Ships, planes, and cars
Things that happen aboard ships, submarines, planes, or cars.
Caller reports a Pan Am flying boat appearing alongside their Cessna near Ukiah
A first-time caller named [name withheld], from Alameda, California, says they were flying a Cessna 172 back from Ukiah at about 11:30 p.m. in January 1998. They heard a voice over their headset, saw a glowing green light close on them, and lost control of the aircraft. Then they saw a large old Pan Am-type flying boat pull alongside and wave before vanishing. The caller links the aircraft to an M-130 Philippine Clipper they had read about in a book their mother had given them. The caller says it crashed in the Ukiah area on January 21, 1943. The caller says ATC reported no planes near them on radar. The call ends with the host calling it a ghost plane and asking whether it was a time slip or the crashed plane’s occupants.
Ouija board threat, a voice in the ear, and a man in the passenger seat
A caller named [name withheld], calling from Los Angeles, tells of a Ouija board session years earlier. The caller and a friend contacted what they call an evil spirit that threatened to kill the friend. Walking away from the friend's apartment at about 2 a.m., the caller says they heard a voice scream in their ear telling them not to help the friend. Later, driving home on the freeway, they report that a fully formed, solid-looking man appeared in the passenger seat, smiled, waved, and vanished. They took him to be the friend's guardian angel. They add that they used Ouija boards a few more times, linked those periods to things going badly in their life, and eventually got rid of their board.
Unexplained knocking on a signal-shack hatch aboard a Navy oiler
A caller from Albany, Oregon, who identifies as a former Navy signalman, tells Art Bell about something they say happened around 1983 or 1984. The caller was stationed in the Indian Ocean aboard an aging oiler. They report that they and another signalman heard repeated knocking on a hatch of their signal shack in the middle of the night. They found no one when they opened it, and the knocking returned twenty to thirty minutes later. They searched from both access doors and found no one. The caller says they never found a cause.
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.
Truck driver reports numbness and a rising sensation in a sleeper berth at a New Mexico rest area
A female long-haul truck driver, calling from Ludlow, California, tells Art Bell about an episode in the sleeper berth of the truck she drives with her husband. It happened at an I-25 rest area outside Albuquerque, New Mexico, near mile marker 163. She says that shortly after lying down, and not yet asleep, her body went numb and she could not move. A gurgling sound came from her mouth, and she felt the middle of her body rising. It ended when her husband woke and spoke to her. She offers no settled explanation. She raises the possibility that she was simply asleep, then doubts it.
A friend's demon seen only in reflections, and a face in a truck mirror
A caller from the Rockies tells Art Bell about a high-school friend who said a demon followed them and could be seen only in reflections, never when looked at directly. The caller says they eventually saw the same face themselves in the mirror of a truck while backing up to unload hay. The host asked the caller to compare it with a photograph on the host's website. The host cuts the call off for a break before the caller finishes.
Unseen hand presses sailor’s shoulder before hoses fall on USS Savannah
A first-time caller who identifies as a former Navy member tells Art Bell about an incident aboard the USS Savannah AOR-4 in the Tonkin Gulf in 1973. The caller reports that an unseen hand pressed firmly on their right shoulder three times at their refueling station. After they moved about eight feet away, a rack of fuel hoses and aluminum saddles collapsed onto the spot where they had been standing.
Funeral home worker reports a conversation with a cryonics patient in transit
A caller who says their family owned a funeral home describes being hired to remove a hospital patient who was being prepared for cryonic suspension. They were driving the body to the funeral home with a heart-lung machine running in the back of the station wagon. They say they heard a voice ask [quote withheld] and saw the man sit up in the rear-view mirror. They say they pulled over and spoke with the man. They told him he could not stay at the funeral home and should go with his body in the ambulance. They say they have told almost no one since.
Rummaging sounds and a hair pull in USS Enterprise switchgear rooms
A caller from Tampa, Florida, who says they joined the Navy in 1980 as a nuclear power electrician, describes standing mid-watches in the switchgear rooms of the USS Enterprise after being told the spaces were haunted. The caller reports hearing someone rummaging in a back room that turned out to be empty. Later, the caller says, they felt their hair yanked while they pretended to doze off on watch. The caller ends by saying others on the ship could verify it and that they personally were never much bothered.
Ghost sailor reported aboard the icebreaker Glacier
A letter read on air, signed by a retired US Coast Guard man named [name withheld] of Shelton, Washington, reports a ghost he says he encountered aboard the icebreaker Glacier. He describes a knock and a “sailor” at his stateroom door directing him to the B-1 engineering room, a hatch that closed and locked by itself, and a woman who reportedly saw a translucent sailor pass through a bulkhead. The letter ends with his sign-off and the host's thanks.
Highway spin-out and a figure seen in the rearview mirror
A caller who identifies themselves as [quote withheld] tells Art Bell that in early 1986, driving from the Dallas–Fort Worth Airport toward Irving, Texas, their new car was cut off and went into 360-degree spins at rush hour. The caller says that while sliding backward they saw someone sitting in their back seat in the rearview mirror, and that the car stopped about three feet short of the median barrier, undamaged. The caller understood the episode as a protective, angelic intervention. The story ends with the host putting that interpretation to them and the caller agreeing.
Coast Guard member reports glowing three-masted ships in the Gulf of Mexico
A caller from Jacksonville, Florida, tells Art Bell they served as an ASM in the US Coast Guard, stationed in the Gulf of Mexico out of Houston. The caller says that in 1980–1983 they and others several times saw what they called “ghost ships,” glowing three-masted, schooner-type vessels that did not show on radar and then vanished, generally around the time of a harvest moon. The caller says they were sent for a psychological evaluation twice and were given official explanations that they do not adopt themselves: an electrical effect of gravity, and a fluorescent effect of the ocean. The call ends with the host saying he believes the caller and moving to the next caller.