10.30.2008

Ghostly Priest

Informant: Female/24/Korean ancestry
Location: Paris, France/Kauai

When I was in high school, I got to go to Europe with the school band as an Ambassador of Music from Hawaii. My sister, as a graduation present, got to go with me as a chaperone. These were the days before everyone had a digital camera. I mean, they existed, but you had to be damn rich to afford one.

Anyway, after we returned to the states we developed our gazillion rolls of film. When we got them back, my sister discovered this picture from her Paris roll. It was streaky and over exposed, so she completely disregarded it. But when I looked at it, I immediately saw a figure. To me, it looks like a priest with his head bowed and his hands folded in prayer. I can see his head, his features, and his vestments.

I asked my sister where she took the picture, and coincidentally enough she said, "I think this was at the Notre Dame cathedral."


10.24.2008

The Ghost of Aircraft 75

Informant: Male/39/Japanese-German-Scott ancestry
Location: Oahu, Maui

I used to work for an airline (that shall not be named) in the 50th state. We had Douglas DC-8's, DC-9's, Lockheed L1011's and DeHavilland DHC-7's (so you can pretty much gather what airline it was.) Anyway, we had a Dash 7 known as aircraft #75 - and it was well known within the airline that it was "haunted"!

The story has been told for years within the airline and some of the names have changed - but for those who were working at the time of the "incidents" - we knew exactly who was affected and how the real story went. I was one of the few who know exactly what happened.

In the summer of 1992, a flight from Kapalua West Maui was flown by aircraft #75 to HNL. During the flight, there was an old woman, who was in her late 80's to early 90's. She was a very nice lady who loved to chat with the flight attendants (there were two on board) and with whomever would listen to her. She just so happened to be sitting in the last row, nearest the entry door at the aft left hand side of the plane. After landing into HNL and after all (well, most) of the passengers exited the plane, the flight attendants noticed that the old woman was still sitting in her seat, seemingly asleep. Unfortunately, she passed away during the flight and I guess no one really noticed.

Some months later, a good friend of mine -- let's call him "John" -- was performing his pre-flight (overnight check) on aircraft 75. It was almost lunch time, so he had powered down the aircraft: disarmed the emergency lights, disconnected the external power and turned off the battery. After the aircraft was completely cold and dark, he proceeded towards the rear of the plane to exit. He noticed that there was someone sitting in the last row of the plane near the exit. So he yelled out thinking that it was one of us messing with him or waiting for him to go to lunch. The figure stood up and walked out the exit - and in the light from the outside ramp he noticed that it was an old woman!

He ran out of the airplane thinking that it was a passenger who got on the wrong aircraft or something, but when he got outside she was gone! He closed the door and got on his ramp tractor to get to the cafeteria, but not before glancing at the cockpit and noticing that there were lights on! John then re-opened the door, walked to the flight deck and noticed that the battery was on. He knew that it was turned off previously, but somehow it had flicked itself on!

Later at lunch he told us about what had happened, and we all laughed! "Someone's screwin' with ya," we told him, but none of us admitted to any wrong doing. He asked if any of us would come with him to help finish his pre-flight, but we couldn't. I was working on an APU change on a DC-9 and our other friends had their own pre-flights to take care of.

After lunch, John continued his pre-flight. Just as he was finishing his external check, someone tapped him on the shoulder and whispered "excuse me." He turned around - and NO ONE WAS THERE! He freaked out and ran to my airplane which was a good 100 yards away. John told me what had happened and I came over to aircraft 75 with him. Nothing happened again that night - but John was very well shaken.

I have heard from a few different Flight Attendants that they have had similar "experiences": tapping on the shoulder and whispers of "excuse me". I guess it had gotten bad enough that the higher-ups decided to bring in a Hawaiian Priest to "bless" the aircraft, but disturbances continued to happen, especially to my friend John. Apparently the "Ghost of Aircraft 75" really was attracted to him, because he would get tapped and whispered to even if he was on another aircraft! He had gotten so rattled he quit and moved to Reno, CA where he became employed with an airline that operated MD-80's and got bought out by American Airlines.

The DHC-7's had since been retired from the fleet of the airline that shall not be named, but I wonder if the ghost continues to try to strike up conversations with anyone who works on aircraft 75.