Phantom Lancaster Bomber, Chatsworth [2020]
In the following Derby Telegraph article entitled ‘Mystery of ‘ghost’ Lancaster bomber sighted over Chatsworth’ [03/02/2021], Rheia Smith interviewed two witnesses who claim to have seen a phantom Lancaster Bomber flying over Derbyshire in August 2020.
‘A Derbyshire couple claim to have seen a phantom Avro Lancaster bomber in the skies above Chatsworth that vanished mid-flight into what appeared to be thin air.
The mystery aircraft was seen flying above the stately home and its grounds during the summer by Christine and Robin Gardner.
The couple recognised the famous Second World War bomber, and its distinctive sound, but were left scratching their heads as the noise of its great four engines fell silent.
Now the couple have come forward in a bid to try and unravel the truth behind what they saw that day.
Christine, 74, from South Derbyshire, said: “On August 18, I was parked up in Carlton Lees car park near the Garden Centre with my husband and a friend. Between 2pm and 2.30pm we returned to the car park and sat down to enjoy a picnic.
“Suddenly, directly in front of us at tree top height we heard the noise of an engine. We didn’t hear it coming – it was just instant.
“We looked up and all three of us saw a Lancaster bomber. It dipped its wings, continued at tree top height and turned as if to fly down the valley, but the Lancaster just suddenly disappeared and the noise of the engines ceased.”
The couple made inquiries with Chatsworth and the local council to see if a Lancaster had flown in the area that day, but never had any confirmation.
There are only 17 surviving Lancaster bombers in the world, but only two of them are able to fly.
Christine and Robin are sure they saw the famous war plane, but say no one else believes them.
Christine said: “We know what we saw and it was so real but no-one ever believes us.
“Surely someone else must have seen the Lancaster or heard it. It only appeared for less than a minute, but made such an impact on us.”
I’ve heard an old WWII Spitfire/Hurricane engine noise but not seen the plane, back in 2017/18. I live in Littleover, the bottom of Derby, right on the border of South Derbyshire. I even tried to find it while I could still hear it on a site which shows Civilian & Military flights but could not locate the plane. So I believe there is also a ghost Spitfire flying around Derbyshire.
Back in what must have been Summer 1995 I was working at a college in Manchester, on Wednesdays we used to have trips out with the students. On, I think, a Wednesday in June or July (for a reason that will become apparent in a minute), I was walking with a young man with autism around Ladybower reservoir in the Peak District, we were close to where the sunken village is on the east side of the water. There was suddenly a huge noise that got really into my head, and then a Lancaster bomber appeared very clearly from over the dam behind us and flew past us, not very much above treetop level (my brother used to build Airfix models, I recognised it from that). It was quite amazing, but as that year there were rather a lot of end of 50th anniversary of the end of World War 2 celebrations around that time, I didn’t think too much of it, until the others in our party, when we met up, said that they’d not heard anything. I have on several occasions tried looking up to see if there was anything around that time, but never turned anything up…