[Gort]

Hey – if any of you guys love ghost stories , jump on over to this English Aviation Forum, where they recount all kinds of spooky goings on at abandoned and operational airfields.

Click here and have a jolly good time!

[Shawn 507]

Good stories, wouldn't mind visiting those airbases one day!

[sniperUK]

You will find a couple of contributions from me on there,some really good stories on that thread. Check the tutrret in this pic.

[IXEC]

Thanks for the link Gort,

Its peaked my interest after reading some of those forums stories.

My late father was an Army Aviation Engineer back in the day. He spent two years building Airfields in Essex's and Suffolk, England.

I sure would like to get to some of those places.

Cheers, Paul

[Gort]

That's cool, Sniper! I’ve read many accounts where spirits (ghosts, if you prefer) haunt old bombers and the like. Take a look at these photos ...

xx


See the figure in the nose? The pilot of this ‘17 was blown to Kibbles ‘n Bits by a 20mm canon shell over Pforzheim, Germany, the copilot just barely managing to return the ship in one piece. A photographer snapped this shot approximately seven weeks later. Crew members swore the ghostly image was none other than Capt. Miller, the dead pilot.

Here’s a story you might enjoy. I grabbed it from a ghost story site (can’t remember which one) years ago. This is spook50hydro’s account word for word (including spelling, grammar and typo errors). I make no claim to its authenticity.

Spook 50 Kc-135 @ Fairchild Air Force Base

By: spook50hydro@yahoo.com

I am writing in response to a crew chief that has had ghostly experiences aboard Spook 50 the haunted KC-135 at Fairchild Air Force Base in Washington. I used to be a hydraulics technician at Fairchild from 1998-2002. One particular night on swing shift well after dark I happened to be on Spook 50. As a hydraulic technician, it is our responsiblity to repair the air refueling boom. Spook 50 had been flown that day and had come down with an electrical on the boom. The 4 of us hydraulic technicians on shift went out their to see what was wrong. We put a boom tester on the end of the boom and the check was ready to go. The 3 other techs on shift were on a maintenance stand with the tester while I was running the test from the boom pod. The 4 of us were the only ones near the plane. Anyways, while I was waiting for them to commence their part of the test, I heard footsteps behind me. They seemed to come towards me until it got close to the boom pod and then alk away. Thinking nothing of it, I figured that they needed something downstairs so I asked them what they needed. They said they had been standing on the stand and had not moved and were ready to commence the test. I told them I thought I heard one of them upstairs but all 3 said they hadn't moved and that it was probably my imagination. The wind was not blowing but the fuselage floor had been sligthly bouncing as it does when someone is walking to the back of the aircraft. I realize now that I never heard the safety grate on the enterance come down so I am sure that no living person was up there with me. I had to go back up there and finish the test but since that day Spook 50 has always freaked me out. I have heard other stories from friends but that is my only personal experience.

Back when I was in the Air Force, I worked as an electrician on C-5's, and I worked the graveyard shift (que the dum dum dummmmmmmm). We had this C-5 that was honest to god HAUNTED. The stories about it were many and wild, and something to talk about on those cold slow nights. What IS known for sure was that it was the C-5 that brought back the killed marines from the barracks bombing in lebanon(?)--some 80 pine coffins-- and that a crew chief was killed in a fall some time before then. All the fantasic and creepy stories aside, let me tell you what happened to ME on that damn plane.

But first, let me set the stage: When a plane is getting ready to go on a mission somewhere, there's a backup plane, that's kept at a state of readiness in case the original one breaks down. Well, someone has to babysit that plane and that was me. The plane was far off in an isolated corner of the airfield -the Hot-Spot- the place where they load up explosives and other nasty stuff. For obvious reasons, this is FAR away from the other planes. So, there I am, alone, about a quarter mile from anyone else, around 3:30 am in a dark corner of the airfield, with nothing to do but sit there with power on and keep the plane from doing that odd thing that big planes do (that is break down when you let them sit).

Now let me explain a few fact about the C-5 relavent to the story. The flight deck was about 5 stories up, and the way to get to it from the ground is a rickety metal half stairs/ half ladder of about 25 steps. On the ground, the plane gets its power from these big loud diesel generators plugged in by a 20 pound plug to the belly of the plane.

OK, so: there I am, bored, semi-dozing (but don't tell anyone), when the power suddenly dies. Me being an electrician I can think of about 30 things that it might be, but let me check the most likely culprit: the power unit. Its still roaring away, but I go down stairs to take a look. When I get down there, I see that the plug was pulled out and laying about 5 feet from the planes' outlet. The first thing I suspect is that someone is out here somewhere messing with my head. I start looking around for the guy -really pissed-, because yanking the cord out with power on is dangerous and yadda-yadda-yadda. After a while I gave up and went back upstairs to set the plane to recieve power again. I then went back down to plug in the plane and as soon as I plugged it in, I noticed the lights on in the flight deck windows.. meaning someone had flipped the switch.

Now im REALLY pissed off and ready to kill someone. As I stomp up the (rickety) ladder to catch the loser, the power goes off again before I reach the top. I hurried up to catch him, only to find no one there. I tried to flick the switch back on, but it didnt work... going back downstaris I found the plug unplugged again and laying even further from the plane. This time I looked everywhere for what had to be several pranksters. I was all alone out there, and the only road to get where I was was in plain sight from the flightdeck.

More than a little freaked out, I plugged the plane back in and turned power back on. and it finally stayed on. As freaked out as I was, within about an hour I was dozing off again (life is hard in the military). after I don't know how long, I heard someone stomping up the rickety ladder. I figured it was my supervisor coming to check on me and the plane, and hurrying up the ladder to catch me napping. The ladder is wobbly, like I said, and loud as hell, and the plane was rocking slightly on its shocks like it does when you run up the ladder. So, I jump up, try to look awake, and look down the ladder to see who it is. THERE IS NO ONE THERE!! The sound suddenly stops, the ladder still wobbling slightly. Me being the avid horror movie critic, this is the predictable point where you get possesed, or something invisible slugs you. But nothing happened, and, with a nervous laugh I got on the radio and told my supervisor to get me the hell off of that plane (which i think was the message all along)!!!

Well, that's my story. Looking back on it, its POSSIBLE that some part of that night was due to a weird bug with the power switching circuts, but that doesnt explain how the 20 pound plug got unplugged twice, nor does it explain the ladder deal. But that's just my story of that plane, and I'm not the only one who has had "problems" with it.

[sniperUK]

I've seen that pic before,interesting. In the pic I posted the big scary bald guy in the background is the one who as a cadet encountered "Lindholm Willie" ex army pilot on Beavers and jungle warfare instructor.I was with him at East Kirkby when because of the atmosphere in the control tower I had to get out as I just felt spooked.

[Gort]

You’ll get a kick out of this one ...

Remember the 007 flick Casino Royale, the Daniel Craig (as James Bond) 2006 version? As the film crew was shooting at Cranleigh - Dunsfold Aerodrome aboard an elderly 747 (used as a set), an unfamiliar woman wearing a dated ensemble waltzed from the back of the airliner up the isle. Staring catatonically ahead, the female ignored everyone and brazenly strolled past the cameras – right through a forward bulkhead. Not past the doorway, mind you – through the bulkhead itself! Poof! Just like that!!! Vanished.

A production assistant shrieked; everybody else stared saucer-eyed. Nobody moved.

Thirty years before to the day, a female passenger died of a heart attack in the economy section of the same plane.

[Gort]

I’m sorry guys – I know this paranormal stuff sounds whacky, but I’m having too much fun to stop. Gotta share another story ...

According to scores of witnesses and auditory evidence, a ghost haunts an Avro Lincoln B11 bomber at the RAF Museum, Cosford – Shropshire, England.

No kidding. You’ve got to read this ...

Nestled in Hangar Three sits bomber RF398, an elderly Avro Lincoln long-range bomber. Built in 1945, she served in the Bomber Command Bombing School until 1957, eventually winding up at Cosford in ‘68. Since then, museum staff and others have insisted that “Master Pilot Hiller,” an airman who eerily announced that he’d “haunt his baby” (referring to this particular bomber), actually haunts the machine.



Shortly after Hiller’s untimely death at Cosford, something supernatural possessed the Avro Lincoln.

It started in 1980 during the bomber’s restoration. A staff member was locking up one evening when a flicker caught his eye. Somebody was cavorting inside the bomber, a dillydallying guest, he assumed, and that was a no-no. The staffer flicked on the lights, scurried to the aircraft, and searched it from nose to tail – but found no one. Scanning the hangar with a critical squint, he shuffled back to the door, turned off the lights, and glanced one last time at the lonesome Lincoln – when his jaw dropped: A willowy, undulating “cloud” hovered near the bomber, close to the perspex nose. Slowly, the vapor coalesced into the filmy apparition of a pilot dressed in flying kit. The staffer gawked in disbelief, swallowed his tongue, and then bolted out the door.

Days later, a mechanic dropped a wrench inside the Lincoln’s cavernous, darksome bombay. As he bent down to feel for it, an unseen hand thrust the tool into his outstretched fingers.

Mechanics began to report tools, spare parts and other items materializing right next to them. Rare fittings and fixtures turned up no matter how scarce or unusual they were. On one occasion, the restoration team was at a loss for a type of wire that was all but impossible to find – until a coil of it magically appeared in a hangar corner. Obsolete bulbs showed up when needed. Switches, knobs and other out-of-production devices materialized, too, as the restoration progressed. Nobody had a clue where they came from.

One afternoon, an electrician working on the Lincoln 15 feet above the floor fell from his perch. He recalls thinking “This is it!” But rather than smacking the concrete, he gently floated to the floor “as if,” he recalled,”some invisible force had prevented my fall from being fatal.” He landed without so much as a scratch.

Months later, the secretary to the museum society was piecing together a bulletin board inside Hangar Three when someone called her name. Thinking a staff member was requesting a cup of tea, she craned her neck toward the bomber, but saw no one. The voice called again, and this time the secretary saw an unearthly face gawking at her from the cockpit. Understandably, she's refused to enter the building alone to this day.

All of this and more prompted the BBC’s Gwyn Richards and paranormal investigator Ivan Spenceley to investigate the haunted bomber in 1991. The pair spent two nights inside the aircraft armed with recording equipment. Their results:

The recorders captured mechanical sounds that can’t be attributed to the building cooling down or the aircraft settling. Such as four engines coughing to life and revving at high speed, the roar of the bomber pulling maximum power down a runway, the change of pitch as the aircraft turns and dives. To corroborate their findings, Gwyn and Ivan played these recordings to ex-Lincoln air crew, who confirmed the sounds as genuine and exactly what you’d hear inside the bomber as it flies. Three of these ex-crew members, Phil Pritchett, Gareth Lewis and Peter Palma, attributed several of the sounds to actions typically implemented by pilot and crew. No one could explain any of it.

At another time, someone recorded the sound of a Consul navigation beacon inside the cockpit, a bizarre phenomenon considering the Consul beacon has been out of use since 1956.

So what’s going on there? Is “Master Pilot Hiller” actually haunting that bomber, just like he said he would? Or is it some ghostly Whitley crew member, as others suggest, who longs after the engine of his ill-fated bomber that once resided in Hangar Three? We’ll never know. But current staff members, several workmen and more than a few guests still insist something creepy hangs around bomber RF398.

[Gort]

Calling all ghost story lovers ...

If you’ve had – or anybody else you know has had – a paranormal experience, PM me and tell me about it. One of these days I’m going to write a book (no kiddin') about hair-raising ghosty experiences (especially the military kind, but not exclusive to). So I’d love to hear from you.

Just one proviso: It has to be true (as in, your encounter really happened).

Your mail will be strictly confidential. I won’t tell a soul; I won’t laugh; I won’t think you’re a nutcase. If you’re down with me publishing it, tell me. If not, that’s OK, too. I’d still like to hear your story.

OK, back to your regularly scheduled program ...