USAF Haunted Airplane - August 2008 Ghost Stories

I used to work avionics (aircraft electronics) in the Air Force and was assigned to a C-130 squadron located at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska. We had several C-130's with one in particular tail number 2070 which had a history of odd occurrences. My first experience on it happened one night, while working the midnight shift, another airman and I were working on a fuel quantity indicating issue up in the flight deck when we heard what sounded like someone hitting the inside wall of the cargo compartment (which is big enough to fit a large truck in and separate from the flight deck) with a mallet or a fist, at first we figured it was just wind blowing the control surfaces around or a crew chief doing some work in the back but the beating continued, finally we went back into the cargo compartment to see who was making the noise but all the lights were out and there was no one around, we went outside into the snow and realized the wind was totally still, and there were no foot prints or anyone else anywhere near the a/c we went back into the plane shaking it off and didn’t hear it again till about an hour or so later, same beating except closer to the flight deck wall where we were working on the other side of, again we checked and as it was earlier there was no wind no one around the plane, we ended up leaving early that night.

The second experience I had was the most disturbing, it happened on the same airplane working mid shift on some instruments in the flight deck and with the same airman as before. We were busy working when we heard what sounded clearly like someone walking around in the cargo compartment, the cargo compartment has a metal floor so it was very loud and clearly recognized as boot steps, it started in the far back corner of the cargo compartment and would walk up closer to the flight deck ladder which leads up into the flight deck, but then would walk back to the back of the cargo compartment. The sound still sends a shiver down my spine when I think about it, the footsteps continued for a little while till we finally mustered up enough courage to investigate, we both went down the flight deck ladder into the cargo compartment, it was dark no lights were on and no one was there, we quickly went outside into the deep snow around the aircraft but there was no footsteps, we were the only ones on the flight line that night. Wanting to get our job done and get away from that airplane we went back up into the flight deck and got back to work, it wasn’t long till we heard the foot steps again, except this time the would walk up to he bottom of the flight deck ladder just out of sight of us and stop. Needless to say we cleaned up shut down the airplane and left in a hurry.

The Third time was on the same airplane, I was up in the flight deck by myself sitting in the copilots seat, it was around 1:00am, there was a pretty good snow storm that night and the airplane was getting blown around pretty bad, when this happens the yoke (or control wheel) will sometimes pull back towards the seat when the elevators are blown around then slam back down when the wind stops it would do this at every strong gust of wind that hit
the airplane. When it would do this it would normally cause the yoke to come out an inch or two depending on how strong the wind gust was its no real good to have it slamming around like that, so since I was sitting in the copilots seat I decided to try to cushion the yoke so it wouldn’t slam back down as hard. After a couple of minutes of doing this all at once the yokes came back as far as they could into the seat actually pinning me into the copilots seat and held me there, there was no power or hydraulics applied to the aircraft which makes this almost impossible even with two or three strong men to pulling back on the yoke with no hydaulics this can’t happen, the yokes kept me pinned for a minute or two and I ended up having to slide the copilots seat backwards and edge my way out of the seat to get free of the yoke, even after I got out of the seat the yoke still stayed pulled back all the way, then it slammed back down. I jetted off of that airplane as fast as I could and stood in the blowing snowstorm until the shift leader drove over to pick me up, I still can’t explain that.

The last time something happened to me on an aircraft was actually after I left the military, on a different airplane, still a C-130 but a different tail number, as a civilian I work on C-130’s for the Air Force at L-3 Communications in Waco, TX doing about the same thing I did in the Air Force. One night while working a swing shift I was doing some work in the cargo compartment of one our airplanes, working up on a ladder on some electrical wires in what is known as the “hogs trough,” which is in the upper part of the cargo compartment. Because I was working on electrical lines I had all power turned off on the air plane and was working by my self with a flash light in the dark, while I was busy working I felt some one pulling on the bottom of my jacket, lightly like a little kid pulling on my jacket trying to get my attention, the first time It happened I looked around to see what it was and just kind of shook it off and went back to work, then it happened again but harder this time, I climbed down the ladder and inspected my jacket to ensure it wasn’t caught on something, after a thorough inspection I decided to go back to work, a couple of minutes later, about the time I was really getting something done, all at once something tugged hard on my jacket, almost pulling me off the ladder. There was no one around, no one on the airplane, I cleaned up my stuff and left the airplane, since that night I refuse to work on a airplane by myself at night. I still claim not to believe in ghosts but I can’t explain the things I’ve heard or have felt and really hope not to have any more experiences on an airplane or off. Thanks for showing interest.