One of my favourite pastimes as crew is to sit in the galley during a night flight, huddled round with my colleagues with a cup of tea, sharing ghost stories. My favourites are always the ones that involve our job. Be it apparitions on aircraft or haunted hotel rooms, there are literally hundreds of spooky tales to be told.

One of the most famous aviation ghost stories came after the tragic crash of Eastern Airlines Flight 401, which plunged into the Florida Everglades in December 1972. Following the accident, hundreds of reported sightings of the flight crew from the doomed aircraft began to emerge. The deceased pilots were apparently haunting other Eastern planes, after parts of the aircraft were salvaged and used on other Lockheed L-1011 TriStars (the same type of plane that crashed).

Here we share some of those ghostly galley tales. Please, don’t have nightmares. Just remember, the dead can’t hurt you; it’s those pesky living passengers we should be scared of!

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….……….

The Murdered Captain

Our first story involves one of Europe’s well-known low-cost carriers. At the time, the airline operated a fleet of second-hand jets purchased from operators around the world, some of which had a rather harrowing past.

One such aircraft was an old Boeing 737. After a few months, rumours began to circulate of some strange occurrences being encountered, especially at night. After a bit of investigating (or a well-thought-out Galley FM hoax) by the airline’s crew, it was discovered that the old Boeing had been hijacked during its life with a previous carrier.

But this was no hoax. The ageing plane had indeed been hijacked some years earlier. Worst still, the captain on that flight had been shot and killed during the siege. The story goes that the pilot loved his job so much that his soul never left the 737, even after the new UK owner purchased it.

Fleeting shadows and strange visions were spotted in the galleys and flight deck. Call bells going off for no reason, and toilets flushing by themselves. Cupboards opening after being securely latched, strange smells, and rapid temperature drops were all experienced by crews and passengers until the aircraft was finally retired and scrapped.

The Tragic Child

In the early 1990s, Spanish charter carrier LTE International, based in Palma, operated a fleet of Boeing 757s on flights across Europe. On one particular journey, a young boy became ill, and despite the best efforts of the crew and a doctor who was travelling, the boy tragically died before they could reach the ground.

Some months later, it appeared that the child’s spirit had decided to stay behind on the jet and cause some havoc with its crew and passengers. As with the previous story, various spooky occurrences were reported, including mysterious moving tea and coffee pots, crew members’ personal items going missing, and the opening of lockers and galley cupboards, as well as extreme temperature drops, which constantly plagued the rear galley.

Frighteningly, the incidents were only ever reported when the aircraft was operating the route on which the boy died. The freaky happenings became so bad that the crew began to refuse to work on the 757, and eventually, LTE ensured that the aircraft in question never operated that route again.

American Flight 191

On May 25, 1979, an American Airlines McDonnell Douglas DC-10 crashed just moments after takeoff from Chicago O’Hare International Airport. All 258 passengers and 13 crew members onboard Flight 191, along with two people on the ground, were killed in the disaster.

The crash site, located in a caravan park, has since gained quite a reputation for itself. Screams have been heard coming from the darkness, along with strange floating lights and haunting figures, which have been spotted by people in the area.

But most terrifying of all are the lost souls who have shown up at people’s caravan doors, talking about finding their luggage, before disappearing right before their eyes.

The Body In The Hold

On a late-night, long-haul flight, a junior crew member had been told to go and take his break, so off he went for a bit of rest in the crew rest area. Slipping on his PJs, he dove under the covers and shut his eyes.

But just as he was drifting off, a noise startled him, and when he opened his eyes, he was shocked to see an old lady standing at the foot of the bunk. The crew member jumped up and asked what the hell she was doing in the crew rest area.

“Oh, I’m sorry, I just wanted to get my husband a G&T,” she replied. Confused as to how the lady could have got into this part of the plane and convinced he had locked the door behind him, he told her he would bring the drink up as soon as he’d finished his rest. “Ok, dear, he’s in 2A. Thank you.”

Unsettled by the encounter and unable to go back to sleep, he put on his uniform and went to the galley to pour the gent’s G&T. As he approached seat 2A, he noticed that the man was sitting alone and there was no sign of his wife. In fact, it appeared that no one had been sitting there the entire flight.

“Excuse me, sir, here’s your G&T,” the crew member said to the man. “Thank you, but I didn’t order a drink,” he replied. “No, sir, your wife asked me to get it for you a while ago, but I was on my rest, sorry.”

The colour immediately drained out of the passenger’s face. “I beg your pardon,” he said. “Sorry, sir,” the crew member replied. “I was on my rest, I thought your wife may have asked another crew member to get you your drink”.

By this point, the passenger was becoming somewhat irritated, so the purser came down to see what was wrong. “This young man claims that my wife ordered me a drink,” bellowed the passenger. “But she did, sir, about an hour ago. I’m sorry, I was on my break, but I have your drink here now.”

“I don’t know what kind of sick games you’re playing, young man, but there is NO way my wife ordered me that drink.” The crew member was now incredibly confused, “She did, sir, she came down into the crew rest area. A small, grey-haired lady with large glasses. She was wearing a brown dress and a cardigan and…”

“Oh my god,” the passenger whispered. “Describe her to me again.”

As the junior crew member explained the lady’s appearance, the older man began to cry. “My beautiful wife”, the man muttered through his tears. “I’m sorry, but my wife is dead…” A stunned silence fell across the cabin.

“DEAD?” shouted the purser, before demanding to know if the junior was making this up. “He’s not,” replied 2A. “He has perfectly described how my wife looked before she died. She had a massive heart attack whilst we were away. I’m bringing her back to the UK to be buried.”

The poor crew member couldn’t catch his breath and sat down in an empty seat. Meanwhile, the purser went to speak to the captain, who confirmed there was indeed a coffin being carried in the hold.

Legend has it that the old lady, still dressed in her brown dress and cardigan, with large glasses and grey hair, was often spotted onboard this particular 747, sitting in seat 2A, sipping her own G&T.

Haunted Bunks

Numerous cabin crew members have reported experiencing haunted bunks onboard aircraft, with some so terrified that they refuse to sleep in them and take their rest breaks.

One such story comes from one of my Australian dollies who shared this on social media: “W“ were on a 14 1/2 hour flight to the United Arab Emirates when three crew members came out from the crew rest area pale, afraid and visibly shaken. They had been woken by an elderly gentleman who seemed lost and confused and only spoke broken English.

While the purser went to investigate, the crew waited in the AFT galley. A lady from economy began chatting to them and explained how she had recently lost her father, and she was taking his remains back to Beirut. She pulled out his photo, and the crew all screamed in horror. It was the same man they had seen in the bunks.”

‘Scarebus’

In the mid-1990s, an Airbus A320 operated by Belgium’s now-defunct Constellation International Airlines earned the name ‘Scarebus.’ The story began when a crew member fell ill just before the flight took off. Once her replacement arrived, she left the airport, but on her way home, she was killed in a horrific car accident.

On flights following her death, many crew members reported hearing a voice screaming for help and whispering into their ears. The plane was also known for its frequent and unexplained technical problems, and the crew believed that it was the deceased employee’s spirit returning to haunt the jet.

Ghostly Trolley Dollies

And it’s not just flight crew and passengers that haunt aircraft. The spooky apparitions of our fellow cabin crew have also been spotted over the years.

On a long night flight some years ago, with the cabin lights dimmed and the galley curtain pulled, the crew relaxed and had something to eat. One crew member sat in his jump seat, could see down the aisle through a crack in the curtain, and was keeping an eye on the cabin. Suddenly, he noticed a mysterious figure walking towards them. The lady in question was dressed in what appeared to be an old airline uniform. She had a pale, withered complexion, her eyes were red and sunken, and she peered unresponsively ahead (the usual look for many crew on a late-night flight, to be fair). But as she neared the galley, right before his eyes, the woman disappeared.

Afraid that his colleagues would laugh at him, the crew member kept his mouth shut. But as dawn broke and the aircraft began its descent into London, he went to speak to the purser who had been with the company for many years to see if she knew anything of this haunting spectre. The purser shuddered and confirmed that the ghostly figure was known to many of the crew at the airline, especially on that particular aircraft. She had been around for years and was affectionately referred to as the ‘Senior Flight Attendant’.

On an old Boeing 737 belonging to another very well-known airline, the crew often reported seeing the spirit of a deceased female flight attendant. Late one evening, a crew member was calling the rear galley using the interphone when two people answered: a male voice and a female voice. They began to ask who the other female voice was, as there was only one female on board. The ghostly voice never answered them back, and only one person was standing in the galley, a male.

A Boeing 747 belonging to South African Airways was initially pencilled in as a set for the filming of the James Bond movie Casino Royale. After discussions with the airline’s staff, a different jet was subsequently used following reports of a ghostly woman who was said to wander the aisles of the jumbo jet at night. The lights would turn off and on (without power), and locked galley doors would slam open and shut, even under supervised conditions.

A few of my Facebook dollies told the terrifying story of a haunted crew rest area on board a Boeing 747-400. This particularly evil entity would poke, punch, pull hair and shout at crew members while they grabbed some much-needed shut-eye. When the crew were rudely awakened, there was no one around.

One particular crew member was fast asleep when a tapping on her back woke her up. She put back on her uniform and went up to the front, only to discover she had 25 minutes left of her break. Obviously, a little annoyed, she tried to find out who had woken her up. None of the other crew admitted to it, but one other girl said that she had had the same thing happen to her last time she’d been on the same plane. The haunting eventually became so severe that many refused to go near the crew rest, instead trying to grab some shut-eye in the galley, under the stairs, or in vacant seats.

There is nothing more annoying than a twitching galley curtain, but when it keeps happening and no one is there, it can become particularly freaky. This happened to an economy purser back in 2001. During boarding, the crew member was alone in the galley, and the curtain kept twitching as if a passenger was about to come through, but no passenger ever did.

One crew member told me their own terrifying tale from onboard a UK low-cost carrier: “I was in the back galley and heard the toilet door close. Nothing unusual. But after a few minutes, I heard someone cry out, so I knocked on the door to make sure the person inside was ok.

“A passenger who was standing waiting heard the same thing. There was then a loud thud from inside the lavatory, and so I opened the door immediately as I believed the person may have collapsed. But when I opened the door, there was no one inside. Suddenly, there was a drop in temperature in the galley, accompanied by a bizarre smell of freshly baked bread. It was very strange, and the galley was very eerie that day anyway; it was just a strange feeling I had.”

Haunted Hotels

Crew hotels are a constant source of spooky stories, some of which are invented to scare new hires. Strange sensations of someone being in the room with you. Someone sitting on the bed while you sleep. Covers being pulled off in the middle of the night. Taps and lights being turned on and off, and toilets flushing all by themselves. Objects being knocked over. Strange figures stood in poorly lit corridors that disappear right before your eyes. Some superstitious crew say that you should never open the curtains in a hotel room, as this is how you let the evil spirits in.

However, one of the creepiest I’ve ever heard happened in Milan, at the Sheraton Hotel near Malpensa Airport. A tired and weary crew member checked in and went up to their room to get some rest. When they arrived at their door, the key card wouldn’t work. Thankfully, a housekeeper who was just down the corridor let them in to drop off their bags, but when they got inside, the automatic lights turned off after a few minutes, and the room was plunged into darkness. The crew member tried to call down to reception, but the telephone wasn’t working, and so headed down to reception to sort it out.

The hotel staff offered to move the crew member to another room, but it would take around 30 minutes to prepare. In the meantime, she was instructed to return to the old room, and they would come and retrieve her once it was ready. The crew member went back upstairs, lay down on the bed and quickly drifted off to sleep.

Some time later, she was awoken by a knocking on the door. Thinking it was the porter to move her rooms, she got up and opened the door. No one was there. She looked up and down the hall, but it was empty. Feeling a little uneasy, she went and lay back down, groggy from her early flight. As her head hit the pillow, the door knocked again, but again no one was there. Then the telephone began to ring. When she picked it up, there was no one on the other end. By now, the lady was a bit freaked out and stood in the doorway of her room, looking into the corridor.

Soon after, a porter came to move the crew member. But as they entered the room, he stopped dead in his tracks and turned pale. “How long has that old lady been sitting there?” asked the staff member. Sure enough, as the crew member turned, an old lady was sitting on the chair next to the bed. The pair ran out screaming, and no explanation has ever been given as to how she got there. Needless to say, the crew member never went back.

Airport Apparitions

Airports have also seen their fair share of hauntings through the years. One of my lovely followers shared this with me about Manchester Airport…

“The transfer area of Terminal 1 and 3 is very well known to be extremely haunted. On several occasions, things would just fall from the desk for no reason. One evening, a door flew open and then slammed shut violently. It left me so terrified that I ran off.

“In the early hours of the morning, the motion detection lights would come on one by one all the way along the pier, as if someone was walking along, but there was never anyone there. There also used to be complaints from passengers and staff using the lavatories there that someone would be banging on the door as if telling them to hurry up….but they would be the only ones in there!”

Do you have any terrifying tales to add? If so, please post them in the comments below.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

© Confessions of a Trolley Dolly by Dan Air.