Neighbor's farewell and a felt premonition before a 707 crash
A caller tells the host about a neighbor across the street, a Pan Am flight engineer with [quote withheld] On the day before a trip, the man said goodbye to every one of his children. The caller says they learned this later. Walking out to the school bus, the caller reports making direct eye contact with the man and having an unexplained sense that the man knew he was not coming back. The caller says the man died when his plane, on his first flight as engineer on a 707 from Africa into Kennedy, was hit by lightning and blew up.
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 2000-1.mp3”, starting at 59:36). Is this you, or someone you know? Ask for a correction or removal.
The story as told
The caller describes a neighbor who lived across the street, had [quote withheld] and worked as a flight engineer for Pan Am, flying [quote withheld] The caller says the man would ordinarily say goodbye to whichever children happened to be around before a trip. But on this particular day, as the caller learned later, he said goodbye to every one of his children before leaving. The caller reports that while going out to the school bus they saw the man walking down the street with one of his children. The two made direct eye contact, and the caller says they [quote withheld] adding [quote withheld] The caller then gives the outcome. The man was on his way back from Africa into Kennedy on what the caller calls his first flight as an engineer on a 707 ([quote withheld]), and [quote withheld] The caller does not say how they learned of the crash. The host responds “wow yeah” and thanks the caller for [quote withheld] No names, dates, or place of residence are given, and no other witness speaks on air.
Reported events, in order
- 0:00
The caller introduces a neighbor across the street who had [quote withheld]
- 0:21
The caller says the neighbor was a flight engineer for Pan Am who flew all over the world.
- 0:34
The caller reports learning later that on this particular day the man said goodbye to every one of his children before leaving.
- 0:14
The caller describes going out to the school bus and seeing the man walking down the street with one of his children.
- 0:48
The caller describes direct eye contact and knowing that the man knew he was not coming back.
- 1:01
The caller says the man died on his way back from Africa into Kennedy on his first flight as an engineer on a 707.
- 1:24
The caller says the plane was hit by lightning and blew up.
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· 0:21
The caller’s neighbor across the street worked as a flight engineer for Pan Am and flew all over the world.
- hearsay· 0:34
On this particular trip the neighbor said goodbye to every one of his children before leaving. The caller says they learned this later.
- observation· 0:50
On making direct eye contact with the neighbor, the caller had a sense of knowing that the man was not coming back.
- interpretation· 0:50
The caller cannot explain the nature of the knowing but treats the eye contact as meaningful.
- hearsay· 1:01
The neighbor died on his way back from Africa into Kennedy on his first flight as an engineer on a 707.
- hearsay· 1:24
The aircraft was struck by lightning and blew up.
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.
A firsthand story of the eye contact and the felt sense of knowing, with concrete but partial details and a coherent sequence. It is weakened by the fact that the farewells and the crash were learned afterward, with no one backing them up, and a reading of hindsight and coincidence fits reasonably well.
Evidence for and against
- The caller was directly present and made the eye contact.
- Concrete details: Pan Am flight engineer, eight or nine children, 707, Africa into Kennedy, lightning strike.
- A coherent order: farewells, street encounter, later death.
- No names, dates, or place of residence.
- The distinctive elements were learned after the fact ([quote withheld]).
- No other witness. An ordinary reading, coincidence or meaning given in hindsight, fits.
- The caller does not say how the crash news reached them.
- The automatic labels showing who is speaking mix up the host and the caller, so who said a few lines is unclear.
- 0:50
- 0:34
- 0:50
What the model inferred (not said on air): The weighting of the components is mine. I credited the firsthand core of the story and deducted for the secondhand elements that cannot be checked and for the easy reading as hindsight.
The caller’s word only, with some details that could be checked (airline, aircraft type, route) but were not, plus a claimed secondhand element. No documents, no examined evidence, no on-air second witness.
Evidence for and against
- Checkable details named: Pan Am, flight engineer, 707, Africa into Kennedy.
- Claimed secondhand information about the man’s farewells.
- No names, dates, flight numbers, or records given.
- Nothing was examined on air, and no other witness speaks.
- It is not stated how the caller learned of the crash or of the farewells.
- The labels showing who is speaking are unreliable, and no second speaker is present to back up the story.
- 0:21
- 1:24
What the model inferred (not said on air): I treat the airline, aircraft, and route details as checkable in principle but unchecked, and the claimed secondhand information as a statement rather than backing from someone else.
Mildly eerie: an unexplained mutual sense of knowing followed by a fatal crash, told briefly and without threat, intrusion, or sensory horror.
Evidence for and against
- A premonition is later matched by a death.
- The man is described saying goodbye to all his children.
- No threatening presence, no intrusion into a bedroom, no physical contact.
- Told calmly and briefly, without escalation.
- The emotional weight depends on the listener’s reading. The caller does not dramatize it.
- 0:50
What the model inferred (not said on air): My judgment is about the story’s atmosphere, not its truth. The fatal crash gives it a somber rather than frightening tone.
A familiar premonition-of-death setup (a felt sense of knowing, later matched by a death) with a distinctive detail: the traveler saying goodbye to every one of his children. No strange event beyond the felt sense of knowing.
Evidence for and against
- A familiar setup: a felt sense of knowing before a death that is then reported to have happened.
- A distinctive detail: farewells to all of the man’s children, not just those present.
- A premonition of a death is a stock ghost-story motif.
- No rare event, object, or setting is involved.
- Comparison with the rest of the archive is provisional, since the pilot has few stories.
- The farewell-to-all-children detail could be common in other crash premonition stories.
- 0:34
What the model inferred (not said on air): I rated the model score from the content: a familiar death-premonition setup carrying one distinctive detail (farewells to all eight or nine children).
Scoring confidence 0.50 · analysis confidence 0.55 · checked against outside sources: no · evidence available: The caller’s firsthand testimony about the eye contact and the felt sense of knowing.; The caller’s secondhand report of the man’s farewells to all his children ([quote withheld]).; The caller’s report of the crash; no source given and nothing examined.. The originality score blends the model's score (50) 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.
- Looking back and giving the moment new meaning: the encounter and the farewells were remembered as significant only after the caller learned of the crash. · The caller says the farewells were learned afterward ([quote withheld]), and the crash is reported as later news.
- Ordinary farewells before a trip: saying goodbye to one’s children before a long international trip is unremarkable. · The caller says the man [quote withheld] so farewells were routine. Only the completeness of this one is said to differ.
What stands out
The strange element is not a ghost or a sound but a mutual sense of knowing, exchanged in direct eye contact between the caller and a living neighbor who then died. The caller explicitly declines to explain it ([quote withheld]).
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