Eastern Airlines Flight 401 Tribute Group Meets Captain Al Haynes United Airlines Flt 232 Sioux City Iowa 1989 DC-10 N1819U Crash

Captain Al Haynes speaks with USCG Lieutenants Paul Lalicata and Aaron Ortenzio Both Lt. Lalicata and Ortenzio act as Coast Guard Airstation Miami Rotary and Fixed Wing Flight Safety Officers
Captain Al Haynes enjoys a laugh with EAL 401 Flight Attendants Beverly Raposa (center) and Mercy Ruiz, as they share the special bond of surviving the crash of a widebody commercial aircraft
United Airlines Flight 232 Captain Al Haynes greets EAL Flt 401 Flight Attendant Mercy Ruiz, as EAL Flt 401 surviving passenger looks on
The Start of CRM and the ultimate in CRM, as Captain Al Haynes from UAL Flt 232 warmly greets Ron Infantino, surviving passenger from EAL Flt 401, as Captain Richard Kenin, Commanding Officer of Coast Guard Air Station Miami looks on and who was responsible for bringing these two men together

Miami, Florida 5th January 2010: In a twist of event in the scheduling of attending speakers at the Coast Guard Air Station Miami annual "Safety Stand-Up" The member of Eastern Airlines Flight 401 Tribute Group "The Heritage of CRM" had the honor to meet Captain Al Haynes, the pilot in command of the 1989 United Airlines Flight 232, DC-10, N1819U, Souix City Iowa crash.

In what to date is consider the "Ultimate in CRM" Eastern 401 Tribute Group members all had the pleasure and opportunity to meet Captain Al Haynes. In sharing their experience on is amazed as to the difference between both crashes. Basically, the whole knew that United Flt 232 was in trouble and that the outcome into Souix City was highly probable of a crash. The forewarning had an army of rescuers awaiting the aircraft pretty much like a baseball catcher awaiting for his pitcher to throw the ball right into his glove. Also back on the aircraft Captain Al Haynes has the advantage of CRM long learned and taught since it inception back in 1973 after the NASA post EAL Flt 401 crash report.

Turn the clock back seventeen (17) years and Eastern Flight had no one positive thing going for them as with United 232. No day light!, No awaiting rescuers, No on board cabin flashlights, No alerted crews to CRM and the list goes on and on and yet with us today are our friend and colleague who make up the group and advocate the important of CRM.

The above picture captures the moment with Ron Infantino, survivor of EAL Flt 401 greeting for the first time Captain Al Haynes of UAL Flt 232, CRM come full circle.

A worth note to be made as special thanks goes out to Captain Richard Kenin, Commanding Officer of Coast Guard Air Station Miami who made this event in aviation possible! Bravo Zulu!

Eastern Airline Flight 401 Tribute Group Lectures to Aircrews at Coast Guard Air Station Miami

A grateful audience gives a standing ovation to the member of the Eastern Airlines Flight 401 Tribute as they concluded their one hour presentation on their experience on that faithful night on 29th December 1972 and what their lost gave to the gain of the aviation community and the flying public

The audience at the U.S. Coast Guard 2010 Safety Stand Up consisted of Coast Guard, Local, State and Federal Aviation Law Enforcement aircrews

Eastern Airlines Support Member Benny Benitez speaks to the audience and informs them of the technical attribute of the L-1011 / N310EA

Captain Richard Kenin, Coast Guard Air Station Miami Commanding Office speaks with Ron Infantino, surviving passenger Eastern Airlines Flight 401 prior to speaking to an audience of over 200 U.S. Coast Guard and Law Enforcement aircrew at the Station Safety Stand Up event
U.S. Coast Guard Aviator Lt. Donvan Burns speaks with Mercy Ruiz about here experience during the post crash of Flight 401

Back in 1972, Coast Guard Air Station Miami main Rotary platform was the Sikorsky HH-52 "Sea Guard" now should the call ever again come to rescue passenger from a stricken crashed commercial aircraft within the Everglades, the Station is equipped with the state of art EADS Dauphin HH-65 Rescue Helicopter
Aside of the Air Station Rotary wing capability, Coast Guard Air Station Miami is equipped with the Dassualt HH-25U Falcon Jet. The HU-25 are numbered as they will soon be replaced by the Casa 235 twin engine Turbo Prop aircraft to be called by the Coast Guard as the HC-114

Miami, Florida 5th January 2010: In what is being consider the culmination of a solid year of working and building the Eastern Airline Flight 401 Tribute Group, the had a proud high light in being invited by Captain Kenin, the Commanding Officer of Coast Guard Air Station Miami to lecture of their post crash experience to his aircrews and visiting Federal, State and Local law enforcement aircrews.

This marked the 4th public presentation that Eastern Airlines Flight 401 Tribute Group has done to share and inform the public about the industry changing crash of 29th December 1972 since their focused efforts started a year ago to the date.

Aside from Captain Kenin, the Eastern Airlines Flight 401 Tribute Group would wish to thank the following U.S. Coast Guard Flight Safety Office at Coast Guard Air Stattion Miami who made the event possible in working with them to hone the presentation to the most added value to their crews. We at the Eastern Airlines Flight 401 Tribute Group extended our thanks and a "Bravo Zulu" to LCDR Daniel Duetermann, Lt. Paul Lalicata and Lt. Aron Ortenzio whose efforts and coordination made the event possible.

Eastern Airline Flight 401 Tribute Group with More TV Appearances

Airing about two weeks before our 37th Anniversary, northern Florida was treated to a three part series by Cristina Xuarez, finishing her final year at University of Florida in Gainesville. As one of her final stories before graduation with honors, she came to Florida and spent time with us and even traveled to the site of the accident with us by airboat to get footage for her stories.

The stories originally aired the week ending December 19 and are now available as part of the online archive of WUFT News. Cristina is an outstanding reporter and did a great job putting together these news packages about the group and our goals and we appreciate the time and effort she put into them to help get our story out.

Click Here to watch the three part series on Eastern Flight 401 by Cristina Xuarez!

Eastern Airlines Flight 401 Tribute Group Memorial

The recent news buzz about the group has created a lot of interest in having some images of how the 401 Tribute will look once completed. To this end we are posting some renderings of the 401 Tribute that is proposed to be constructed in the Everglades and will be available to visit by airboat and visible from aircraft overflying the site.The design of the structure is by Brockhouse Associates PA here in Miami Florida, with the renderings by Digital Aircraft Factory, also headquartered here in Miami, FL.

The three renderings show how the basic design would appear and changes that we come up with can be added in the future. We are currently working on a re-design of the smaller mini-museum and images will be shown as soon as they are available. Additional views of the Everglades site will also be available as they are completed.

We would like to personally thank all of our donors for their help and support to make this possible and we request any help we can get in making these Tributes come to life.

Thank you all!

Eastern Airlines Flight 401 Tribute Group Makes National News

Yesterday was exciting for the Eastern Flight 401 Tribute Group. With a huge thank you to Luisa Yanez of the Miami Herald, the word about our gathering to mark the 37th Anniversary of the crash yesterday went from a simple plan to get together and share with locals and to spend time together finishing the day with a nice dinner with our family and friends turned into a wonderful surprise as suddenly we found ourselves in the spotlight with both national attention from the NBC Today Show to many local news outlets including stories in the Miami Herald, Sun-Sentinel and on several TV stations including the local Fox Station WSVN and the NBC affiliate here, NBC Miami. Below are links to the stories and videos of our day yesterday.

TV/Videos
Today Show: http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891#34629551
NBC Miami: http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local-beat/Plane-Crash-Survivors-Reunite-80288617.html
WSVN Fox: http://www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/MI139861/

Newspaper Articles
Miami Herald: http://pd.miami.com/sp?aff=1100&keywords=flight+401&submit.x=0&submit.y=0
Sun Sentinel: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/breakingnews/sfl-flight-401-anniversary-122909,0,533536.story

Eastern Airlines Flight 401 Tribute Group on NBC's Today Show

Wow, what a day today has been! A call came into our group this morning at PI Bagels in Ft Lauderdale from NBC News, they wanted to know if they could send a group up to meet and interview us for the Today Show! It came as a wonderful surprise to us and we had a wonderful time speaking with them this morning.

So, all of you who would like to see us on TV, we will be on the Today Show on Tuesday, Dec 30, 2009 sometime between 7AM and 9AM. We hope you'll all tune in and watch! Thanks to all of you who have come out today so far to see us and we look forward to seeing more of you this evening at the 94th AeroSquadron here in Miami as we continue remembering that fateful day, 37 years ago.

Eastern Airlines Flight 401 Tribute Group Gathers for the 37th Anniversary for the Crash

Today, December 29th, 2009 is the 37th Anniversary of the crash of Eastern Airlines Flight 401 into the Florida Everglades. After reuniting in 2007 at the 35th Anniversary at the crash site, the a group of the survivors have been working together to put together the Tribute that never was. Today is also our 2nd Anniversary of being back together and working toward this goal.

To celebrate our being reunited in this common goal and in rememberance of the lives that were lost or forever changed on that cold and dark December night, we are spending today together to speak about our experiences and show pictures and newspaper articles about that ill-fated night.
This morning we are at PI Bagels on Pine Island in Fort Lauderdale, owned by a former Eastern employee and just filled with old Eastern memorabilia. We are here from 8AM until 1PM.
Tonight we are gathering in Miami at the 94th AeroSquadron restaurant on the south side of Miami International Airport at 8PM for dinner and invite the public to come by and speak with us and let us tell you about how the crash of Flight 401 has made air travel safer.

We are working to putting together a Tribute to the crash and to that end we are selling merchandise including prints, hats and bags and as always, any other donations are most gladly accepted. Please come and let us share our experiences with you as we remember on this anniversary, 37 years later.