Investigating 'the Ghost of Flight 401'

The UK Corgi Books edition of The Ghost of Flight 401 (1976) presents on the cover a statement about the account being "The incredible real-life story of a jet-age phantom that grounded an airline's jumbos . . ."  Flight 401 had crashed in the Everglades in late 1972.  It was during a 1974 flight from Stockholm to Copenhagen that John G. Fuller first heard about 'solid apparitions' reappearing of deceased crew members from a crashed Eastern Airlines 'jumbo jet.'  The story was mentioned to him by a friendly Scandinavian Airlines stewardess.  

 

A year later John was on an Eastern jet and asked his flight attendant if she had ever heard about the story of the apparitions.  "She appeared shocked.  'That's not funny,' she said.  'It happened to me.  I had an experience on the lower galley I'll never forget . . . I felt this presence there.  It was eerie . . . The temperature of the whole galley literally became freezing . . .'" 

 

The date was December 29, 1972 when Flight 401 became the first L-1011 Lockheed jumbo jet to crash.  John reported:

 

In the final figures, a total of 99 of those aboard the plane were killed.  There were 77 survivors.  Of those, 60 cases were serious; 17 had minor injuries, or none.  The soft mud and waters of the Everglades were credited for the reasonably high survival rate and for the prevention of fire breaking out in full force, beyond the initial flash as the fuel vapors ignited.

 

 

When the Scandinavian Airlines flight attendant brought up the Eastern Airlines story to me in the spring of 1974, I knew little about the theory of ghosts or apparitions.  This was foreign territory to me.  The idea of attempting to communicate with the dead was a vague and remote possibility described in some literature on parapsychology, some of it fairly convincing, other not convincing at all.  While I never scoffed at the idea, I couldn't buy it without a lot more evidence demonstrated than that which I had run across.  

 

John described of some of his previous investigative research for such books as The Interrupted Journey (1966) about Barney and Betty Hill's UFOlogy experiences, Fever!: The Hunt for a New Killer Virus (1974) and We Almost Lost Detroit (1975) about the dangers of nuclear energy.

 

I had gone to Nigeria in 1973 to begin research on the story of the Lassa virus, which shortly before had just been isolated in the laboratories at Yale University.  After one laboratory technician at Yale was fatally stricken with the disease and a leading virologist had barely scraped through alive, it was decided that the virus was so deadly that it could no longer be studied at Yale.  All the vials full of blood specimens from the victims of the virus were incinerated, except a small batch which was sent to a maximum security laboratory at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta.

 

 

After I finished the research on the Lassa virus study, I was going directly to Brazil to research the strange story of Arigo, the peasant surgeon.  (article)

 

While in Brazil, John discovered the studies of Luis Rodriquez, who described mediums as "a channel for unknown forces and personalities which are not part of the structure of his conscious mind" as an aspect of 'man's cosmic existence.'  Having continued to hear ghost reports from airline industry employees, John began consulting with several research assistants and one of them, Elizabeth, would become pivotal to John finding the evidence that convinced him of "intimations of immortality" and developing a perspective of the ultimate solution to the surprising 'clues' found while investigating the 'jet age ghost story.'  

 

One cabin attendant, Elizabeth Manzione, knew about both the Eastern apparitions and the Barney and Betty Hill story, and was extremely interested in both.  Elizabeth was a bright, attractive brunette with a tremendous amount of enthusiasm.  She volunteered to do some further research among various Eastern ramp agents and flight attendants whom she often ran into on her various trips.

 

John had met Elizabeth on a 1975 flight from Miami to Edmonton en route to the West Coast and he would return home in June after completing some oceanographic research.  John wrote about Elizabeth's early research on his behalf: "She sent report after report gathered from Eastern Airlines personnel . . ."  

The book presents description of apparitions seen by crew members during flights following the 401 route during the months after the crash.  Prior to takeoff during one of these incidents, the flight captain was summoned when an unscheduled Eastern Captain was found sitting in the first-class compartment.  The flight captain recognized the man to be crash victim Captain Bob Loft before he instantaneously vanished.  

One reported incident involved mechanical workmen.  One man was in the lower bay of a plane when—as reported to John—"He couldn't find his screwdriver.  He put his hands out to the sides, palms up, the way you do when you can't find something you're looking for.  All of a sudden, he felt something as if it was slapped in his hand.  It was the missing screwdriver.  No one else was anywhere near him on the plane."

John related how his relationship with Elizabeth progressed.

Her interest and enthusiasm were increasing.  She wanted to learn more, not only about the L-1011 incidents, but about the whole psychic field itself.  She began digging up a great deal of background material in the library, matching it up with the details of what had been happening with Eastern.  She was also a good sounding board.

The crash in the Everglades had dramatized the fragility of physical life.  The events that had followed it suggested there was concrete evidence that there was a continuation of an individual's existence after death, infinitely more permanent.

John's research motivated him to attend "an informal 'sitting' of several mediums in the Miami area" who weren't informed about his research of the L-1011 case.  John would be the ninth participant in what he considered a transcendental communication experiment.  The host for the occasion was Norman Cooperman, a scientist and parapsychology researcher who was quoted as saying to the group at the beginning of the sitting, "I won't cue you on anything specific.  We'd like to see what can come out of free meditation . . ."   A "distinguished gentleman" and "a tall, pale young woman" were the first to be heard.

. . . Charles, the man with the white hair, spoke.

"For some reason," he said, "I seem to see a beautiful Oriental rug."

"What does that mean to you?" Cooperman asked.

"I'm not sure," Charles responded, "but I seem to associate it with flying . . . Another oddball thought comes up.  The number 900.  [900 was a number that did appear in John's research notes]  This also seems to be connected with flying carpets.  Doesn't make any sense to me."

After several moments, Jan, the tall girl, spoke so softly she could hardly be heard.

"I am getting a physical feeling that is not mine," she said.  "It's a very heavy pounding of the heart.  There seems to be help needed, but help is not there."

"Can you identify who it is?" Cooperman asked.

"It's not I . . . I have the feeling of speed.  There is speed.  Air is rushing at me."

. . . "Do you have the name?"

Jan took several more breaths, then said, "I do.  But this is known through Jan's conscious mind.  I have sensed what the situation is.  I don't want to mislead you."

"Tell us the name anyway," Cooperman said.

Again there was a long pause, then Jan said, "Don."

"You are here?" Cooperman asked.

"I'm here," Jan said.

Cooperman had told the group that I might ask some questions, as an observer of the session, so I spoke up.  "Do you associate any occupation or action with 'Don'?" I asked.

"Janice knows the occupation from her conscious mind," Jan said, her eyes still closed, her breathing deep and slow.  "So I'm not sure of the validity.  But I'm sure it's flight engineer."

John commented, "She revealed a great deal of correct information about the crash.  Several others in the group identified with the anguish and pain of the accident, as if they were experiencing it themselves."

The concluding chapters of The Ghost of Flight 401 relate details of his and Elizabeth's investigation of psychic phenomena.  In particular, I noticed 'links' or parallels/correlations to some of the circumstances mentioned in my own autobiographical books and articles.  The incidents involve unusual portents of symbols and metaphors such as pennies and the word 'game' to remind me of the concept of life as a plane of existence where experiencing and manifesting Love for other 'consciousness units' and our planet may be recognized as expressing 'the highest truth.'  Imparting such truth to others requires honesty with responses based upon one's individual reasoning and ability for metaphysical discernment.

After Elizabeth married John, her own account of her investigation of the airline-related paranormal case chronology was published in a follow-up nonfiction book to her husband's bestseller: My Search for the Ghost of Flight 401 (1978).  In the first chapter of her book Elizabeth explained: 

 

We were researching an alleged story of an Eastern Airlines flight engineer, Don Repo, who had been killed in a 1972 crash in the Everglades.  Several months later, crew members and even passengers reported seeing an apparition of the dead flight engineer.  The deceased crewman would appear on an L-1011 Whisperliner, a sister ship of the crashed airplane.  In several cases the alleged apparition was supposed to have warned that something dangerous was going to happen to the plane.  Senior pilots, cabin attendants, and passengers claimed to have had firsthand encounters with the ghost.

 

Elizabeth had lived during her childhood in an Italian-Irish family in the suburbs of Cleveland and mentioned, "It's not exactly conducive to developing what is now popularly known as 'psychic awareness.'"  She had met John after first hearing two other stewardesses talking about a writer in the tourist-class section who seemed serious about researching the reports of the Eastern Airlines ghost.  In the last row of the second cabin, the tall man apologized for his feet being in the aisle.  "I knew instinctively that this was the guy who was writing about the ghost . . . While filling up his small plastic wine glass, I asked, 'You the writer?'"  He explained he wasn't chasing ghosts "but I am chasing how this jet-age legend got started."

We began talking.  I discovered that I had even read one of his books.  It was called The Interrupted Journey.  It was an incredible story of a couple named Betty and Barney Hill who while driving home one night [in 1961] through the White Mountains of New Hampshire sighted a UFO.  They apparently went into it at that time.  When they arrived home, Barney found inexplicable scuff marks on the tips of his shoes; Betty noted rows of mysterious shiny circles on the trunk of their car.  And neither could account for almost two hours of their time on the road.

 

After many months of distress, the Hills had sought medical help from a distinguished Boston psychiatrist and neurologist.  Under time-regression hypnosis, the Hills gave almost identical  accounts of what had happened during the lost two hours of their journey — a period of time their conscious minds had repressed.  It was a strange story.

 

 

. . . he [John] was on his way to Edmonton for a TV taping with Betty Hill and Dr. J. Allen Hynek, who was the head of Astronomy Department at Northwestern.  And very respectable, too, thank you, he said.  He said that if I were really intrigued by the strange case, I could join them all for dinner that evening, and then come to my own conclusion after meeting with Betty Hill.  The upshot of our conversation was that they would all pick me up at my hotel at 7 p.m. for dinner.

 

They did, and it was in grand style.  A big, black Cadillac limousine pulled up . . .

 

During the dinner, Betty Hill touched lightly on her incredible encounter, but mostly she was talking about her full-time occupation as a senior social worker in Portsmouth.  

She was so convincing when she told her UFO story that I couldn't help but believe her.  At least I believed she believed it really happened.  It was just something that if you don't experience yourself, even if you want desperately to believe the person, it's awfully difficult.

Elizabeth told John she liked detective work and pilots and flight attendants would be more open with a fellow crew member.  Her first two months as a researcher brought second- and third-hand accounts and she noted: ". . . of all the crews I interviewed, the stories were basically the same.  They didn't shift base as many legends and rumors do."  Then Elizabeth found herself in the predicament of researching the Don Repo case by participating in a Miami psychic group's seance circle.  She described what she experienced around ten minutes into the seance.

 

Suddenly, without warning, I felt weightless.  All thoughts blanked out of my mind.  That's when it happened.  I was compelled to talk.  It was unlike any feeling I have ever experienced before.  Words started to come out of my mouth.  I began calling out four names of people, one by one.  They were names I had never heard before.
 

The first name was Christina, an infant.

 

The man sitting to my right said abruptly: "The baby lives."

 

Then I said, "I get the name of another baby.  It's also named Christina."

 

The same man said: "This baby lives, too."

 

I said, "I now get the name of Mrs. Jackson.  A Mrs. E. Jackson."

 

The same man said to me: "She died."

 

The last name I received was Jacobs.  The man next to me said he was alive.

 

 

All I knew for sure was that out of nowhere, those names came to me.  I don't know why or where I got them.  John was relentless.  He kept up his journalistic cross-examinations, and framed the same question about twenty different ways.  I was frustrated and he wasn't helping matters any. 

She quoted John: "Come on, Elizabeth, you just don't get names out of nowhere.  You're acting like those mediums . . . My researcher has flipped out," he sighed.  She commented: "My first impulse was to knock out his teeth.  But my second impulse was to laugh.  And that's exactly what we did.  We laughed."

At the library John and Elizabeth read a New York Times microfilm of published lists of Flight 401 crash survivors and passengers.  She was astonished upon finding the first three names she had found herself saying aloud at the seance.  The fourth name of Jacobs was later found in a newspaper article.  "Jacobs was a newsman who had covered part of the crash story."  Elizabeth commented:

I knew that this was no longer a coincidence.  But what I didn't know was that this was the beginning of a whole series of strange events in my life.  Stranger than I ever dreamed possible.

Another phenomenal incident is related by Elizabeth in the fourth chapter as a personal encounter with Uri Geller is described.  Elizabeth was invited to meet Uri after John wrote an article about him for Reader's Digest.  Stopping by Geller's East Side apartment with John, Elizabeth was standing in Geller's living room-office as she explained to Geller that she kept her cockpit key on a chain sewn onto her skirt.  She described what happened as she looked down at her key.

He was no longer touching it.  But you've got to believe me, it was curling up, and I mean curling.  I watched in horror.  The bending was very slow, but there was no question about it.  It continued to bend after he had walked away.

Sitting on the large sofa after Geller had left the room, Elizabeth began to check her jewelry.

My gold ring was still intact.  So was my gold bracelet.  Around my neck was the 18-karat gold cross I always wore.  But the cross was out of sight under my blouse, and my blouse was securely buttoned all the way up . . . I reached down and plucked the cross out and looked at it.  I then saw the ninth wonder of the world.  Right in front of my eyes, the cross was bending.  For seconds, I was speechless.  Then I yelled for Geller to come back into the room, and stop it from snapping in two.  After several more seconds, it came to rest at a 45-degree angle.

When Elizabeth participated in activities to develop psychic sensitivity that included giving readings for five people about whom she knew nothing, she again experienced "the reality of communication with the 'other side' . . . I was merely acting as a channel to give help and guidance to others."  She and John next decided to investigate what results could be obtained through use of the Ouija Board. 

 

Beginning a series of experiments with the Ouija Board and gliding planchette at their fingertips, the responses included some perplexing messages.  When the question was posed "What are your reasons for coming back, Don?," the response was "TO PLAY GAMES TODAY."  One message was "DID MICE LEAVE THAT FAMILY CLOSET" and another was "TO GO INTO WASTE BASKET PENNIES SIT THERE BOYS ROOM."  When Elizabeth and John asked for proof that Don Repo was communicating with them via the Ouija Board, one message made a similar reference: "READ NY TIMES PENNY WILL FIND THERE."  After receiving the message, Elizabeth read the day's issue of The New York Times but could find no mention of 'penny.'

 

A meeting with the late Don Repo's wife Alice and daughter Donna was able to be arranged for John because Alice had been fascinated upon recently having read John's previous book Arigo: Surgeon of the Rusty Knife.  During the rendezvous in Miami, John asked Alice and Donna about the mysterious messages.

 

This is the response from Alice upon being asked about "any trouble with mice in some sort of 'family closet'" —

 

Alice just looked over at Donna and they both looked over at us.  Alice then said that a couple of months earlier, they had mice in the attic.  The attic was above their family room.  

 

 

. . . the only way they could get to the attic was through what they called the family-room closet.

He asked whether Don had anything to do with "pennies in their boy's room."  Alice answered that Don used to save pennies and after he died his small barrelful of pennies was moved to their son John's room.  The Florida meeting with Alice and Donna included a Ouija Board demonstration with the planchette moving "just as swiftly" for Alice and Donna as it had for Elizabeth and John.

Several months later, Elizabeth and John were now romantically involved and were having breakfast in a Westport Connecticut deli when they spotted a bright copper penny flat upon the printed photograph of a flight deck featured on the front page of The New York Times travel section.  

 

While some of the paranormal situations described in My Search for the Ghost of Flight 401 paralleled events I'd previously read about in other case studies or experienced firsthand such as the coin materialization phenomena, Elizabeth referred to some well-known cases that weren't familiar to me at that time.  One such account was about psychiatrist/author Dr. Elizabeth Kübler-Ross, who received an office visit from a woman patient who was known to have died six months earlier.  During this brief and enigmatic encounter, the woman wrote down her name and address before walking right out the door.  Kübler-Ross found the signature was identical to that found on other documents signed by the former patient.  

 
It was after participating in an intensive three-day course on mediumship that concluded with giving psychic readings that John and Elizabeth realized their inability to explain the process of the undeniable evidence of psychic phenomena they had witnessed.  She told him: "Fuller, all I can tell you is that it's as if it's a gut reaction.  It's not me talking.  It's as if it's coming from somebody else.  I just know 'they' are right . . . Maybe, just maybe, a force greater than the two of us arranged the whole meeting.  Arranged for us to get together.  Arranged for that first seance.  Arranged for this course.  Arranged for —"