If you think that the presence of plenty of modern technology keeps ghosts at bay, think again. The very symbol of the age of science, an airplane by a domestic carrier, has become the subject of a series of spine-tingling tales. Last January, aboard a flight from Sydney to Incheon, a 36 year old housewife who suffered from depression hanged herself in one of the bathrooms at the rear of the plane. The crew quickly discovered the body and did everything they could to avoid any commotion or disturbance among the other passengers.
But two months later, when the same aircraft touched down in Washington D.C., the smoke detector in that bathroom went off. Crew went to check but found no one there. Some of the crew recalled the suicide two months earlier and were scared stiff. Another two months on the crew was assigned to the same plane once again, and they decided to bring some soju -- traditional Korean liquor -- and sprinkle it in the bathroom to appease the vengeful spirit.
But that did not end the haunting of the aircraft. One first class crewmember describes his extraordinary experience. "On a long-haul flight, a Buddhist monk and I were the only two in first class. Late at night, long after all the lights were out and things started to quiet down, the monk kept muttering and just couldn't get to sleep. I asked him why he kept chanting sutras, and he told me there were dead people sitting in each of the empty seats. Then he continued chanting."
The plane's bunker, a dark, narrow space where crew nap during shifts, is rumored to be particularly prone to visits from the other world. As the story goes, a flight attendant sleeping there felt cold and was shivering when someone told him to go back to sleep and pulled the blanket over him. Roused, he found a hand sticking out of the wall.
The rumors have reportedly got so bad that crew members complain they are too scared to board the haunted plane. An airline official offered a more prosaic reading. "It's possible that working in a closed space place for extended periods leads them to overreact and sends their imagination into overdrive."
