Investigation Team: Dave Miller, Tyler Kaltenbach
Investigation Date: February 27, March 10, 2020 & July 2021
Perhaps the most haunted plane at WPAF Museum, or I should say the plane’s parts, is the “Lady Be Good’, a B-24 Liberator bomber that crashed on April 4, 1943. Except the plane is not there, just some photos, plane parts & memorabilia. One of the last planes to take off from Soluch, Libya, this was her first and final mission. The “Lady” had to catch up with the formation but never did. It encountered high winds, poor visibility and Sahara Desert sandstorms. Most of the formation abandoned the mission to bomb Naples, Italy but the “Lady” did not. The plane eventually turned around short of its destination and tried to find its way back to Soluch at night. Running out of gas and having an engine problem the pilot thought they were over the Mediterranean Sea but they were over the desert. The nine member crew bailed out with eight surviving the jump. Instead of searching for their plane and with only half a canteen of water between them, they walked 85 miles in the desert but all perished. Searchers looked and looked for the plane.
It was finally found in November 1958 by British oil geologist flying over. British oil company dispatched a ground team in March of 1959 to the site. The plane was perfectly preserved as were uniforms and rations yet the crew had completely disappeared. The following year the bodies of the crew and a journal were found. That year Rod Serling wrote an episode of The Twilight Zone called “King Nine Will Not Return” starring Robert Cummings based upon the phantom plane’s discovery.
As for paranormal claims, museum janitors and security guards have heard voices and seen an apparition of a pilot standing behind the exhibit. The exhibit itself consists of two damaged parts from the airplane – one of the four propellers and one of the engines (Photos #4 & #5). But the story doesn’t end there. Some paranormal researchers believe that ghosts are attached to and hang around parts cannibalized from aircraft. Ghosts latch on to whatever they are familiar with.
Case in point, some parts salvaged from the “Lady” wreckage were reused in several other planes but unexpected things happened. A C-54 that used autosyn transmitters from the “Lady” had to throw cargo overboard to land safely due to propeller difficulties. A C-47 that received a radio receiver from the “Lady” crashed into the Mediterranean Sea. An Army DHC-3 Otter with an armrest from the “Lady” crashed in the Gulf of Sidra. Only a few traces of the plane washed ashore and one of these was the armrest. Were the parts paranormally cursed or was it just coincidences?
