Think there are no ghosts on airplanes? Think again

Most people tend to think that ghosts are the things of haunted houses, ancient palaces and the like. You'd never find one on an aircraft, right? Well, you'd be surprised. There are many incidents reported of things that go bump in the night by pilots, cabin crew and engineers alike. Some aircrew, it seems, just never want to leave...

A flight instructor was with his student on the final approach into Orlando Executive Airport. Suddenly, on the emergency frequency, they heard a young girl saying 'hello' repeatedly as if searching for help. The instructor responded to her, but heard nothing back from the voice. Later, he found out that a young girl had stolen an aircraft from a flight school and subsequently crashed it and died a few months before.

On an ordinary working day, a pilot inputs the normal approach coordinates for landing on the data screen. Suddenly, a random message appears 'Don't you wish you knew what this means?' He showed the captain, who confirmed he had seen it too. They reloaded the approach, and everything went back to normal, but no one could explain what had occurred or why.

A young flight attendant was persuaded by her family to retire from flying after the Lockerbie Disaster in 1988. Her mother had a recurring dream that her daughter would be killed in an airline accident. So the young lady gave up her dreams and worked successfully as an accountant for many years. Her office was at the World Trade Centre in New York, where she tragically died on 9/11.

At a well-known airline in the UK, a cabin crew was approached by an elderly man in the galley. He asked her to pass a message to a woman onboard the aircraft, saying, 'I'm ok'. The cabin crew did so, and the lady seemed confused. She pulled a photo from her bag and asked if this was the person she'd spoken to. The cabin crew confirmed that it was, and the lady replied, saying that her husband, who had died, was, in fact, being carried in the hold.

The couple had just started their honeymoon in Europe, and unfortunately, the husband had a heart attack and died. The coffin was repatriated back to Florida, it was thought. However, the wife was on the flight - her husband was not. The coffin remained unlocated for five days until it was finally found at the couple's local airport, where it was, in fact, found to be empty.

During a flight, in cruise, the captain noticed on the Boeing 737s CCTV that two small children, a boy and a girl were playing next to the cockpit door. He couldn't understand why they were there and why the cabin crew had not seen them. He called the senior, asking why the children were playing next to the cockpit door. She believed it to be a prank, so she ignored it. After a few times, the captain let it drop until they reached the hotel that evening, asking if the senior really had not seen them, as both pilots had witnessed the playing children. She said there were no children in the galley near the cockpit door at any time.

An old Boeing 737 working for a low-cost airline in the UK was well known for call bells going off in the middle of the night and strange shadows and sightings in the galley and flight deck. Galley cupboards would open, and lavatories would flush randomly. There were strange smells and unexplained drops in temperature. The aircraft had been hijacked in its former history, and the airline captain was shot and killed onboard. He loved his job and must have decided never to leave the 737. Eventually, the aircraft was retired from service and scrapped.

Probably the most famous airline ghosts of all time, the flight crew of Eastern Airlines Flight 401, which crashed into the Florida Everglades in 1972. After the accident, some of the galley was salvaged and used in other aircraft. Afterward, there were many sightings of the captain, Bob Loft, and the flight engineer, Don Repo, appearing in galleys, overhead lockers, in the flight deck and warning the crew of aircraft issues. This continued until the aircraft's re-salvaged pieces were removed.

Writer - Patricia joins Simple Flying with over 20 years of experience in aviation. She has served as cabin crew on flights from economy-class to private jets. Patricia has a master's level postgraduate diploma in Human Factors in Aviation and has written about aviation since 2010. Based in Dubai

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