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Aviation Ghosts and Mysteries

Pilot?

Location: Sheffield (Yorkshire) - Endcliffe Park
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1990s, around February
Further Comments: A man spotted a figure wearing a flying jacket and scarf walking across the foggy, open playing fields. While walking towards the witness, the figure suddenly vanished.

Downed Vickers

Location: Shepperton on Thames (Surrey) - Field near Ferry Lane
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1932
Further Comments: In 1929 an old Vickers aircraft crashed in this field, killing its two crew members. The crash was heard several times over the next few years by locals and was even reportedly seen, glowing blue in the pale moonlight.

Fred

Location: Sleaford (Lincolnshire) - Boundary Cafe, Colbey Grange
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: Nicknamed 'Fred', this phantom resembles a young RAF pilot in overalls. Due to the proximity of the cafe to the former RAF base, it is speculated he was based there during the Second World War.

Guilt Ridden Officer

Location: Sleaford (Lincolnshire) - Colbey Grange - former RAF base
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: May (reoccurring)
Further Comments: This phantom officer in RAF uniform is thought to return briefly around May time, in regret for sending dozens of young men off to their deaths, in particular a close friend of whom he was particularly fond. The remaining control tower is thought to be particularly haunted, with footsteps and crashes heard and a poltergeist like entity throwing stones and broken glass at people who venture too close.

Vanishing John

Location: Stamford Bridge (Yorkshire) - Garrowby Hill
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: August 1999
Further Comments: A female witness reported interaction with the ghost of a Second World War RAF officer at this site. The figure in brown walked up to her, introduced himself as 'John' and, as he touched her hand, vanished.

Crashing Aircraft

Location: Stonehenge (Wiltshire) - Small monument to two pilots
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: Second World War
Further Comments: Several people driving together during the Second World War witnessed a plane crash here - when they investigated, all they could find was the monument to the first two members of the Royal Flying Corps to die in a plane crash.

Lancaster Pilot

Location: Strubby (Lincolnshire) - Second World War RAF base
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This decapitated shade nicknamed 'Strubby' is the result of a Lancaster bomber crash near the hangar area during the Second World War.

George & Co

Location: Sunderland (Tyne and Wear) - North East Aircraft Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Several entities are reputed to haunt this museum. The bottom half of a man has been seen walking around the hangars, wearing black trousers but no shoes. A phantom hound reputedly remains here, and poltergeist activity has also been reported - one witness watched an old fashioned gramophone, part of a static display, start to play unaided.

Pilot in the Fog

Location: Sutton (Cambridgeshire) - RAF Mepel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: November 1960
Further Comments: An RAF police officer encountered the apparition of an RAF pilot in full flying gear in the fog. The phantom dissolved before him. The witness tried to report it as an incident and was told not to bother as it had been seen before. Others on site had heard an aircraft flying low as if to land, though no aircraft would touch down.

Screaming Women

Location: Tangmere (Sussex) - Tangmere Military Aviation Museum
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: Killed by a bomb during the Second World War, members of the Woman's Auxiliary Air Force can still be heard screaming on this site.

Andrew Mynarski

Location: Teeside (Durham) - Teeside International Airport (was Middleton St George airfield), hangars and nearby St George Hotel
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1950s onwards, pilot seen in hotel 1982 and detected 1990s
Further Comments: Mynarski died after trying to save a trapped pilot in a Lancaster bomber as it dived towards earth. He was awarded the VC for his efforts. Mynarski's restless spirit currently walks the area he was stationed during the war and was seen outside the control room and hangars in the 1950s. Another version of the story names the phantom as a Canadian pilot named Mullen. In 1982 a pilot reported feeling a weight on his bed which vanished when he told it to go away, and although this could be sleep paralysis, the pilot researched further and found 20 more people who had experienced the same event. Another pilot reported many crews would sleep with the lights left on, and after waking to the smell of burning flesh (which swiftly dissipated), refused to stay in the hotel again.

Time for Breakfast

Location: Thurleigh (Bedfordshire) - Thurleigh Airfield
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1990s
Further Comments: One man reported smelling a full English breakfast being cooked, though he was in the middle of an empty car park. He was later told that the location where he stood was once the site of mess tents. Other places on the airfield have their own ghosts. The Officer's Mess is home to ghostly footsteps, while policemen patrolling the airfield once peered into an empty hut, only to see a group of wartime airmen playing cards!

Voice over the Tannoy

Location: Tibenham (Norfolk) - Old Second World War Airbase
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This echoing voice has been heard on the ground here using a non-existent tannoy, barking orders at crews who died over fifty years ago. The sound is sometimes accompanied by the sound of a bomber warming up before take-off.

Halifax

Location: Ticknall (Derbyshire) - Skies over the village
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 2014
Further Comments: A witness watched a low flying, four engine aircraft from the Second World War fly overhead. The witness later realised it was a Halifax bomber - there are no operational Halifaxs left.

Airman with Silk Scarf

Location: Turweston (Buckinghamshire) - RAF Turweston
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1950s
Further Comments: Thought to be another casualty of the Second World War, this spectral airman was last seen by the base's cook.

Lost Pilot

Location: Upavon (Wiltshire) - Perimeter around former RAF Upavon
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1940s
Further Comments: This shadowy pilot was killed when his First World War aircraft crash landed in nearby fields. He was reported several times by men on guard duty.

Flash of Person

Location: Waddington (Lincolnshire) - RAF Colby Grange - Tower
Type: Unknown Ghost Type
Date / Time: 20 October 2007
Further Comments: While out walking with her husband, this witness briefly spotted the flashing image of a person. The witness said the area was completely void of birds, insects or other wildlife.


A ghostly motorcyclist, and another entity on the horizon.

Faceless Motorcyclist

Location: Waddon (Surrey) - Roundshaw Housing Estate
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1971
Further Comments: The motorcyclist was seen early in the morning, dressed in old clothing. It is thought he was stationed on this site during the Second World War, which was a RAF base. Other airfield ghosts reported around the area include a Dutch pilot killed when his airplane crashed in fog in the 1930s and three nuns who died when their plane crashed in 1947. Phantom singing has also been reported on the estate.

Bomber Crewman

Location: Wantage (Oxfordshire) - Former site of RAF Grove (currently an industrial unit)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late 1970s
Further Comments: Staff at the private company which took over this industrial unit frequently reported a ghostly figure dressed in flying kit or feeling his presence. It was speculated that he was a local man killed when his bomber crash landed nearby - the payload exploded, killing everyone on board.

Lancaster Crew

Location: Welford (Berkshire) - RAF Welford
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Late twentieth century
Further Comments: The crew of a Lancaster bomber which crashed shortly after take-off have been observed crossing the old runway. The Glenn Miller hangar is one of the last places the big band member played before being killed; one account says the place is eerily quiet with local wildlife shunning the area, while another says band music has been heard coming from the hangar.

Navigator

Location: Wellesbourne (Warwickshire) - Former RAF base
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Unknown
Further Comments: This member of the RAF ran into the rotating blades of a stationary aircraft - his shade has been seen and heard retracing his final steps.

Kitted Out Airman

Location: West Malling (Kent) - Old World War 2 Airfield
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1980s
Further Comments: The haunt of a Second World War airman, this figure may also be to blame for throwing bricks at passing vehicles.

Dark Form

Location: Weston on the Green (Oxfordshire) - RAF Weston on the Green, south-western side of the airfield on the perimeter track
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: 1995
Further Comments: An officer taking part in a night exercise on the airfield with a group of ATC cadets encountered several dark shapes. The warm night air quickly turned icy cold, and the officer watched as one of the dark shapes ran towards him. He sidestepped the figure, and it vanished as it passed him. The man later mentioned his experience to a colleague and was overheard by a nearby airman who previously had a similar encounter.

Biplane

Location: Weybridge (Surrey) - Skies over the town
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Weather Dependent: During thunderstorms
Further Comments: The plane was blown out of the sky in during a storm in the mid-1930s - now when the weather conditions are bad, the aircraft can be heard struggling in the wind.

Pop

Location: Wickenby (Lincolnshire) - Wickenby RAF base (World War 2)
Type: Haunting Manifestation
Date / Time: Second World War
Further Comments: Michael Bentine, of The Goon Show fame, worked here during the war. After a period of leave, Bentine headed towards his hut and walked past a friend and fellow officer known as 'Pop', whom he greeted. Pop nodded his response and continued walking. The following morning, Michael discovered Pop had died two nights previous. A nearby building is also reported haunted, this time by a WAAF officer who killed herself after her boyfriend died during a bombing raid over Germany.

Records 126 - 142 of 142

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