RAF East Kirkby in Lincolnshire was home to 57 and 630 Squadrons of RAF Bomber Command during the Second World War. The base launched hundreds of Lancaster bomber sorties over occupied Europe, and the losses were devastating — 57 Squadron alone lost 198 aircraft during the war. The airfield is now home to the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre, which maintains a taxiable Lancaster bomber as a memorial. But according to visitors and staff, not all of the station's wartime personnel have left.
The most striking reports involve a full Lancaster bomber crew — seven young men in flying gear — seen walking across the former dispersal area at dusk. The figures appear solid and detailed, wearing leather jackets and carrying equipment, moving with purposeful urgency as though heading to their aircraft. They have been seen by multiple independent witnesses, always walking in the same direction, always vanishing before reaching the end of the dispersal pan. In some accounts, they simply fade from view; in others, they are visible for several minutes before the observer realizes they cannot possibly be real.
The sound of Merlin engines warming up has been reported on quiet evenings when the museum's Lancaster — the only one in Britain still capable of taxiing — is secured and silent. Staff locking up after closing have heard voices and laughter from the former crew quarters, now empty buildings used for storage. The base's control tower, preserved as part of the heritage centre, is said to be particularly active — footsteps on the metal stairs, the crackle of a radio from an era before transistors. The brothers Panton, who established the heritage centre in memory of their elder brothers killed during the war, have spoken of a sense of presence at the site that goes beyond mere memory.