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 He said he had persuaded Al Taylor to take the dynamite on the airplane by promising to pay him $10,000 to do it. Post-mortem examinations of the nine bodies, all of which were identified by fingerprints, indicated that all had received traumatic injuries. Self-employed. She contacted his work--they knew nothing. A rival airline company? The unplanned water landing caught everyone . In fact, Turska had also been facing abortion charges in November 1959 (though Turskas charges were later dropped). 46 people perished. 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. operated a variety of different types of aircraft. 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. Turska claimed at the time he did not even know about the airplane crash. 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. Repeated calls to it, starting at 0106 on company frequency, were not answered. Before the crash, Spears had briefly sought advice on his pending abortion case from a New York City lawyer named Julian Frank. The autopsies of the bodies, all of which were identified by fingerprints, indicated that all had received traumatic injuries: injuries indicated that all nine persons had been seated at the time the aircraft struck the water. 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.. History. The FBI discovered there was much more to the kindly old Dr Spears than met the eye. Taylor had also been married before his marriage to Alice. But where had he been? Mrs Spears? Seattle, Washington, United States. Alan C. Logan is among those who dismiss this second story as fiction. It may safely be concluded that there was no warning of the disaster. Taylor, investigators discovered, was wanted in Washington DC and Philadephlia under a variety of assumed names at the time of his disappearance. At the time of his disappearance, Al Taylor lived in Tampa and worked as a salesman for the Pioneer Tire Company. Mrs Taylor? I can understand him taking out an insurance policy. 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. For most of its existence the company was headquartered at Miami International Airport, Florida. Throughout this observation the radar scope indicated no other object. After this case, planes continued to disintegrate in flight due to explosive decompression. If he were not, I don't know anything I could do about it. [Here she began choking back tears] "I know one thing, we had planned on celebrating my son's birthday and we had bigger plans for Christmas. [2] There was no evidence of any connection between Spears and the accident. He had actually been hiding out with an old associate named William Turska (also a naturopath), in Turskas remote bungalow in the desert 40 miles from Phoenix, Arizona. Track planes in real-time on our flight tracker map and get up-to-date flight status & airport information. The crew consisted of Captain William R. Broocke (age 54), employed by National Airlines since 1946, who had qualified to fly the DC-10 in 1972 and accumulated 21,853 flight hours in his career with 801 hours on the DC-10; First Officer Edward H. Saunders (33), employed by National Airlines since 1965, with 7,086 flight hours of which 445 hours were on the DC-10; and Flight . If it had been, I doubt there would be much mystery as to what happened. * Boeing 727-035 . The aircraft being used this particular day was a Delta Air Lines DC-7B. The Coast Guard favored the former explanation, while the Air Force favored the latter. No seat belt abrasions were found. She also said she had begged him to turn himself in but he refused. * Lockheed Model 18 Lodestar GADSS-compliant global tracking and alerting for airlines and aircraft operators. 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. Company calls to 967 continued without result for some time. Spears himself apparently admitted to having met with this man in New York City. However, at Pilottown, Louisiana, the United States Coast Guard maintains a manned lookout tower for observing surface craft approaching and departing the port of New Orleans. Accident; Date: November 16, 1959: Summary: In-flight explosion (Bombing suspected, but not proven) Site: Gulf of Mexico Mrs Spears said that when he came to see her, Spears was sad about Taylors death. The sea was practically calm with waves about 1-1/2feet high moving from a northerly direction with a period of about five seconds. Such a bummer. Spears had been a close friend of her husband, and she had never considered him to be a good influence. The FBI had found Dr Spears through an ex-wife of Spearss associate Mr Turska. Great attention to detail. 0 bags. By using and further navigating this website, you accept this. 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". Several months later, on November 7, 1960, a commercial organization was engaged to conduct a one-month search using techniques proven effective in prospecting for underwater oil structures. 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. When Spears met secretly with his wife on January 7, he had reportedly given her the same story. In this interview, he told a completely different story about what had happened. Some small quantity of clothing and other personal effects and several mail bags were also found. * Douglas DC-6B Robert Vernon Spears, a nationally known naturopathic doctor from . Intensive sea and air searches resulted in finding nine floating bodies and a small amount of floating debris the following morning. According to Alan C. Logans book, Taylor had also met with Frank in New York (though Logan does not explain why). Life Magazine. [] The final ruling was probable severe turbulence.. The United States Fish and Wild Life, M/VOREGON, searched for 24hours on December14 and 15, 1959, dragging a 35foot wide net over the botton at a position centered around Lat. No severe weather was forecast, anticipated or reported at flight altitudes over the route. National Airlines Flight 967 Part 01.PDF PDF document, 25,417 kB (26,027,901 bytes) 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. I wonder how long it took the police to find out about all these shady characters. In compliance with the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) requirements, some of these records are no longer in the physical possession of the FBI, eliminating the FBI's capability to re-review and/or re-process this material. Very interesting story, indeed. - January 14, 1951, a DC-4 crashed on landing at Philadelphia Airport with 7 fatalities. He felt he had been a burden and it was a chance to free us of that burden.. Investigation has disclosed certain details in regard to a last minute boarding of the aircraft at Tampa by a person using another person's ticket. While circling and observing, the National Convair called Coast Guard aircraft with continuous transmission, allowing the latter to home on the area. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. This new story was made public in 1963. Rescuers went out in aircraft and boats, arriving before dawn and still combing the cold, rough seas as the sun came up. 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. Flight 967 Hardcover - January 1, 1963. We know he was at the airport that night, at 12:16 am. 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. Incredible write-up! The mafia? Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. It is perhaps no coincidence that a PR man from National Airlines wrote a book in 1963 accusing Spears of being responsible for the crash. I was kind of expecting to hear Spears was somehow involved in JFK's assassination. AA967 Flight Tracker - Track the real-time flight status of American Airlines AA 967 live using the FlightStats Global Flight Tracker. One part of the investigation focused on the passengers. 50 years ago, in the early morning of January 6, 1960 on a flight bound from New York to Miami, National Flight 2511 crashed near Bolivia, North Carolina. 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. The Aviation Safety Network is an exclusive service provided by: National Airlines Flight 967 took off from Tampa (TPA) at 23:32 for a flight to New Orleans (MSY) at FL140. The aircraft was airworthy at the time of departure and had an adequate amount of fuel. IN THE GULF OF MEXICO, NOVEMBER 16, 1959. Spears had a long history of crime, having been arrested 17 times under 14 different aliases. A considerable amount of the floating debris also exhibited signs of burning but only above waterlines. You can easily find cheap flights / LCC plane tickets from Lloydminster Airport in Lloydminster to Columbia. See if your flight has been delayed or cancelled and track the live position on a map. "[citation needed]. 8840'W. Spears said Taylor was going to fly to Dallas and that he would drive the car, but flight 967 was going to New Orleans not Dallas? * Boeing 747-135 Find cheap flights from Kathmandu to Yosemite National Park. A theory also emerged that Spears was connected to another unexplained air disaster just months later. National Airlines Flight 2511, registration N8225H, was a Douglas DC-6B aircraft which exploded over Bolivia, North Carolina en route from New York International (Idlewild) Airport, New York City, New York, to Miami, Florida on January 6, 1960.All 34 on board were killed in the accident. 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. Sun 4/9. +6 Spear's activities in order to determine whether they might have had a bearing upon the accident. 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. The freezing level along the route was at about 14,000feet and the winds at that altitude were generally from the northwest at 10-20knots. That day the two men also reportedly met with a man they referred to in letters only as "the fellow". For weeks Dr Spears was mourned along with the rest of the victims. but he would have had to have done some rushing to get aboard the plane because it taxied away at 12:25 am. Otherwise, the loading of the aircraft was normal with the center of gravity located within prescribed limits and the gross weight some 11,000pounds under maximum permissible for takeoff. Emirates Airlines is the preferable and national . * Lockheed L-188 Electra Grapples were used and a variety of objects were recovered but none could be related to the aircraft. Probably one of the most intriguing cases Ive read here, what a great write up OP! Spears had been in and out of jail in multiple states (even mistakenly deported to Canada on one occasion). In this role I provide oversight and management of supply and demand, schedules, supplier . Members of the party hunting in the shark-infested waters for bodies believe there was an explosion. The Navy utilized several vessels equipped with advanced apparatus and manned with skilled specialists. National Airlines Flight 967 of November 15, 1959, was scheduled between Miami, Florida, and New Orleans, Louisiana, with a stop at Tampa, Florida. A Tanzanian airline said on Monday it will start flights to Zimbabwe in December, plying the Harare-Dar es Salaam route three times a week. 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. FBI National Academy. Nothing. [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 . The National crew consisted of Captain Frank Eugene Todd, Copilot Dick . CAB Accident Report, National Airlines Flight 967.pdf 1,091 1,4818 556 George T Baker 1940.jpg 600 49636 MM00013951 (8091335494) (2).jpg 1,259 1,371428 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? A problem was discovered (broken window . But in 1957 he was expelled from the organization in a bribery scandal. At its height, National Airlines had a network of "Coast-to-Coast-to-Coast" flights, linking Florida and the Gulf Coast with cities along the East Coast and large . 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. OP, thank you for your work on this, especially noting the numerous sources you cited. And who was he? Yeah, it's kinda sad (and annoying) that such a good read isn't inspiring much in the way of discussion hardly at all. 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. "Turska was the one to fear, not Bob, Mrs Spears once said. In 1964, it became the first exclusively jet powered service in the United States . History of the flight On Sunday 4 April 2010 at about 0920 Eastern Standard Time1, the pilot arrived at Cambridge Aerodrome near Hobart, Tasmania in preparation for a flight in a Victa Airtourer 115 aircraft, registered VH-MTC (MTC). Spears." Turska participated in a few interviews about the case--notably in Life Magazine--in which he played the part of a bemused bystander. St. Petersburg Times. Thank you for the great write-up. 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. The tower is about 30 miles west of the crash site. 02:55. Sun 4/2. The combination of the auto theft charge and his existing abortion charge eventually got him ten years in prison. There injuries indicated that all nine persons had been seated at the time the aircraft struck the water. Acknowledging "there is little or no physical evidence on which to explain this accident", the CAB was forced to conclude, after nearly three years of investigation: Because of lack of physical evidence, the probable cause of this accident is unknown. He had become financially successful in Texas as a naturopath, even becoming president of the Texas Naturopath Association in 1954. The cause was suspected to have been an attempted case of Insurance fraud; . Nearly every comment is just a "great job, best ever", and nearly all of the questions posited have no answers or discussions below them. 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.. 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. 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. 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. She later said she had a premonition that her husband had been on that flight, and she never wavered from it. Some of the bodies showed distinct evidence of burning on portions exposed above their waterlines. and Long. The weather conditions were good. One of these was not aboard, although a final passenger count showed 36passengers upon departure from Tampa. 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. It was founded in 1934 as a Florida-based airline. The Civil Aeronautics Board (predecessor of the NTSB) did not find a probable cause for the accident due to the lack of evidence. 2913'N. Taylor's body was not among those recovered. Taylor also wanted to go to Dallas, to see a doctor about a neck injury, and to get away from his irritating ex-wife. All 42 on board were presumed killed in the incident. Flight status, tracking, and historical data for N967WN 02-Mar-2023 (KPVD-KDCA) including scheduled, estimated, and actual departure and arrival times. [Note: this post is largely based on information from Self-Styled: Chasing Dr Robert Vernon Spears by Alan C. Logan. Police seriously looked into the possibility that Al Taylor may still be alive, even working with Mexican law enforcement to explore the possibility that he had fled south of the border. It'd make him look suspicious, even if it was the honest truth. According to Logans book, Mrs Taylor was media savvy, and exaggerated her closeness with Taylor before his disappearance. We deliver industry-leading performance in safety, clinical quality, and patient advocacy, committing to zero balance bills. While circling in this general area, several bodies were sighted as well as one liferaft that had been broken out of its case but was not inflated and appeared to be about three-fourths submerged. The aircraft was a DC-7, N 4891C, owned by Delta Air Lines and operated by National under an equipment interchange agreement. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. Great write up! With this information, Mrs Taylor's lawyer called the Tampa police department and the newspapers. Search and rescue facilities were activated and the Coast Guard had search aircraft and surface craft in the suspect area before daylight. On November 16, 1959, an airplane vanished over the Gulf of Mexico, with 42 people onboard. The aircraft remained unreported. These were determined, the aircraft were spiralled down to the same site, and the bearings were radioed to the Coast Guard and plotted on their charts as 2907'N and 8833'W. Hudson is an Equal Opportunity Employer of all qualified individuals. Without the planes black box, it is impossible to rule this out. 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." The ultimate flight tracking suite for small aircraft/general aviation (GA) owners and operators. The other plane crash remains unexplained despite the apparent presence of dynamite and that it happened over land where, presumably, most or all of the wreckage was recovered. If you have a couple of minutes, we'd like to collect your feedback on it. By rejecting non-essential cookies, Reddit may still use certain cookies to ensure the proper functionality of our platform. November 16 - National Airlines Flight 967, a Douglas DC-7B, crashes into the Gulf of Mexico while on a flight from Tampa, Florida, to New Orleans, Louisiana, in a possible case of sabotage; all 40 on board perish. Then he abruptly told her was headed to Atlanta the next day, to look for a job there. All 42 on board were presumed killed in the incident. She had never liked Spears. 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. The flight originated in Miami at 1022 PM the p As for the insurance policy taken out by Taylor, Spears said: Taylor was sort of a nut on insurance. 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. 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". None of these nine persons had been subjected to fire or smoke before death, as demonstrated by low carboxyhemoglobin levels in blood and tissue. 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. "I asked him if anything had been done to plane and he said no". . 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.". National Airlines Flight 967 took off from Tampa (TPA) at 23:32 for a flight to New Orleans (MSY) at FL140. Low frequency bearings were then taken on Grand Isle, on the New Orleans Range Station, and on the Mobile "H" facility, also from 14,000feet altitude. - February 14, 1953, a DC-6 crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off Mobile, AL. 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. Geo resource failed to load. Among the 42 names of the dead--there was a passenger named Dr Robert Vernon Spears--a distinguished naturopath from Dallas, Texas. She received a court order to open his post office box. [] for all those decades and all the different things they got up to. Charts used during the several searches, with search areas well delineated, were coordinated within the various agencies to preclude duplicative and omissive effort. Tampa Police Detective John C. Daniels was among those who did not buy the hypnosis theory: Taylor was in debt over his head. Air Methods is the most responsive and reliable provider of critical care transportation solutions. He asked her not to tell Junior this. About 72 square miles south of the area originally covered in November was swept and bottom contact approximately 110feet long was made at Lat. 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.
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