Haunted Airports

       

On March 2, 1948, a Douglas DC-3 registered OO-AWH,Dakota from Belgian Airlines flying from Brussels to London crashed while on approach to Runway 28 Right Heathrow when it hit terrible fog on its approach. The plane crashed at 21:14 local time on approach to London Heathrow Airport killing The 19 passengers and three crew members on a flight from Brussels to London lost their lives on board. Allegedly, as people on the ground searched the body strewn wreck and fog cloaked tarmac for survivors, a dazed looking lone man wearing a dress suit and hat materialized out of the surrounding mist and politely asked if anyone had seen his briefcase before wandering back off into the night. It was later learned that the man they had seen was among the dead found at the site.

     

Rescue workers were tending to casualties when a man suddenly appeared and asked for his briefcase. He then vanished into the fog. Workers later identified the same man in the wreckage. Heathrow staff often reporting seeing the “man with a briefcase” wandering aimlessly around the terminal. At times, it’s said that only the lower part of his body would manifest.

       

The same ghost is said to wander the halls of Heathrow at night. Staff at various VIP lounges say that he will seat himself at lounges in a neat dress-suit as though he’s simply waiting around for a flight. This would not be the last time this mysterious spectral gentleman would be seen. The man began to be regularly sighted wandering around the runway or through the terminal, perhaps still looking for his briefcase, and came to be known simply as “The Man with a Briefcase.” This ghostly man is sometimes even seen sitting in the lounge as if he is waiting for a flight, but will vanish instantly if approached. One particularly startling incident involving the Man with a Briefcase occurred in 1970, when air traffic control called authorities in after noticing a man in a suit and hat aimlessly walking around out on the runway.

      

When police and the airport fire department arrived, air traffic control said they were approaching the man, who was showing up on radar, yet the men on the ground could see nothing. They searched all over and could find no trace of anyone being there, despite the insistence from air traffic control that the intruder was indeed still out there wandering around and that the authorities were supposedly right on top of him. The search was finally called off, but it is unclear what had caused air traffic control staff to be so adamant that a man was out on the runway despite the authorities finding no sign of him. Perhaps it was the mysterious ghost still looking around for his missing briefcase. Lost luggage can be such a drag. Other ghosts have been seen around Heathrow Airport as well, including one which seems to appear only from the waist down.