In this interview, he told a completely different story about what had happened. When she read that Dr Robert Spears had been a victim of the air disaster, she became even more curious. Spears had a long history of crime, having been arrested 17 times under 14 different aliases. 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. According to Logans book, Mrs Taylor was media savvy, and exaggerated her closeness with Taylor before his disappearance. Playing upon people's uncertainties about air-travel, insurance companies did quite well off them. IN THE GULF OF MEXICO, NOVEMBER 16, 1959. 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. First week only $4.99! Such a bummer. Recently, she said, Al Taylor had been strangely depressed and withdrawn, but his mood only lifted when he talked to Spears. 65 years old at the time of the crash, he had been the national secretary of the National Association of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. "We don't get newspapers out here, he told reporters. Link. Flight hour logbooks will be required at time of your Flight Assessment for verification. 2918.5'N, Long. - February 14, 1953, a DC-6 crashed into the Gulf of Mexico off Mobile, AL. Frank was covered by $900,000 in life insurance policies at the time of his death, and had also been under investigation for corruption. . This is the story Spears gave after his arrest: He said he had been in Tampa and was planning on heading back to Dallas on November 16. Did you know that FlightAware flight tracking is supported by advertising? The flight was estimated to be at the Crab Intersection, a customary reporting point, at 0004. While circling and observing, the National Convair called Coast Guard aircraft with continuous transmission, allowing the latter to home on the area. In spite of this string of suspicious details, the airplane was still missing, therefore there was no hope of charging Spears with anything relating to the crash. There injuries indicated that all nine persons had been seated at the time the aircraft struck the water. Spears had been in and out of jail in multiple states (even mistakenly deported to Canada on one occasion). We have been unable to find any such relationship. No suggestion of unfamiliarity by National crews of Delta interchange aircraft was found during the investigation. This segment of the flight was completely routine. - February 11, 1952, a DC-6 crashed near Newark Airport, killing 29 out of 63 people on board. Seven minutes later, National Airlines flight 2511, which had been carrying 29 passengers and 5 crew members, crashed into a field in Brunswick County. Track American Airlines (AA) #967 flight from Austin-Bergstrom Intl to Dallas-Fort Worth Intl. The aircraft being used this particular day was a Delta Air Lines DC-7B. and then hurry away, accidentally forgetting your luggage. A rival airline company? She put it bluntly to the Dallas Morning News: "I believe that Spears hypnotized [Taylor] into doing it.". and Long. 967. (If any were available prior to my introduction to flying, though, I can't be sure.) * Boeing 727-035 Track planes in real-time on our flight tracker map and get up-to-date flight status & airport information. We have been unable to find any such relationship. 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. The line between the airports does. 0 bags. Spears had a long history of crime, having been arrested 17 times under 14 different aliases. Analysis of this accident must rest almost entirely on circumstantial evidence for the aircraft's wreckage still lies on the bottom of the Gulf. 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. But this investigation led nowhere. He asked her not to tell Junior this. But two Air Force fliers who spent four hours over the scene said because the wreckage was so scattered it seemed to them the plane exploded in the air. The theory of a Svengalian puppet master was convenient not just for the former Mrs Taylor. Spear's activities in order to determine whether they might have had a bearing upon the accident. And that they happened to know a seedy lawyer who (allegedly) blew himself up a month later? Who hatched the plot--Spears? I am not a shill but it is an interesting book.]. The National plane was then spiralled in a climbing turn to 7,000feet in order to obtain VOR bearings for this position. If it had been, I doubt there would be much mystery as to what happened. The prosecutor in Spearss abortion case pointed out they already had sworn affidavits from the abortion witnesses, which they could simply have read out in court. 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. This new story was made public in 1963. The first, at Dauphin Island, near Mobile, Alabama, reported that Flight967 continued on flight plan course during the entire time it was under their surveillance. November 5 After suffering an in-flight engine fire, the second North American X-15 (AF 56-6671), piloted by Scott Crossfield, breaks its Back making an emergency landing on Rosamond Dry Lake, California. EVERETT ENGERSOL, Evergreen Park, Illinois, PEDRO MARCO, arrived in Miami from Havana, A. VINAS, Havana and Loma Linda, California, The REV. Thank you for the great write-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. 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. Massey. On November 16, 1959, an airplane vanished over the Gulf of Mexico, with 42 people onboard. Turska? That day the two men also reportedly met with a man they referred to in letters only as "the fellow". He added that the passengers apparently had no warning to don lifebelts, as only one life preserver was found among the debris. 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 has been claimed that Dr Spears tried to access a vial of cyanide before his sentencing--but some have disputed this. Throughout this observation the radar scope indicated no other object. This material totaled possibly less than one percent of all such material within the fuselage. No severe weather was forecast, anticipated or reported at flight altitudes over the route. 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. As Mrs Spears described it, "He saw an opportunity to leave me and the babies with some financial security. 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. None of these nine persons had been subjected to fire or smoke before death, as demonstrated by low carboxyhemoglobin levels in blood and tissue. 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. PENGUIN assisted on November24 and on the following day made sonar contact at position 2916.4N, 8836.7'W. 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. Economy. Bombs Indicated in Two Air Disasters Monday, Dec 2 2013 . Spears had been a close friend of her husband, and she had never considered him to be a good influence. At that time the control tower at Moisant reported a ceiling of 1,200 feet with three-fourths of a mile visibility, light fog and rain. All 42 occupants perished. At that time there was also very little airport security. Mrs Taylor? 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. It appeared that the oil was rising from the northernmost point of this oil slick. The flight accepted the clearance and stated it would remain at 14,000feet a little longer. At first, Turska downplayed his association with Spears, saying they were merely acquaintances and that Spears had showed up out of the blue. The second radar station at Houma, Louisiana, picked up the flight at 0046, on track and at 14,000feet altitude. Coast Guard and civil surface craft immediately searched the area exhaustively and retrieved everything sighted. Seattle, Washington, United States. Predictive technology to strengthen customer trust in your operations. Suicide by a passenger holding large life insurance policies was the probable cause. May 3, 1969 LINK, Con Man, Best Man, An Air Crash - A Far Out, Far Up Mystery". The ultimate flight tracking suite for small aircraft/general aviation (GA) owners and operators. Or was it all a freak accident? The mafia? The FBI discovered there was much more to the kindly old Dr Spears than met the eye. Headwinds of about 15 to 20knots at the filed flight altitude of 14,000feet were forecast. His wife, who had recently given birth to twins, even collected a partial payout from his $120,000 life insurance policy. Repeated calls to it, starting at 0106 on company frequency, were not answered. That crash remains officially unexplained also. What an intriguing case - how have I never heard of this before? He ran unsuccessfully for Idaho County Coroner in 1972 on the Republican ticket. FBI National Academy. ", 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. Long read, but totally worth it! The National crew consisted of Captain Frank Eugene Todd, Copilot Dick . Search and rescue facilities were activated and the Coast Guard had search aircraft and surface craft in the suspect area before daylight. At the heart of the book is the crash of National Airlines Flight 967, which plunged into the Gulf of Mexico on Nov. 16, 1959. You can help us keep FlightAware free by allowing ads from FlightAware.com. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. +6 Probably one of the most intriguing cases Ive read here, what a great write up OP! You received a Purple Heart on or after September 11, 2001, and were honorably discharged after any amount of service, or. Intensive sea and air searches resulted in finding nine floating bodies and a small amount of floating debris the following morning. What a tangled web. 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. 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. Grapples were used and a variety of objects were recovered but none could be related to the aircraft. Investigators determined that the flight crew was competent and experienced. It was determined that Taylor had boarded the flight using a ticket issued for Spears. AA967 Flight Tracker - Track the real-time flight status of American Airlines AA 967 live using the FlightStats Global Flight Tracker. [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. Delta Air Lines was scheduled to operate the flight between New Orleans, and its next stop, Dallas, TX, where American Airlines was to take over and operate the same aircraft from Dallas nonstop to Los Angeles. There have been dozens of plane crashes due to explosive decompression. A massive search began. This search was also unsuccessful. He had become financially successful in Texas as a naturopath, even becoming president of the Texas Naturopath Association in 1954. Spectacular job. During this time, Spears had briefly visited his wife (on January 7)--so her answers in her first interview were a lie. At Miami, National Airlines prepared one of its Convair aircraft, which left for the area at 0545 under the command of the company's chief pilot. Accordingly, communications between Coast Guard surface vessels and the National Airlines Convair were relayed by Coast Guard aircraft. Track N967WN flight from Rhode Island T. F. Green International Airport to Reagan National Yeah, it's kinda sad (and annoying) that such a good read isn't inspiring much in the way of discussion hardly at all. but he would have had to have done some rushing to get aboard the plane because it taxied away at 12:25 am. - January 14, 1951, a DC-4 crashed on landing at Philadelphia Airport with 7 fatalities. 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 Departure from Tampa, with the same crew, was at 2332. His wife would then cash in an insurance policy for $100,000 on Spears' life. Company calls to 967 continued without result for some time. 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. All 42 on board were presumed killed in the incident. We work hard to keep our advertising relevant and unobtrusive to create a great experience. Taylor? [1][2][3] In February 1960, Spears was convicted of interstate transportation of a stolen car (Taylor's Plymouth). It is preliminary and is based on the facts as they are known at this time. WOW! 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. The unplanned water landing caught everyone . PROBABLE CAUSE: "Because of the lack of physical evidence, the probable cause of this accident is unknown. Investigators found less than 1% of its structural components and no conclusive evidence that a bomb was used. Taylor had also been married before his marriage to Alice. He planned to intimidate the witness in that case somehow with a bomb (not to kill her but to intimidate her). The agent's attention was drawn elsewhere, however, and he never noticed if the man boarded the flight or not. 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. 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. GitHub export from English Wikipedia. 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 . About 72 square miles south of the area originally covered in November was swept and bottom contact approximately 110feet long was made at Lat. So, I think he spun a couple different stories to see if any if them fit enough to get in the least amount of trouble. 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. All 42 on board were presumed killed in the incident. In fact, Turska had also been facing abortion charges in November 1959 (though Turskas charges were later dropped). Hudson is an Equal Opportunity Employer of all qualified individuals. 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. Here are the names of the people from the flight manifest. When the aircraft was destroyed, authorities would assume that Spears had himself been a victim and his wife would be able to collect on his life insurance. The evening started as any other at an airport terminal as 105 were set board their National Flight 601 from New York bound for Miami on a Boeing 707. It's quick and easy to. This matter will be detailed later in this report. In this role I provide oversight and management of supply and demand, schedules, supplier . In one letter, Spears urged Taylor not to use his real name in future communications, but to refer to him as F. Suddenly his strange behavior all made sense to her--her hapless ex-husband was a puppet, under Dr Spearss spell. Although sabotage was suspected, no definite cause of the crash was determined . The industry standard flight tracking platform for business aviation (BA) owners and operators. 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. 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 cause was suspected to have been an attempted case of Insurance fraud; . 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. 8837.3'W. Taylor apparently agreed to this, and boarded the flight that night with nothing more than a briefcase containing the dynamite. Join to view profile. 14 relations. I've never heard of this and I love aviation mysteries. Initially, there was some speculation based on the fact that a noted Chicago mobster--Ellis Itchy Mandel--was on the flight. * Boeing 727-235 He said he had persuaded Al Taylor to take the dynamite on the airplane by promising to pay him $10,000 to do it. - 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. Nearly every comment is just a "great job, best ever", and nearly all of the questions posited have no answers or discussions below them. * Douglas DC-6B - October 5, 1945, a Lockheed Lodestar crashed into a lake in Lakeland, Florida with two fatalities. Nothing. A subreddit dedicated to the unresolved mysteries of the world. Thanks for writing this all up. The 9 they found were likely ejected from the plane through a large opening during the deconpression, while the rest were blown to bits. I told him it wouldn't work!". ", Tampa International Airport, FL (TPA/KTPA), New Orleans International Airport, LA (MSY/KMSY), Accident investigation report completed and information captured, 57 km (35.6 mls) E off Pilottown, LA [Gulf of Mexico] (. 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. 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. 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. [4], Spears died in Dallas, Texas on May 2, 1969, of coronary thrombosis. 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. Las Vegas, Nevada, United States333 followers 331 connections. 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". 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. Associate Procurement Agent. This aircraft was flown to Tampa then out the NL route toward New Orleans to the position of 2913'N, 8840'W, at an altitude of 14,000feet. Intensive sea and air searches resulted in finding ten floating bodies and a small amount of floating debris the following morning. The the bodies can get torn apart depending on their exact location on the plane, whether they were strapped in or not. However, there was ample fuel to have proceeded to the flight's planned alternate or to Dallas, the next en route stop. "Turska was the one to fear, not Bob, Mrs Spears once said. The weather conditions were good. . 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. When Spears met secretly with his wife on January 7, he had reportedly given her the same story. It'd make him look suspicious, even if it was the honest truth. As he was leaving the courthouse after his first hearing, he was observed to be whistling. The flight had been on its way from Tampa, Florida, to New Orleans. Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. It may safely be concluded that there was no warning of the disaster. He heard no noise. Meanwhile she campaigned in the courts to have him declared legally dead (which would give her son access to the life insurance money). 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. 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. Spears disappeared after the accident but was arrested in Phoenix, Arizona, with Taylor's car in January, 1960. National Airlines Flight967 of November 15, 1959, was scheduled between Miami, Florida, and New Orleans, Louisiana, with a stop at Tampa, Florida. DC-7 [] Template . Spears immediately said he had made the whole thing up after the reporter had pressured him to tell him something new. 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.. I can understand him taking out an insurance policy. Mr Taylor would need to have put just $1.50 into that machine to secure that $37,500 insurance policy (equivalent to more than $300,000 today).]. 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. Unfortunately, these searches were not successful. 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. No seat belt abrasions were found. Curiously, Al Taylor had recently been reported missing. A personalized flight-following experience with unlimited alerts and more. National Airlines Flight 193, registration N4744, Donna, was a Boeing 727-235 en route from Miami, Florida to Pensacola on May 8, 1978. . Logan points out that much of the public demonization of Spears resulted from the fact that he performed abortions--something that is viewed very differently in todays political discourse. A considerable amount of the floating debris also exhibited signs of burning but only above waterlines. It was founded in 1934 as a Florida-based airline. The FBI got involved. The passenger manifest for Tampa-New Orleans listed 36passengers. Back then, you could get on a plane, put something in the luggage rack, and then right before take off say "Excuse me, is this the plane to Dallas? She was an unflappable woman in her late fifties, with a fondness for ostentatious feathered hats, pearl necklaces, and large brooches. 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". 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. 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. Summary 185 Max talks about columnist Martha Lunken's flight under a bridge, which led to the revocation of her certificates. The inertia of the bodies was plainly downward and forward and the forces at impact were severe. However, Taylor himself purchased $37,500.00 worth of life insurance at the airport; when his ex-wife attempted to collect on that policy, authorities were notified. National Airlines Flight 967; A Delta Airlines DC-7, similar to the accident aircraft. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. This is also unexplained. Weather conditions in the area were poor, which meant that the crew had . From January 9, 1960 to January 15, 1960, the U.S.S. Lowest fares guaranteed on flights from Dubai to Toronto by Skycraft Air Transport. 2912.3'N, Long. Taylor's body was not among those recovered. Despite these strange details, Mrs Taylor stuck to her story--her ex-husband had been hypnotized. . One of these was not aboard, although a final passenger count showed 36passengers upon departure from Tampa. 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. Coscto also reported a Q2 net sales increase of 6.5%, to $54.24 . Tampa Police Detective John C. Daniels was among those who did not buy the hypnosis theory: Taylor was in debt over his head. 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. All employment decisions are made without regard to age, race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, disability, military leave or veteran status, genetic information, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state or local law. As Logan points out, in the first three weeks of 1960 alone there had been four major airline crashes. For 3-1/2 to 4minutes the flight continued on a normal track of approximately 296 degrees magnetic. The two had met in the Missouri State Penitentiary, back when Taylor was still known as Albert O. Thompson. This website uses cookies. According to the hotel staff, Taylor was talking about boarding a flight to Dallas--the waitress specifically remembered making small talk about Dallas. Goodness, I'm on the wrong plane!" 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. 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. This appeared to be bits of upholstery, sound deadening material, and white objects like sponge rubber pillows encased in plastic envelopes. 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.
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