On a December evening in 1972, Flight 401 crashed into the Miami everglades, killing 101 people. Wreckage and passengers were strewn over an area covering more than half a mile.

Soon after the crash rumours began to circulate that strange things were happening on other planes. John G Fuller began to investigate the claims and presented his findings in his book “The Ghost of Flight 401”. The book claimed that the most reported ghosts were that of Captain Bob Loft and Second Officer Don Repo, who were seen more than twenty occasions by crewmembers on other planes.

Many of the reports came from people in highly responsible positions; pilots, flight officers, even a vice president of Eastern Airlines, who allegedly spoke with a captain he assumed was in charge of the flight, before recognizing him as the late Loft. Fuller discovered that when the wreckage of Flight 401 was retrieved, some of the working components were transferred into other planes. He believed this was the cause of sightings of ghosts on thirty different planes.