Video: 'The Fatal And Devastating Crash Of Flight 401 | FULL EPISODE | Mayday: Air Disaster'

(Friday, December 29, 1972, 11:42 p.m. EST) — Eastern Air Lines Flight 401, a scheduled flight from New York JFK to Miami, crashed late tonight into the Florida Everglades near Miami International Airport, killing 101 of the 176 people aboard.

Investigators determined that the cockpit crew had been preoccupied with checking the Lockheed L-1011-1 TriStar’s landing gear when a light on the instrument panel had failed to come on.

Distracted, nobody realized that the autopilot had become disengaged and that they were slowly losing altitude.

The last recorded words were the co-pilot saying “We did something to the altitude. We’re still at 2000, right?” and the pilot responds, “Hey, what’s happening here?”

Three of the 4 cockpit crew members, two of the 10 flight attendants, and 96 of the 163 passengers were killed; there were 75 survivors.