Ghosts of the Air
by Martin Caidin

Copyright 1997 by Barnes & Noble; New York

Just in time for Halloween, this re-issued publication of true-life supernatural accounts in the aviation world will make those who don’t believe in ghosts think twice. Well-documented and researched by a veteran flyer and author with an international reputation, this book will give even the most dyed-in-the-wool doubters…well, the creeps. Originally published in 1991, it was republished in 2007 by Barnes & Noble and has found its way back onto their shelves in time for Halloween.

From Barnes & Noble online:
“Ghosts of the Air is the culmination of a lifetime of personal interviews and independent research. In this unforgettable book, Martin Caidin documents mysterious flights of phantom World War II bombers seen by dozens of eyewitnesses; airfields eerily inhabited by airmen killed in action; voices emanating from dead radios; ghost visitations; a Boeing 727 that for ten minutes slipped through a stitch of time. With story after incredible story, the former FAA examiner evokes unforgettable images of supernatural incidents in the air.”

It begins harmlessly enough with an account by a naval pilot-in-training in who apparently sees double, or rather, a mirror image. During a training flight, he sees his own aircraft, right down to the serial number, flying abreast off his left wing. The pilot of the other plane, who he recognized as himself, waved at him! Plane and pilot both vanished within seconds. Since he wanted his wings, he never mentioned it to his instructor…

Also included:

• The Phantoms of Montrose – apparitions of pilots killed in action seen at a Royal Air Force airfield, only at night, the sound of whose footsteps along particular paths disconcerted the living RAF personnel for years;
• A young boy in Poland who dreamed of the ghost of a pilot who was killed the following day;
• Pilots flying on instruments in zero visibility conditions, who receive life-saving directions from disembodied voices — voices not from their radios;
• The ghost of an old friend and fellow flyer who prevented a pilot crashing into a mountainside in poor weather;
• The Ghost of RAF Lindholme — for over 40 years, a wounded pilot killed when his Halifax bomber overshot the airfield, crashed and sank into a nearby bog after returning from a night mission, appeared to others on the airfield at night, injured and bloody, asking directions to the Sergeant’s Mess. He was never seen again after his plane was raised from the bog in the 1980’s, and his remains were finally laid to rest;
• WWII accounts from multiple pilots on both sides who saw World War I bi-plane fighters appear in the midst of dogfights, attack the enemy aircraft, and vanish;
• The mysterious case of a P-38 pilot, overdue from a mission, whose plane suddenly roared over his airfield hours after his fuel tanks had to have run dry, and came apart in mid-air for no apparent reason. He parachuted to safety, but hung limp in his harness, never moving before or after he touched down. Examined by doctors, he had been dead for hours, with a head wound that had killed him instantly;
• The case of the novice RAF pilot, sent aloft on a lone night mission in his Hurricane fighter to patrol the Dover coast, only to encounter what other pilots later told him was the Ghost of the Red Baron, for they had seen him themselves;

…and many more!

Pick up this book of multiple aerial hauntings…if you dare…