The Paranormal Database

Sounds of Action

Location: Lindholme (Yorkshire) - Former Second World War Air Force Base
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 1962
Further Comments: A witness recalled how he and a friend were walking across the deserted airfield at night and seeing a strange light in the control tower. Both knowing that the building should have been empty, the illumination unnerved them slightly. As they passed by a hangar, they were suddenly surrounded by the sounds of activity - they could hear the hangar doors screeching open, the engines of aircraft starting up, and the patter of many pairs of feet running by them, though nothing could be seen.

WO Hodgson

Location: Linton on Ouse (Yorkshire) - RAF Linton
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s onwards
Further Comments: A former pilot at the base, Hodgson's ashes were scattered across the runway and a small plaque erected in the 1950s. When the memorial was moved thirty years later, a spectral pilot was seen several times around the control tower. The officer's mess is also thought to be haunted, this time by a pilot who died in 1978 when his Provost crashed.

Halifax

Location: Lissett (Yorkshire) - Former Second World War airfield
Type: Crisis Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940s
Further Comments: This phantom bomber only made itself visible to a crew once inside their aircraft, if they were all going to die together.

Captain Scholz

Location: Little Walden (Essex) - Little Walden Airfield, near Saffron Walden
Type: Post-Mortem Manifestation
Date / Time: November 1993
Further Comments: Fifty years after dying when his Mustang crash landed, Captain Scholz, dressed in his flying suit, appeared in the back seat of a car as it drove past the airfield. The apparition was only visible for a few seconds.

Thomas Campbell Black

Location: Liverpool (Merseyside) - Liverpool Airport, formerly known as Speke
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century
Further Comments: Black died in an accident on the runway of the airfield in 1936 - his shadowy form has been seen walking around the area where the old hangars stood.

Wellington Bomber

Location: Llandovery (Dyfed) - Towy Valley, between Llandovery & Llandeilo
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A training zone for Second World War crews, one assumes this phantom belongs to a group that did not make the grade.

Bomber

Location: Llandow (South Glamorgan) - RAF Llandow (disused)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 18 August 2009
Further Comments: A father and his young son were walking along the misty runway at this disused airfield. They paused to drink tea and noticed that there was a red flashing light on the control tower, just visible through the mist. The wind suddenly picked up, and as the mist cleared, they both spotted the silhouette of a four engine Second World War bomber, moving silently, banking over the airfield.

Wartime Bomber

Location: Llysfaen (Clwyd) - Colwyn Bay area, skies over
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Early 1980s, 12 February 2016
Further Comments: A family on holiday in the area watched a Second World War bomber fly over the sea and vanish inland, diving behind a hill as if going to crash. They noticed there was no sound accompanying the aircraft. A similar, or the same, aircraft was observed by two witnesses some thirty years later.

Bomber

Location: Longdendale Valley (Derbyshire) - Bleaklow Hill
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: May 2003
Further Comments: A wife and her husband camping here heard the droning of what they believed was an old wartime bomber coming into land. They could not see anything, and the sound ceased without warning. When talking to the campsite owner the following morning he said they were not the first to report such sounds.

RB-B29 Bomber

Location: Longdendale Valley (Derbyshire) - Entire area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: March 1997, and circa 1998, 2001, 2007, 2008, 2019
Further Comments: In 1997, a dozen witnesses in different areas of the valley called emergency services after they watch an aircraft crash in the valley one spring night in 1997. A search of the area revealed no evidence of an accident, and locals blamed the ghost of RB-B29 'Over Exposed' that crashed just after the Second World War. Since 1997, a number of hikers have reported seeing a large black and silver aircraft in the area. The captain of that aircraft is also said to walk the area in which he died. Other sources say the plane is a Skytrain transport or a F13 which crashed in 1946.

Two Former Airmen

Location: Maes Artro, Llanbedr (Gwynedd) - Former Second World War airbase
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: A training base for fighter pilots during the Second World War, a couple of the trainees have refused to go away post-mortem and are blamed for moving chairs and removing small items left laying around. The site has now been converted into a holiday village, with most of the original buildings destroyed.

Figure in Greatcoat

Location: Manby (Lincolnshire) - Tedder Hall, and surrounding area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: Formerly RAF Manby, the area is haunted by a Second World War pilot. He is sometimes seen wearing a long coat, and at others wearing his flying gear. The drone of aircraft engines is sometimes heard over the old runways.

A ghostly old man.

Old Bare Footed Man

Location: Manchester (Greater Manchester) - Manchester Airport
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1970s
Further Comments: Observed in what was once the barracks of the 613 RAF Squadron, this phantom old man has been reported by cleaners and late working staff. The occasional scream has also been heard coming from the building.

Former Pilot

Location: Manston (Kent) - RAF Manston
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: January 1970 (or 1971)
Further Comments: A MoD fireman was on kitchen duty in the early hours of the morning when he spotted a semi-translucent figure wearing a flying helmet, Irvin jacket and Mae West. The witness quickly left the area and was later told that others had seen the entity. It was generally thought the ghost to be a pilot who crashed into a snow drift during the Second World War.

Pilot

Location: Martlesham (Suffolk) - Red Lion public house
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Post-Second World War
Further Comments: This pub is said to be haunted by the ghost of a pilot who crashed en route back to his airbase located at Martlesham.

Heathland at Martlesham Heath, Suffolk.

Long Dead Airman

Location: Martlesham Heath (Suffolk) - Police HQ, heathland, and shopping area
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1978, 1981 (police station), 2004 (shopping area)
Further Comments: The site of a major airfield during the Second World War, the Police Headquarters and the surrounding heathland has a reputation of being haunted by long dead pilots. Several police officers have seen such shades, while more recently, owners of a shop reported seeing a detached human shadow outside their establishment.

Catherine Bystock

Location: Metheringham (Lincolnshire) - Perimeter track of the former RAF base
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 9.30 - 10.00 pm (reoccurring)
Further Comments: Killed in a motorcycle accident near the base during World War II, Catherine is said to have returned; she flags down motorists along the road and asks them to help her boyfriend who is injured down the road, only to vanish if assistance is granted.

Old Roger

Location: Mildenhall (Suffolk) - RAF Mildenhall
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Second World War
Further Comments: Old Roger is a figure that is said to primarily haunt the Norfolk Breckland, playing on a beaten up flute that summons storms. During the war, one man claimed to see Roger in the RAF base, the storm following the sighting resulted in an impending German bombing raid on Mildenhall being cancelled. An aircrew also reported seeing an old First World War biplane land on the runway, before taking off again, during a particularly foggy night during the 1940s.

Trainee Pilot

Location: Montrose (Angus) - Former RAF Montrose
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Twentieth century, and 2010
Further Comments: This World War I trainee died while out on his first solo flight - his ghost appeared in the base commander's room three times, before the room was locked up and no longer used. He was also seen flying around in his biplane, up until the end of the Second World War. A phantom Second World War RAF Officer was seen around the base during the latter years of the conflict. It was thought that he was killed when a mechanic with a grudge tampered with his aircraft's engine. In 2010 it was reported that an old radio set at the heritage centre continued to pick up Second World War transmissions, including Churchill speeches.

Ghostly airman on the road.

Silhouette

Location: Newton (Nottinghamshire) - RAF Newton (no longer operational) and roads in the area (including Fosse Way)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: A phantom airman walks around these roads, vanishing if a car slows down close to him.

Fordson Tractor

Location: Normanton (Yorkshire) - RAF Bottesford (aka RAF Normanton) - no longer operational
Type: Environmental Manifestation
Date / Time: 04 October 2009
Further Comments: A visitor to the site heard what he first thought was an old Fordson tractor ticking over, though the sound later changed to an aircraft carrying out pre-flight checks.

Tobacco

Location: North Berwick (Lothian) - East Fortune Airfield (museum)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2000s
Further Comments: The smell of tobacco is said to fill the air in the top hangar, even though no smokers are present. Mild poltergeist activity is reported, and occasionally a phantom man is seen wearing dark coveralls.

Roar of Engines

Location: North Pickenham (Norfolk) - Hangar at Second World War Airfield
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1959
Further Comments: The sound of old aircraft engines warming up has been reported coming from a hangar on this site, even though the building in question is empty.

WAAF member

Location: North Weald (Essex) - Airbase
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1950s
Further Comments: Killed in a bombing raid, this member of the Woman's Auxiliary Air Force was heard walking around the area where the bomb hit for a dozen years after her death. Another ghost was blamed for removing the handset off the telephones on the base - a heavily wounded airman died during the war as he picked up the receiver of a phone, and it was thought he continued to try to make the call for many years later. Finally, the base is also reputedly haunted by a man who was pinned to a tree after being caught in an explosion.

S for Sugar

Location: NW4 (Greater London) - Hendon Air Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: The Lancaster Bomber 'S for Sugar', which is kept on site here, still retains its crew from the Second World War in spirit form. A gunner has been observed sitting in one of the turrets, while the sounds of people working on the aircraft have been recorded late at night.