Eastern Airlines Flight 401
On December 29, 1972, Eastern Airlines Flight 401 from New York to
Miami carrying a load of 163 passengers and 13 crew members crashed
into the Everglades, near Miami. In the cockpit was the Captain, First
Officer, Flight Engineer and Eastern Airlines engineer.
Everything was going as planned with Eastern Airlines Flight 401 until
approach into Miami International Airport. When the undercarriage was
selected down for the landing the nose-wheel locked-down indicator
light did not illuminate. The crew overshot the airport and climbed to
2,000ft (600m) to check what was wrong.
The crew first tried to change the bulb to see if it was just an
indicator error; while this was going on one of them apparently knocked
the control yoke... which disengaged the autopilot and put the aircraft
in a gradual descent. None of the crew noticed as the light bulb
problem took their attention away from monitoring the flight.
While the captain was changing the light bulb, the first officer was
monitoring the autopilot, but as far as he could tell, it was still on.
Meanwhile, the flight engineer and Eastern's engineer went down the
door on the floor of the flight deck to check the position of the
nose-wheel, but by leaving the engineer's panel, he failed to hear the
barely audible alarm which signified the descent of the aircraft.
Unfortunately, outside was dark with the Everglades swamp below and the
descent was not visually noticeable. Just when the Flight Engineer
looked down the nose-wheel, he saw the reflection of the nose-wheel
light on the waters of the swamp; sadly before he could return to the
cockpit, the aircraft plunged into the swamp about 17 miles (27km) west
of Miami airport.
Miraculously, 76 of the total of 176 aboard survived.
This true story depicts just how easy it is, in life... or business,
for anyone to become distracted and lose sight of the big picture!
If we are to distance our lives from 'just being average'; it is
imperative to set big goals and remain focused on doing and becoming
whatever is required to see them realised. How easy it is to allow a
great idea or worthwhile endeavour fail... by getting caught up in the
'daily grind' and allowing less important issues steal our attention.
the traffic on your way to work the mundane-ness of housework and
attending to children... day after day the tenant who just vacated your
investment property without properly cleaning it etc, etc
You may find it sobering to think that a team of such highly trained
professionals could have allowed a 50c light bulb (approximately) to
distract their focus and bring about such devastation to so many.
Maybe it's worth taking time out to consider what "50c issues" may be
hindering us from creating the life we want to be living tomorrow...
and where necessary, adjusting our focus to ensure our great ideas and
goals are safely landed.
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