At that time there was also very little airport security. 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. It turned out he had a long criminal record--a string of confidence schemes, forgery, and thefts under a variety of aliases. Aviation Accident Report: National Airlines Flight 967, Aviation Accident Report: National Airlines Flight 967 Report. Shortly thereafter a Coast Guard helicopter arrived. Get the FlightAware App for the best flight tracking experience on your device. A massive search began. Very interesting story, indeed. 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. We know he was at the airport that night, at 12:16 am. That's where the stories of him driving and Taylor flying, Taylor needing to carry the dynamite, and Taylor accidentally or purposefully igniting it all come from just stories from a guy who was trying not to get accidentally blamed from a plane crash he didn't plan or commit. The passenger manifest for Tampa-New Orleans listed 36passengers. Comprehensive flight tracking to enhance your FBO operations and increase sales. The theory arose that Spears, desperate to avoid trial and wanting a fresh start, had tricked Taylor (perhaps through hypnosis)[1] into boarding the aircraft with a piece of luggage containing a bomb; when the aircraft crashed, it would be assumed that Spears was on board. The Navy utilized several vessels equipped with advanced apparatus and manned with skilled specialists. The flight release Tampa-New Orleans was in accordance with the Civil Air Regulations and NAL procedures. . 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. "[citation needed]. and Long. Absolutely fascinating mystery. - February 11, 1952, a DC-6 crashed near Newark Airport, killing 29 out of 63 people on board. 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. While circling and observing, the National Convair called Coast Guard aircraft with continuous transmission, allowing the latter to home on the area. 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. I can understand him taking out an insurance policy. * Douglas DC-6 and then hurry away, accidentally forgetting your luggage. "We don't get newspapers out here, he told reporters. Due to lack of evidence, however, Spears was never charged with any offense in relation to the Flight 967 crash. 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. Full-screen FlightAware TV maps for operators or FBOs. Intensive sea and air searches resulted in finding ten floating bodies and a small amount of floating debris the following morning. The personal effects consisted of shoes, clothing, parts of leather suitcases and other traveling paraphernalia. Replies analysing and speculating over the mystery and possible explanations are encouraged. ", Alan C. Logans book also cites a vague remark by Mr Turska that Spears was not alone when he showed up in Arizona after the crash. The ultimate flight tracking suite for small aircraft/general aviation (GA) owners and operators. Carefully the investigators went through the flight manifest. During this period an underwater television camera was lowered twice on the contact from the VIGOR but only marine life was observed. I want to mention one thing; you are a class act for the ending. This position is six miles south and about five miles east of the radar-observed descent. AA967 Flight Tracker - Track the real-time flight status of American Airlines AA 967 live using the FlightStats Global Flight Tracker. Geo resource failed to load. [] The fire marks on bodies and on debris were of the type caused exclusively by a flash surface fire, probably both hot and brief, upon impact with the water. 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. Add hotel. Because of the lack of physical evidence, the probable cause of this accident is unknown. Coscto also reported a Q2 net sales increase of 6.5%, to $54.24 . Then he abruptly told her was headed to Atlanta the next day, to look for a job there. The U.S.S. It is preliminary and is based on the facts as they are known at this time. ASSURANCE and the U.S.S. In 1964, it became the first exclusively jet powered service in the United States . [4], Spears died in Dallas, Texas on May 2, 1969, of coronary thrombosis. Thats another good one if youre not already familiar with it. Submissions should outline a mystery and provide a link to a more detailed review of the case such as a Wiki article or news report. Just a few years before, Logan writes, on Valentine's Day 1953, a National Airlines flight on the very same run--from Tampa to New Orleans--also plunged into the Gulf. National Airlines Flight967 of November 15, 1959, was scheduled between Miami, Florida, and New Orleans, Louisiana, with a stop at Tampa, Florida. Find cheap flights from Kathmandu to Yosemite National Park. All 42 on board were presumed killed in the accident. There are a thousand ways of connecting the dots, and a thousand other explanations out there. Unfortunately, these searches were not successful. 02:55. Select the responses you agree with. The weather conditions were good. 16cm . A careful search was made for witnesses. saw an unusual light in the sky [] in the general direction of where [the flight] was lost and at about the time it was lost [] the light was red or dark red, appearing suddenly, lasting a couple of seconds then producing a vertical white light which fell with a white trail [] the initial red flash was almost as big as the sun. This position was buoyed and two dives were made in depths of 210 feet. Rescuers went out in aircraft and boats, arriving before dawn and still combing the cold, rough seas as the sun came up. After forging several checks, he had skipped town and completely abandoned his first family. The history of the original National Airlines spanned nearly fifty years and during that time it Note the use of the word accident, which is used throughout the report. BITTERN searched separate areas using Navy sonar. National Airlines Flight 967. At the time of these observations the stars were visible, the weather was hazy and there were no surface craft within his range of vision. National Airlines Flight 193, registration N4744, Donna, was a Boeing 727-235 en route from Miami, Florida to Pensacola on May 8, 1978. . According to this new story, in November 1959 Spears was extremely worried about the upcoming abortion trial in Los Angeles. Goodness, I'm on the wrong plane!" The tower is about 30 miles west of the crash site. Lowest fares guaranteed on flights from Dubai to Toronto by Skycraft Air Transport. Taylor apparently agreed to this, and boarded the flight that night with nothing more than a briefcase containing the dynamite. Who hatched the plot--Spears? With so many tantalizing details about Spears and Taylor, its easy to forget we know next to nothing about this plane crash. We partner with our EMS and hospital customers to solve the challenges of patient logistics and save lives. The prosecutor in Spearss abortion case pointed out they already had sworn affidavits from the abortion witnesses, which they could simply have read out in court. As Mrs Spears described it, "He saw an opportunity to leave me and the babies with some financial security. The aircraft had been called into service on short notice when the normal aircraft used for the evening . Adequate fuel, with reserve, was carried. Could it be that in spite of this vast, tangled web--this was just another plane crash? Mrs Spears said that when he came to see her, Spears was sad about Taylors death. Interchange flights like this were fairly common before the CAB awarded more direct routes beginning with the Southeast to West Coast case in 1961. 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. All times herein are Central Standard based on the 24-hour clock. If you have a couple of minutes, we'd like to collect your feedback on it. 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. On November 16, 1959, an airplane vanished over the Gulf of Mexico, with 42 people onboard. Length approx. A tragic accident due to some unforeseen mechanical malfunction or even pilot error? 46 people perished. The point of fade from the scope was normal and within correlation limits. All 42 on board were presumed killed in the incident. When the aircraft was destroyed, authorities would assume that Spears had himself been a victim and his wife would be able to collect on his life insurance. Note that the whereabouts of DB Cooper on these dates is unaccounted for. - January 14, 1951, a DC-4 crashed on landing at Philadelphia Airport with 7 fatalities. 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. A rival airline company? Alice Steel Taylor had long claimed that her ex-husband was nothing more than an unwitting puppet in Spearss schemes. but he would have had to have done some rushing to get aboard the plane because it taxied away at 12:25 am. Although sabotage was suspected, no definite cause of the crash was determined . Thank you for the great write-up. He did not log the incident. 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. He added that the passengers apparently had no warning to don lifebelts, as only one life preserver was found among the debris. Investigators were divided on whether the aircraft broke apart on impact with the water, or exploded in the air before it went down. According to Alan C. Logans book, Taylor had also met with Frank in New York (though Logan does not explain why). National Airlines flight 193 lies partially submerged in the shallow waters of Escambia Bay in Pensacola. The aircraft was a DC-7, N4891C, owned by Delta Air Lines and operated by National under an equipment interchange agreement. After several decades of false names, new identities, fresh starts, abandoned wives, abandoned lives--he had spent the last years running "a lucrative underground abortion business". He added that New Orleans had instrument meteorological conditions, and indicated that the crew had planned to use this method on the approach until the plane was below the low ceiling. Yeah, it's kinda sad (and annoying) that such a good read isn't inspiring much in the way of discussion hardly at all. The unplanned water landing caught everyone . Track N967WN flight from Rhode Island T. F. Green International Airport to Reagan National 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. Meanwhile she campaigned in the courts to have him declared legally dead (which would give her son access to the life insurance money). Search and rescue facilities were activated and the Coast Guard had search aircraft and surface craft in the suspect area before daylight. Register now (free) for customized features, flight alerts, and more! Tampa Police Detective John C. Daniels was among those who did not buy the hypnosis theory: Taylor was in debt over his head. I am not a shill but it is an interesting book.]. - February 14, 1953, a DC-6 crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off Mobile, AL. The aircraft being used this particular day was a Delta Air Lines DC-7B. Some twelve to fifteen minutes later a Coast Guard aircraft arrived and dropped smoke markers. Long read, but totally worth it! What a tangled web. He asked her not to tell Junior this. Track National Aeronautics and Space Administration #967 flight from Victoria Rgnl to Houston Ellington Flight status, tracking, and historical data for National Aeronautics and Space Administration 967 (NASA967) including scheduled, estimated, and actual departure and arrival times. He said he had persuaded Al Taylor to take the dynamite on the airplane by promising to pay him $10,000 to do it. 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." Nothing. 8840'W. (If any were available prior to my introduction to flying, though, I can't be sure.) This segment of the flight was completely routine. Turska? 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. She received a court order to open his post office box. It is really unfortunate the wreckage was never discovered. And just a freak coincidence that a couple of conmen just happened to have a ticket? Spears had a long history of crime, having been arrested 17 times under 14 different aliases. 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. Everyone loved the read as the comments here suggest and so did I but does anyone have a theory they favor? 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 . The industry standard flight tracking platform for business aviation (BA) owners and operators. 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. Divers established that the contact was a sunken ship. As he was leaving the courthouse after his first hearing, he was observed to be whistling. Taylor apparently then he called his boss at the tire company and asked for the next day off work. National Airlines Flight 967 Part 01.PDF PDF document, 25,417 kB (26,027,901 bytes) She contacted his work--they knew nothing. 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.. Boeing 747-400BCF National Airlines N702CA Scale 1/400 XX4975. The bodies were stripped of clothing and revealed severe burns, he said. Flight hour logbooks will be required at time of your Flight Assessment for verification. Radar operators at a military station at Houma, Louisiana, picked up the flight at 12:46 AM. National Airlines Flight 967; A Delta Airlines DC-7, similar to the accident aircraft. There was nothing immediately remarkable about Dr Spears. At 0034 the flight reported over NL1 at 0033 at 14,000feet, estimating New Orleans at 0119. In fact, he had vanished on November 16, 1959 - the very same day that airplane went down in the Gulf. But in 1957 he was expelled from the organization in a bribery scandal. She called Spearss wife (who was still grieving at that time) and asked if she had seen or heard from Taylor. The Civil Aeronautics Board investigated the cause of the crash. In this case, the plane likely suffered the same fate. So why the stories from Spears? In the weeks after the crash, the mystery of Flight 967 deepened. We have been unable to find any such relationship. It was founded in 1934 as a Florida-based airline. Weather conditions in the area were poor, which meant that the crew had . Spears had been a close friend of her husband, and she had never considered him to be a good influence. NH967 (All Nippon Airways) - Live flight status, scheduled flights, flight arrival and departure times, flight tracks and playback, flight route and airport The world's most popular flight tracker. The aircraft was a DC-7, N 4891C, owned by Delta Air Lines and operated by National under an equipment interchange agreement. Explosive decompression makes a plane crash look like the plane was blown up with a large bomb, but minus any larger pieces of wreckage as well as explosive residue proving it. 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.". Throughout this observation the radar scope indicated no other object. It's quick and easy to. The Board, with the aid of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, has thoroughly investigated Mr. We work hard to keep our advertising relevant and unobtrusive to create a great experience. The flight had been on its way from Tampa, Florida, to New Orleans. The FBI's FOIA Library contains many files of public interest and historical value. This page was last edited on 5 May 2019, at 15:31. Spear's activities in order to determine whether they might have had a bearing upon the accident. Precision Air sales officer Yvonne Baldwin said the route had enormous potential, and will shorten travel times between the two countries which until now were via Nairobi in Kenya. Debt collectors got involved--suddenly "every repo man in America" was looking for a pink Plymouth. Or was it all a freak accident? 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. There she discovered a receipt addressed to their son Junior. I cant believe I dont remember the name but the one where the guy hijacked the plane and parachuted out over Washington state? Robert Vernon Spears, of Dallas, Texas, was listed as a passenger on Flight967. Capt. The second radar station at Houma, Louisiana, picked up the flight at 0046, on track and at 14,000feet altitude. Post-mortem examinations of the nine bodies, all of which were identified by fingerprints, indicated that all had received traumatic injuries. He was not a licensed MD, and his license to practice naturopathy had been revoked in 1957. If there was, did it come before or after the crash? From March16 through25,1960, the VITAL and the BITTERN continued searching in other areas and many botton contacts were obtained but none proved to be aircraft wreckage. The FBI then tracked him down through surveillance. Water temperatures in the vicinity of the crash were 70 degrees or more. 8837.3'W. Accident; Date: November 16, 1959: Summary: In-flight explosion (Bombing suspected, but not proven) Site: Gulf of Mexico Analysis of this accident must rest almost entirely on circumstantial evidence for the aircraft's wreckage still lies on the bottom of the Gulf. * Convair CV-440 No seat belt abrasions were found. No operational or maintenance item was found which can reasonably be linked to this accident. 1. Who knows, Taylor might show up one day, alive and healthy. Al Taylor asked him to drive the Plymouth to Dallas where they were scheduled to meet up. This information is not presented as the Flight Safety Foundation or the Aviation Safety Networks opinion as to the cause of the accident. 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. - 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. All 42 on board were presumed killed in the incident. After he left, he phoned again three times, again asking for Junior. 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. According to Logans book, Mrs Taylor was media savvy, and exaggerated her closeness with Taylor before his disappearance. Details of accident. 2004. Spears said he begrudgingly gave his Flight 967 ticket to Al Taylor, a friend who couldn't face a long drive to Dallas. Mr Taylor would need to have put just $1.50 into that machine to secure that $37,500 insurance policy (equivalent to more than $300,000 today).]. The BITTERN obtained four separate bottom contacts at Lat. 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.