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Ep 145 - The Ghosts and UFOs of Manchester Airport
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Ep 145 - The Ghosts and UFOs of Manchester Airport
Is Manchester Airport the most haunted airport in the UK?
Find out this week on Pursuit of the Paranormal, as Ash takes a look at a number of both spooky hauntings, and strange UFO reports from above and around the international airport!
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Title music provided by Steve Yarwood and Ambienfinity
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Transcript
Eerie Experiences at Terminal 3
00:00:00
Speaker
On the air bridges of 215 I could feel them breathing down my neck and the lights would switch themselves off. I would shout at them to turn the lights on now. I am in no mood and they would come on.
00:00:16
Speaker
There were lots of stories from workers. I was told of ghost children running up and down the old 214 air bridge and laughing. i don't know i or what it was it wasn't an airplane it was not in your plane it was so awful You are listening to Pursuit of the Paranormal podcast with your host, Ash Ellis.
00:00:47
Speaker
Welcome back to Pursuit of the Power Normal with me your host Ash Ellis. Sorry there hasn't been a new episode for a couple of weeks. An injury left me bedridden and in and out of hospital toll for a couple of weeks and I was unable to record or edit any new episodes but I think we're all the worst of it so it's right back to it. Huge thanks to everybody that sent best wishes and messages of support.
Ghostly History of Manchester Airport
00:01:16
Speaker
a few of you know what was up so yeah thank you to everybody that did and I appreciate you all I hope you're all doing very well happy to be back and recording this episode which is a pretty interesting one so this week's episode will either have you thinking twice before your next flight have you looking at holidays to book as soon as possible depending on how you look at it, especially if it passes through Manchester airport. So we're going to be talking about a number of both ghostly tales and UFO sightings from the third biggest airport in the UK which is Manchester with its 28 million passengers served annually.
00:02:00
Speaker
Line 7 miles southwest of Manchester City Centre, the airport, originally called Wingway, opened in 1938 and was used as a base for the RAF during World War II. After rapid growth and expansion, the airport now has three passenger terminals along with a cargo terminal serving 200 destinations worldwide and up to 61 flights departing or arriving per hour.
00:02:25
Speaker
i live not too far from the airport and my partner used to live right next to the boundary fence of the airport in moving shore and there's a lot of flights every minute this flight is taken off and landing and they're very loud right over the tops of the houses down that area of Manchester But what if I told you that this seemingly ordinary airport could be the most haunted airport in the UK and one of the most haunted places in Greater Manchester itself, particularly around Terminal 3. So let's take a journey back, starting as far back as the 1970s when reports of ghostly encounters at the terminal first began.
00:03:07
Speaker
It's not just a few spooky stories either. The testimonies from airport staff over the years have been chilling. Many, both current and former, admit that the two creeped out to enter terminal 3 alone at night. They report feeling like they're constantly being watched, sudden drops in temperature, and even sightings of ghostly figures that, just as quickly as they appear, melt into thin air.
00:03:31
Speaker
Doors are heard to be slamming, and lights flicking on and off, but when workers go to investigate the strange noises and occurrences, they are met with dark, freezing rooms. And when I say freezing, I mean cold enough to see your breath in the air. Yet, the room is still and silent, almost like a mill pond at night. Some staff have even reported hearing blood curdling screams echoing from somewhere deep within the terminal, when the place is empty of travellers in the early hours.
00:04:00
Speaker
When it comes to explanations for these creepy occurrences, there's a few theories.
Theories Behind the Hauntings
00:04:05
Speaker
The first, and perhaps the most plausible, has to do with the land itself. Terminal 3 was built on what used to be the RAF Ringway Base during World War II, which was home to the 613 Manchester Squadron, and many brave pilots took off from here, and now to return.
00:04:23
Speaker
Could it be their spirits still wandering the terminal? Others attribute the here hauntings to a knight security guard who was reportedly killed in the 1960s. Although there's less evidence supporting this theory, some say his restless spirit still roams the terminal after dark. And then there's the land's original owner, a farmer whose presence is said to still linger in the atmosphere. Perhaps his spirit never left when the land was transformed into an airport.
00:04:51
Speaker
Now, let's dive into some of the most documented encounters. These aren't just hearsay. Archives reports dating back to the 70s show staff repeatedly experiencing ghostly encounters in one particular area around the Terminal 3 departure gates, which officially opened in 1989. The most common sighting is that of a male figure dressed as an airman, wandering the gates. People try to approach him, but as they do, he simply vanishes.
00:05:21
Speaker
Some who've seen him say he even looks confused almost like he's lost trying to find his way or more unsettling is the look on his face of pain as if he's reliving his last moments over and over again.
00:05:37
Speaker
One of the earliest stories comes from 1971. Airport management received a resignation letter from a former employee who left without any explanation. He wrote that the reason he fled his job was an encounter with the ghost of an elderly man wearing an airport security uniform. um When he tried speaking with the figure, the man disappeared right before his eyes. Terrified, the staff member never returned, and I don't blame him.
00:06:06
Speaker
Since then, several other employees have reported similar sightings, glimpses of a ghostly night watchman believed he was a scotter guard in the 1960s who tragically died of a heart attack whilst on duty. A cleaner reporter has seen the apparition in the storeroom, walking through offices and gliding along the corridor with strange noises and footsteps heard as well.
UFO Sightings at Manchester Airport
00:06:30
Speaker
as well as the movement of office supplies. In one instance the airport managers were so concerned and intruded on the premises that they called the police with one of those police officers claiming to actually see the phantom man.
00:06:46
Speaker
But the strange encounters don't end there. One worker describes seeing a semi-transparent figure wearing a pilot's hat late one night. The figure walked into the toilets and the door shut behind him. There were no flights scheduled and there's no reason for anyone to be there in that hour.
00:07:03
Speaker
They were going to investigate, but the toilets were empty. Even creepier, the motion-sensitive lights hadn't turned on, as if nobody had entered at home, despite the fact that the guy saw him going into the bathroom. In other reports, many reported hearing the loud pan pounding on the stall door, followed by an impatient voice demanding that they hurry up. Yet when they opened the door in the toilet, no one's there.
00:07:31
Speaker
If you think the hauntings are confined to the terminals, think again. I got in touch with a now retired airport worker and she told me that terminal 2 was also haunted. Here's what she had to say. On the air bridges of 215 I could feel them breathing down my neck and the lights would switch themselves off. I would shout at them to turn the lights on now. I am in no mood and they would come on.
00:08:01
Speaker
There were lots of stories from workers. I was told of ghost children running up and down the old 214 air bridge and laughing. The old cleaning manager was a medium and could see they were laughing and pointing at people jumping off the terminal one car park. I knew the old departures area gave off a creepy vibe, even during the day when it's quiet.
00:08:24
Speaker
very creepy. A few reports speak of something even more bizarre however, the procession of Roman soldiers clad in full battle gear marching near the landing strips. The sightings were so realistic that on at least one occasion planes weren't allowed to land or take off until it was confirmed that the soldiers weren't actually there.
00:08:50
Speaker
Let's not forget about one of the old maintenance hangers. After the tragic 1985 British air tour disaster, the hanger was used as a temporary mortuary with many employees who worked there reporting strange, unexplained occurrences. Though few are willing to talk about it in detail.
00:09:10
Speaker
so that's just a few of the more unusual ah cases and reports of Manchester airport mostly around terminal 3 but that's not all obviously you guys should know by now I'm a UFO guy and there are quite a lot of UFO reports from the area. So we're going to talk about a famous one, quite a famous one and also some reports that have been made directly to us. So UFO identified my UFO research group.
00:09:42
Speaker
and we'll see if there's any kind of link between it is it the area that is causing it is it the land what is actually making all these things happen these crazy scary occurrences as well as multiple many UFO bodies
00:10:11
Speaker
It was just after 6pm on January 6th 1995 Manchester Airport, as we know, one of the busiest in the UK, was operating under typical conditions. The evening sky was dark, the air crisp and the traffic control room was monitoring the steady stream of inbound and outbound flights.
00:10:32
Speaker
But that night, something happened that would break the routine and become the subject of intense speculation. High above the city, the British Airways Boeing 737 carrying 60 passengers was making its final approach to Manchester Airport, having travelled from Milan in Italy.
00:10:50
Speaker
Captain Roger Wills along with his first officer Mark Stewart were performing the standard landing procedures but as they descended through 4,000 feet something caught their attention. A fast moving glowing object appeared out of nowhere heading straight towards their aircraft.
00:11:11
Speaker
The object object was unlike anything the pilots had seen before. It was large, brightly lit and moving at an incredible speed. The lights on the object were so intense that the pilots could clearly see them even through the aircraft's cockpit window.
00:11:27
Speaker
Captain Wills said it was illuminated with a number of small lights making it look like a Christmas tree. The first officer instinctively ducked when he saw what he described as a dark object passed down the right hand side of the aircraft at high speed. It was wedge shaped with what could have been the black stripe down the side. He said feeling sure that what he saw was a solid object, not a bird, balloon or kite. What was most alarming however was that the object seemed to be on a direct collision course with the airplane, and which did pass within 100 feet after 737. It was a near miss, an incident that under other circumstances could have ended in disaster.
00:12:10
Speaker
Immediately after the encounter, the shaken pilot rode over Manchester Air Traffic Control to report what had just happened. The air traffic control team were puzzled. According to their radar screens, there was no other aircraft or object anywhere near the British Airways flight. The sky should have been clear, yet the pilot was adamant about what he had seen. This lack of radar confirmation is one of the most perplexing aspects of this incident.
00:12:37
Speaker
Radar systems at man major airports like Manchester are incredibly sophisticated, designed to detect anything in the airspace from commercial jets to smaller private planes, as well as weather balloons and drones. But on that night, the radar showed nothing unusual. So what did the pilot see? And had there something that appeared so vividly to the human eye? Be completely invisible to radar.
00:13:02
Speaker
Following the incident, the CAA, the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK, launched an investigation, given the seriousness of the near miss. It was essential to determine what happened and whether it posed a threat to air safety.
00:13:18
Speaker
Despite a thorough inquiry, the CIA was unable to provide a definitive explanation. They reviewed the radar data in through the pilots and analysed the eyewitness reports, but nothing conclusive emerged.
00:13:33
Speaker
Several theories were proposed. Some suggested that the pilots might have seen a meteorological phenomena, perhaps a meteor or a rare atmospheric event. Others speculated that the objects could have been space debris or a missile re-entering the Earth's atmosphere. A more skeptical view was that the pilots misidentified a conventional aircraft or even a reflection of lights from the ground.
Recent UFO Encounters
00:13:58
Speaker
However, these explanations seem unsatisfactory given the pilot's experience and the dramatic nature of the encounter, like the first pilot ducked. That's how he thought he was going to hit him. He actually ducked. So I don't think this is lights reflecting off the ground. To this day Manchester Airport UFO remains unsolved. The pilots involved have stuck to their story and the lack of any official explanation has only fueled speculation with many people talking about this case as quite a good one that, like I say, remains unexplained.
00:14:37
Speaker
And again, with radar, well, don't say radar evidence, but lack of radar evidence. But with these train witnesses, people that are in the sky and walk, they have a lot of flying hours. For them to not know what they saw leaves this 1995 sighting really, really peculiar. And you can read the reports. You can read the CIA report of this encounter. And you just Google it. ah You can download the report and read it. The actual outcome that of the investigation, which, like I say,
00:15:07
Speaker
was when i explained you can read the transcript from the pilots and air traffic control in fact i like we just read a little section of this so this is the pilot and the air traffic control having a conversation just after the event so there's the pilot saying we just had something go down the RHS just above us very fast right hand side aircraft control well there's nothing seen a radar was it an aircraft but it had lights it went down the starboard side very quick and above you just slightly above us yeah keep an eye out for something i can't see anything at all at the moment so it must have been very fast or gone down very quickly after it passed you i think
00:15:53
Speaker
OK, well there you go. Now it's the last words of Captain Wills to air traffic control, before they then completed the landing safely at Manchester Airport.
00:16:08
Speaker
So that's that one. and What's interesting about this one is the description of Christmas tree. Remember that's kind of how the palette described it, many many small lights similar to a Christmas tree. So now we're going to talk about a case that was reported to UFO identified.
00:16:28
Speaker
from the 4th December 2022 so just coming up to two years ago and this is in Didsbury, Greater Manchester just a couple miles north of Manchester Airport so the witness was at home and walking up the stairs when she saw through a large landing window that faces out the back of the house two upright triangles covered in bright separate lights low in the sky directly facing her The triangles are moving at a constant speed, slowly across the sky, similar but slightly slower than the speed of the airplanes which travel overhead of their property from the nearby Manchester airport.
00:17:11
Speaker
Both triangles moved off in the north-west direction and out of view due to nearby houses. After briefly leaving the window to contemplate what she had seen, the witness returned to the window and spotted two more triangles similar to the first two. They followed the same path as the initial pair, moving from the north-east to the north-west, but eventually disappeared from view, again, due to neighbouring houses, and this is what she told me.
00:17:38
Speaker
I was in a state of shock, so much so that after seeing the first two through the window, I just walked into my bedroom and immediately thought, what? I went back to the window with my phone and saw the second two coming around above the bungalows opposite me. I opened the window but my hands were shaking so much that I couldn't take a photo.
00:18:00
Speaker
The witness describes the triangles as looking like Christmas trees floating in the sky with the singular point of the triangle at the top of the craft and estimated to be around half the size of a commercial airplane. They were gliding slowly with very bright orange yellow lights all over it.
00:18:16
Speaker
and the triangles are big enough to see that the lights were individual and extremely bright. Various of them are to a pilot will saw this Christmas tree shape triangles. Imagine because it's an upright triangle as most triangle UFO reports that we get it tend to be obviously like looking at the underneath of a triangle it's like flat to us whereas this one and the
00:18:42
Speaker
by some three seven sighton it's like a triangle coming at them like a stooddup triangle a christmas tree and again the lights lots of lights on over it like a christmas tree I opened the window and there was zero sound. I can usually hear the aeroplanes with my double glazed windows closed, but there was no sound at all.
00:19:05
Speaker
The whole sighting lasted between 10 and 12 minutes and left a witness with a headache that lasted a number of days, which she said that she doesn't usually get. She also felt that due to the appearance and movement of them, that the objects were under intelligent control. Really interesting case and quite a recent one. Obviously, the airplane one was back in 95. This is 30 years later. Wow, that's a long time.
00:19:31
Speaker
ah but we can't discount how similar those descriptions are very very unusual descriptions and very weird So a couple more quick UFO reports. These are from the National UFO Reporting Center and from Youth Bond. And these again are pretty recent ones. So just a quick fire with these sightings. December 17th, 2021 at 5 to 5 in the evening in Ringway, right near the airport, a Little Village. Two lights coming north to south in tandem with what look like search lights.
00:20:12
Speaker
No engine noise and no visible for 2 minutes. August 28th, 2023, at quarter to 7 in the morning. Near Manchester Airport, witness reported a bright star object. Moving extremely fast, suddenly turned horizontal, then hovered for a few minutes.
00:20:31
Speaker
before speeding off and disappearing and that was saw for 4 minutes. May 18, 2024, at 20-12 in the morning. Objects flying 100 feet above a plane that had just taken off from Manchester airport.
00:20:48
Speaker
It was described as white with three windows along the middle, around the sides of a van and cylinder shapes. And that was visible for around one minute before it disappeared from view. And just a bit of a longer one. So going back to Saturday, 25th, September, 2021, this was at 10 past two in the afternoon. So most of these reports,
00:21:15
Speaker
in daytime apart from one at five to five in the evening which is in December so that would have been dark at that point or the others would have been in daylight hours again something that doesn't matter if it's nighttime or daytime we get a lot of reports in died daytime our data shows that over 40% of sightings are actually reported during daylight hours so it doesn't have to be nighttime when you see UFOs So this was a case from Stockport in Greater Manchester to the east of Manchester Airport and the witness was actually observing airplanes landing at the airport when they spotted a bright star-like object which was moving erratically in a tight circle.
00:22:01
Speaker
spinning around at a constant speed for approximately three minutes. The object was seen with both the naked eye as well as through binoculars and was described as small about the same size as the north star but its brightness was pulsating changing from sparkling to dull whenever the sun shone on it. The witness estimated the object to be around 4,000 feet in the air and approximately seven miles away from their location in Marple looking towards the airport.
00:22:32
Speaker
it was star-like and pulsating. I think it could have been a drone with sparkling lights to make it look like a UFO, or it could have been a silver balloon spinning around it, but the way it moved was not consistent with either of these possibilities, and drones aren't allowed that close to the airport. I've checked the local papers and there are no reports about any strange sightings at the same time.
00:22:53
Speaker
The weather conditions at the time of the sighting was broken clouds, windy, dry and with good visibility. There were no other unusual activities noticed in the area and the witness couldn't hear any sound associated with the object.
00:23:07
Speaker
Despite its small size, the object's erratic movements made it difficult for the witness to estimate its speed accurately. It disappeared suddenly from view like a light being switched off after about three to five minutes, leaving the witness feeling shocked and baffled by the sighting. So that's just a few UFO reports from the area. I always try to keep things recent ah with most of this stuff.
00:23:35
Speaker
ah just because i think that's more relevant people can relate to it a bit more rather than talking about lots of stuff from the 70s 80s 90s we do like to try and keep things a bit more current here at the pursuit of paranormal and that UFO identified in fact And you do want to find out more about this UFO sighting, make sure you check out UFOidentified.co.uk. And we have the biggest database of current day UFO reports reported in the
Episode Conclusion and Future Content
00:24:04
Speaker
UK. So make sure you check that out. So there we go. I hope you enjoyed these stories, these reports, these ghostly goings on at the terminal, the strange lights and Christmas trees being seen in the sky.
00:24:20
Speaker
very very strange indeed quite a short episode this week I'd say recovering from injury being bedridden but it's going to be back and we have some amazing interviews lined up coming up in the next few weeks so make sure you subscribe hit follow give us a review give us a rating it all helps thanks again for listening We are back. I've also got a pan on the round table coming up with Michaela and some of our friends joining us talking.
00:24:54
Speaker
different things in the paranormal and some recent developments and side things that have been made and that have also made the news in the UK and around the world actually. So yeah, make sure you check that out and I will see you all very soon. Have a great day, evening, morning, afternoon, wherever you are and I'll speak to you soon.
00:25:18
Speaker
Thanks for listening to Pursuit of the Paranormal with Ash Ellis, title music created by Steve Yarwood and Ambienfinity. If you like the show, please follow us on Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, X, and Instagram. And if you really like the show, please rate and review the show wherever you are listening. It really does help. See you next time, and until then, stay weird.