Aviation Ghosts
 

Just finished reading a thoroughly satisfying book called "Echoes in the Air" by Jack Currie, a former wartime RAF bomber pilot.

The book covers many strange stories of events and appearances by ghostly spirits or forces that have appeared or acted over the years. Many of these have occured at wartime airfields or in buildings (hangars that noone will enter after dark due to pure fear, the wet splosh of a WW 2 fighter pilot's feet in a barrack room in the 1970's, control towers where telephones are thrown of their hooks, etc).

One chapter covered the ghost of a crew member of an Eastern Airlines L-1011 Tristar that crashed into the Florida Everglades in 1972. It is said that the ghost appeared in Eastern's L-1011's whenever there was trouble, alerting crews and engineers to danger and saving lives in the process.

A very eerie read, makes you wonder about many of the old aerodromes from which many of us operate from today, and the stories they hold within them.

Have any PPRuNe readers ever witnessed any strange 'paranormal' events in aviation?

Kermie :eek:

[ 16 October 2001: Message edited by: Kermit 180 ]

Only 'The Guvnor'

If you can find a copy, try "The Airmen Who Would Not Die" by Fuller. Can't remember the gentleman's first name because I lost my copy of the book, but it is a very interesting account of paranormal events surrounding a number of air disasters, mainly the R101.


BC

There are one or two local myths about ghosties& ghoulies at Barton Manchester (real ghosts, not committee members that is). But I've never seen any myself.

1. 1st floor in the tower (current Committee room) was reputed to be haunted some time back.

2. The harbit hangar (next to the Tower) - an ex-CFI told me that very late one night he heard voices and tool-type noises in the hangar. They opened up the hangar and checked but found no-one. This was shortly after a fatal crash of an aircraft which was housed there.

3. Same guy told me that someone had seen a greyish character in a flying suit early one misty morning, who disappeared as he was approached.

Certainly the field has seen its fair share of aviation tragedies. But I'll remain cynical until I see something for myself. Stories always seem to get elaborated upon as they are passed on (i'm told a pint or two assists this process). The nearest thing I experienced there was a ghostly scream and a white shape looming low out of the sky late one night. It was a barn owl.

kermie
do you want to borrow my copy of the ghost of flight 401?
there is actually a song about it
now that is scary! :eek: :p :D

"The Airmen Who Would Not Die" is by John G. Fuller

The late Jack Currie did a half hour tv program about this some ten years ago, much filmed at East Kirkby, an airfield he'd flown Lancasters from. Quite made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up! On a different note, his two books on his Lancaster and Mosquito tours are also excellent reading.

When I was in Her Majesties Flying Club In '76 I was posted to RAF Lindolme (Northern Radar as was) nobody would go out the back as it was reputed that a WW2 Halifax pilot wandered around and had been seen by some in the Radar and some of the Hastings guys said they had a funny feeling of being watched at night when going around the aircraft...

Brgds
VP8

Kermit,

About 10 years ago I was walking around the peri track at Lasham, near some woods, at dusk one summer evening when I had a real "hairs on the back of the neck" feeling.

I didn't see anything, but I didn't hang around there either.

Some time later I was told about a pilot whose Mosquito crashed into those woods and was killed in 1944, and whose ghost has supposedly been seen there over the years.

SD

There is quite a few aerodromes around where you get those 'someone is watching me' feelings at night. Having never seen or witnesed a ghost or paranormal event, I always put it down to the size and emptiness of these places, the sort of feeling you sometimes get in the bush at night. Knowing or later learning that something tragic happened at that place makes it a bit freaky.

Kermie :eek:

Isn't Biggin hill supposed to be haunted also ?
I was told that some days, you can hear a Spifire passing over the Airfield, but can't see it. It seems a WW2 Pilot who never came back is desperatly trying to come home...

If some of you watched the cartoon "Porco Rosso " (no I am not playing in ;) ) There is a quite romantic scene : the hero is flying "on top" among hundreds of warplanes, all climbing, except his own machine. He tries to join them, til they all disappear into the sun and clouds. An allegory of all his friends dead in air combat ..He is the sole survivor.
If you haven't seen this cartoon, I recommend you rent it ASAP, it's probably one of the best aviation tale of those last years. I think you can find it on DVD now

Cheerio

A few years back (late 1980s) I was living in at RAF Scampton. It was well known that the officers' mess staff didn't like to go from the bar down to the cellar alone, there were persistent stories about people having experienced unpleasant and unexplained "events" in that area of the building. The staff at the time didn't like talking about it, possibly as we used to take the mickey. I spoke to one of the barmen and he said some people had felt that there was an unfriendly "presence" in the corridor.

While I was there, one of the Reds pilots (I won't give his name) was station duty officer (in itself an unusual event!). Whilst locking up the mess last thing at night he claimed to have seen an apparition in the ante room. He said it was a figure in WW2 flying kit standing by the fireplace and it faded away to nothing as he watched it. :eek: If he reads this he may care to comment further himself.

Scary ShyT

....ghostly aero engines over Colerne airfield, Wilts. OK, I confess I had spent the evening glugging decent Burgundy at a nearby posh hotel, but even so.

Not a ghost story, but if you walk in the woods near Christmas Common (just where the M40 slices through the Chilterns, not far from the big Stokenchurch mast) you may come across a memorial to the crew of a battle damaged Whitley that crashed there, just a short distance from their base. A quiet and mournful place where the birds seem not to sing. It's good to see, however, that someone regularly places flowers there.

Isn't there a story about a galley from Flt 401 - the Everglades DC-10.
Apparently they recycled the sucker into a new build as it survived the prang quite well and now it's haunted in its new home! (If it's still around) May be a bit apocryphal too!
I also believe the cockpit of the Aloha B737 is in use as a sim somewhere - any stories about that?
FNG like your story about the memorial. It's like countless other stories about dead airmen around Europe - someone still remembers, even though they weren't born at the time.
:)

Thought I would add a couple of stories to this rather interesting thread.

Whilst staying with a friend in Stocksbridge just outside of Sheffield a few years ago, I read a piece in the local paper about a group of people who were out on the moors around Strines watching the Hale-Bopp comet. Apparently, they called the police after a large four engined bomber passed overhead, seemingly in trouble. Shortly afterwards a local farmer dialled 999 to report a Lancaster bomber had crashed in a nearby field. A third person called to report a large explosion and fireball. An extensive search of the area was carried out, but no wreckage was found.

I remember hearing another story, although I can't remember all of the details. Perhaps someone else has more information?

An aircraft, possibly a DC-3 crashed at (I think) Heathrow and upon arrival the emergency services were met by a man who was deperately searching for his briefcase. Not an uncommon reaction from the survivor of an aircrash, except in this incident there were no survivors.

[ 29 October 2001: Message edited by: ramsrc ]

Ramsrc,

Yes I heard about that. A fairly major police search was carried out, I believe, but nothing was found. Weird.

I am an open-minded sceptic about such matters (only just) because I did personally experience something strange and unexplained as a child in the 1960s, whilst alone at my father's place of employment. Years later (he has retired some years since) I mentioned it to him again and discovered my experience fitted exactly into a whole pattern of similar events experienced for years by he and other workers, although he decided not to tell me about them at the time. Extremely unsettling events, some of them verging on violence by something intangible. Unresolved to this day, I understand, but my father has researched a little local history and now has a theory. I am not sure I am broad-minded enough to accept it....but if what he and his ex-colleagues say is true...it probably needs professionally looking into.

:eek: I wish I hadn't reminded myself about it. Because I can't explain any of it.

Sorry, can't spell.

[ 29 October 2001: Message edited by: ShyTorque ]

Poltergeists I think!
:eek: :eek:

In my dim and distant past I worked at an airfield which was a WW2 bomber base but is now a UK regional airport. The terminal buildings, atc and the engineering department were built on the site of one the dispersal bays where bomb loading took place.
One of my duties involved work in the Tel's department to change tapes etc, this was done twice a day - am and pm, and whenever I was in the building I always got the feeling I wasn't alone, but never saw anything.
For fear of being accused of being a total loony, I never mentioned it until I left the unit, it was only then that one of my colleagues told me he regularly used to see a figure walking through the building, but never got a response from it, he said he always felt perfectly at ease in it's presence.
Another one is up at Sumburgh, Shetland Isles, where a long tunnel type structure is in place from the end of the apron leading to the terminal building. The idea was that aircraft which were parked on the extremities of the apron area could disembark their passengers and they could walk to the terminal protected from the weather. When the Piper Alpha oil rig tradgedy happened, this tunnel was used as a temporary morgue, and ever since it has had a reputation of being a very spooky place to be in. It is no longer used because local staff will not go in, and several years ago an electrician who went to do some work in there, spent 2 minutes in there and came running out. He wouldnt say what he saw, but refued to go back in.
Lastly, try the old terminal and control tower complex at Liverpool, it has quite a reputation, as I'm sure anyone who has worked there will tell you. :eek:

Spoonbill

An interesting post. Would you care to elaborate on the story about the old Liverpool terminal complex? I don't know that part of the world too well.

Another story sprang to mind having read some of the previous posts. I remember hearing it at some point in the dim and distant past from a former colleague.

A prop-liner crashed on a mud-bank (some distance from shore) in the North Sea, shortly after the Second World War. The mud bank was only accessible at low tide and as soon as possible a rescue attempt was mounted. When the rescuers arrived on the scene they discovered that all on board had lost their lives in the crash, but a set of footprints in the mud led from the door of the aircraft, right around it and back to the door again.

Perhaps one final check that the aircraft was secure before the crew left it for the last time?

As an aside - has anyone read "the Shepherd" by Frederick Forsyth? It is a cracking story and, I believe, based on a true story.

I'm not generally a fan of Forsyth's work, but agree that "The Shepherd" is an excellent story, very well told. It's deeply atmospheric, and the perfect Christmas Ghost Story for aviation buffs. The moody illustrations which accompany the story (at least in the copy I have) add to the pleasure.

Red,

Probably, but I am not an expert....I find it pretty frightening stuff though.

Grown men (some of them ex-military men who had seen active service in WW2) became scared to close up the building, a furniture sales warehouse, alone after dark because something unseen kept prodding them hard in the back and they heard loud, inexplicable noises in one area of an upstairs floor including noises like footfalls on the stairs when no-one else was there.

The cleaning lady complained to the manager about having seen furniture and other stuff moving across the room by itself while she was upstairs. She would replace it then off it would go again. She was apparently convinced that other employees were playing tricks on her. One day a heavy armchair floated by her two feet up and a replica ornamental spinning wheel was seen operating by itself. She quit as soon as she realised that they had all been occupied elsewhere and knew nothing about it.

The incident I referred to in my earlier post happened when I was about 12 years old I was alone in the same upstairs area where all these strange things had previously occurred, but at that time I was unaware of them. I heard someone blow their nose very loudly like some old men do. On turning round, a large advertising sign on the wall was swinging wildly on its string as if someone had just held it up and let it go. I couldn't see anyone and there was nowhere for a person to hide. I went downstairs and asked my father who was up there. He laughed and said it was probably just "Tom" and not to worry about it. Actually, there was no-one else in the building except my father plus one other employee and they hadn't been upstairs.

Years later I learned that he was referring to an man called Tom H. He and his family had previously lived in the building. Tom, apparently an alcoholic, had been knocked down by a bus and killed whilst crossing the road fom the pub opposite. After his death, family moved away and their accommodation became part of the adjacent commercial property which became the furniture warehouse.

What really freaked me (and everyone else at the time) was to learn that the peak of activity occurred in the late 1960s when the now ancient Mrs. H had passed away and was temporarily laid to rest in the funeral parlour a few doors away up the adjacent road!

Activity also increased whenever any changes to the inside of the building took place. One day, my father was discussing re-arranging a display of furniture with two other employees. In front of them all, a large table lamp moved horizontally off a table, hovered for a second or two and was then dashed to the floor.

Most recently, just before my father retired, while building alteration was being carried out, damage kept occurring inside the building whilst it was locked and supposedly unoccupied. The builders kept complaining that work they had carried out on Saturday evening was undone by Sunday morning and debris was being scattered right across the floor. They had been required to block off a doorway with heavy plastic sheeting in a 2" by 2" wooden frame to prevent dust affecting the furniture on sale on that floor. Twice it was inexplicably wrecked, the wood smashed up and the plastic completely shredded. My father had the only set of keys at home; they were delivered back to him each time the builders finished work. Strangely, as part of the alterations the builders had to uncover the old main doorway entry and staircase that had been part of the previous occupants' house. It was probably where "Tom" was heading for when he was run over. The builders refused to work alone after my father explained that they were the only ones in the building all weekend on both occasions.

I fully appreciate this is weird stuff and difficult to accept. Apologies for it being off thread (although stuff was flying about!)but it is all true to the best of my knowledge. My father insists all he has told me is correct and he always gives exactly the same details. :eek:

[One further thing I had forgotten. A lady customer was once badly startled by "the old man" she saw looking down at her from the shop stairs. No-one was up there at the time].

(Names edited out, relatives may be embarrassed.

[ 10 November 2001: Message edited by: ShyTorque ]

The Shepherd is a good story, little question about that. Little doubt too about the moody illustrations. The Mosquito and its pilot were ghosts, which may explain the different radio antennae on the frontispiece and pages 34 and 35. Same thing for the different exhaust stacks. The other pilot was not a ghost, but he was a very capable fellow all the same, for on the cover he is in a Vampire variant that has non-FB5 tail fins, on the frontispiece a single seat T.11 unknown to captivity, on pages 8 and 9 in fairly clearly an FB5, on page 16 back to the single seat T.11, on page 25 hard to say, on pages 34 and 35 back to pretty much an FB5 again although the fins are approaching T.11 configuration, and on page 55 it is not easy to be sure. All this in the one flight, with bad weather too, dead radio, and low on gravy. That guy was luckier even than he knew when he met up with that Mosquito.

Liverpool - Dragons not Ghosts !


The old terminal and control tower complex at Liverpool Airport is now a Marriott Hotel. As a grade two listed building, it had stood derelict for almost twenty years. The buildings have now been very sympathetically renovated, and a replica DH Dragon Rapide adorns the approach road. Very nice it looks too.

Haunted?...nah............. Oh, hello Captain Black :eek:

Anyone heard of a "shining" or "shimmering" airman apparition at RAF Newton? I was stationed there for a while some years ago, but only recently heard about this. I have no idea what it is supposed to be - so please don't ask me to elaborate!

ShyT

I have not heard of the Shimmering Airman at RAF Newton, but the former Battle of Britain fighter station at Hawkinge Aerodrome in Kent is reputed to be haunted by the ghost of an Airman. He has been reported as dressed in full WW2 flying kit and glowing faintly. Phantom Spitfires have also been heard overflying the airfield, which is now the location of the Kent Battle of Britain museum.

Over the years, I have visited a number of former fighter and bomber stations and although I have never seen anything strange there often seems to be an almost uncanny silence and sometimes a feeling that you are being watched. This may be simply due to the fact that they are often deserted. However, as a scientist I like to keep an open mind.

A few years ago I was i/c a rather non-standard hangar at a certain airfield in Wiltshire. I and all of my staff at some point had, whilst alone in the building, heard footsteps, or doors opening and closing. Nobody ever felt uncomfortable and we cheerfully referred to the "hangar ghost". The clincher was a particular occasion where we had a multi-crew aircraft inside the hangar, and (for various reasons I'm not going to elaborate on): -

- A guarded door
- Infra-red motion detectors around the building
- An unbreathable atmosphere inside the hangar
- 2 crew (fully suited on oxygen) in the aircraft.

The crew, who were busy and had their backs to the a/c door clearly heard the aircraft door open and close behind them. I was in the control room on intercom at the time, and when they asked who had gone in with them, I told them it was just the hangar ghost. That seemed the natural thing to say at the time, and interestingly (they weren't my staff) they just accepted it.

On the whole a friendly ghost who just liked a stroll around the hangar when it was quiet I think. We all heard it, nobody ever felt uncomfortable in its presence - I suppose we were all on the same side!


At another, older, airfield, I once lived in a station quarter built by WW1 POWs (German I think), in which I never felt properly at-ease, there was just a constant air of unhappiness in the place. Many people commented upon it although I can't honestly say it was ever worse than a general feeling of unease.

G

I got to thinking about a ghost story (true one) that I heard as a young airman. It was told to me by one of the people in the story, who said he does not believe in ghosts, but he had no explanation for what happened.

Many moons ago a friend of his had to lock up the hanger at RAF Leeming (in Yorkshire) at the end of the day. Not many airman were happy with this duty as there was a long standing rumour about a ghost. So as it was winter time and dark (brave lot in the Air Force!) he asked the guy who told me the story to stand by the main entrance as he locked up all the offices and turned he lights out. If he could keep the door open so that as the last of the lights went out there would be a shaft of light from the outside street lights, lighting the way out of the hanger - that would make him much happier.

Anyway as the airman was locking up an officer came over to him and asked if he had seen his navigator? No he replied and the officer left by the main door, past the guy who told me the story. Hanger all locked, so the two airman went to the NAAFI for a lemonade (or something).

As they walked the airman on locking up duty asked his friend what he thought about the officer looking for his navigator - he was dressed a bit odd.

"What officer?" was the reply.
"The one that walked right passed you!"
" Nobody passed me all the time you were locking up!!!!"

On reaching the NAAFI they asked around and then they found out the full story about the ghost.... During WW2, a navigator jumped out of his plane which was parked outside the hanger (to go to the loo or something) - the pilot kept the engines running and the navigator walked into the prop!! The pilot knowing something had happened jumped out (also engines running) and did exactly the same thing! Now the pilot walks the hanger looking for his navigator.

I don't think that airman locked up that hanger again! I think RAF Halton has some good ghost stories too!
:eek:

My grandfathers brother served with Jack Curry aboard their Lancaster as bomb aimer so am interested to hear of his writings further to 'Lancaster Target' although saddened to hear of his death. I will have to find a copy somewhere.

Airag,
AFE in Manchester have reprinted it and also Mosquito Victory and had it in stock last time I visited. (When I got mine). It's also in their catalogue and can be ordered over the net.

On the ghost topic, a former Luftwaffe flak barracks and supposedly SS experimental hospital in Wolfenbuttel I was once stationed at had some very scary echoes from the past. A friend of mine, on gusrd duty one night heard the sound of marching troops approaching and when he got to the corner, there was nothing there. It never occurred to him to think that the good old DMS boot made hardly a sound before he looked and only a boot with nails could sound like that. Apochryphal maybe, but I witnessed one of the 'war dogs' go absolutely ballistic when his handler tried to take him across the path over the bricked up 'underground hospital'. I've never seen a dog so frightened. It's hair was standing up vertically on it's back and these were VERY hard canines indeed! One of our Air Squadron pilots also saw smoke rising from the site of Belsen when overflying it one evening and distinctly smelt the odour of burning meat. Anyone else familiar with the place will attest to its strange and foreboding atmosphere.

Thanks mate.

Well, I must say I wasnt expecting so many replies to this! It appears many people have experienced events that just cant be explained rationally. Perhaps we feel like something is amiss or eerie because we know of tragic events there, much like the feeling you get at graveyards. Most of them seem to have one thing in common - theyre mostly as a result of people being killed or hurt in tragic circumstances before their time was due. Food for thought anyway, anyone still a sceptic?

Kermie :eek:

Rumour has it that the Lincoln in the Aerospace Museum at RAF Cosford near Wolverhampton is haunted although strangely enough apparently not by a member of the crew. I think that the ghost is of a Spitfire pilot. Im sure there are others here who know more than me about the story. In addition the tower is apparently haunted at Halfpenny Green (Wolverhampton International) although I dont know the details.

Re the ghost at RAF Cosford, I heard a while ago that it was the Bombadier of a certain aircraft, although I know not of his fate, he is alleged to be heard pressing the bomb release switches......

I read once that the ghost of the (male) co-pilot of one of the pioneer "aviatrixes" (Amelia Earhart, as I recall) appeared to a friend who was at the time in a ship on the high seas. Said ghost confessed that they had missed their landfall, were desperately short of fuel, and in dire straits. He then disappeared. This was all at the time later evidence suggests the aviator was indeed in dire straits, but of course long before it was common knowledge. Has anyone else come across this story?

Davaar,
Yep, that is "The Airmen Who Would Not Die" by John G. Fuller if I am not mistaken. Lent my copy for it never to be returned unfortunately. A very good book to read if you get the chance.
Cheers,
NdekePilot. :eek:

I remember reading (in Pilot I think) about a crew flying down the Persian Gulf in the 1980's and seeing a 4-engined propellor aircraft crossing quite close below them. The FO contacted whichever ground station he was working who insisted that they had nothing on radar. The crew initially assumed it was a C-130 but then realised that it had the characteristic twin eliptical fins of a B-24 Liberator. At the time the only B-24's in the area were in museums in India and the only flying B-24 was in the USA.

When I used Shipdham airfield, I was not alone in not liking locking up the hanger at night. It wasn't one of the original buildings from WW2 but the whole place was quite spooky in the evenings.

Edited for rcap spelling as usual

[ 02 December 2001: Message edited by: LowNSlow ]

I've heard Sleap is haunted by the ghost of a woman pilot. Anyone know the details on this one?

A Fair few moons ago I head about the ghost of a ME109 Pilot that is allegedly on a rubbish tip nearby....however, not convinced a 109 could get that far??

Re woman pilot ghost....never heard of it...however I think 2 Wellingtons did crash on the field during the war...one of which went into the top part of the tower, as well as numerous other aircraft in the local area, although never heard anything about those...more details anyone????

Re the 'Woman pilot' at Sleap. And the Control tower accident. Actually there were two seperate collisions. First on 26th August 1943 when a Whitley swung on landing and hit the Control tower killing the pilot and bomb aimer and also injuring the rest of the crew and some of the ATC staff. Then, and this is the relevent one, two weeks later another Whitley swung on take-off and hit the tower killing three ATC staff of which at least one was a WAAF. Scary eh! This from Action Stations No3 by Dave Smith.

Spiney.

My Grandmother used to tell my mum that she saw ghosts near a hill just out of Ayslebury in Bucks. Apparently a Messerschmitt Bf110 was shot down there in 1940 and crashed into a bog. The Bf110 was never recovered and both crewman were never found. The ghosts used to walk up the hill then disappear from view.

Maybe the mysterious Messerschmitt referred to in Sugar Junkie's post was in fact a 110? I read somewhere that a few Bf109's were fitted with long range tanks and operated into England on hit and run raids by specialist units.