The inertia of the bodies was plainly downward and forward and the forces at impact were severe. However, the Clearfield, Pennsylvania, Progress speculated in its Nov. 17, 1959, edition that the aircraft may have been brought down by a bomb: "Was there an explosion aboard the National Airlines DC-7B liner that crashed in the Gulf of Mexico Monday with 42 persons aboard? There was nothing immediately remarkable about Dr Spears. Incredible write-up! But they don't agree on when it occurred. 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. Mrs Taylor? Mrs Taylor recalled that Dr Spears had held an unnatural sway over her former husband. . After forging several checks, he had skipped town and completely abandoned his first family. At Miami, National Airlines prepared one of its Convair aircraft, which left for the area at 0545 under the command of the company's chief pilot. Mrs Spears said that when he came to see her, Spears was sad about Taylors death. On the night of November 15, 1959, a DC-7 with forty-two persons aboard took off from Tampa International Airport on a regularly scheduled flight to New Orleans. This material totaled possibly less than one percent of all such material within the fuselage. 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". Details of accident. National Airlines Flight 967 Part 01.PDF PDF document, 25,417 kB (26,027,901 bytes) Note the use of the word accident, which is used throughout the report. Flight Departure Times. The crew consisted of Captain William R. Broocke (age 54), employed by National Airlines since 1946, who had qualified to fly the DC-10 in 1972 and accumulated 21,853 flight hours in his career with 801 hours on the DC-10; First Officer Edward H. Saunders (33), employed by National Airlines since 1965, with 7,086 flight hours of which 445 hours were on the DC-10; and Flight . In spite of this string of suspicious details, the airplane was still missing, therefore there was no hope of charging Spears with anything relating to the crash. 1021022013 429b747-428bcf 7 Taylor apparently then he called his boss at the tire company and asked for the next day off work. 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. On November 16, 1959, an airplane vanished over the Gulf of Mexico, with 42 people onboard. Seattle, Washington, United States. Self-Styled: Chasing Dr. Robert Vernon Spears - BlueInk Review It was founded in 1934 as a Florida-based airline. American Airlines 967 - FlightAware - Flight Tracker / Flight Status He kept checking his watch, his ex-wife later said, and looked anxious to leave". There she discovered a receipt addressed to their son Junior. AA967 - American Airlines AA 967 Flight Tracker - FlightStats When Spears met secretly with his wife on January 7, he had reportedly given her the same story. Pertinent details are: William Allen Taylor, of Tampa, Florida, disappeared November 15, 1959, after telephoning his employer he would be late for work. PENGUIN assisted on November24 and on the following day made sonar contact at position 2916.4N, 8836.7'W. She later said she had a premonition that her husband had been on that flight, and she never wavered from it. Join to view profile. One of these was not aboard, although a final passenger count showed 36passengers upon departure from Tampa. He was not a licensed MD, and his license to practice naturopathy had been revoked in 1957. National Airlines Flight 967 - Alchetron, the free social encyclopedia The main wreckage has not been located . 8839'W. Lt. James L. Sigman, executive officer of the Coast Guard air detachment at New Orleans, said the wreckage was spread over a comparatively small area of two to three miles. 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 . 8839'W on March 11, 1960, but the XN3 TV camera revealed it to be marine wreckage. Suicide by a passenger holding large life insurance policies was the probable cause. During this time, Spears had briefly visited his wife (on January 7)--so her answers in her first interview were a lie. Over the course of their long friendship, Spears and Taylor had worked together on confidence schemes throughout the USA. 2912.3'N, Long. . 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." The pilot planned to conduct solo aerobatic flight manoeuvres in the Spears disagreed with the characterization of himself as a sinister hypnotic puppetmaster. Letters between the two men, which Mrs Taylor believed to be evidence of a skilful manipulation by Dr Spears, could also simply indicate a strong friendship. This position was buoyed and two dives were made in depths of 210 feet. Due to lack of evidence, however, Spears was never charged with any offense in relation to the Flight 967 crash. * Douglas DC-8-21/31/32/51/54/61 The two had met in the Missouri State Penitentiary, back when Taylor was still known as Albert O. Thompson. Frank was covered by $900,000 in life insurance policies at the time of his death, and had also been under investigation for corruption. The notion of intimidating the witness thus made no sense. It was founded in 1934 as a Florida-based airline. 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 Flight 967: Latest News & Videos, Photos about 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 . The United States Fish and Wild Life, M/VOREGON, searched for 24hours on December14 and 15, 1959, dragging a 35foot wide net over the botton at a position centered around Lat. Investigation failed to reveal any item of maintenance of either the aircraft or its powerplants which could be significantly related to the accident. He had become financially successful in Texas as a . He also had convictions for drunk driving and drug possession. Interchange flights like this were fairly common before the CAB awarded more direct routes beginning with the Southeast to West Coast case in 1961. Carefully the investigators went through the flight manifest. 1 adult. aviation industry. 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. All 42 on board were presumed killed in the incident. The mafia? I can understand him taking out an insurance policy. Some of the bodies showed distinct evidence of burning on portions exposed above their waterlines. Planes, especially larger passenger ones, were still fairly new back then-- they were still figuring out the kinks. Consultative detailed and customized flight tracking data reports. Without the planes black box, it is impossible to rule this out. Everyone loved the read as the comments here suggest and so did I but does anyone have a theory they favor? 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. Spears." At 00:55 the aircraft suddenly crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. 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. Perhaps most bizarrely of all--Dr Spears was an expert in hypnosis. So why the stories from Spears? Answered: Kuru is a prion disease of the Fore | bartleby I have not yet been back in that direction, but in my few decades of air travel, every flight to Tampa meant a stop in Houston before moving on, and the same can be said for the return flight. A check by the company at this time showed that FAA, New Orleans Approach Control, and ARTC were also out of contact with Flight967. She put it bluntly to the Dallas Morning News: "I believe that Spears hypnotized [Taylor] into doing it.". Robert Spears (naturopath) - Wikipedia The flight originated in Miami at 10:22 PM the previous evening, landed at Tampa at 11:00 PM, and departed for New Orleans at 11:22 PM. Start your trial now! National Airlines Flight 967 Wiki - everipedia.org The aircraft was a DC-7, N4891C, owned by Delta Air Lines and operated by National under an equipment interchange agreement. Many sonar contacts were obtained by both ships but all were evaluated as marine life. He had become financially successful in Texas as a naturopath, even becoming president of the Texas Naturopath Association in 1954. Taylor apparently agreed to this, and boarded the flight that night with nothing more than a briefcase containing the dynamite. Link. Mississippi bans gender-affirming care for transgender youth Turska? Revenue passenger traffic in millions of passenger-miles This consisted of fragmented bits of upholstery, soundproofing material, cabin linings, scat cushions and backs, metallic parts of seats attached to and buoyed by these cushions and backs, overhead racks and other light items not essential to the structural integrity of the aircraft. 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. He said he had persuaded Al Taylor to take the dynamite on the airplane by promising to pay him $10,000 to do it. On November 16, 1959, an airplane vanished over the Gulf of Mexico, with 42 people onboard. Spears had been in and out of jail in multiple states (even mistakenly deported to Canada on one occasion). 02:55. The aircraft was a DC-7, N 4891C, owned by Delta Air Lines and operated by National under an equipment interchange agreement. Intensive sea and air searches resulted in finding ten floating bodies and a small amount of floating debris the following morning. For weeks Dr Spears was mourned along with the rest of the victims. I was completely drawn in. and then hurry away, accidentally forgetting your luggage. 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. Taylor? The condition of the bodies and wreckage all fit too-- the plane ends up in tiny pieces (basically whatever floats). DL967 Flight Tracker - Track the real-time flight status of Delta Air Lines DL 967 live using the FlightStats Global Flight Tracker. The flight was estimated to be at the Crab Intersection, a customary reporting point, at 0004. Investigators were divided on whether the aircraft broke apart on impact with the water, or exploded in the air before it went down. Julian Andrew Frank | Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers 967. This page was last edited on 5 May 2019, at 15:31. Final Flight: A look at the investigation into what brought down - WECT Debt collectors got involved--suddenly "every repo man in America" was looking for a pink Plymouth. The U.S.S. That crash remains officially unexplained also. Two military radar stations had the flight under surveillance. If you have a couple of minutes, we'd like to collect your feedback on it. Yeah, it's kinda sad (and annoying) that such a good read isn't inspiring much in the way of discussion hardly at all. This air traffic control instruction/clearance was issued through National Airlines' radio station/office at Pensacola, Florida, a normal procedure before making the approach to Moisant International Airport (KMSY) in New Orleans. 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. It may be possible that the stop was in Dallas during the time of the crash. 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. 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. He felt he had been a burden and it was a chance to free us of that burden.. His wife, who had recently given birth to twins, even collected a partial payout from his $120,000 life insurance policy. 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. What an intriguing case - how have I never heard of this before? Air Route Traffic Control cleared Flight967 over the established route across the Gulf from Tampa to New Orleans at 14,000feet altitude. The Civil Aeronautics Board investigated the cause of the crash. - January 14, 1951, a DC-4 crashed on landing at Philadelphia Airport with 7 fatalities. The FBI then tracked him down through surveillance. In the weeks after the crash, the mystery of Flight 967 deepened. Some twelve to fifteen minutes later a Coast Guard aircraft arrived and dropped smoke markers. 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. . There was one witness--the attendant of a lookout tower 30 miles west of the crash site, who. The personal effects consisted of shoes, clothing, parts of leather suitcases and other traveling paraphernalia. It turned out he had a long criminal record--a string of confidence schemes, forgery, and thefts under a variety of aliases. Taylor had also been married before his marriage to Alice. 0 bags. The FBI's FOIA Library contains many files of public interest and historical value. On October 5, 1945 National Airlines Flight 16, a Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar (registered NC18199) crashed into a lake near Lakeland, . One part of the investigation focused on the passengers. Spectacular job. 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. Great write up! 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. It was determined that Taylor had boarded the flight using a ticket issued for Spears. Playing upon people's uncertainties about air-travel, insurance companies did quite well off them. This position is about 108miles east-southeast of New Orleans, about 30miles east of Pilottown, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, and very nearly on the planned course. 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. Flight status, tracking, and historical data for N967WN 02-Mar-2023 (KPVD-KDCA) including scheduled, estimated, and actual departure and arrival times. Coast Guard vessels suggested searching an area some distance to the southwest of the position 2913'N, 8840'W. 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 had his signature on it. Departure from Tampa, with the same crew, was at 2332. This new story was made public in 1963. NASA967 National Aeronautics and Space Administration Flight Tracking Searching continued through November23. I wonder how long it took the police to find out about all these shady characters. About 72 square miles south of the area originally covered in November was swept and bottom contact approximately 110feet long was made at Lat. According to Logans book, Mrs Taylor was media savvy, and exaggerated her closeness with Taylor before his disappearance. But even then there would be no point in destroying the plane or himself. Taylor would fly and Spears would drive. The FBI got involved. Without an aircraft, this was no easy task. From January 9, 1960 to January 15, 1960, the U.S.S. Life Magazine. 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.. At this time the flight also contacted New Orleans company radio confirming the ATC clearance and reporting the weather to be CAVU with low solid (undercast) to the WNW. The National crew consisted of Captain Frank Eugene Todd, Copilot Dick . Nearby radar stations reported "the flight was very close to being on course and on schedule.''