National Airlines Flight 967 of November 15, 1959, was scheduled between Miami, Florida, and New Orleans, Louisiana, with a stop at Tampa, Florida. National Airlines merged with Pan Am in 1980. A FedEx plane was only about 150 feet off the ground when its pilots realized a Southwest jet was in the process of taking off on the same runway, and aborted its landing to avoid a potentially . 16cm . Yet cracks soon appeared in this image too. Investigation has disclosed certain details in regard to a last minute boarding of the aircraft at Tampa by a person using another person's ticket. - January 14, 1951, a DC-4 crashed on landing at Philadelphia Airport with 7 fatalities. Although sabotage was suspected, no definite cause of the crash was determined. He was charged with unlawful possession of an automobile but due to lack of evidence was never charged in the alleged bombing of Flight 967. It had his signature on it. Taylor had also been married before his marriage to Alice. Dr Spears lived in an affluent suburb of Dallas, and he and his wife were relatively well-known in the citys social circles. These were her statements: "If my husband was on that plane, I can accept it although my life will be hard. She had never liked Spears. We appreciate you trying our new Live Surface Map feature. Investigators determined that the flight crew was competent and experienced. Length approx. There was nothing immediately remarkable about Dr Spears. After this case, planes continued to disintegrate in flight due to explosive decompression. Turska participated in a few interviews about the case--notably in Life Magazine--in which he played the part of a bemused bystander. Citing reports that Spears may have gone to Yuma while hiding out in Arizona, Logan notes, At that time the long US-Mexico border to the west and south of Yuma was largely unpatrolled.. According to Logans book, Mrs Taylor was media savvy, and exaggerated her closeness with Taylor before his disappearance. At the time of his disappearance, Al Taylor lived in Tampa and worked as a salesman for the Pioneer Tire Company. The second radar station at Houma, Louisiana, picked up the flight at 0046, on track and at 14,000feet altitude. PROBABLE CAUSE: "Because of the lack of physical evidence, the probable cause of this accident is unknown. However, Taylor himself purchased $37,500.00 worth of life insurance at the airport; when his ex-wife attempted to collect on that policy, authorities were notified. I told him it wouldn't work!". The Aviation Safety Network is an exclusive service provided by: National Airlines Flight 967 took off from Tampa (TPA) at 23:32 for a flight to New Orleans (MSY) at FL140. Search and rescue aircraft spotted scattered debris and a number of bodies in the vicinity of the last radar return, about 35 miles east of Pilottown, Louisiana; the remains of 10 individuals were eventually located. Playing upon people's uncertainties about air-travel, insurance companies did quite well off them. We deliver industry-leading performance in safety, clinical quality, and patient advocacy, committing to zero balance bills. 1. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. A check by the company at this time showed that FAA, New Orleans Approach Control, and ARTC were also out of contact with Flight967. This segment of the flight was completely routine. But they don't agree on when it occurred. The aircraft was a DC-7, N 4891C, owned by Delta Air Lines and operated by National under an equipment interchange agreement. The cause was suspected to have been an attempted case of Insurance fraud; . Robert Vernon Spears (June 26, 1894 - May 2, 1969) was a naturopath who is alleged to have placed a bomb aboard National Airlines Flight 967, an aircraft that went missing over the Gulf of Mexico on November 16, 1959, killing 42 people.. History. That was before Spears was found in Arizona with Taylors car. The flight originated in Miami at 1022 PM the p The weather conditions were good. Throughout this observation the radar scope indicated no other object. To qualify for the Post-9/11 GI Bill, at least one of these must be true: You served at least 36 months on active duty (either all at once or with breaks in service) and were honorably discharged, or. The Flightpath. Taylor apparently agreed to this, and boarded the flight that night with nothing more than a briefcase containing the dynamite. For weeks Dr Spears was mourned along with the rest of the victims. National Airlines 19341980 "" 19701978 . There was one witness--the attendant of a lookout tower 30 miles west of the crash site, who. Among the 42 names of the dead--there was a passenger named Dr Robert Vernon Spears--a distinguished naturopath from Dallas, Texas. As Logan points out, in the first three weeks of 1960 alone there had been four major airline crashes. This new story was made public in 1963. ", Tampa International Airport, FL (TPA/KTPA), New Orleans International Airport, LA (MSY/KMSY), Accident investigation report completed and information captured, 57 km (35.6 mls) E off Pilottown, LA [Gulf of Mexico] (. Logan points out that much of the public demonization of Spears resulted from the fact that he performed abortions--something that is viewed very differently in todays political discourse. * Douglas DC-8-21/31/32/51/54/61 - November 16, 1959, a DC-7B flown on an interchange route with Delta Air Lines, in a Delta aircraft but with a NAL crew National Airlines Flight 967, en route from Tampa to New Orleans, disappeared over the Gulf of Mexico. Initially, there was some speculation based on the fact that a noted Chicago mobster--Ellis Itchy Mandel--was on the flight. He was subsequently apprehended by Federal authorities in Phoenix, Arizona, for having unlawful possession of Mr. Taylor's vehicle. Early that morning, they spotted something: a small amount of debris, a large oil slick, and several floating bodies. We partner with our EMS and hospital customers to solve the challenges of patient logistics and save lives. With this information, Mrs Taylor's lawyer called the Tampa police department and the newspapers. Great write up! Add hotel. [5], "Con Man, Best Man, An Air Crash - A Far Out, Far Up Mystery", "Robert Spears, 1959 bomb suspect, dies in Dallas", Aviation Safety Network report on Flight 967, Civil Aeronautics Board Aircraft Accident Report on Flight 967, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Spears_(naturopath)&oldid=1106844718, This page was last edited on 26 August 2022, at 19:28. Bombs Indicated in Two Air Disasters Monday, Dec 2 2013 . Nothing unusual was observed and no other objects were observed in the vicinity of the flight which indicated to the station that any difficulty was being encountered. According to the Nov. 17, 1959, edition of the New York Times, I. W. Dymond, vice president of operations for the airline, said the weather "was anticipated, but it was not a factor" in the crash. Could it be that in spite of this vast, tangled web--this was just another plane crash? In that interview, he said he knew about the plane crash, admitted taking Spears to see his wife, and said that Spears had confided in him that he wanted to start a new life: He wanted to change his character, Turska said, change his fingerprints, change everything.. National Airlines Flight 2511, registration N8225H, was a Douglas DC-6B aircraft which exploded over Bolivia, North Carolina en route from New York International (Idlewild) Airport, New York City, New York, to Miami, Florida on January 6, 1960.All 34 on board were killed in the accident. National Airlines Flight 967, registration N4891C, [1] was a Douglas DC-7B aircraft that disappeared over the Gulf of Mexico en route from Tampa, Florida to New Orleans, Louisiana on November 16, 1959. Investigation disclosed no significant weather condition in the form of fronts, squall lines, thunderstorms, turbulence or icing affecting the route of flight. The scenes in this video are from the documentary series Air Crash Investigation.None of them belong to me.https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Airlines_. Three days before the crash, (the day Spears had arrived in Tampa) Taylor and Spears were seen together enjoying a lavish meal in the Hillsboro Hotel. She also said she had begged him to turn himself in but he refused. No seat belt abrasions were found. However, the search party aboard the National Convair had decided that the last known radar position (2913'N, 8840'W) should be searched first. Who hatched the plot--Spears? Sometimes passengers even boarded the wrong planes by accident. National Airlines Flight 967, registration N4891C, was a Douglas DC-7B aircraft that disappeared over the Gulf of Mexico en route from Tampa, Florida, to New Orleans, Louisiana, on November 16, 1959. [] The final ruling was probable severe turbulence.. . Flight Departure Times. WOW! - November 3, 1973, a DC-10 had an uncontained failure of Engine #3, as a result of flight crew experimentation, shrapnel penetrated other engines and fuselage, broke window, 1 seat-belted passenger was forced from the plane and killed. I'm from New Orleans and have flown to Tampa several times. Braniff International Airways Flight 542, a Lockheed L-188 Electra, registration N9705C, was a scheduled domestic flight from Houston, Texas, bound for New York with scheduled stops in Dallas and Washington, D.C. On September 29, 1959, 23 minutes into the 41-minute flight from Houston to Dallas Love Field, the aircraft disintegrated in mid-air approximately 3.8 miles (6.1 km) southeast of . From January27 through30, 1960, and from February2 through5, 1960, the VIGOR and PENGUIN made four dives on the bottom sonar contact obtained by the VIGOR on January 10, 1960. The aircraft was airworthy at the time of departure, the crew was competent, weather conditions were good, and when disaster struck, the flight was very close to being both on course and on schedule. It was a starlit night, and good weather conditions were reported all along the route. The inertia of the bodies was plainly downward and forward and the forces at impact were severe. About 72 square miles south of the area originally covered in November was swept and bottom contact approximately 110feet long was made at Lat. It was also convenient for National Airlines. After forging several checks, he had skipped town and completely abandoned his first family. The flight's next radio contact was with FAA Pensacola radio at 0031 requesting clearance to New Orleans and reestimating NL1 at 0035. Veterans, volunteers sought for Honor Flight It costs a lot to charter a flight that will carry 75 veterans from the Golden Isles to Washington, D.C., for the annual Honor Flight. His story is absurd, the prosecutor said. 03 hrs 40 mins . All 42 on board were presumed killed in the incident. Of all the prison terms he served, he never had a single infraction of violence. Sun 4/2. Upon his arrest in Arizona, the FBI charged him with transporting a stolen vehicle beyond state lines. Round-trip. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. A hypothesis arose that Spears, who had befriended Taylor in prison, tricked Taylor into boarding the flight with a piece of luggage containing a bomb. The autopsies of the bodies, all of which were identified by fingerprints, indicated that all had received traumatic injuries: injuries indicated that all nine persons had been seated at the time the aircraft struck the water. From March3 through13,1960, the U.S.S. The National crew consisted of Captain Frank Eugene Todd, Copilot Dick . The U.S.S. This page was last edited on 5 May 2019, at 15:31. Dr Spears (who was calling himself Dr Rhodes) had tried to file down the numbers on the cars registration numbers and had even used dynamite to damage the car's crankcase. At that time there was also very little airport security. IN THE GULF OF MEXICO, NOVEMBER 16, 1959. His testimony indicates that the light was red or dark red, appearing suddenly, lasting a "couple of seconds," and then producing a vertical, white light which fell with a white trail. Nothing unusual was observed and no other objects were observed in the vicinity of the flight which indicated to the station that any difficulty was being encountered". It was then observed to turn right approximately 70 degrees and disappear from the scope at 0051 at Lat. Texas International walked away from their foiled attempt with a multi-million dollar stock profit and was poised for Lorenzo's next venturesa startup airline in the high-density East coast corridor (New York Air), and subsequent acquisition of Continental Airlines. For 3-1/2 to 4minutes the flight continued on a normal track of approximately 296 degrees magnetic. What an intriguing case - how have I never heard of this before? November 10 of 1958, National became the first airline to introduce domestic jet service in the United States, with a flight between Miami 's international airport and Idlewild International Airport in New York. You can easily find cheap flights / LCC plane tickets from Lloydminster Airport in Lloydminster to Columbia. Feb 2023 - Present2 months. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. * Lockheed L-188 Electra These charts have been preserved for possible future use. The evening started as any other at an airport terminal as 105 were set board their National Flight 601 from New York bound for Miami on a Boeing 707. The National plane was then spiralled in a climbing turn to 7,000feet in order to obtain VOR bearings for this position. There are a thousand ways of connecting the dots, and a thousand other explanations out there. Track National Aeronautics and Space Administration #967 flight from Houston Ellington to Victoria Rgnl. Economy. We work hard to keep our advertising relevant and unobtrusive to create a great experience. . Though he was legally dead, many had begun to doubt that Taylor was ever on that flight at all. At first, Turska downplayed his association with Spears, saying they were merely acquaintances and that Spears had showed up out of the blue. National Airlines Flight 967 Latest Breaking News, Pictures, Videos, and Special Reports from The Economic Times. The last radar contact with the aircraft--made at 12:55 am, over the open sea--had indicated the plane was still on course to its destination at the time . However, Taylor purchased life insurance in his own name at the airport before departure; when his ex-wife applied to collect, the substitution was discovered. The line between the airports does. And just a freak coincidence that a couple of conmen just happened to have a ticket? To me it just doesnt add up that Spears is going to tell his best friend of many decades, a man with essentially no history of violence, to take on this package like its Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner.. Here are the names of the people from the flight manifest. A Tanzanian airline said on Monday it will start flights to Zimbabwe in December, plying the Harare-Dar es Salaam route three times a week. That crash remains officially unexplained also. November 10 of 1958, National became the first airline to introduce domestic jet service in the United States, with a flight between Miami 's international airport and Idlewild International Airport in New York. Spears had been a close friend of her husband, and she had never considered him to be a good influence. Due to lack of evidence, however, Spears was never charged with any offense in relation to the Flight 967 crash. For most of its existence the company was headquartered at Miami International Airport, Florida. 46 people perished. Life Magazine. Best write up Ive ever read. A Delta Airlines DC-7, similar to the accident aircraft, Learn how and when to remove these template messages, introducing citations to additional sources, Learn how and when to remove this template message, List of accidents and incidents involving commercial aircraft, Robert Spears, 1959 bomb suspect, dies in Dallas, Civil Aeronautics Board Aircraft Accident Report on Flight 967, Clear Lake crash ("The Day the Music Died"), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=National_Airlines_Flight_967&oldid=1123344434, Accidents and incidents involving the Douglas DC-7, Airliner accidents and incidents in the United States, Aviation accidents and incidents in the Atlantic Ocean, Aviation accidents and incidents in the United States in 1959, National Airlines (19341980) accidents and incidents, Unsolved mass murders in the United States, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from September 2021, All articles needing additional references, Articles lacking in-text citations from September 2021, Articles with multiple maintenance issues, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2015, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, In-flight explosion (Bombing suspected, but not proven), This page was last edited on 23 November 2022, at 06:57. On November 16, 1959, an airplane vanished over the Gulf of Mexico, with 42 people onboard. If there was, did it come before or after the crash? The sea was practically calm with waves about 1-1/2feet high moving from a northerly direction with a period of about five seconds. The cultures of National and Pan Am also proved to be incompatible, making workforce integration difficult. Despite these strange details, Mrs Taylor stuck to her story--her ex-husband had been hypnotized. Planes, especially larger passenger ones, were still fairly new back then-- they were still figuring out the kinks. The conclusion of the Official CAB Accident Report (June 11, 1962): The Board, with the aid of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has thoroughly investigated Mr Spears activities in order to determine whether they might have had any bearing upon the accident. All employment decisions are made without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, disability, military leave or veteran status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state or local law. The National crew consisted of Captain Frank Eugene Todd, Copilot Dick Sheridan Beebee, Flight Engineer George Henry Clark, Jr., Stewardesses Patricia Ann Hires and Donna Jean Osburn, and additional crew member Jack Atkinson of the Federal Aviation Agency. National Airlines Flight 967, registration N4891C,[1] was a Douglas DC-7B aircraft that disappeared over the Gulf of Mexico en route from Tampa, Florida, to New Orleans, Louisiana, on November 16, 1959. This all changed two months after the crash, on January 20, 1960, when Robert Vernon Spears was arrested in Phoenix, Arizona, in possession of a stolen car--a salmon-pink Plymouth. This material totaled possibly less than one percent of all such material within the fuselage. He was cleared by the New Orleans Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC - ZNO) located in the terminal building at New Orleans Lakefront Airport to descend to and maintain 5,000 feet and to report leaving 8,000 feet. Replies analysing and speculating over the mystery and possible explanations are encouraged. He had become financially successful in Texas as a . Logan alleges "Turska was planning his own exit strategy" before the crash--in September 1959 he had put up his Arizona property for sale: "priced to sell, owner leaving state". Taylor would fly and Spears would drive. +6 Accordingly, communications between Coast Guard surface vessels and the National Airlines Convair were relayed by Coast Guard aircraft. No seat belt abrasions were found. A subreddit dedicated to the unresolved mysteries of the world. Logan asks a number of questions--whether Taylor could have planned a murder-suicide without Spearss knowledge, whether Taylor boarded the flight at all, whether the last-minute insurance policy was an intentional red herring to throw off investigators and utterly confuse everyone? The National crew consisted of Captain Frank Eugene Todd, Copilot Dick . Thank you for the great write-up. She received a court order to open his post office box. The theory of a Svengalian puppet master was convenient not just for the former Mrs Taylor. 2913'N. Absolutely fascinating mystery. Rescuers went out in aircraft and boats, arriving before dawn and still combing the cold, rough seas as the sun came up. . Spirit airlines began offering the direct flights in 2017. We know he was at the airport that night, at 12:16 am. None of this disclosed conclusive evidence as to the genesis of the accident. operated a variety of different types of aircraft. To have a definitive answer I would have to do research that I am far too tired for at the moment, but I wanted to relay what little information I could think of before I passed out and forgot to come back and do it. In that interview, Turska said he now thought Spears had been lying to hm, and implied Spears's wife was in on the whole scam--accusing her of faking her reaction to seeing him. One part of the investigation focused on the passengers. Al Taylor asked him to drive the Plymouth to Dallas where they were scheduled to meet up. National Airlines Flight 193, registration N4744, Donna, was a Boeing 727-235 en route from Miami, Florida to Pensacola on May 8, 1978. . As he said in a recent interview: "The more that I learned through the research about Spears, even though this guy had an incredibly profound criminal past [] he never had any history of violence at all. All 42 on board were presumed killed in the incident. According to Junior, Taylor was carrying over $600 in cash--a lot of money at the time, especially for a man in serious debt. FlightAware provides accurate real-time, historical and predictive flight insights to all segments of the Geo resource failed to load. Alice Steel Taylor had long claimed that her ex-husband was nothing more than an unwitting puppet in Spearss schemes. He asked her not to tell Junior this. But in 1957 he was expelled from the organization in a bribery scandal. Delta Air Lines was scheduled to operate the flight between New Orleans, and its next stop, Dallas, TX, where American Airlines was to take over and operate the same aircraft from Dallas nonstop to Los Angeles. Posts about National Airlines Flight 967 written by The Flightpath. arrow_forward Literature guides Concept explainers Writing guide Popular textbooks Popular high school textbooks Popular Q&A Business Accounting Economics Finance Leadership Management Marketing Operations Management Engineering Bioengineering Chemical Engineering Civil Engineering Computer Engineering Computer Science Electrical Engineering . Some small quantity of clothing and other personal effects and several mail bags were also found. The aircraft was then spiralled over the spot down to an altitude of 500feet through a stratus deck with a base of approximately 800 feet, and tops of 1,200 to 1,400feet. We have been unable to find any such relationship. According to the hotel staff, Taylor was talking about boarding a flight to Dallas--the waitress specifically remembered making small talk about Dallas. Clearly in shock, she turned to the reporter and said: "What can I say? This dialogue will close in 60 seconds or you can click the exit icon in the top right corner to go back to the flight map immediately. The flight release Tampa-New Orleans was in accordance with the Civil Air Regulations and NAL procedures. This appeared to be bits of upholstery, sound deadening material, and white objects like sponge rubber pillows encased in plastic envelopes. 8840'W. At 00:55 the aircraft suddenly crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. (These bearings could be duplicated at low altitude; the VOR bearings could not be, due to line-of-sight limitations.). Repeated calls to it, starting at 0106 on company frequency, were not answered. It was determined that Taylor had boarded the flight using a ticket issued for Spears. The condition of the bodies and wreckage all fit too-- the plane ends up in tiny pieces (basically whatever floats). He was charged with three felony accounts and was set to stand trial in Los Angeles on December 3, 1959.

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