national airlines flight 967 national airlines flight 967

On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. They had been divorced longer than she claimed, and the divorce had been far from amicable. However, there was ample fuel to have proceeded to the flight's planned alternate or to Dallas, the next en route stop. The pilot planned to conduct solo aerobatic flight manoeuvres in the [4], Spears died in Dallas, Texas on May 2, 1969, of coronary thrombosis. Coast Guard vessels suggested searching an area some distance to the southwest of the position 2913'N, 8840'W. November 16, 1959: National Airlines Flight 967 on a flight from Tampa, Florida to New Orleans crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. Forty-two people were on board, and less than 1% of the wreckage was recovered. Probably one of the most intriguing cases Ive read here, what a great write up OP! This segment of the flight was completely routine. The cause was suspected to have been an attempted case of Insurance fraud; . He had hypnotized his own wife for the births of their children. She ultimately succeeded, and her son Junior received an undisclosed settlement. Dr Spears lived in an affluent suburb of Dallas, and he and his wife were relatively well-known in the citys social circles. Great write up! The industry standard flight tracking platform for business aviation (BA) owners and operators. If there was, did it come before or after the crash? Despite intensive searches over the following months and years by the Coast Guard, Civil Aeronautics Board, the US Navy, the US Fish and Wildlife Service and private companies--the rest of the wreckage has never been found. A rival airline company? A strong sharp contact, definitely bottom and metallic, was made at position 2911.6'N, 8838.2'W at a depth of 245feet. . National Airlines Flight 967 of November 15, 1959, was scheduled between Miami, Florida, and New Orleans, Louisiana, with a stop at Tampa, Florida. The U.S.S. 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. Nothing. No severe weather was forecast, anticipated or reported at flight altitudes over the route. There was nothing immediately remarkable about Dr Spears. Many sonar contacts were obtained by both ships but all were evaluated as marine life. I've never heard of this and I love aviation mysteries. In fact, he had vanished on November 16, 1959 - the very same day that airplane went down in the Gulf. [] Both men were in the confidence rackets at one time. Air Methods is the most responsive and reliable provider of critical care transportation solutions. [1], Investigators learned that William Taylor, a fellow felon and longtime criminal accomplice of Spears,[1] had boarded Flight 967 using a ticket made out to "Dr. Great post! He had become financially successful in Texas as a naturopath, even becoming president of the Texas Naturopath Association in 1954. In 1954 before this case, England lost several planes to it within months of each other, thanks to metal fatigue causing the decompressions. News Stories American Airlines to start hiring pilots again Southwest To Recall Pilots And Flight . Spears had a long history of crime, having been arrested 17 times under 14 different aliases. 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.. He reported a "smooth flight" and unlimited visibility, but said he could see a solid overcast of fog ahead. All 42 on board were presumed killed in the incident. Flight Departure Times. Taylor would fly and Spears would drive. Clearly, Dr Spears had not been on that plane. Without an aircraft, this was no easy task. Spears disappeared after the accident but was arrested in Phoenix, Arizona, with Taylor's car in January, 1960. I think it's because "my friend took my ticket last minute under my name, but when I heard the plane exploded, i decided to duck out and start a new life because not only am i a con man, I was in big trouble for illegal abortions too" doesn't make for a convincing story. After this case, planes continued to disintegrate in flight due to explosive decompression. 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. Mrs Spears replied that she had not. United Airlines Flight 718, a DC-7, collided over the Grand Canyon with TWA Flight 2, an L-1049 Super Constellation, . As has been detailed, 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. National Airlines Flight 967, registration 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. Initially, there was some speculation based on the fact that a noted Chicago mobster--Ellis Itchy Mandel--was on the flight. He was arrested for assault and battery for his wife in 1971. 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. The 36 passengers and six crew aboard Flight 967 from Tampa to New Orleans died in the accident 35.6 mi (57.3 km) off the coast of Pilottown, Louisiana. Spears immediately said he had made the whole thing up after the reporter had pressured him to tell him something new. Round-trip. 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. And just a freak coincidence that a couple of conmen just happened to have a ticket? She also said she had begged him to turn himself in but he refused. With more than 800 employees worldwide, the National Family offers rewarding opportunities for professional growth through our affiliate organizations National Air Cargo and National Airlines.We invite you to become a part of our award-winning team, and contribute to meaningful work in aviation, transportation, and global logistics. He heard no noise. Some twelve to fifteen minutes later a Coast Guard aircraft arrived and dropped smoke markers. Predictive technology to strengthen customer trust in your operations. 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. Flight hour logbooks will be required at time of your Flight Assessment for verification. Weather conditions in the area were poor, which meant that the crew had . Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Associate Procurement Agent. C. L. McGAVERN, Jacksonville, Florida, RENFRO (no first name), arrived from Orlando, JACK ATKINSON, Miami Springs, an inspector for the Federal Aviation Agency, Self-Styled: Chasing Dr Robert Vernon Spears by Alan C. Logan, Civil Aeronautics Board - Aircraft Accident Report, June 11, 1962, Robert Spears, 1959 bomb suspect, dies in Dallas". I don't think Dr. Spears nor Taylor planned it/caused it, but Spears decided to take advantage of it after hearing what had happened. Lieut. Curiously, Al Taylor had recently been reported missing. Of all the prison terms he served, he never had a single infraction of violence. With the time and funds available it was possible to cover only 29.75square miles of an area selected after an analysis of wind and current factors and the results of all previous searches. 16cm . National Airlines Flight 193, registration N4744, Donna, was a Boeing 727-235 en route from Miami, Florida to Pensacola on May 8, 1978. . He also told them that "after he left I found a case of hidden dynamite". These were her statements: "If my husband was on that plane, I can accept it although my life will be hard. Coast Guard and civil surface craft immediately searched the area exhaustively and retrieved everything sighted. Perhaps most bizarrely of all--Dr Spears was an expert in hypnosis. 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. Franks body was found with injuries significantly different from and much more extensive than the other passengers, injuries which were inconsistent with the type of injury usually incurred in an aircraft accident. The Civil Aeronautics Board investigated the cause of the crash. No seat belt abrasions were found. FBI National Academy. 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. * Douglas DC-4 Turska participated in a few interviews about the case--notably in Life Magazine--in which he played the part of a bemused bystander. 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. When she read that Dr Robert Spears had been a victim of the air disaster, she became even more curious. Flight status, tracking, and historical data for National Aeronautics and Space Administration 967 (NASA967) 01-Mar-2023 (KEFD-KVCT) including scheduled, estimated, and actual departure and arrival times. This new story was made public in 1963. 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. As he was leaving the courthouse after his first hearing, he was observed to be whistling. Fri, 26 May 23. . 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". In this interview, he told a completely different story about what had happened. [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 . 8837.3'W. National Air Security Operation Center (NASOC) Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) Locations: (to include but not limited to the following locations) Sierra Vista, AZ; San Angelo, TX . * Douglas DC-10-10/30, AviationExplorer.com - The Website For Aviation Enthusiasts, NATIONAL AIRLINES HISTORY FACTS AND PICTURES, Aviation Military and Police Phonetic Alphabet, NTSB Aviation Accidents From Last 10 Years, High Resolution Military Aviation Desktop Wallpapers. When Spears met secretly with his wife on January 7, he had reportedly given her the same story. Some of the bodies showed distinct evidence of burning on portions exposed above their waterlines. 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. From March3 through13,1960, the U.S.S. NATIONAL AIRLINES, INC., DOUGLAS DC-7B, N4891C 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_. 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. After forging several checks, he had skipped town and completely abandoned his first family. * Douglas DC-6B But even then there would be no point in destroying the plane or himself. and Long. 2913'N, Long. I want to mention one thing; you are a class act for the ending. 1. The main wreckage has not been located despite several well planned searches. D.B. He did not log the incident. Add hotel. We know he was at the airport that night, at 12:16 am. Flight status, tracking, and historical data for N967WN 02-Mar-2023 (KPVD-KDCA) including scheduled, estimated, and actual departure and arrival times. Flight 967 (1959) Flight 2511 (1960) Flight 27 (1973) Flight 193 (1978) Category. Please note . 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 former Mrs Taylor was becoming increasingly frantic. 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". "Turska was the one to fear, not Bob, Mrs Spears once said. 65 years old at the time of the crash, he had been the national secretary of the National Association of Naturopathic Physicians and the head of the Texas Naturopath Association. In 1964, it became the first exclusively jet powered service in the United States . A careful search was made for witnesses. Grapples were used and a variety of objects were recovered but none could be related to the aircraft. Search and rescue facilities were activated and the Coast Guard had search aircraft and surface craft in the suspect area before daylight. He said he had persuaded Al Taylor to take the dynamite on the airplane by promising to pay him $10,000 to do it. May 3, 1969 LINK, Con Man, Best Man, An Air Crash - A Far Out, Far Up Mystery". [Some context here: In the 50s, life insurance vending machines were commonplace in airports. On January 20, when she was informed that her husband was alive, Mrs Spears struck a very different tone. 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. Ronald Reagan National Airport. He asked her not to tell Junior this. At 1:16 AM, company radio attempted to contact Flight 967 to no avail; attempts by FAA en route facilities, New Orleans Approach Control, and air traffic control were unable to raise the flight. At 00:55 the aircraft suddenly crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. Investigators determined that the flight crew was competent and experienced. 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. Rescuers went out in aircraft and boats, arriving before dawn and still combing the cold, rough seas as the sun came up. Franks body was found with injuries significantly different from and much more extensive than the other passengers, injuries which were inconsistent with the type of injury usually incurred in an aircraft accident. This is the last known radio contact with Flight967. Examination of the liferafts and lifevests indicated that they had not been used for their intended purposes or prepared for such use, and all damage had been accidental and random. The radar observer testified that this disappearance was characteristic of a target going below the scope's limits. The U.S.S. It had his signature on it. The FBI then tracked him down through surveillance. The aircraft remained unreported. They even raise the possibility that the two con-men may have been plotting something together. For most of its existence the company was headquartered at Miami International Airport, Florida. At 0005 the flight reported to Tampa company radio as over Crab at 0002 and estimated NL1, also a customary reporting point, at 0031, at 14,000feet. 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.. The history of the original National Airlines spanned nearly fifty years and during that time it He moved to California and took up hypnotism, his business was with a doctor performing abortions (which were then illegal in the U.S.). It was determined that Taylor had boarded the flight using a ticket issued for Spears. 967. As for the insurance policy taken out by Taylor, Spears said: Taylor was sort of a nut on insurance.