At 00:55 the aircraft suddenly crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. A subreddit dedicated to the unresolved mysteries of the world. 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. 967. Sun 4/2. 1 adult. [Some context here: In the 50s, life insurance vending machines were commonplace in airports. There have been dozens of plane crashes due to explosive decompression. Track N967WN flight from Rhode Island T. F. Green International Airport to Reagan National Thanks for writing this all up. He had become financially successful in Texas as a naturopath, even becoming president of the Texas Naturopath Association in 1954. A considerable amount of the floating debris also exhibited signs of burning but only above waterlines. Before the crash, Spears had briefly sought advice on his pending abortion case from a New York City lawyer named Julian Frank. What a tangled web. Carefully the investigators went through the flight manifest. As Mrs Spears described it, "He saw an opportunity to leave me and the babies with some financial security. The flight was estimated to be at the Crab Intersection, a customary reporting point, at 0004. However, the search party aboard the National Convair had decided that the last known radar position (2913'N, 8840'W) should be searched first. The industry standard flight tracking platform for business aviation (BA) owners and operators. - February 14, 1953, a DC-6 crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off Mobile, AL. She was an unflappable woman in her late fifties, with a fondness for ostentatious feathered hats, pearl necklaces, and large brooches. One or two airlines only recently started offering direct flights to Tampa. Without the planes black box, it is impossible to rule this out. Taylor? In a second interview, however, Turska told a different story. 8839'W. During this time, Spears had briefly visited his wife (on January 7)--so her answers in her first interview were a lie. No suggestion of unfamiliarity by National crews of Delta interchange aircraft was found during the investigation. 14 relations. 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. GADSS-compliant global tracking and alerting for airlines and aircraft operators. Low stratus and fog in the area from Mobile to New Orleans and at the New Orleans terminal would have caused the destination to be below limits at the estimated time of arrival. 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. 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. [] 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. On November 16, 1959, an airplane vanished over the Gulf of Mexico, with 42 people onboard. National Airlines Flight 967 of November 15, 1959, was scheduled between Miami, Florida, and New Orleans, Louisiana, with a stop at Tampa, Florida. Logan alleges "Turska was planning his own exit strategy" before the crash--in September 1959 he had put up his Arizona property for sale: "priced to sell, owner leaving state". One passenger, William Taylor, had boarded the flight using a ticket issued to Robert Vernon Spears, a convicted criminal working at the time as a naturopath. 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. National Airlines Flight 967, a DC-7B on a flight from Tampa, Florida to New Orleans, crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. Taylor had also been married before his marriage to Alice. Turska also gave wildly conflicting accounts of his involvement in the affair. Spears had been a close friend of her husband, and she had never considered him to be a good influence. The two had met in the Missouri State Penitentiary, back when Taylor was still known as Albert O. Thompson. He had "an uncanny ability to move on at a moment's notice". 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. Seattle, Washington, United States. The passenger manifest for Tampa-New Orleans listed 36passengers. As for the insurance policy taken out by Taylor, Spears said: Taylor was sort of a nut on insurance. Mrs Taylor recalled that Dr Spears had held an unnatural sway over her former husband. Very interesting story, indeed. [5], "Con Man, Best Man, An Air Crash - A Far Out, Far Up Mystery", "Robert Spears, 1959 bomb suspect, dies in Dallas", Aviation Safety Network report on Flight 967, Civil Aeronautics Board Aircraft Accident Report on Flight 967, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Spears_(naturopath)&oldid=1106844718, This page was last edited on 26 August 2022, at 19:28. She put it bluntly to the Dallas Morning News: "I believe that Spears hypnotized [Taylor] into doing it.". Air Methods. Massey. I do think Taylor took Spears spot on the plane last minute (hence only the briefcase, no luggage), but I don't think Taylor nor Spears intended to blow up the plane. That crash remains officially unexplained also. Personally I suspect that Logan has at least partially fallen prey to the charms of Dr Spears--I highly doubt Taylor is living it up in South America--but his questions are interesting ones. These were her statements: "If my husband was on that plane, I can accept it although my life will be hard. As he was leaving the courthouse after his first hearing, he was observed to be whistling. Taylor, investigators discovered, was wanted in Washington DC and Philadephlia under a variety of assumed names at the time of his disappearance. Shortly thereafter a Coast Guard helicopter arrived. 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 . He ran unsuccessfully for Idaho County Coroner in 1972 on the Republican ticket. It was then observed to turn right approximately 70 degrees and disappear from the scope at 0051 at Lat. He heard no noise. . (If any were available prior to my introduction to flying, though, I can't be sure.) Of all the prison terms he served, he never had a single infraction of violence. Comprehensive flight tracking to enhance your FBO operations and increase sales. Spears himself apparently admitted to having met with this man in New York City. Details of accident. A massive search began. This is evident by the lack of any unusual radio messages. The agent's attention was drawn elsewhere, however, and he never noticed if the man boarded the flight or not. This information is not presented as the Flight Safety Foundation or the Aviation Safety Networks opinion as to the cause of the accident. A problem was discovered (broken window . He also told them that "after he left I found a case of hidden dynamite". Pan Am paid too high a price for National, and was ill prepared to integrate National's domestic route network with Pan Am's own globe-girdling international network. 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. 04:35. 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. Questions also surround the third man involved in all this--William Turska, the naturopath who Spears went to stay with in the immediate aftermath of the crash. None of this disclosed conclusive evidence as to the genesis of the accident. According to this new story, in November 1959 Spears was extremely worried about the upcoming abortion trial in Los Angeles. National Airlines Flight 967 Part 01.PDF PDF document, 25,417 kB (26,027,901 bytes) I want to mention one thing; you are a class act for the ending. Flight status, tracking, and historical data for N967WN 02-Mar-2023 (KPVD-KDCA) including scheduled, estimated, and actual departure and arrival times. 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. If it had been, I doubt there would be much mystery as to what happened. but he would have had to have done some rushing to get aboard the plane because it taxied away at 12:25 am. Adequate fuel, with reserve, was carried. - October 5, 1945, a Lockheed Lodestar crashed into a lake in Lakeland, Florida with two fatalities. From January 9, 1960 to January 15, 1960, the U.S.S. Intensive sea and air searches resulted in finding ten floating bodies and a small amount of floating debris the following morning. The sea was practically calm with waves about 1-1/2feet high moving from a northerly direction with a period of about five seconds. 02:55. I'm from New Orleans and have flown to Tampa several times. Over the course of their long friendship, Spears and Taylor had worked together on confidence schemes throughout the USA. 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. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. - January 6, 1960, a DC-6B en route from New York to Miami was destroyed by a bomb near Bolivia, North Carolina, killing all 34 on board. Departure from Tampa, with the same crew, was at 2332. In one letter, Spears urged Taylor not to use his real name in future communications, but to refer to him as F. 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. I loathed him, she said, and had always considered him a bad influence on Al. A mystery woman told a local Tampa newspaper that she had had a relationship with Taylor shortly before his disappearance, and did not believe he was dead. Everyone loved the read as the comments here suggest and so did I but does anyone have a theory they favor? 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. Headwinds of about 15 to 20knots at the filed flight altitude of 14,000feet were forecast. The theory of a Svengalian puppet master was convenient not just for the former Mrs Taylor. National Airlines operated the first two legs between Miami and Tampa, and Tampa and New Orleans. 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 . It is preliminary and is based on the facts as they are known at this time. The Flightpath. Hudson is an Equal Opportunity Employer of all qualified individuals. 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. Dr Spears lived in an affluent suburb of Dallas, and he and his wife were relatively well-known in the citys social circles. No operational or maintenance item was found which can reasonably be linked to this accident. 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. Bombs Indicated in Two Air Disasters Monday, Dec 2 2013 . 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. Revenue passenger traffic in millions of passenger-miles This page was last edited on 5 May 2019, at 15:31. Round-trip. One part of the investigation focused on the passengers. The aircraft being used this particular day was a Delta Air Lines DC-7B. 8840'W. 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. 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. 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". Yet as Logan points out, the crate of dynamite found on Turskas property was actually purchased in Tucson, and Spears had no way of getting into Tuscon from Turska's compound unless Turska himself drove him. 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. 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. 2004. According to the Senior Passenger Agent for National Airlines, there were no established procedures in 1959 for determining if a reporting passenger was the same person for whom the reservation was made. They had been divorced longer than she claimed, and the divorce had been far from amicable. Track National Aeronautics and Space Administration #967 flight from Houston Ellington to Victoria Rgnl. 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. It's possible it was not a direct flight, and the next leg would have been from NO to Dallas. But even then there would be no point in destroying the plane or himself. 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. Goodness, I'm on the wrong plane!" Join to view profile. This position is six miles south and about five miles east of the radar-observed descent. Replies analysing and speculating over the mystery and possible explanations are encouraged. Down the rabbit hole I go. * Boeing 727-235 (Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives) On the 8th of May 1978, a National Airlines Boeing 727 was on approach to Pensacola, Florida when it suddenly touched down in Escambia Bay amid heavy fog. 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. 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. 2910'N, and Long. The FBI's FOIA Library contains many files of public interest and historical value. The inertia of the bodies was plainly downward and forward and the forces at impact were severe. Coast Guard and civil surface craft immediately searched the area exhaustively and retrieved everything sighted. These charts have been preserved for possible future use. A radar-observed descent was close to Lat. Taylor's not going to let himself get talked into something as crazy as getting on a plane that's about to blow up. 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. Flight crew []. 432 in 1951, 905 in 1955, 1041 in 1960, 2663 in 1965, 2643 in 1970, 3865 in 1975. His wife would then cash in an insurance policy for $100,000 on Spears' life. 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. 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. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. The Coastguardsman on duty saw an unusual light in the sky at an angle which he estimated as about 15 degrees above the horizontal and in the general direction of where N4891C was lost and at about the time it was lost. [2] There was no evidence of any connection between Spears and the accident. National Airlines Flight 967, registration N4891C, was a Douglas DC-7B aircraft which disappeared over the Gulf of Mexico en route from Tampa, Florida to New Orleans, Louisiana on November 16, 1959. Sometimes passengers even boarded the wrong planes by accident. The man was a con artist. 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. We deliver industry-leading performance in safety, clinical quality, and patient advocacy, committing to zero balance bills. Flight data API with on-demand flight status and flight tracking data. 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.. 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. Then he abruptly told her was headed to Atlanta the next day, to look for a job there. Add hotel. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. According to Junior, Taylor was carrying over $600 in cash--a lot of money at the time, especially for a man in serious debt. Some of the bodies showed distinct evidence of burning on portions exposed above their waterlines. Repeated calls to it, starting at 0106 on company frequency, were not answered. This indicated to him that the explosion took place after the plane hit the water. The Navy utilized several vessels equipped with advanced apparatus and manned with skilled specialists. The Civil Aeronautics Board investigated the cause of the crash. Posts about National Airlines Flight 967 written by The Flightpath. 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. National Airlines records do not show a ticket issued in his name and he was not carried on their records as a passenger on Flight967. The National crew consisted of Captain Frank Eugene Todd, Copilot Dick . The National crew consisted of Captain Frank Eugene Todd, Copilot Dick . [citation needed], Spears was eventually arrested in Phoenix after being turned in by the ex-wife a fellow naturopath in Arizona. 16cm . American Airlines Flight 320 was a scheduled flight between Chicago Midway International Airport and New York City's LaGuardia Airport.On February 3, 1959, the Lockheed L-188 Electra performing the flight crashed into the East River during its descent and approach to LaGuardia Airport, killing 65 of the 73 people on board.