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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. Crew qualifications and experience were amply high in all respects and an investigation disclosed no irregularity in this connection. 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. All times herein are Central Standard based on the 24-hour clock. The only noteworthy observation from the gate agent in Tampa was "a man in a brown or tan suit, carrying a newspaper but no luggage, hurrying toward the Flight 967 gate right at closing time". Could it be that in spite of this vast, tangled web--this was just another plane crash? Length approx. Some small quantity of clothing and other personal effects and several mail bags were also found. So why the stories from Spears? 967. - February 14, 1953, a DC-6 crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off Mobile, AL. Taylor's body was not among those recovered. National Airlines Flight 967, registration N4891C, was a Douglas DC7B aircraft that disappeared over the Gulf of Mexico en route from Tampa, Florida to New Orleans, Louisiana on November 16, 1959. He also told them that "after he left I found a case of hidden dynamite". She put it bluntly to the Dallas Morning News: "I believe that Spears hypnotized [Taylor] into doing it.". Current weather reports and forecasts showed both destination and alternates to be and to remain above the approved minimums. 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. Coast Guard vessels suggested searching an area some distance to the southwest of the position 2913'N, 8840'W. He was subsequently apprehended by Federal authorities in Phoenix, Arizona, for having unlawful possession of Mr. Taylor's vehicle. The industry standard flight tracking platform for business aviation (BA) owners and operators. There were no apparent problems with the plane's operating equipment, no apparent discrepancies in the maintenance records, nothing mechanical which could "reasonably be linked to this accident". If Dr Spears was somehow responsible for both incidents, that would make him responsible for the loss of 76 lives, making him one of the most prolific killers in American history. These charts have been preserved for possible future use. One of these was not aboard, although a final passenger count showed 36passengers upon departure from Tampa. She was an unflappable woman in her late fifties, with a fondness for ostentatious feathered hats, pearl necklaces, and large brooches. The the bodies can get torn apart depending on their exact location on the plane, whether they were strapped in or not. Subsequent investigation has failed to reveal the use of any marine signal flash or pyrotechnic, which might have had a somewhat similar appearance, at the time and place. Best write up Ive ever read. * Boeing 727-035 National Airlines flight 193 lies partially submerged in the shallow waters of Escambia Bay in Pensacola. Flight Departure 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. 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 asked him if anything had been done to plane and he said no". 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. Seattle, Washington, United States. 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. At 0044 the flight again contacted FAA Pensacola and advised that it would change over to company frequency and would report to the company when leaving 14,000feet and7,000 feet. Fri, 26 May 23. 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. ", 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. Ronald Reagan National Airport. At 00:55 the aircraft suddenly crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. The combination of the auto theft charge and his existing abortion charge eventually got him ten years in prison. 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. National Airlines Flight967, a DC-7B, N4891C, crashed in the Gulf of Mexico while en route from Tampa, Florida, to New Orleans, Louisiana, on .mw-parser-output .nowrap,.mw-parser-output .nowrap a:before,.mw-parser-output .nowrap .selflink:before{white-space:nowrap}November 16, 1959, about 0055c.s.t. Call 1-650-967-2500 for Cirrus purchase and training assistance, or to take my online seminar: So You Wa . A bomb was suspected. St. Petersburg Times. DC-7 [] Template . He had become financially successful in Texas as a . Select the responses you agree with. He reported a "smooth flight" and unlimited visibility, but said he could see a solid overcast of fog ahead. 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_. I am quite sure that Taylor would not have exploded it.. After he left, he phoned again three times, again asking for Junior. 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. Without the planes black box, it is impossible to rule this out. 1973 - Skylab 4 launches into orbit on the fourth Skylab mission, bringing the third and final crew to the American space station.. 1965 - Russia's Venera 3, the first spacecraft to land on another planet's surface, is launched toward Venus.. 1959 - National Airlines Flight 967, a Douglas DC-7 (registered N4891C) is destroyed by a bomb over the Gulf of Mexico, killing all 42 on . All floating debris and bodies were from one-half to two miles east and southeast of this oil slick. . No? Alan C. Logan is among those who dismiss this second story as fiction. ASSURANCE and the U.S.S. Mrs Taylor? Dr Spears lived in an affluent suburb of Dallas, and he and his wife were relatively well-known in the citys social circles. This information is not presented as the Flight Safety Foundation or the Aviation Safety Networks opinion as to the cause of the accident. Repeated calls to it, starting at 0106 on company frequency, were not answered. Immediately they concentrated their efforts on this area, eventually retrieving: "nine bodies, a portion of a tenth body, five life rafts, five life vests, and a highly diversified quantity of buoyant debris.". Track National Aeronautics and Space Administration #967 flight from Houston Ellington to Victoria Rgnl. Lieut. We have been unable to find any such relationship. The BITTERN obtained four separate bottom contacts at Lat. 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. See if your flight has been delayed or cancelled and track the live position on a map. United Airlines Flight 718, a DC-7, collided over the Grand Canyon with TWA Flight 2, an L-1049 Super Constellation, . 0 bags. Frank was covered by $900,000 in life insurance policies at the time of his death, and had also been under investigation for corruption. There injuries indicated that all nine persons had been seated at the time the aircraft struck the water. The notion of intimidating the witness thus made no sense. "We don't get newspapers out here, he told reporters. 2913'N. - January 14, 1951, a DC-4 crashed on landing at Philadelphia Airport with 7 fatalities. Because of the lack of physical evidence, the probable cause of this accident is unknown. Logan says Taylors ex-wife was media-savvy--and points out that she had a potential financial motive to portray Taylor as an unwitting passenger on that flight. The ultimate flight tracking suite for small aircraft/general aviation (GA) owners and operators. 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. Lowest fares guaranteed on flights from Dubai to Toronto by Skycraft Air Transport. He said he had persuaded Al Taylor to take the dynamite on the airplane by promising to pay him $10,000 to do it. National Airlines Flight967 of November 15, 1959, was scheduled between Miami, Florida, and New Orleans, Louisiana, with a stop at Tampa, Florida. I think the plane crashing was more or less a red herring in this case. The theory of a Svengalian puppet master was convenient not just for the former Mrs Taylor. It was a starlit night, and good weather conditions were reported all along the route. Down the rabbit hole I go. With so many tantalizing details about Spears and Taylor, its easy to forget we know next to nothing about this plane crash. He was cleared by the New Orleans Air Route Traffic Control Center (ARTCC - ZNO) located in the terminal building at New Orleans Lakefront Airport to descend to and maintain 5,000 feet and to report leaving 8,000 feet. [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 . 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. Here are the names of the people from the flight manifest. 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. I loathed him, she said, and had always considered him a bad influence on Al. After not hearing from Taylor for a few days, and discovering he had not showed up for work, Alice became worried. The FBI's FOIA Library contains many files of public interest and historical value. A careful search was made for witnesses. It may safely be concluded that there was no warning of the disaster. According to the hotel staff, Taylor was talking about boarding a flight to Dallas--the waitress specifically remembered making small talk about Dallas. VIGOR searched, using Navy sonar. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. * C-46 Commando Many sonar contacts were obtained by both ships but all were evaluated as marine life. Investigation disproved the possibility of collision with another aircraft, either civil or military, and there were no missiles or rockets in flight at the time and place. 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. Emirates Airlines is the preferable and national . The Civil Aeronautics Board (predecessor of the NTSB) did not find a probable cause for the accident due to the lack of evidence. Without an aircraft, this was no easy task. National Airlines Flight 193, registration N4744, Donna, was a Boeing 727-235 en route from Miami, Florida to Pensacola on May 8, 1978. . 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 bodies were stripped of clothing and revealed severe burns, he said. Searching continued through November23. I was kind of expecting to hear Spears was somehow involved in JFK's assassination. The Board obtained search assistance from the United States Navy. At 00:55 the aircraft suddenly crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. The flight had been on its way from Tampa, Florida, to New Orleans. All 42 on board were presumed killed in the incident. +6 Divers established that the contact was a sunken ship. Conditions of Employment: FAA Class 1 Medical required at time of Flight . 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. What an intriguing case - how have I never heard of this before? A massive search began. National Airlines 19341980 "" 19701978 . 2913'N, Long. Aviation accidents and incidents in 1978 () Jan 1 Air India Flight 855; 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. Geo resource failed to load. A problem was discovered (broken window . Spears had a long history of crime, having been arrested 17 times under 14 different aliases. and Long. The Navy utilized several vessels equipped with advanced apparatus and manned with skilled specialists. He moved to California and took up hypnotism, his business was with a doctor performing abortions (which were then illegal in the U.S.). They had been divorced longer than she claimed, and the divorce had been far from amicable. Science Earth Science Question 5 Should national parks be preserved? 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. At first, Turska downplayed his association with Spears, saying they were merely acquaintances and that Spears had showed up out of the blue. Some twelve to fifteen minutes later a Coast Guard aircraft arrived and dropped smoke markers. 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. The FBI had found Dr Spears through an ex-wife of Spearss associate Mr Turska. 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. 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. . It was also convenient for National Airlines. James L. Sigman, executive officer of the Coast Guard station at New Orleans, said the plane might have exploded when it struck the water. She told them all about her missing husband and his missing pink Plymouth, which sparked a nationwide search. The aircraft was a DC-7, N 4891C, owned by Delta Air Lines and operated by National under an equipment interchange agreement. This search was also unsuccessful. Economy. The two had met in the Missouri State Penitentiary, back when Taylor was still known as Albert O. Thompson. In 1964, it became the first exclusively jet powered service in the United States, and by 1970 became the third airline to offer transcontinental passenger flights. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. He needed to get the dynamite from Tulsa to Dallas. He heard about the Flight 967 disaster along the way, and although he was devastated to think his old pal had perished, Spears simply decided it was an opportunity for a fresh start.". Interchange flights like this were fairly common before the CAB awarded more direct routes beginning with the Southeast to West Coast case in 1961. All 42 onboard were presumed killed in the accident.The flight originated in Miami at 10:22 PM the previous evening, landed at Tampa at 11:00 PM . Spears died in Baylor Medical Center, Dallas on May 2, 1969 of coronary thrombosis. There was nothing immediately remarkable about Dr Spears. 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. Compare airfares and book tickets with lowest price on different airlines in real time 24 hours. He was charged with unlawful possession of an automobile but due to lack of evidence was never charged in the alleged bombing of Flight 967. Among the 42 names of the dead--there was a passenger named Dr Robert Vernon Spears--a distinguished naturopath from Dallas, Texas. 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. The day before the fateful flight, Taylor had visited his ex-wife Alice Steel Taylor at her home, looking for their adult son Junior, who wasnt home. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. (These bearings could be duplicated at low altitude; the VOR bearings could not be, due to line-of-sight limitations.). The next morning (November 14), Taylor and Spears were together again--Taylors son Junior saw them drinking and laughing in Spearss hotel room, in a celebratory mood. Due to lack of evidence, however, Spears was never charged with any offense in relation to the Flight 967 crash. 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. Dr Spears (who was calling himself Dr Rhodes) had tried to file down the numbers on the cars registration numbers and had even used dynamite to damage the car's crankcase. The main section of the wreckage has never been found despite the efforts of Navy and Coast Guard divers. And just a freak coincidence that a couple of conmen just happened to have a ticket? For weeks Dr Spears was mourned along with the rest of the victims. May 3, 1969 LINK, Con Man, Best Man, An Air Crash - A Far Out, Far Up Mystery". 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. 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. In fact, it was revealed that Spears was facing charges for performing abortions--which was illegal at the time, and had been set to stand trial on December 3, 1959. Then he abruptly told her was headed to Atlanta the next day, to look for a job there. Although sabotage was suspected, no definite cause of the crash was determined . Turska also gave wildly conflicting accounts of his involvement in the affair. Tampa Police Detective John C. Daniels was among those who did not buy the hypnosis theory: Taylor was in debt over his head. 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. All 42 on board were presumed killed in the incident. It revealed that Al Taylor had bought a $37,500 life insurance policy-- in Tampa airport--at 12:16 am, just nine minutes before Flight 967 departed. ASSURANCE sailed on November 19, 1959, for position 3907'N - 8833'W relieving the Coast Guard Cutter NIKE, which had been standing by. 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. Headwinds of about 15 to 20knots at the filed flight altitude of 14,000feet were forecast. I want to mention one thing; you are a class act for the ending. A B D Yes, they help protect natural wonders No, the National Park Service is a waste of federal funding Yes, national parks provided recreational activities and environmental education No, national parks should return the land to indigenous Americans 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. It is preliminary and is based on the facts as they are known at this time. 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? Investigation failed to reveal any item of maintenance of either the aircraft or its powerplants which could be significantly related to the accident. Spear's activities in order to determine whether they might have had a bearing upon the accident. 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. The man was a con artist. 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. Flight data API with on-demand flight status and flight tracking data. 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". Clearly, Dr Spears had not been on that plane. He was not a licensed MD, and his license to practice naturopathy had been revoked in 1957. and then hurry away, accidentally forgetting your luggage. Very interesting story, indeed. Over the course of their long friendship, Spears and Taylor had worked together on confidence schemes throughout the USA. This is evident by the lack of any unusual radio messages. We work hard to keep our advertising relevant and unobtrusive to create a great experience.