national airlines flight 967

The passenger manifest for Tampa-New Orleans listed 36passengers. A subreddit dedicated to the unresolved mysteries of the world. 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. Capt. In this role I provide oversight and management of supply and demand, schedules, supplier . Taylor apparently then he called his boss at the tire company and asked for the next day off work. [] for all those decades and all the different things they got up to. He said he had persuaded Al Taylor to take the dynamite on the airplane by promising to pay him $10,000 to do it. All 42 on board were presumed killed in the incident. Some of the bodies showed distinct evidence of burning on portions exposed above their waterlines. Full-screen FlightAware TV maps for operators or FBOs. The flight had been on its way from Tampa, Florida, to New Orleans. James L. Sigman, executive officer of the Coast Guard station at New Orleans, said the plane might have exploded when it struck the water. Taylor's body was not among those recovered. But where had he been? (If any were available prior to my introduction to flying, though, I can't be sure.) Except for the land areas and coastal waters from Mobile westward, skies were virtually clear and visibility excellent. 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. Members of the party hunting in the shark-infested waters for bodies believe there was an explosion. 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. If you have a couple of minutes, we'd like to collect your feedback on it. A considerable amount of the floating debris also exhibited signs of burning but only above waterlines. ASSURANCE sailed on November 19, 1959, for position 3907'N - 8833'W relieving the Coast Guard Cutter NIKE, which had been standing by. 432 in 1951, 905 in 1955, 1041 in 1960, 2663 in 1965, 2643 in 1970, 3865 in 1975. [5], "Con Man, Best Man, An Air Crash - A Far Out, Far Up Mystery", "Robert Spears, 1959 bomb suspect, dies in Dallas", Aviation Safety Network report on Flight 967, Civil Aeronautics Board Aircraft Accident Report on Flight 967, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Robert_Spears_(naturopath)&oldid=1106844718, This page was last edited on 26 August 2022, at 19:28. There injuries indicated that all nine persons had been seated at the time the aircraft struck the water. What a tangled web. Taylor, investigators discovered, was wanted in Washington DC and Philadephlia under a variety of assumed names at the time of his disappearance. Spears died in Baylor Medical Center, Dallas on May 2, 1969 of coronary thrombosis. 1. It was founded in 1934 as a Florida-based airline. - May 1, 1961, Antulio Ramirez Ortiz hijacks a National Airlines flight from Miami International Airport to Cuba. 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. In the postwar era, its fleet consisted of the: * Convair CV-340 A check by the company at this time showed that FAA, New Orleans Approach Control, and ARTC were also out of contact with Flight967. Comprehensive flight tracking to enhance your FBO operations and increase sales. . 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. aviation industry. All floating debris and bodies were from one-half to two miles east and southeast of this oil slick. Of all the prison terms he served, he never had a single infraction of violence. 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. Adequate fuel, with reserve, was carried. 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. This matter will be detailed later in this report. Some of the bodies showed distinct evidence of burning on portions exposed above their waterlines. arrow_forward Literature guides Concept explainers Writing guide Popular textbooks Popular high school textbooks Popular Q&A Business Accounting Economics Finance Leadership Management Marketing Operations Management Engineering Bioengineering Chemical Engineering Civil Engineering Computer Engineering Computer Science Electrical Engineering . Initially, there was some speculation based on the fact that a noted Chicago mobster--Ellis Itchy Mandel--was on the flight. Details of accident. The Flightpath. (These bearings could be duplicated at low altitude; the VOR bearings could not be, due to line-of-sight limitations.). 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. The search was resumed on November 26, 1959, to the south and west of the previous area based upon drift studies of recovered debris. There are a thousand ways of connecting the dots, and a thousand other explanations out there. In the investigation of the January 6 crash of a National Airlines DC-6B, agents are inquiring into indications that a lawyer, Mr. Julian Frank, might have blown up the plane killing himself and 33 . 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. During this time, Spears had briefly visited his wife (on January 7)--so her answers in her first interview were a lie. 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. He reported a "smooth flight" and unlimited visibility, but said he could see a solid overcast of fog ahead. National Airlines flight 193 lies partially submerged in the shallow waters of Escambia Bay in Pensacola. Frank was covered by $900,000 in life insurance policies at the time of his death, and had also been under investigation for corruption. A theory also emerged that Spears was connected to another unexplained air disaster just months later. 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. Yet cracks soon appeared in this image too. The personal effects consisted of shoes, clothing, parts of leather suitcases and other traveling paraphernalia. Over the course of their long friendship, Spears and Taylor had worked together on confidence schemes throughout the USA. Al Taylor asked him to drive the Plymouth to Dallas where they were scheduled to meet up. This map shows the airport of departure and the intended destination of the flight. 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. Boeing 747-400BCF National Airlines N702CA Scale 1/400 XX4975. Perhaps most bizarrely of all--Dr Spears was an expert in hypnosis. * Douglas DC-8-21/31/32/51/54/61 GitHub export from English Wikipedia. Frank was covered by $900,000 in life insurance policies at the time of his death, and had also been under investigation for corruption. Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. 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. None of these nine persons had been subjected to fire or smoke before death, as demonstrated by low carboxyhemoglobin levels in blood and tissue. Summary 185 Max talks about columnist Martha Lunken's flight under a bridge, which led to the revocation of her certificates. Sun 4/9. -, Press J to jump to the feed. Spectacular job. 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. From January 9, 1960 to January 15, 1960, the U.S.S. 02:55. operated a variety of different types of aircraft. ASSURANCE and the U.S.S. 8840'W. The car belonged to a man named Al Taylor, a longtime friend of Dr Spears, who had been the best man at his wedding. 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. However, Taylor purchased life insurance in his own name at the airport before departure; when his ex-wife applied to collect, the substitution was discovered. 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. 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. 2910'N, and Long. We have been unable to find any such relationship. Without the planes black box, it is impossible to rule this out. The aircraft was a DC-7, N 4891C, owned by Delta Air Lines and operated by National under an equipment interchange agreement. What an intriguing case - how have I never heard of this before? The flight was estimated to be at the Crab Intersection, a customary reporting point, at 0004. [4], Spears died in Dallas, Texas on May 2, 1969, of coronary thrombosis. A strong sharp contact, definitely bottom and metallic, was made at position 2911.6'N, 8838.2'W at a depth of 245feet. The theory of a Svengalian puppet master was convenient not just for the former Mrs Taylor. No seat belt abrasions were found. OP, thank you for your work on this, especially noting the numerous sources you cited. St. Petersburg Times. 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 . 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. American Airlines Flight 320 was a scheduled flight between Chicago Midway International Airport and New York City's LaGuardia Airport.On February 3, 1959, the Lockheed L-188 Electra performing the flight crashed into the East River during its descent and approach to LaGuardia Airport, killing 65 of the 73 people on board. Accordingly, communications between Coast Guard surface vessels and the National Airlines Convair were relayed by Coast Guard aircraft. A few moments before the departure of Flight967 from Tampa, Taylor purchased a flight insurance policy in the amount of $37,500 from a coin-operated machine at Tampa International Airport making his son the beneficiary and showing his destination as Dallas, Texas. Pertinent details are: William Allen Taylor, of Tampa, Florida, disappeared November 15, 1959, after telephoning his employer he would be late for work. 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. We work hard to keep our advertising relevant and unobtrusive to create a great experience. I have not yet been back in that direction, but in my few decades of air travel, every flight to Tampa meant a stop in Houston before moving on, and the same can be said for the return flight. 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. Some twelve to fifteen minutes later a Coast Guard aircraft arrived and dropped smoke markers. National Airlines Flight 967, registration N4891C, was a Douglas DC-7B aircraft which disappeared over the Gulf of Mexico en route from Tampa, Florida to New Orleans, Louisiana on November 16, 1959. * Boeing 747-135 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. They had been divorced longer than she claimed, and the divorce had been far from amicable. On November 16, 1959, an airplane vanished over the Gulf of Mexico, with 42 people onboard. The ultimate flight tracking suite for small aircraft/general aviation (GA) owners and operators. Charts used during the several searches, with search areas well delineated, were coordinated within the various agencies to preclude duplicative and omissive effort. 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. Suddenly his strange behavior all made sense to her--her hapless ex-husband was a puppet, under Dr Spearss spell. A careful search was made for witnesses. In the weeks after the crash, the mystery of Flight 967 deepened. The sea was practically calm with waves about 1-1/2feet high moving from a northerly direction with a period of about five seconds. Spears had been a close friend of her husband, and she had never considered him to be a good influence. Taylor's not going to let himself get talked into something as crazy as getting on a plane that's about to blow up. In this interview, he told a completely different story about what had happened. 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. As it turned out, William Turska was not a model citizen himself. 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. 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. She put it bluntly to the Dallas Morning News: "I believe that Spears hypnotized [Taylor] into doing it.". I am not a shill but it is an interesting book.]. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. * Boeing 727-035 This is also unexplained. 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. 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. DC-7 Cockpit - From the display at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC. * Douglas DC-4 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. A bomb was suspected. 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. . The National crew consisted of Captain Frank Eugene Todd, Copilot Dick Sheridan Beebee, Flight Engineer George Henry Clark, Jr., Stewardesses Patricia Ann Hires and Donna Jean Osburn, and additional crew member Jack Atkinson of the Federal Aviation Agency. Spears immediately said he had made the whole thing up after the reporter had pressured him to tell him something new. It was determined that Taylor had boarded the flight using a ticket issued for Spears. It was founded in 1934 as a Florida-based airline. 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.. A rival airline company? We have been unable to find any such relationship. From March3 through13,1960, the U.S.S. Aviation accidents and incidents in 1978 () Jan 1 Air India Flight 855; Mrs Spears said that when he came to see her, Spears was sad about Taylors death. Here are the names of the people from the flight manifest. 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. Bombs Indicated in Two Air Disasters Monday, Dec 2 2013 . EVERETT ENGERSOL, Evergreen Park, Illinois, PEDRO MARCO, arrived in Miami from Havana, A. VINAS, Havana and Loma Linda, California, The REV. Flight status, tracking, and historical data for N967WN 02-Mar-2023 (KPVD-KDCA) including scheduled, estimated, and actual departure and arrival times. The weather conditions were good. A FedEx plane was only about 150 feet off the ground when its pilots realized a Southwest jet was in the process of taking off on the same runway, and aborted its landing to avoid a potentially . 8837.3'W. Accident; Date: November 16, 1959: Summary: In-flight explosion (Bombing suspected, but not proven) Site: Gulf of Mexico Thats not necessarily so. Due to lack of evidence, however, Spears was never charged with any offense in relation to the Flight 967 crash. The Coast Guard favored the former explanation, while the Air Force favored the latter. The FBI's FOIA Library contains many files of public interest and historical value. The U.S.S. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. The FBI had found Dr Spears through an ex-wife of Spearss associate Mr Turska. He had become financially successful in Texas as a . The flight originated in Miami at 1022 PM the p Company calls to 967 continued without result for some time. Sometimes with these mysteries that were so long ago it is easy to lose sight of the fact that the victims were people who were loved and cared for by many. Unfortunately, these searches were not successful. WOW! It was a starlit night, and good weather conditions were reported all along the route. In fact, he had vanished on November 16, 1959 - the very same day that airplane went down in the Gulf. 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. VIGOR searched, using Navy sonar. Alice was not to be dissuaded. Tampa Police Detective John C. Daniels was among those who did not buy the hypnosis theory: Taylor was in debt over his head. Repeated calls to it, starting at 0106 on company frequency, were not answered. 2913'N, Long. I do think Taylor took Spears spot on the plane last minute (hence only the briefcase, no luggage), but I don't think Taylor nor Spears intended to blow up the plane. I loathed him, she said, and had always considered him a bad influence on Al. and then hurry away, accidentally forgetting your luggage. When Spears met secretly with his wife on January 7, he had reportedly given her the same story. She contacted his work--they knew nothing. Emirates Airlines is the preferable and national . You received a Purple Heart on or after September 11, 2001, and were honorably discharged after any amount of service, or. 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. 2913'N. All times herein are Central Standard based on the 24-hour clock. . Personally I suspect that Logan has at least partially fallen prey to the charms of Dr Spears--I highly doubt Taylor is living it up in South America--but his questions are interesting ones. The position of 2913'N and 8840'W - at which the aircraft went off the military radar scope - was used as a focal point of search. One of these was not aboard, although a final passenger count showed 36passengers upon departure from Tampa. The aircraft was crossing an area of severe weather and possibly flew into a waterspout. Contribute to chinapedia/wikipedia.en development by creating an account on GitHub. Thats another good one if youre not already familiar with it. According to Alan C. Logans book, Taylor had also met with Frank in New York (though Logan does not explain why). Curiously, Al Taylor had recently been reported missing. Spears himself apparently admitted to having met with this man in New York City. Yeah, it's kinda sad (and annoying) that such a good read isn't inspiring much in the way of discussion hardly at all. Upon his arrest in Arizona, the FBI charged him with transporting a stolen vehicle beyond state lines. Sun 4/2. I was completely drawn in. 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. The company posted $1.027 billion in membership fee income compared to $967 million a year earlier, a $60 million increase, or 6.2%. 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". National Airlines Flight 967. All 42 occupants perished. 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. Alan C. Logan is among those who dismiss this second story as fiction. Despite these strange details, Mrs Taylor stuck to her story--her ex-husband had been hypnotized. Track American Airlines (AA) #967 flight from Austin-Bergstrom Intl to Dallas-Fort Worth Intl. Taylor? 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. * C-46 Commando But even then there would be no point in destroying the plane or himself. November 16, 1959: National Airlines Flight 967 on a flight from Tampa, Florida to New Orleans crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Turska? 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. Water temperatures in the vicinity of the crash were 70 degrees or more. Mr Frank? Get the FlightAware App for the best flight tracking experience on your device. The FBI discovered there was much more to the kindly old Dr Spears than met the eye. Radar operators at a military station at Houma, Louisiana, picked up the flight at 12:46 AM. The cultures of National and Pan Am also proved to be incompatible, making workforce integration difficult. 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". * Douglas DC-10-10/30, AviationExplorer.com - The Website For Aviation Enthusiasts, NATIONAL AIRLINES HISTORY FACTS AND PICTURES, Aviation Military and Police Phonetic Alphabet, NTSB Aviation Accidents From Last 10 Years, High Resolution Military Aviation Desktop Wallpapers. DL967 Flight Tracker - Track the real-time flight status of Delta Air Lines DL 967 live using the FlightStats Global Flight Tracker. 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. National Airlines Flight 967, a DC-7B on a flight from Tampa, Florida to New Orleans, crashed into the Gulf of Mexico. Shortly thereafter a Coast Guard helicopter arrived. The U.S.S. The inertia of the bodies was plainly downward and forward and the forces at impact were severe. The industry standard flight tracking platform for business aviation (BA) owners and operators. BITTERN searched separate areas using Navy sonar. The National crew consisted of Captain Frank Eugene Todd, Copilot Dick . Flight 967 was an interchange flight between three carriers; through plane service from Miami to Los Angeles. Compare airfares and book tickets with lowest price on different airlines in real time 24 hours. Everyone loved the read as the comments here suggest and so did I but does anyone have a theory they favor? 1 adult. Absolutely fascinating mystery. The flight release Tampa-New Orleans was in accordance with the Civil Air Regulations and NAL procedures. 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. Track National Aeronautics and Space Administration #967 flight from Chennault Intl to Houston Ellington Flugstatus, Tracking und Flugverlaufsdaten fr National Aeronautics and Space Administration 967 (NASA967) 02.03.2023 (KCWF-KEFD) mit geplanten, geschtzten und tatschlichen Start- und Landezeiten It is really unfortunate the wreckage was never discovered. The National crew consisted of Captain Frank Eugene Todd, Copilot Dick . If the plane had any larger parts recoverable, they might have been able to tell if dynamite was the cause by examining residues or scorch marks. It's quick and easy to. Robert Vernon Spears, a nationally known naturopathic doctor from . Our global headquarters is situated in Orlando FL, with several operational hubs across the globe in Buffalo NY, Chicago IL, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Madrid, Dubai, Djibouti, Kuala Lumpur, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Shanghai. It appeared that the oil was rising from the northernmost point of this oil slick. This position is about 108miles east-southeast of New Orleans, about 30miles east of Pilottown, near the mouth of the Mississippi River, and very nearly on the planned course. Two dozen books on hypnosis had been found in Spears's home in Dallas. but he would have had to have done some rushing to get aboard the plane because it taxied away at 12:25 am. National Airlines was a United States airline that operated from 1934 to 1980. At that time there was also very little airport security. National Airlines Flight 967 Latest Breaking News, Pictures, Videos, and Special Reports from The Economic Times. A problem was discovered (broken window . Early that morning, they spotted something: a small amount of debris, a large oil slick, and several floating bodies. No? Meanwhile she campaigned in the courts to have him declared legally dead (which would give her son access to the life insurance money). * Lockheed L-188 Electra The point of fade from the scope was normal and within correlation limits. Mrs Spears replied that she had not. There was one witness--the attendant of a lookout tower 30 miles west of the crash site, who. A Spirit Airlines flight from Dallas to Orlando was diverted to an airport in Jacksonville, Fla., Thursday, March 2, 2023, after a battery from a passenger's item caught fire in an overhead bin . During this period an underwater television camera was lowered twice on the contact from the VIGOR but only marine life was observed. Turska participated in a few interviews about the case--notably in Life Magazine--in which he played the part of a bemused bystander. 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. 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. Contact Us. The radar observer testified that this disappearance was characteristic of a target going below the scope's limits. The 9 they found were likely ejected from the plane through a large opening during the deconpression, while the rest were blown to bits.