The Ghost Crew of Eastern Air Lines Tri-Star 318Experienced stewardess aboard Tri-Star 318 on a routine flight from New York to Miami was terrified by a ghostly apparition she saw onboard.
Ghosts don't seem to be confined to the torturer's chamber or Gothic castles, houses of infamy, the venues of huge battles or fog-shrouded churchyards. Their haunting locations are frequently as unusual as the circumstances that surrounded their deaths. Few sightings can the as peculiar as that witnessed aboard a commercial passenger airliner - the ghosts of Tri-Star 318.
First Sightings of a Ghost on Tri-Star 318
Fay Merryweather, an accomplished Air flight attendant, moved towards the rear of the Eastern Airlines Tri-Star flight 318 to arrange the meals for the planeeload of holidaymakers. There had been 180 of them, setting off from the wintery chill of New York for Florida and some sunshine. Fay Merryweather had only a couple of hours to get all the meals ready and serve them to the passengers, and she was on her feet as quickly as the seat belt warning light went out.
She moved into the galley of the aircraft, reaching for the in-flight cooker when she saw the face. There, in the tinted glass of the cooker door, was the face of a person, his brows furrowed in a glance of worry or anguish, his eyes blinking at her and the speechless mouth moving, as though the mute vision by some means sought to utter a warning. She stared at it once more and then, urgently but without running to avoid panicking the passengers, she made her way to the cockpit and blurted out what she had observed to the flight engineer.
He left his instruments and went back with her to the galley. The engineer too investigated the oven glass, and he, too, noticed the face.
He identified it as that of a colleague and good friend of his, Don Repo, who had died the previous year when a routine flight had turned to tragedy.
More chilling than that, each of them then heard the image say "Beware, beware, fire within the jet." It was a prophecy that was to come true, not on that flight, but on another Eastern Airlines aircraft 3 months later.
Tri-Star Flight 401 Disaster
The "jinx" on Tri-Star 318 started with the demise of Don Repo and pilot Bob Loft in the autumn of the previous year. Don Repo was the engineer aboard a Tri-Star flight number 401, from New York to Miami. The journey had been uneventful, and Loft and Repo went through the routine checks to bring the aircraft down safely. The "fasten seatbelts" sign was turned on and Repo flicked the switch to lower the undercarriage. However, the light on Loft's control panel which should have informed him that the nose wheel was locked into position failed to come on. Loft put the aeroplane on the automated pilot and locked it into a circling route whilst Repo scrambled to an observation point to see if the nose wheel was coming down. As he did so, Loft unscrewed the bulb of the indicator light and looked for a fault. This was to be a move that cost him, Repo and ninety-seven others their lives. Inadvertently, Loft knocked the automatic pilot control "off" as he tampered with the bulb. He was still fidgeting with it when he realised what was happening - the aircraft was plummeting helplessly down to the swamp lagoon beneath. As the plane plunged through the swamp grass, the engines, tailplane, and undercarriage were ripped off. It was Eastern Airlines' worst-ever air disaster.
Accident investigation professionals spent weeks analysing the wreckage. What held the key to the apparition witnessed by Merryweather a year later, however, was that the galley of the crashed aircraft was one of the few salvageable pieces recovered from the swamp - and it was put in Tri-Star 318. The office personnel of Eastern Airlines noted that fact when Merryweather made her report concerning the apparition of Don Repo in the glass of the oven door.
Warnings of Fire Came True on Tri-Star 318
The whispered warning of fire yet to come proved true 3 months later when the aircraft turned back on a flight to Mexico from New York with suspected engine defects. After maintenance, it went on a routine check flight and, on take-off, an engine unexpectedly erupted into flames. A safety document issued afterwards mentioned that only the ultimate skill and cool-headedness of the crew on board saved the airliner from disaster.
The Ghost of Captain Loft on Tri-Star 318
On another flight, after the Merryweather incident, the "ghost" aircraft was full of airline staff being brought back from locations where their duties were over. An off-duty captain had been checked in by cabin staff and was seated next to an executive of the airline also taking the free trip back to Florida. The couple talked in the way of people who want to pass the time without getting too involved, it was only when the captain turned to face the airline executive that he recoiled in horror.
Sitting next to him was the perfectly real-looking ghost of Captain Loft.
Flight attendants who rushed to assist their panic-stricken boss discovered only an empty seat - and an overly fearful executive.
Other Manifestations on Tri-Star 318
It was not the final visitation from the dead fliers. Just a couple of weeks later, an Eastern Airlines pilot was running through a routine instruments check before taking off for Atlanta, Georgia. Looking back up at him from the luminous dials was the face of Don Repo. In addition, the voice whispered: "There will never be another crash on an L-1011. We won't let it happen."
There have been other sightings too; a flight attendant on some other flight noticed Repo's features in a luggage locker; another noticed Loft after going to investigate smoke emanating mysteriously from a bulkhead. In all, there have been more than twenty sightings of the ghosts of Don Repo and Bob Loft.
Exorcism of Tri-Star 318
Eastern Airlines, keen to try anything to rid themselves of the ghost fliers who have been frightening members of their staff, called in a worker of the airline who was also a religious man. He performed an exorcism with holy water - and the face of Repo appeared within the galley for the final time. After eighteen months of haunting the skies, neither he nor Loft was ever observed again.
Flight Safety Foundation Report into the Haunting of Tri-Star 318
The experiences of the sightings were given to the Flight Safety Foundation, the United States' independent safety authority, which studied them carefully. It had this to say.
The reports were given by experienced and trustworthy pilots and crew. We consider them significant. The appearance of the dead flight engineer at the galley door was confirmed by the flight engineer. Later, records at the Federal Aviation Agency show the fire that broke out on that same aircraft. We published reports of the ghost sightings in our safety bulletin issued to airlines in 1974. No explanation was ever proffered by the Flight Safety Foundation for the visions. It remains one of the great mysteries of the unknown.
