Avro Lincoln RF398 in RAF Museum CosfordThe WW2 Era Avro Lincoln RF398 bomber is said to be haunted by an unknown ghost who has saved workers from serious injury.
Britain has an abundance of haunted houses, castles and inns. But the RAF Museum Cosford, where hundreds of aircraft are on show, must surely possess one of the country's most unusual paranormal locations - a haunted Lincoln Bomber, RF398.
The Lincoln Bomber designated RF398, was constructed by the A.V. Roe Aircraft Co. and was once intended to be the successor to the Lancaster Bomber. Introduced in 1945, it was however too late to see active service in World War II, and the coming of the jet engine soon after rendered piston engines out of date and its usefulness proved relatively short-lived.
Stories of peculiar occurrences experienced around Avro Lincoln RF398 had been circulating since the early 1980s. The bomber was moved to RAF Museum Cosford in 1977 and was once in a sorry state of repair. RAF volunteers, alongside retired servicemen, devoted a substantial amount of their spare time to renovating it. One evening shortly after the work started, a member of the museum staff switched off the lighting in the hangar and was locking the doors when he caught a glimpse of someone moving within the plane. Switching the lights back on, he went to investigate however, after searching every corner of the bomber, he found no one. Not long afterwards, a volunteer was working alone inside the plane when he heard the rear door open and footsteps walking along the fuselage towards him. Thinking it was one of his workmates, he asked for a spanner, and one was duly handed to him. When he turned to thank the person, he was astonished to find that he was alone.
The secretary to the museum was once making ready an information board concerning the bomber when she heard a voice calling her name. Thinking it was a colleague, she turned to see what they wanted however no one else was there. Such was the effect of the ordeal that she point-blank refused to enter the hangar alone again.
One of the strangest stories is that of an electrician who was working on the plane 4.6m (l 5ft) above the ground when he unexpectedly slipped and fell. Bracing himself for What he Was convinced would be a fatal impact, he all of sudden floated to a stop and hovered above the ground. He later recalled it was as though an invisible power had saved his life.
Nobody knows whose ghost haunts the plane, although one contender is Major Hiller, the pilot who flew the plane on its last flight on 30 April 1963. He is alleged to have been very fond of the plane and apparently promised that he would "haunt his baby". Shortly after that final flight, he was killed in a plane crash near Cosford.
You can see more pictures of Avro Lincoln RF398 in my RAF Museum Cosford photograph gallery.
