Robert ''Bud'' Marquis; Airboater rescued air crash survivors
Hyfler/Rosner
Airboater rescued air crash survivors
BY LUISA YANEZ
lya...@MiamiHerald.com
Robert ''Bud'' Marquis, the Homestead airboater who
witnesses the crash of Eastern Airlines Flight 401 in the
Florida Everglades 36 years ago -- and then rushed to help
rescue survivors -- died Friday of complications from an
accident five weeks ago. He was 79.
A former South Florida wildlife game warden who lived most
of his adult live on the edge of the Everglades, Marquis was
frog-hunting from an airboat with a friend just before
midnight on Dec. 29, 1972, when they heard the roar of a
jumbo jet flying dangerously low.
Within seconds, the L-1011 coming from New York and carrying
176 people crashed into the pitch darkness of the Everglades
west of Miami International Airport. In horror, Marquis and
his friend watched the impact light up the horizon.
''I told my friend to keep his eye on where we had seen the
ball of fire, and I started heading that way as fast as I
could,'' Marquis told The Miami Herald last December on the
35th anniversary of the crash.
SURVIVORS FOUND
Marquis and his friend were first at the scene. They found
almost 100 people dead, but also more than 70 survivors of
what was then Florida's deadliest crash and the first of the
brand-new jumbo jet fleet.
In the end, 75 survived. Last year, some of them gathered at
an event organized by first responders at the Firefighters'
Memorial Building to honor Marquis.
''I would not be alive today if not for Bud Marquis,'' said
survivor Ron Infantino, who along with other survivors is
working to build a memorial to honor those who died that
night -- among them his young bride.
The memorial would feature Marquis' airboat -- a testament
to the significant role it played. From the Everglades,
Marquis and his friend used a light rigged to a hat to guide
Coast Guard helicopters and others to the desolate crash
site. They spent the night pulling survivors out of the
marsh.
Flight 401 flight attendants Beverly Raposa of Sunrise and
Mercy Ruiz of Miami said the sound of Marquis' airboat was a
sign of life.
''Even if we couldn't see him, we could hear him and we knew
help had arrived,'' Raposa said. Ruiz was rescued in
Marquis' airboat.
AIRBOAT RESTORED
At the 35th-anniversary observance, the airboat Marquis used
that night, which he still owned and which had fallen into
disrepair in his yard, was presented to him totally
overhauled.
''I would do it all again in a heartbeat,'' Marquis told the
crowd that day.
The accident would change aviation history, and it spawned
several books, lore about ''the ghost of Flight 401'' and a
television movie. It also changed Marquis, who was forever
connected to the disaster.
''Just today, a passenger who lives out of state called
because he had heard Bud had passed away,'' said Marquis'
widow, Nancy.
She and Marquis were married for 61 years. ''We met when I
was 15 and he, 18,'' she said. ''He had moved with his
family from Arkansas to West Palm Beach, where I lived. It
was love at first sight.'' They had two children.
On the night of Oct. 21, 2008, Marquis went to the Florida
City Wal-Mart and suffered injuries that led to his death.
Something happened to him in the parking lot. ''We don't
know if he was mugged or run over or if he fell,'' Nancy
Marquis said.
With six broken ribs and a head injury, Marquis refused
medical care and drove himself home. He was rushed to a
hospital, where he remained in the intensive-care unit until
his death.
''Doctors said his injuries looked like those of someone who
might have been mugged, but he still had his wallet in his
pocket,'' his widow said. She said Florida City police told
her they were still investigating.
There will be no funeral service for Marquis. His wife said
his ashes would be spread over the crash site in the
Everglades that ''he loved so much,'' at a later date.
Marquis is also survived by a son, Donald Marquis of
Altamonte Springs; a daughter, Terri Mabie of Tucson; 10
grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
easte...@gmail.com
You can read a detailed account of the crash and the rescue and see
video of Bud at http://eastern401.googlepages.com
Hyfler/Rosner
<easte...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:9eb77888-13f6-4dc5...@k24g2000pri.googlegroups.com...
You can read a detailed account of the crash and the rescue
and see
video of Bud at http://eastern401.googlepages.com
Thanks for that. Really good site.
Hyfler/Rosner
"Hyfler/Rosner" <rel...@rcn.com> wrote in message
news:ggk96k$j18$1...@reader1.panix.com...
Check that. It's an INCREDIBLE site. The reporting alone
makes me yearn for the days when newspaper writing was good.
The documentary is great, too.
Thanks again.
Matthew Kruk
Yep, superb.