Frog Hunter Saved Accident Victims

A frog hunter who helped rescue passengers from an Eastern Airlines plane that went down in the Everglades on December 29, 1972 was finally honored.

After seeing an orange flash of fire, Robert "Bud" Marquis and a friend raced to the crash scene in an airboat in west Miami-Dade County. Marquis ended up saving several passengers from drowning, and directed rescue helicopters to the location in the night with a headlamp.

On Monday -- almost 35 years later -- the National Air Disaster Alliance/Foundation gave Marquis a humanitarian award for being the first to respond to the crash of Eastern Flight 401, according to the South Florida Sun Sentinel.

"I think it's nice, but I don't think I really deserve a lot of hullabaloo over this," Marquis, 78, of Homestead, said of the award. "This is way in the past."

After taking off from New York, the Lockheed L-1011 trijet crashed about 18 miles northwest of Miami.

Of the 176 on board, 101 were killed. As it was the first fatal crash involving a so-called "jumbo-jet," the downing of Eastern 401 has inspired books, and movies.

The tribute to Marquis was held at the Metro-Dade Firefighters' Memorial Building in Miami. Some of those he saved were there, including flight attendant Mercy Ruiz.

Marquis, a former wildlife officer, was the guest of honor. The memorial remembered victims and survivors of the crash and their families.

"The survivors feel very forgotten," said Gail Dunham, president of the Washington, D.C.-based National Air Disaster Alliance, which comprises family members of the victims of well known commercial crashes. "They feel they never had a memorial service."

So, why did it take so long to honor Marquis -- and friend Ray Dickinson, who also responded?

"It took that long for alliance officials, rescuers and airboat enthusiasts to find each other on the Internet and organize the event," said Robert Dummett, founder of the American Airboat Search and Rescue Association and an organizer of the memorial.

"It has always bothered me that there was nothing done with 401," said Dummett, a retired Miami-Dade firefighter now living in Lake Wales.

Dummett hopes that the event will inspire a permanent memorial to Eastern Flight 401, similar to the ValuJet Memorial off the Tamiami Trail in the Everglades. ValuJet 592 went down in May 1996, killing all 110 on board.

Airboat owners from around Florida gathered to rebuild Marquis' airboat in an effort to honor him. The unexpected gesture caught the aging boater off-guard.

"It's just kind of overwhelming what they're doing," he said.

FMI: www.miamidade.gov/mdfr/