He did not log the incident. 8837.3'W. Aviation accidents and incidents in 1978 () Jan 1 Air India Flight 855; 8840'W. 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. 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. Seattle, Washington, United States. The main section of the wreckage has never been found despite the efforts of Navy and Coast Guard divers. Thank you for the great write-up. The FBI, while stopping short of the Svengali hypothesis, acknowledged that "Spears may have had someone travel for him to collect a large insurance policy for the benefit of his young wife". National Airlines Flight 967 of November 15, 1959, was scheduled between Miami, Florida, and New Orleans, Louisiana, with a stop at Tampa, Florida. It turned out he had a long criminal record--a string of confidence schemes, forgery, and thefts under a variety of aliases. Divers established that the contact was a sunken ship. Best write up Ive ever read. Adequate fuel, with reserve, was carried. The flight had been on its way from Tampa, Florida, to New Orleans. In compliance with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) requirements, some of these records are no longer in the physical possession of the FBI, eliminating the FBI's capability to re-review and/or re-process this material. Massey. Shortly thereafter a Coast Guard helicopter arrived. The car belonged to a man named Al Taylor, a longtime friend of Dr Spears, who had been the best man at his wedding. At its height, National Airlines had a network of "Coast-to-Coast-to-Coast" flights, linking Florida and the Gulf Coast with cities along the East Coast and large . and then hurry away, accidentally forgetting your luggage. The aircraft was a DC-7, N4891C, owned by Delta Air Lines and operated by National under an equipment interchange agreement. 8839'W on March 11, 1960, but the XN3 TV camera revealed it to be marine wreckage. What an intriguing case - how have I never heard of this before? Turska claimed that once he found out about the plane crash fiasco, he immediately told Spears to leave, and then went straight to see his attorney. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. On January 6, 1960 (less than two months after Flight 967) Frank was on board a National Airlines flight which was blown up by dynamite over North Carolina, resulting in 34 deaths. That day the two men also reportedly met with a man they referred to in letters only as "the fellow". She put it bluntly to the Dallas Morning News: "I believe that Spears hypnotized [Taylor] into doing it.". 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. There injuries indicated that all nine persons had been seated at the time the aircraft struck the water. Science Earth Science Question 5 Should national parks be preserved? February 1, 1960 LINK. 967 (NASA967) 01-Mar-2023 (KEFD . And just a freak coincidence that a couple of conmen just happened to have a ticket? 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. 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. National Airlines operated the first two legs between Miami and Tampa, and Tampa and New Orleans. Goodness, I'm on the wrong plane!" While spiralling, radio contact was established with Coast Guard aircraft although no direct contact was possible with Coast Guard surface vessels due to the lack of compatible radio frequencies. * Douglas DC-8-21/31/32/51/54/61 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. Who hatched the plot--Spears? Hudson is an Equal Opportunity Employer of all qualified individuals. 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. BOLIVIA, N.C. (WECT) - Shortly after 2:31 a.m. on Jan. 6, 1960, the peaceful night sky over the mouth of the Cape Fear River was rocked by a large blast. Company calls to 967 continued without result for some time. Please note . The next morning (November 14), Taylor and Spears were together again--Taylors son Junior saw them drinking and laughing in Spearss hotel room, in a celebratory mood. Capt. Another friend of Taylor reportedly told police that he had seen Al Taylor on Christmas Eve, 1959, in a crowd of Christmas shoppers in Nashville, Tennessee. The Coast Guard favored the former explanation, while the Air Force favored the latter. A reporter happened to be in her home at the time. There was no radio message of impending trouble. This aircraft was flown to Tampa then out the NL route toward New Orleans to the position of 2913'N, 8840'W, at an altitude of 14,000feet. * Convair CV-440 [Some context here: In the 50s, life insurance vending machines were commonplace in airports. - 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. According to Junior, Taylor was carrying over $600 in cash--a lot of money at the time, especially for a man in serious debt. Spears said: If the business did detonate during the flight, it had to be by accident [] Im still of the opinion that the plane--something else happened to it. There were nine bodies, a portion of a tenth body, five liferafts, five lifevests, and a highly diversified quantity of buoyant debris entirely from within the cabin and baggage compartments directly below it. But in 1957 he was expelled from the organization in a bribery scandal. 1. On January 6, 1960 (less than two months after Flight 967) Frank was on board a National Airlines flight which was blown up by dynamite over North Carolina, resulting in 34 deaths. But they don't agree on when it occurred. https://en.wikisource.org/w/index.php?title=Aviation_Accident_Report:_National_Airlines_Flight_967&oldid=9238655. 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. The line between the airports does. VIGOR searched, using Navy sonar. It continued on a track of 296 degrees magnetic for a few minutes, then turned right to a heading of approximately 010 degrees and disappeared from the scope at 12:51 AM. Contact Us. The company posted $1.027 billion in membership fee income compared to $967 million a year earlier, a $60 million increase, or 6.2%. FlightAware provides accurate real-time, historical and predictive flight insights to all segments of the If the plane had any larger parts recoverable, they might have been able to tell if dynamite was the cause by examining residues or scorch marks. The second radar station at Houma, Louisiana, picked up the flight at 0046, on track and at 14,000feet altitude. 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.. Cooper? Carefully the investigators went through the flight manifest. 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 weeks Dr Spears was mourned along with the rest of the victims. All times herein are Central Standard based on the 24-hour clock. Investigators were divided on whether the aircraft broke apart on impact with the water, or exploded in the air before it went down. It had his signature on it. Register now (free) for customized features, flight alerts, and more! [citation needed], Spears was eventually arrested in Phoenix after being turned in by the ex-wife a fellow naturopath in Arizona. But two Air Force fliers who spent four hours over the scene said because the wreckage was so scattered it seemed to them the plane exploded in the air. Spears disappeared after the accident but was arrested in Phoenix, Arizona, with Taylor's car in January, 1960. Searching continued through November23. DC-7 [] Template . Comprehensive flight tracking to enhance your FBO operations and increase sales. At 0014, while between Crab and NL1, the flight received the 0600 New Orleans weather from National Flight968, which was: "M700 overcast; 2-1/2 miles visibility; very light drizzle; fog; temperature 54; dewpoint 52; wind northeast 3; altimeter 30.14; ceiling ragged; obstruction lights out of service; see NOTAMS.". You received a Purple Heart on or after September 11, 2001, and were honorably discharged after any amount of service, or. After forging several checks, he had skipped town and completely abandoned his first family. All 42 on board were presumed killed in the incident. If Dr Spears was somehow responsible for both incidents, that would make him responsible for the loss of 76 lives, making him one of the most prolific killers in American history. 2912.3'N, Long. He was charged with three felony accounts and was set to stand trial in Los Angeles on December 3, 1959. Departure from Tampa, with the same crew, was at 2332. Two more liferafts were soon seen in a similar condiiton. Photographs depicted Dr Spears as a plump, jovial man--in a checkered suit and round spectacles, he embodied the image of a kindly family physician. On October 5, 1945 National Airlines Flight 16, a Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar (registered NC18199) crashed into a lake near Lakeland, . She was an unflappable woman in her late fifties, with a fondness for ostentatious feathered hats, pearl necklaces, and large brooches. These were her statements: "If my husband was on that plane, I can accept it although my life will be hard. He heard no noise. The FBI discovered there was much more to the kindly old Dr Spears than met the eye. Self-employed. [1] November 16 National Airlines Flight 967, a Douglas DC-7B, crashes in the Gulf of Mexico with the loss of all 42 people on board . * Lockheed L-188 Electra Taylor also wanted to go to Dallas, to see a doctor about a neck injury, and to get away from his irritating ex-wife. The FBI got involved. Mrs Spears replied that she had not. 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. Taylors son Junior dismissed the story. Someone connected to the abortion case? The agent's attention was drawn elsewhere, however, and he never noticed if the man boarded the flight or not. The aircraft was a DC-7, N 4891C, owned by Delta Air Lines and operated by National under an equipment interchange agreement. 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 . The freezing level along the route was at about 14,000feet and the winds at that altitude were generally from the northwest at 10-20knots. Spears had a long history of crime, having been arrested 17 times under 14 different aliases. 2913'N, Long. All 42 occupants perished. His story is absurd, the prosecutor said. With this information, Mrs Taylor's lawyer called the Tampa police department and the newspapers. Low frequency bearings were then taken on Grand Isle, on the New Orleans Range Station, and on the Mobile "H" facility, also from 14,000feet altitude. - October 5, 1945, a Lockheed Lodestar crashed into a lake in Lakeland, Florida with two fatalities. 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. The ultimate flight tracking suite for small aircraft/general aviation (GA) owners and operators. BITTERN searched separate areas using Navy sonar. The BITTERN obtained four separate bottom contacts at Lat. The cause was suspected to have been an attempted case of Insurance fraud; . The pilot planned to conduct solo aerobatic flight manoeuvres in the * C-46 Commando It is preliminary and is based on the facts as they are known at this time. PROBABLE CAUSE: "Because of the lack of physical evidence, the probable cause of this accident is unknown. The U.S.S. 1 adult. Coast Guard and civil surface craft immediately searched the area exhaustively and retrieved everything sighted. However, the search party aboard the National Convair had decided that the last known radar position (2913'N, 8840'W) should be searched first. He had actually been hiding out with an old associate named William Turska (also a naturopath), in Turskas remote bungalow in the desert 40 miles from Phoenix, Arizona. Economy. Early that morning, they spotted something: a small amount of debris, a large oil slick, and several floating bodies. Accordingly, the aircraft was flown in a northerly direction for some five to ten miles from the point of spiral-down, whereupon floating debris was seen. CAB Accident Report, National Airlines Flight 967.pdf 1,091 1,4818 556 George T Baker 1940.jpg 600 49636 MM00013951 (8091335494) (2).jpg 1,259 1,371428 We partner with our EMS and hospital customers to solve the challenges of patient logistics and save lives. He estimates that the white trail took three or four seconds to go "straight down," and that the initial red flash was "almost as big as the sun." National Airlines Flight 967; Our global headquarters is situated in Orlando FL, with several operational hubs across the globe in Buffalo NY, Chicago IL, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Madrid, Dubai, Djibouti, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai. Turska also gave wildly conflicting accounts of his involvement in the affair. aviation industry. And who was he? Rescuers went out in aircraft and boats, arriving before dawn and still combing the cold, rough seas as the sun came up. Join to view profile. It turned out Mr Taylor was not just a gullible friend of Dr Spears--he was a criminal himself, Spears partner in crime for many years. I've never heard of this and I love aviation mysteries. The main wreckage has not been located . 2918.5'N, Long. Probably one of the most intriguing cases Ive read here, what a great write up OP! Interchange flights like this were fairly common before the CAB awarded more direct routes beginning with the Southeast to West Coast case in 1961. Spears himself apparently admitted to having met with this man in New York City. Cheapest ticket price on Dubai to Toronto Skycraft Air Transport flight air ticket at MakeMyTrip UAE. 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. As Mrs Spears described it, "He saw an opportunity to leave me and the babies with some financial security. Despite these strange details, Mrs Taylor stuck to her story--her ex-husband had been hypnotized. Full-screen FlightAware TV maps for operators or FBOs. Details of accident. 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. but he would have had to have done some rushing to get aboard the plane because it taxied away at 12:25 am. The flight departed Miami at 2212[1] and landed at Tampa at 2300. 1973 - Skylab 4 launches into orbit on the fourth Skylab mission, bringing the third and final crew to the American space station.. 1965 - Russia's Venera 3, the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface, is launched toward Venus.. 1959 - National Airlines Flight 967, a Douglas DC-7 (registered N4891C) is destroyed by a bomb over the Gulf of Mexico, killing all 42 on . When she read that Dr Robert Spears had been a victim of the air disaster, she became even more curious. The main wreckage has not been located despite several well planned searches. Emirates Airlines is the preferable and national . So, I think he spun a couple different stories to see if any if them fit enough to get in the least amount of trouble. Debt collectors got involved--suddenly "every repo man in America" was looking for a pink Plymouth. He kept checking his watch, his ex-wife later said, and looked anxious to leave". It may safely be concluded that there was no warning of the disaster. 04:35. Such a bummer. But this investigation led nowhere. National Airlines Flight 967 Blogs, Comments and Archive News on Economictimes.com That was before Spears was found in Arizona with Taylors car. Flight 967 Hardcover - January 1, 1963. The the bodies can get torn apart depending on their exact location on the plane, whether they were strapped in or not. Track planes in real-time on our flight tracker map and get up-to-date flight status & airport information. FBI National Academy. Down the rabbit hole I go. 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 . The tower is about 30 miles west of the crash site. Flight 967 (1959) Flight 2511 (1960) Flight 27 (1973) Flight 193 (1978) Category. Air Methods. Fri, 26 May 23. . As Logan points out, in the first three weeks of 1960 alone there had been four major airline crashes. Feb 2023 - Present2 months. You can easily find cheap flights / LCC plane tickets from Lloydminster Airport in Lloydminster to Columbia. One part of the investigation focused on the passengers. A rival airline company? Due to lack of evidence, however, Spears was never charged with any offense in relation to the Flight 967 crash. The two had met in the Missouri State Penitentiary, back when Taylor was still known as Albert O. Thompson. Over the course of their long friendship, Spears and Taylor had worked together on confidence schemes throughout the USA. Forty-two people were on board, and less than 1% of the wreckage was recovered. Though no longer married to Al Taylor, Alice later told reporters they had been amicably divorced, and were still close. and Long. 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.