Two pilots seen in an airliner cabin, linked to an Everglades crash
A caller who gives their location only as Lexington, Kentucky, tells of a flight they say they took in Chicago while in the Air Force. The caller and a woman with them saw two pilots seated in the back of the cabin. After takeoff the two men were gone, and a stewardess reportedly reacted with distress. Asked by the host about the aircraft that crashed in the Everglades, the caller says that crash is connected to what they saw. The caller recalls the figures as chalky-white but solid-looking. The call ends as the caller begins a second, unrelated story.
This clip comes from the source recording. AI chose where it starts and ends, so it may start or end a little early or late. The word-for-word transcript is not published. You can hear the source recording on the Internet Archive (file “Ghost to Ghost 1994.mp3”, starting at 1:15:21). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller gives their location only as Lexington, Kentucky, and no name. The caller says they have two stories for the host and tells the first one. It happened when they were in the Air Force and had just graduated from tech school. The caller says they and a woman they refer to in the transcript as “a waft” boarded an aircraft in Chicago. The caller says she was explaining something about the aircraft that she did not fully understand. As they boarded, the caller saw two pilots sitting in the back of the cabin, and suggested they speak to them once airborne. After takeoff, when the seatbelt sign went off, the caller says they and the woman went back to talk to the two men and found them gone. The caller says they then asked a stewardess where the pilot went. She answered, according to the caller, “what pilot?” The caller told her about the two pilots in the back, and says the woman with them confirmed she had seen them too. The caller says the stewardess left and returned with two other stewardesses. The caller repeated the story, and one of them began crying, became upset, and had to be taken to the back. The caller then asks the host whether he recalls the aircraft that crashed in the Everglades. When the host says he does, the caller answers that this was part of it. The caller guesses the flight may have been “401 or 409” and describes the two men as chalky-white-looking but solid. The host says that aircraft are haunted and that people who die unexpectedly in crashes remain. The caller also remarks that parts from a crashed aircraft are put into other aircraft. The call ends as the caller begins a second story about a place in Tennessee.
Reported events, in order
- 0:06
The caller says they have two stories and begins the first, set when they were in the Air Force just after graduating from tech school.
- 0:12
The caller says they and a woman referred to in the transcript as “a waft” boarded an aircraft in Chicago. She was explaining a technical point about the aircraft that she did not understand.
- 0:12
The caller says two pilots were sitting in the back of the cabin as they boarded.
- 0:31
The caller says that after takeoff and the seatbelt sign going off, they went back and the two men were gone.
- 0:40
The caller says they asked a stewardess where the pilot went and she replied “what pilot?”
- 0:48
The caller says the woman with them confirmed they had both seen two men.
- 0:53
The caller says the stewardess fetched two more stewardesses. One began crying and was taken to the back.
- 1:05
The caller asks the host whether he recalls the aircraft that crashed in the Everglades and says that crash was connected to what they saw.
- 1:32
The caller guesses the flight was “401 or 409” and describes the figures as chalky-white-looking but solid.
- 1:52
The host says that aircraft are haunted and that crash victims may remain and haunt the place where they died.
- 2:00
The caller remarks that salvaged parts from a crashed aircraft are put into other aircraft.
Claims
Each claim is labeled as something the person telling the story noticed (observation), what they made of it (interpretation), something others told them (hearsay), or something the host said (host statement).
- observation· 0:12
The caller says two pilots were sitting in the back of the cabin as they boarded.
- observation· 0:37
The caller says that after takeoff the two men in the back were gone.
- observation· 0:45
The caller says the stewardess answered their question about the pilot with “what pilot?”
- hearsay· 0:48
The caller says the woman seated with them said she had also seen the two men.
- observation· 0:58
The caller says one of the stewardesses began crying and became upset when told their story.
- interpretation· 1:09
The caller links what they saw to the aircraft that crashed in the Everglades.
- interpretation· 1:32
The caller guesses the flight number was 401 or 409.
- observation· 1:35
The caller describes the two figures as chalky-white-looking but solid.
- interpretation· 2:00
The caller says parts from the crashed aircraft cannot simply be dumped and are installed in other aircraft.
- host statement· 1:52
The host says that aircraft are haunted.
- host statement· 2:12
The host says that people who die unexpectedly, as in an air crash, may remain and haunt the place where they died.
Scores, with reasons
An AI model gave these scores using a fixed set of scoring rules (scoring-v1). They are editorial judgments and rough guides, not the odds that anything paranormal happened. How scoring works.
This is a brief but tidy firsthand story with a concrete setting (boarding in Chicago) and a sequence that holds together. It does not address the easy ordinary possibility that the two men were passengers or crew who moved. The date and flight number are left vague.
Evidence for and against
- A firsthand story: the caller places themselves on the aircraft ([quote withheld]).
- A consistent sequence from boarding through takeoff to asking the stewardess and the woman's confirmation.
- The caller says the figures “looked solid” rather than describing an obviously ghostly form.
- Unclear or hedged: [quote withheld]
- No date, airline, or flight number is fixed, and no ordinary explanation is considered or ruled out.
- The central moment is an absence (the men are simply no longer there), which fits normal movement of passengers or crew.
- The labels showing who is speaking shift around the location and the Everglades link.
- “A waft” is as transcribed, and its meaning is unclear.
- 0:12
- 0:37
- 1:35
What the model inferred (not said on air): Component estimate: closeness to the source 21 (firsthand, brief), detail 12, consistency 16, alternative explanations 6, calibration 8. The total reflects my judgment that the story is coherent but cannot be checked and leaves a simple explanation open.
There is only the caller's word plus a claimed witness who never speaks on air. Some names and places are given that could in principle be checked, but nothing was checked and no physical object exists.
Evidence for and against
- Specifics that could in principle be checked: Chicago, the Everglades crash, and a tentative flight number.
- A second witness is claimed ([quote withheld]).
- The claimed second witness does not speak on air and is not identified.
- No photograph, recording, document, or physical trace is offered.
- The caller's own link to the crash is a guess about identity and flight number.
- Whether the labels showing who is speaking always match the same person.
- 0:12
- 0:48
What the model inferred (not said on air): Placed in the 11 to 25 range because checkable specifics and a claimed witness exist but nothing is examined or verified. No outside check was done, so the cap of 50 does not apply here.
Two figures who vanish from an enclosed cabin and a flight attendant reduced to tears give the story a moderate, contained unease. There is no threat, physical contact, or escalation, and the host's commentary softens the ending.
Evidence for and against
- The disappearance of the two men inside a closed cabin.
- A stewardess [quote withheld] on hearing the caller's story.
- The sighting is tied to a fatal crash.
- The figures are described as simply seated and then gone, with no hostility or contact.
- The call ends with the caller moving on to a second, unrelated story.
- The transcript does not say when in the flight or in what light the figures were seen.
- 0:37
- 0:58
What the model inferred (not said on air): My judgment of the effect on a listener. The transcript records no threatening words or physical sensation.
A vanishing-figure story is a familiar pattern. But setting it in an airliner cabin and tying it to a named crash and the reuse of salvaged parts gives it a distinctive shape.
Evidence for and against
- A ghost reported inside a passenger aircraft rather than a house or road.
- The caller's remark about crashed parts being installed in other aircraft.
- The core elements (figures seen, figures gone, a startled bystander) are common in the genre.
- With few similar stories in the archive, the comparison carries little weight, and the score is close to the model estimate.
- 2:00
What the model inferred (not said on air): The provisional model score is 58: a familiar pattern plus one or two distinctive details.
Scoring confidence 0.62 · analysis confidence 0.70 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller's own telling by telephone; A claimed second witness (the woman with them), who does not speak on air; A claimed reaction of a flight attendant, reported by the caller. The originality score blends the model's score (58) with how rare the story's details are across the archive. This method is still provisional.
Ordinary explanations to consider
These are possibilities only. None is a finding about what happened.
- The two men were off-duty or commuting pilots or ordinary passengers seated in the back who moved elsewhere before the caller returned. · The caller only says they saw [quote withheld] and that they were later not there. The caller gives no other detail about them.
- The caller and their companion took ordinary passengers for the flight's pilots because they had been discussing a technical point about the aircraft that they wanted to ask about. · The caller says their companion [quote withheld] and there [quote withheld] which set up an expectation of speaking to the crew.
- The stewardess's reported distress could have had a cause the caller does not mention, rather than the sighting the caller described. · The transcript says only that after hearing the caller's story [quote withheld] She gives no reason.
What stands out
The story places a ghost inside a commercial aircraft cabin rather than a building. The caller ties it to a specific named aviation disaster and to the practice of reusing salvaged aircraft parts. The flight attendant's reported reaction, becoming upset enough to be led away, is an uncommon detail.
Related stories
Matched by shared recurring details, categories, and wording.