghost stories are
now traveling.
It's running rampant.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Is it like haunted hotels, where people are like I
want that haunted room, orthey're like I want the haunted
flight?
Speaker 1 (24:25):
I feel like it could have been, but like a haunted
hotel room on the ground is onething, it's completely different
you can leave.
And these guys are kind ofshowing up around issues, right.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Oh, that is true.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
So nobody really wants to be on this.
The the airline is getting alittle bit of bad publicity
around it.
The other weird thing is in logor like every plane has a log
book right in the books wherethey're describing the
experiences.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
The log books are going completely missing wait, I
that's weird, right, but whywould they go?
Speaker 1 (24:59):
missing, that I have no explanation I was thinking
that you were gonna say therewas like extra things logged no,
they just disappear oh so thestaff is told not to discuss
their personal experiences orany of the stories they heard
right now the airline is likewe're shutting this down.
All the salvaged parts fromflight 401 are removed from
(25:20):
planes that are still in the air.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Um I'm actually surprised the hauntings
immediately stop.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Once they do, that, do the issues in a way.
Yeah.
So because of the flight 401crash, there's actually a lot of
new regulations that come outmaking the autopilot system much
harder to disengage, addedlouder alarms that sound louder
and longer, and they adddifferent systems to let pilots
know when they're going offcourse.
(25:48):
So there's actually, eventhough it's super tragic,
there's some good that comes outof this.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Okay, so we'll let you finish.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
That's really it, honestly, that's where we finish
it.
The hauntings stop, they kindof squash the story and Bob Loft
and Don are free from workingfor eternity.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Okay, so obviously they were trying to save lives
and warn people of the issuesthat were going to continue to
happen.
So I'm wondering if then it wasjust all these parts from that
other plane were probably faultyparts to begin with, like they
should never have been used,like they shouldn't have.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
I think there's obviously some sort of larger
electrical issue, right.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
But the airlines, of course, they're going to try to
cover it up and they try to sayit's an urban legend, which
these people aren't actuallyseeing.
The dead crew members yeah,which these people aren't
actually seeing.
The dead crew members yeah.
But if that's the case, if it'sjust an urban legend, why does
the airline go so far to removethose parts from other planes?
Speaker 2 (26:46):
That's what I was going to say is actually kind of
surprising, because weobviously know how big corporate
companies go, especially thatthey're not going to.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
They're not going to willingly lose money over what
they don't believe to be true.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Right, know I just that's they're not gonna
willingly lose money over whatthey don't believe to be true,
right, but also it's reallycreepy that a whole staff of an
airline wouldn't, would, justcancel.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
they're like we're not doing this, that and that's
very alarming if it was justlike the one person in the lower
part of the plane who saw hisreflection in the stove like
that.
That's less believable thanthree or four people trying to
wake up this man who is-.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
And passengers.
It's not even like theyprobably didn't even ever hear
about this.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Right, that was one of the first sightings.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Right.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
He's manifesting and being seen by multiple people
and then also vanishing fromtheir eyes.
It's not like they're lookingaway and looking back and he's
gone, he's just straight updematerializing.
Once they recognize him,horrifying and think about that,
like that lady sitting next tohim.
No, okay, you're in a plane.
Nope, you can't really moveseats, so now she has to sit for
(27:52):
the rest of the flight listen,I'd be.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
I'm like I'm sitting on somebody's lap, figure it out
who wants to volunteer.
I'm sitting on somebody's lap,figure it out who wants to
volunteer.
I'm sitting on your freakinglap.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
You'd be going out the exit door.
You'd be Kristen Wiig inBridesmaids when she's freaking
out.
She just saw somebody on theplane wing.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
I don't really remember that movie because I
thought it was really stupid,anyway.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Our friendship just ended.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
No it didn't?
Speaker 1 (28:14):
It absolutely did.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
You haven't seen like any of my favorite movies,
that's because they're allterrible.
How would you know?
Anyway, but what I was sayingis it could just be like they're
haunting this aircraft becauseof pieces of where they like you
(28:36):
know whatever, but it seemsmore like they're just warning
it because these pieces are bad,like they shouldn't have been
put in this new plane, becausethen you said it stopped.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Right, it stops.
I think what's really cool,though, is that Bob and Don both
highly experienced individualsin life right, I know they cause
this accident, but in theafterlife they're devoted to
saving other people's lives.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Yeah, that is really.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
I think there's something just really
interesting about that, Likethey almost had an unfinished
mission.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Yeah, because they didn't mean to cause 100 and
something deaths.
That's so terrible.
I want to.
I want to speak to this manthat was writing that letter.
Did you have any?
Did you read any accounts oflike what?
Speaker 1 (29:19):
That's the only like survivor story I could find
that's freaking wild that's thestory of uh eastern airlines
flight 401 I that that's like sohorrifying.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
I've never in my entire existence thought of a
flight like an airline flightbeing haunted.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Well, good luck not thinking about that.
The next time you step on aflight, you might just see Bob
Loft staring at you.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Oh God, I'm not going to sleep tonight.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
All right, Well, hey, thanks for listening.
It was.
I really enjoyed that story.
I think it was the perfectamount of creepiness.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Oh, it's definitely, but like a good creepy.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Right, it has a happy ending.
They came back to help everyone.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
But let us know what you think.
We'll have our socials linkeddown in the show notes.
We'll also have the referencesif you want to learn a little
bit more about Flight 401.
But if you're still here, stilllistening, thanks for sticking
around this long.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
We appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
We do.
We truly appreciate you becausewe have no idea what we're
doing, but we're doing it thebest we can.
Damn it.
Creep it really a littleoddballs.
Talk to you next time, bye.
Bye, agnesia.
What's up, you oddballs?
Welcome back to the Oddity Shop.
Throwback style, kara.
Why are we doing somethrowbacks?
Speaker 2 (00:08):
So here's the thing Everybody loves a good throwback
, you know.
It makes you appreciate thecurrent of where we're at, the
current states, right?
So everybody appreciates athrowback.
However, we're doing athrowback just for our mental
health, to give us a nice littlebreak.
So, oddballs, we hope that youunderstand, but we are taking
off the month of January and wehave purposely never taken off
(00:30):
because we feel guilty.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
And we feel terrible about this, but we do.
We have picked what we thinkare the four best of our older
episodes for y'all to enjoy foreach week of the month of
January.
Stay tuned, though we are goingto bring you a new bonus
episode at the end of the month,and, if you are on Patreon,
we're going to have fresh thingson there for you, but until
then, enjoy this littlethrowback episode that's just
(00:53):
about to get started.
After Kara says our magic words.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I love and appreciate you and I hope you're not mad
at us, but the most importantthing you can do for me is to
creepy, really add balls.
Goodbye, bye for now.
Speaker 3 (01:06):
We'll see you in four weeks welcome to the oddity
shop, where the bizarre isalways on sale.
Speaker 1 (01:44):
All right, everybody, welcome back to the Oddity Shop
, or welcome to the Oddity Shopif you're new here, if you're
old here, if you are beingforced to listen to it by me or
Kara because we have no otherlisteners, welcome.
We're here to tell you somecreepy tales.
Sorry, carlos, sorry, CarlosWoo.
All right, I am Zach and I'mhere with co-host Kara and we
have a tale for you today.
Speaker 2 (02:04):
What is it?
Speaker 1 (02:04):
The tale is Eastern Airlines Flight 401, which is a
little bit of a sad story tostart, but we get into a little
bit of a creepy ghost actiontoday.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
I don't know about this.
Speaker 1 (02:21):
I am going to set the scene for you.
I want you to feel like you arepart of the experience.
All right, so you get on aplane, you're flying from New
York to Miami, everything isgoing great, you're coming into
land and next thing you know,you wake up upside down, still
strapped in your seat, with yourhead underwater.
Speaker 2 (02:41):
Are you kidding me?
So I'm drowning.
I wake up drowning.
After a plane crash yes, Okay,I know you're going to elaborate
, but I need to understand.
So I was just sleeping.
What was I doing?
I was just sitting on my planeseat and then, all of a sudden,
I wake up underwater.
Speaker 1 (02:59):
It's about midnight In fact.
No, you weren't sleeping.
This person was actuallywriting a letter to the airlines
about how great the flight hadbeen because it was a brand new
aircraft.
Stop it right now.
All right, so we're going toget into it.
Speaker 2 (03:12):
I'm not going to stop it right now, so I'm just
sitting there I'm sitting therewriting a thank you letter like
this has been a great experience.
I'm so great and happy to getto Miami, and then I wake up,
upside down in water.
Speaker 1 (03:24):
Pretty much Ready to figure out how you got there.
Speaker 2 (03:27):
No, but I know you're going to tell me anyway.
Speaker 1 (03:29):
I'm going to tell you All right.
So the year is 1972, and thisplane crash happens.
It should never have happened.
But what happens afterwards iswhere things get really, really
weird.
Okay, but in the late 60s,early 70s, lockheed, who creates
a bunch of aircrafts they comeout with a new airplane.
(03:50):
It is called the L-1011-1TriStar.
Okay, it's a bulky name for abulky plane.
Like this thing is humongous.
Speaker 2 (04:00):
Is this the Titanic of planes?
Speaker 1 (04:03):
It is, and it's also unsinkable.
Okay, so this plane is superadvanced for its time.
It holds up to 400 passengers.
There's eight seats per row, soyou've got two on each side,
four in the middle.
It also has two levels In thelower level is a lounge a
kitchen and it actually has twoelevators that go up and down,
(04:25):
but these elevators are liketeeny tiny this is unnecessary.
It's all part of the plane.
It's brand new, top of the line.
Is this supposed to be like aluxury plane?
No, it's pretty much just astandard passenger flight.
So it's affordable to all.
Yeah, I mean it's just standardflight, but they made very few
(04:46):
of them because it was reallyreally expensive to build.
That comes back later.
December 29th 1972, 8.30pm, theEastern Airlines flight leaves
New York heading to Miami.
Of the 400 capacity, there'sonly 176 on board, because New
York actually had really badweather right before this
happened.
(05:06):
Oh, God 13 of the 176 people arecrew members.
So, like I said at thebeginning, Wait hold on.
I'm sorry there was bad weatherin New York, so that's why all
the passengers didn't get on.
Yeah, like a lot of peopledidn't even show up to the
airport because the weather wasbad getting there.
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
Right, or like other flights coming into New York
were canceled.
This thing just wasn't at fullcapacity.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
When was this?
Speaker 1 (05:31):
1972, December 29th.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
December, so it's probably snow.
Speaker 1 (05:35):
Okay, yep.
So everything goes reallysmooth.
Takeoff goes well and, like Isaid, one passenger even starts
to write a letter to EasternAirlines to applaud them for how
comfortable and safe he felt ontheir new airplane.
As the plane comes into land,though, things take a little bit
of a deadly turn.
He jinxed everybody, he jinxedeveryone.
(05:55):
But let's talk about thecockpit first.
So the cockpit on this planehas four seats instead of the
standard two.
On this night, december 29th1972, we have the Captain, bob
Loft.
Bob Loft is 55 years old and hehas clocked over 30,000 hours
of flight experience.
Speaker 2 (06:14):
I can't even comprehend that.
Speaker 1 (06:15):
No, I mean they say what?
10,000 hours for mastery ofsomething?
This guy is three times that at55.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
Is that what they say ?
Speaker 1 (06:22):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (06:22):
We're not going to be good at this for a while.
Speaker 1 (06:25):
It's going to take us a minute, but thanks for coming
along on the ride, guys.
But Bob is known as beingconfident.
He's known as being aperfectionist.
This guy knows what he's doingbehind the controls of the plane
.
His co-pilot is Bert Stockstill.
He's also really experiencednot anywhere near Bob Loft, but
he knows what he's doing behindthe controls.
(06:47):
They also have on board DonRepo.
Don Repo is a flight engineerand he's known as being really
soft-spoken and reallyapproachable.
And finally, the last guy inthe cockpit has no business
being in the cockpit other thanthe fact that he's an employee
of Eastern Airlines and heneeded to get to Miami.
It's a new plane.
They invited him up front.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Okay, so he's not actually doing anything.
Speaker 1 (07:09):
Nope, he's just kind of along for the ride.
Okay, I have anxiety about thisalready.
So it's 11.32 pm, Captain Bobbegins the approach to Miami,
and this is when Bert, theco-pilot, notices a little bit
of an issue.
So the plane has on its controlpanel three indicator lights
(07:29):
for the landing gear.
There's one piece of landinggear in the front of the plane,
two pieces in the back andthere's a light for each one of
them on the controls.
Speaker 2 (07:37):
Can we just pause for a second and just comprehend
pilots?
I can't get it.
I don't understand.
Speaker 1 (07:48):
I know this is bad timing right, but one of the
dreams of mine has always beento get my private pilot's
license.
I think it's so cool, becauseit's also so terrifying.
I still don't really understandhow planes work.
Speaker 2 (07:55):
No To be a pilot.
Oh, I haven't got any pilotsout there.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
But disasters don't happen often, which is, I think,
why there's such a big storywhen they do.
Speaker 2 (08:05):
Well, that is true, but I'm just saying in general.
Flying a dang plane isfascinating, so anyway, continue
.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Okay.
So we're back in the cockpit,we're looking at the three
indicator lights and the frontindicator light is not coming on
for the landing gear.
Bob radios the flight controltower and they tell him, until
they can confirm that thelanding gear is down, they need
to get out of the way of otherincoming traffic and he tells
them just to do circles over theEverglades.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
Oh, I don't like this .
Speaker 1 (08:36):
So the pilots begin circling over the Everglades,
they put the plane in autopilotwhile they work to resolve the
issue.
So autopilot should have keptthem at 2,000 feet, going at a
single constant speed, but theycan come off the controls.
They can figure out the issue.
The crew, knowing that theplane was brand new and it had
already been like, completelychecked out top to bottom.
Everything was fine with it,right.
(08:57):
They kind of determined thatit's not faulty gear, that it's
a faulty indicator light causingthe issue.
So Bob and Bert and the othertwo, don Repo and the guy who
shouldn't even be in there right, that poor guy they are trying
to repair the light.
So they are taking it out,they're plugging it back in, and
(09:18):
then Bert takes it out andplugs it back in sideways,
breaking not only the light butthe entire socket.
Now they have no way, like theyhave no controls, or just Just
the light light.
So they were trying to fix thelight to get it to turn on but
you technically can't landunless all three of those lights
are working right.
(09:39):
You need to know if you havelanding gear.
But there's one other option.
Okay, they realize that theonly way to see if the landing
gear down is to physically seeit.
So in the l10 11 one I reallyhate this hall already there's a
trap door in the cockpit.
Nope, um, it's literally calledthe hellhole.
(10:02):
Yep, no.
So going down into thishellhole goes down to the lower
level I was telling you aboutearlier.
It's behind the lounge, butthere's a tiny window that looks
out to the front of the plane,so technically they should be
able to see if the landing gearis down.
Engineer don repo, he's the onewho has to go down into the
hellhole oh god it's a tinylittle trap door goes into a
(10:25):
tiny area.
Um, so don gets up and he beginsto descent down into the
hellhole.
We're going to go outside theplane now.
Oh no, no, no.
So there's two gentlemenfishing in the Everglades late
at night.
Oh no, it is completely pitchblack, it's 1130-ish.
It's going on.
Oh, it's later now.
(10:46):
Okay, Yep, it's actually about1140.
So it's pitch black.
The two guys are fishing.
They only have their headlampsfor light.
One of them's looking out theboat to their left.
One of them's looking to theright.
The one to the right sees ahuge, bright orange flash and
moments later it's gone.
So he's like dude, we have togo see what that was.
The other guy really doesn'tbelieve him at first.
(11:08):
So they are flying across theEverglades.
They have one of those boatswith the fan on the back of them
, you know.
Speaker 2 (11:14):
Oh, oh, my god.
Speaker 1 (11:15):
I can't think of what they're called what you see in,
like every alligator movie ever.
So it takes them a coupleminutes to get there to five
miles down the Everglades andthey are completely shocked at
what they find.
These two fishermen come upupon the crash of Eastern
Airlines Flight 401.
All right, we're going to leavethe fishermen for a minute.
(11:36):
We're going to go back insidethe plane.
As Bob turned around to tellDon to go down into the hellhole
, his knee hits the controls.
It only takes a few pounds ofpressure at this point to
disengage an autopilot.
Speaker 2 (11:51):
I can't with this story.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
So the plane starts to go into a slow descent
instead of staying at a constantaltitude.
But it was descending so slowlythat not one person noticed it,
just slightly cocked it down,being over the Everglades.
It's completely pitch black sonobody knew that they were kind
of coming up upon the ground,except for Bob.
Bob notices in the last coupleseconds he tries to pitch the
(12:15):
plane up.
It's too late and at 11.42pmthe plane crashes into the
ground.
It explodes into a bright flashof orange light, but it's
quickly extinguished because ofthe watery Everglades.
So that's why the fishermansees a bright flash that
immediately goes away okay, Ihate this.
Back to the fisherman.
They come up on the scene andit's wreckage body is all over
(12:39):
the place.
Most people are dead, some arealive and screaming.
Speaker 2 (12:45):
Uh, the fisherman described body parts everywhere
can you imagine you're just likeout late night in the
everglades just getting somefish, getting whatever, what
tropical, what fish are there?
I don't freaking know, you'regetting some fish, you're just
chilling with your homie andthen that's what you, I was
(13:06):
gonna say, row up on, but theykind of drove, but and then
that's the site that you knowyeah, they're shocked.
Speaker 1 (13:14):
Um, they're able to save one person.
This person was that's trappedin his chair, upside down with
his head underwater.
Uh, their flashlights hit himand they realize he's alive.
So they get this guy back intotheir boat.
This this is the gentleman whowas, of course, writing a letter
to the airline about how safehe felt on the flight.
Speaker 2 (13:34):
How many people were on this?
A hundred and what?
Seventy, eight or something.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
There was 176.
Of the 176, 75 people weresaved by the fishermen and the
Coast Guard, but 101 people,including all four in the
cockpit, lose their lives.
Speaker 2 (13:51):
Okay, I thought you.
Okay, I see what you mean.
They found that guy first, theysaved him first.
I thought you meant they onlysaved one person.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Nope, they save him first.
Speaker 2 (14:00):
Okay, okay.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
They take him.
I don't know where the nearestland is right, but they're able
to get a hold of the Coast Guardand then the rescue starts.
Speaker 3 (14:10):
So 75 of 176.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
So it's a terrible, it's sad and it's all due to.
What's insane to me is it's areally, really experienced pilot
who knocks this.
Speaker 2 (14:24):
Do they ever actually , are they ever able to figure
out what was wrong with thatlight?
Speaker 1 (14:29):
No, because they broke the light.
Remember when they were tryingto fix it.
Yeah, but they ever able tofigure out what was wrong with
that light.
No, because they broke thelight.
Remember when they were tryingto fix it.
Speaker 2 (14:33):
Yeah, but do they actually really think that it
was just a faulty light?
Speaker 1 (14:37):
It was a faulty light because upon getting to the
wreckage, all three pieces oflanding gear were out.
Ugh, so after the crash.
Speaker 2 (14:48):
That's really horrible.
Speaker 1 (14:49):
It's horrible, it's just a bad, sad story.
I mean, this is a couple daysafter Christmas, oh, my God, Not
a great situation.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
People are probably still traveling to their family
for, like the holiday.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Absolutely Ugh.
So after the plane crash, theaircraft as typically happens
when there's crashes oraccidents it's retrieved and
they start to put everythingback together to figure out what
happened, right.
So that's when they're able topull the black box and match
when the plane starteddescending up with.
When Bob turns around there'salso there's an alarm that
(15:27):
happens when they're gettingclose to the ground, but it only
goes off for five or sixseconds and these guys are so
preoccupied with Don going downto the hellhole to see if they
could have the landing gear andthe alarm is just.
Unfortunately it's not veryloud.
Speaker 3 (15:48):
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Speaker 2 (16:22):
This, I feel like, is there like a movie or a show
that did this.
Speaker 1 (16:27):
There is Yep, there is a movie.
Speaker 2 (16:28):
But I don't know if I would have watched a movie
about it.
But this also like I'm visuallyseeing this really oddly, like
maybe I listened to some.
Speaker 1 (16:36):
Okay, continue really oddly, like maybe I listened to
.
Okay, continue as they retrievethe part or the plane because
of the the fact that there's twolevels to it.
A lot of pieces of the planeare actually in like perfect
condition.
Now, this was one of the firstof this model.
They were expensive and slow tobuild, so they decide to take
(16:56):
the pieces they can salvage andinstall them into other planes
that were being manufactured atthe time.
Okay, so they all go into otherEastern Airline flights.
This doesn't sound good.
It's not great.
This is where things get alittle bit weird, because we
might have some attachments tothese parts.
Flash forward.
(17:17):
The vice president of EasternAirlines boards a flight from
New York and begins chattingwith the gentleman that he
thinks is the pilot of hisflight.
The whole time in his head he'sthinking this guy looks
familiar to me.
Stop it right now.
No, I can't make this up.
Okay.
So he's saying, wow, this guylooks familiar.
All of a sudden he realizes heis chatting with Bob Loft.
(17:40):
He goes to turn around to like,talk to him again and be like
how he's gone.
This guy has just completelydisappeared.
I'm shook.
On another flight a woman issitting next to a man dressed as
a pilot.
She at first thought he wassleeping but then realized he's
dazed, unresponsive and has likea concerned look on his face.
(18:02):
So she alerts the crew.
The crew realized that thisperson sitting next to her is
not on the passenger list.
It's supposed to be an emptyseat wait.
Speaker 2 (18:12):
Can they see him though, or they're just going
off of her.
Speaker 1 (18:15):
Everyone is seeing him, so the crew goes to get the
captain to come and confrontthe man who shouldn't be on
their flight.
As the captain walks up,dematerializes right in front of
all these people's eyes.
Before he dematerializes, thecaptain recognized Bob Loft.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
Bob's just hanging out man Bob is hanging out, but
turns out bob might be hangingout for a reason okay, I was
just gonna say is he like awarning, like he pops around
like mothman when bad things aregonna happen?
Speaker 1 (18:47):
we'll find out.
Oh god, so another easternairlines flight.
Part of the crew is down in thegalley.
You know.
I told you that's downstairsright, so you have to take a one
person elevator down, whichjust seems so.
Told you that it's downstairsright, so you have to take a
one-person elevator down.
Speaker 2 (18:59):
Which just seems so ignorant to me.
Speaker 1 (19:01):
It's also kind of creepy and you're in basically
like an industrial kitchen.
Speaker 2 (19:05):
No, I yeah.
Speaker 1 (19:07):
She goes to open the oven door and as she opens the
door, she sees the reflection ofBob Loft's face.
Oh my god, turns around, notthere.
While she's down there, anothercrew member opens up upstairs,
the overhead compartment.
Instead of seeing luggage, shesees Bob Loft's face looking at
her In the little luggagecompartment Right.
Speaker 2 (19:30):
That's so odd.
It's a really odd place, Bob.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
It seems like almost like one of those comical horror
movie scares, like those oldB-horror movies.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Well, I think the oven that's creepy because
that's like a reflection, butwhen you just open the luggage
compartment that's really kindof odd.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
There for a second, it dematerializes.
So this is happening, though onnot one flight.
This is multiple flights, allEastern Airlines that have the
parts, that all have thesalvaged parts from the crash.
Speaker 2 (19:59):
So this, sorry, this is like James Dean's car Little
Bastard.
Speaker 1 (20:04):
Oh, yeah, for sure.
This is where, though, like yousaid, you thought Bob was kind
of a warning right, so I havetwo specific flights to talk
about with that.
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (20:13):
Hold on.
Can I ask you, is this stillthe same year or when is this?
Because they rebuilt everything, so how long do you know when?
Speaker 1 (20:22):
It's like a couple years around.
Okay, right, so once again,eastern Airlines flight.
This one received a couple ofstoves from the galley of flight
401.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
That's also horrifying.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
This flight takes off from New York and is going to
Miami.
Oh no, Crew member goes downinto the galley and they see an
engineer fixing one of thestoves.
Later on in the flight she runsinto the engineer again and she
goes hey, I saw you in thestove Like it was working fine
earlier, what's wrong with it?
And he goes I didn't touch thestove, I wasn't even downstairs,
(20:57):
I wasn't near the stove.
I wasn't even downstairs.
I wasn't near the stove.
I guess there's no stairs rightIn the lower level.
So she tells the story to Piersright and later picks out a
photo of Don Reaper as the manthat she saw.
When they're like trying tofigure out who she saw, oh my
god.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, can I ask you do?
Is there any talk about this?
Like, do passengers realize atthis point that these might be
haunted, or does that ever notget to?
I'm sure the crew now knowslike people talk.
Speaker 1 (21:27):
People talk and it's a big rumor.
Speaker 3 (21:30):
We'll come to that in a little bit.
Speaker 1 (21:31):
Um, so once again, as they're seeing the ghost down
in the stove, a flight attendantup in the upper level gets a
glimpse of Bob again and he sayswatch out for fires Like the
stove.
Speaker 2 (21:48):
What.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
Yep On this flight.
So the return flight.
The same plane has an enginefailure and the crew shut off
the engine moments before itcaught on fire.
So bob was in fact trying towarn them.
Bob and don are still trying tosave lives, even from beyond the
(22:11):
grave I have goosebumps forsure I've got another one for
you, then if your hair isn'tstanding up already, this one
gets it.
It is Okay.
So another Eastern Airlinesflight Crew is in the cockpit.
They're discussing the plane'sengineering before takeoff and
one of them pipes up and sayshey, I think you have a faulty
(22:32):
electrical circuit.
They turn to look at him,realizing there shouldn't be
four people in here.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
Who just said that?
Speaker 1 (22:39):
And it's our boy, don .
The engineer disappears again.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Oh, I do have goosebumps.
Speaker 1 (22:45):
They bring an actual engineer in to check out the
flight and they do find anelectrical issue, same flight
while this is all going on theground crew are losing their
minds because they see Bob Loftoutside of the airplane doing
the pre-flight check.
(23:05):
The staff is so unnerved atthis point that they straight up
cancel the flight.
Speaker 2 (23:13):
You're totally right Now my hair is completely
standing up that they canceledthe flight.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Mm-hmm.
Speaker 2 (23:24):
Oh, my God.
Speaker 1 (23:25):
One, last one for you , if there's not enough.
I can't.
Pilot and co-pilot are sittingin the cockpit Same plane, same
model and they start to hearknocking on the trap door
leading to the hellhole.
Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Was it three knocks.
Speaker 1 (23:42):
They open it up.
Don is there staring up at theminstantly vanished.
At this point, the stories arerunning rampant.
So they're like we need tocheck out this plane.
They discovered an issue thatcould have caused a serious
accident and the plane couldhave created mass casualties.
Now, unfortunately, theresearch I have didn't explain
(24:03):
what the the issue was bob anddon, and they come back from
beyond the grave to just stopother disasters from happening I
don't even know.
I have no words like you saidearlier, the ghost stories are
now traveling.
It's running rampant.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
Is it like haunted hotels, where people are like I
want that haunted room, orthey're like I want the haunted
flight?
Speaker 1 (24:25):
I feel like it could have been, but like a haunted
hotel room on the ground is onething, it's completely different
you can leave.
And these guys are kind ofshowing up around issues, right.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
Oh, that is true.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
So nobody really wants to be on this.
The the airline is getting alittle bit of bad publicity
around it.
The other weird thing is in logor like every plane has a log
book right in the books wherethey're describing the
experiences.
Speaker 2 (24:51):
The log books are going completely missing wait, I
that's weird, right, but whywould they go?
Speaker 1 (24:59):
missing, that I have no explanation I was thinking
that you were gonna say therewas like extra things logged no,
they just disappear oh so thestaff is told not to discuss
their personal experiences orany of the stories they heard
right now the airline is likewe're shutting this down.
All the salvaged parts fromflight 401 are removed from
(25:20):
planes that are still in the air.
Speaker 2 (25:22):
Um I'm actually surprised the hauntings
immediately stop.
Speaker 1 (25:27):
Once they do, that, do the issues in a way.
Yeah.
So because of the flight 401crash, there's actually a lot of
new regulations that come outmaking the autopilot system much
harder to disengage, addedlouder alarms that sound louder
and longer, and they adddifferent systems to let pilots
know when they're going offcourse.
(25:48):
So there's actually, eventhough it's super tragic,
there's some good that comes outof this.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Okay, so we'll let you finish.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
That's really it, honestly, that's where we finish
it.
The hauntings stop, they kindof squash the story and Bob Loft
and Don are free from workingfor eternity.
Speaker 2 (26:04):
Okay, so obviously they were trying to save lives
and warn people of the issuesthat were going to continue to
happen.
So I'm wondering if then it wasjust all these parts from that
other plane were probably faultyparts to begin with, like they
should never have been used,like they shouldn't have.
Speaker 1 (26:24):
I think there's obviously some sort of larger
electrical issue, right.
Speaker 2 (26:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:30):
But the airlines, of course, they're going to try to
cover it up and they try to sayit's an urban legend, which
these people aren't actuallyseeing.
The dead crew members yeah,which these people aren't
actually seeing.
The dead crew members yeah.
But if that's the case, if it'sjust an urban legend, why does
the airline go so far to removethose parts from other planes?
Speaker 2 (26:46):
That's what I was going to say is actually kind of
surprising, because weobviously know how big corporate
companies go, especially thatthey're not going to.
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (26:55):
They're not going to willingly lose money over what
they don't believe to be true.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Right, know I just that's they're not gonna
willingly lose money over whatthey don't believe to be true,
right, but also it's reallycreepy that a whole staff of an
airline wouldn't, would, justcancel.
Speaker 1 (27:06):
they're like we're not doing this, that and that's
very alarming if it was justlike the one person in the lower
part of the plane who saw hisreflection in the stove like
that.
That's less believable thanthree or four people trying to
wake up this man who is-.
Speaker 2 (27:22):
And passengers.
It's not even like theyprobably didn't even ever hear
about this.
Speaker 1 (27:26):
Right, that was one of the first sightings.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Right.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
He's manifesting and being seen by multiple people
and then also vanishing fromtheir eyes.
It's not like they're lookingaway and looking back and he's
gone, he's just straight updematerializing.
Once they recognize him,horrifying and think about that,
like that lady sitting next tohim.
No, okay, you're in a plane.
Nope, you can't really moveseats, so now she has to sit for
(27:52):
the rest of the flight listen,I'd be.
Speaker 2 (27:55):
I'm like I'm sitting on somebody's lap, figure it out
who wants to volunteer.
I'm sitting on somebody's lap,figure it out who wants to
volunteer.
I'm sitting on your freakinglap.
Speaker 1 (28:00):
You'd be going out the exit door.
You'd be Kristen Wiig inBridesmaids when she's freaking
out.
She just saw somebody on theplane wing.
Speaker 2 (28:08):
I don't really remember that movie because I
thought it was really stupid,anyway.
Speaker 1 (28:12):
Our friendship just ended.
Speaker 2 (28:13):
No it didn't?
Speaker 1 (28:14):
It absolutely did.
Speaker 2 (28:15):
You haven't seen like any of my favorite movies,
that's because they're allterrible.
How would you know?
Anyway, but what I was sayingis it could just be like they're
haunting this aircraft becauseof pieces of where they like you
(28:36):
know whatever, but it seemsmore like they're just warning
it because these pieces are bad,like they shouldn't have been
put in this new plane, becausethen you said it stopped.
Speaker 1 (28:43):
Right, it stops.
I think what's really cool,though, is that Bob and Don both
highly experienced individualsin life right, I know they cause
this accident, but in theafterlife they're devoted to
saving other people's lives.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Yeah, that is really.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
I think there's something just really
interesting about that, Likethey almost had an unfinished
mission.
Speaker 2 (29:04):
Yeah, because they didn't mean to cause 100 and
something deaths.
That's so terrible.
I want to.
I want to speak to this manthat was writing that letter.
Did you have any?
Did you read any accounts oflike what?
Speaker 1 (29:19):
That's the only like survivor story I could find
that's freaking wild that's thestory of uh eastern airlines
flight 401 I that that's like sohorrifying.
Speaker 2 (29:32):
I've never in my entire existence thought of a
flight like an airline flightbeing haunted.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Well, good luck not thinking about that.
The next time you step on aflight, you might just see Bob
Loft staring at you.
Speaker 2 (29:45):
Oh God, I'm not going to sleep tonight.
Speaker 1 (29:51):
All right, Well, hey, thanks for listening.
It was.
I really enjoyed that story.
I think it was the perfectamount of creepiness.
Speaker 2 (29:58):
Oh, it's definitely, but like a good creepy.
Speaker 1 (30:01):
Right, it has a happy ending.
They came back to help everyone.
Speaker 2 (30:04):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (30:05):
But let us know what you think.
We'll have our socials linkeddown in the show notes.
We'll also have the referencesif you want to learn a little
bit more about Flight 401.
But if you're still here, stilllistening, thanks for sticking
around this long.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
We appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (30:20):
We do.
We truly appreciate you becausewe have no idea what we're
doing, but we're doing it thebest we can.
Damn it.
Creep it really a littleoddballs.
Talk to you next time, bye.
Bye, agnesia.
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