I'm
a pilot. It's not a line of work you'd expect to see
apparitions. The airline I used to work for though had a haunted 737.
I have flown with the ghost, even seen it up close. It's a slim,
small man, younger-looking with pale, cropped hair. He wears a cap
and uniform with purple and gold epaulettes, hence his name, the
Engineer. We sometimes see him in the cockpit, looking lost. There’s
nowhere for him to sit. The 737 never had flight engineers, it was
all done by monitor. When I have seen him his skin he has had a
translucent grey hue, as if from in a black-and-white film. Sometimes
people meet him gliding along the passenger isle or 'working' on some
mechanism on the plane. I always thought ghosts must be
bored having to go through the same motions over and over, a job you
can never leave. He's harmless though he can upset the
passengers.
The
first time I heard about him was when passenger, a puffy, white
South African tried to get his attention. He had already complained
about the food and about his head-rest and the quality of the film
selection. The Engineer ignored
him. This did not go down well. I was a junior at the time, just
qualified. While the pilot got on with important things like flying
the plane I was pulled out to soothe this poor man's feelings.
Afterwards the Senior
Flight Attendant,
whose name was Noelle, apologised:
"I'm
sorry" she said. "I ran out of things to say. He wouldn't
stop. I could hardly tell him it was the Engineer."
"The
what...?”
"You
don't... you don't know...?"
"Know
what...?"
"God,
you are new"
she said and patted me on the cheek, a little patronising, but I
didn’t mind so much. I’m sure I wasn’t the only crew member to
have a slight crush on her.
So
the Engineer went through the motions on this particular plane. No
one knew why he was there, what he wanted, or even who he was, though
there were some good guesses. I remember talking to an aviation
enthusiast called Roger, who investigated the Engineer. He took
eyewitness descriptions of the ghost and made a photo-fit. I know
because he was hanging around Heathrow Airport lounge trying to talk
to company flight crew. He showed me the photo-fit and a picture of a
young man called George Blake, who used to be a flight engineer. He
went apparently missing West Berlin shortly before the wall went up,
though Roger didn’t say whether it was murder or misadventure. Mr
Blake looked quite like sketch of the Engineer though. Roger was
certain; goodness knows how he got the photo. I wasn’t so sure.
The
Engineer was bound to the plane and to his work, a minor
inconvenience and an interesting tale. But something changed on the
way into Brandenburg Airport. We were about ten minutes from arriving
in the stack. I was poring over the dashboard, getting ready to
resume control of the plane when a hand appeared over my shoulder. I
jumped then turned in my seat. It was the Engineer, stood over me. He
had a half-blank, half-anxious expression, looking back and forth and
pointing intently at something on the dashboard. There was a sudden
exclamation from the cabin door:
“Oh
my God…!” My co-pilot, Darius, had just come back from the
toilet. “What…?” He was flabbergasted, shocked, almost as
blanched as the Engineer. He was new and clearly had no idea. I said:
“Wait…”
which he did. The Engineer was glancing back and forth. He wanted to
tell me something. Eventually he managed to slowly mouth:
“Look…”
I wasn’t sure if I heard him or not. I realised he was pointing to
the internal pressure dial. It seemed fine though the indicator was
flickering. Something in me took this seriously. I said:
“What
should we do…?” The Engineer pointed down. “OK…” I then got
in touch with Traffic Control and sent the plane down several
thousand feet. I knew I’d done enough when the Engineer smiled and
disappeared.
It
turned out there were three stress fractures in in hull, only small
ones, the onboard computer missed them all and any breaks can be
dangerous. The plane was grounded for repair. A few years later the
737 was decommissioned and, as far as I know, it seems the Engineer has been
permanently retired.
