Buzz
While the 1984 blockbuster Gremlins is purely a work of fiction, the physical descriptions of the impish creatures were actually inspired by genuine sightings reported by numerous pilots across the globe.
These accounts appear to have emerged since the dawn of aviation, with a noticeable surge of such sightings over the skies of war-torn Europe during World War II. After the war ended, however, these reports largely vanished, save for a few scattered and rare incidents. Here are ten remarkable claims of real-life encounters with these elusive gremlins.
10. The First Reports in The Spectator
One of the earliest written references to strange creatures tormenting Britain's finest flyers appeared in The Spectator in the early 1920s. An article described how, “The Royal Naval Air Service in 1917 and the newly formed Royal Air Force in 1918 seemed to have discovered the existence of a group of mysterious and malevolent sprites whose sole mission was . . . to cause as many inexplicable accidents as possible.” While this account is frequently cited by researchers, the exact date of the publication carrying this story remains uncertain.
There is no question that these strange creatures remained a topic of conversation among British pilots throughout the early 1940s, especially as war raged on. In fact, The Spectator made another mention of gremlins, offering a detailed description of them as 1.2-meter-tall (4 ft) creatures with large ears and sharp teeth on January 10, 1943. The piece might have been intended as a joke or perhaps a nod to Walt Disney’s plans for an animated film about these mischievous beings, though the project was never completed.
9. The Midair Massacre
In 1939, a terrifying encounter with a monstrous aerial creature was reportedly experienced aboard a U.S. military cargo plane. This story was uncovered in a San Diego newspaper by UFO researcher Jerome Clarke, who later published it in the 1950s periodical, Flying Saucer Review.
The flight, departing from San Diego and bound for Hawaii, had been uneventful for hours until the control tower began receiving urgent distress calls. Not long after, the plane returned to its base and landed. Emergency responders discovered all crew members dead, each with gruesome wounds. The pilot had also perished, while the copilot survived just long enough to bring the aircraft back to base before dying minutes after touchdown.
Even more bizarre, every pilot aboard had drawn their standard-issue service pistols and emptied their clips. Spent bullet casings were found scattered near their feet.
8. Pilot Crashes Off the Coast of England, Claims ‘Little People’ Were to Blame
In 1923, a Royal Air Force pilot’s crash into the chilly waters off the coast of England made headlines, especially since the pilot attributed the accident to “little people” who, he claimed, had somehow boarded his plane. Even stranger, the pilot insisted that these tiny beings had emerged from a beer bottle the previous night and had tormented him all through the night and into the morning of his flight.
According to the pilot’s story, these mysterious creatures wreaked havoc on the plane’s controls and navigation systems, causing so much trouble that the pilot was forced to crash-land in the sea. What happened to the creatures afterward remains unknown, but as we will see, stories like these from seasoned and trusted airmen led to actions by governments that now seem outlandish. For these aviators, any malfunction or misfortune was always attributed to these elusive “gremlins.”
7. ‘L.W.’ and the B-17 Incident
One of the most well-known encounters with these troublesome and hostile creatures during World War II took place over European skies when a pilot known only as “L.W.” flew his B-17 Flying Fortress on a mission.
Out of the blue, L.W. spotted a strange and threatening creature peering in at him from outside the aircraft. He then saw a second creature perched on the nose of the bomber. The pilot’s description later matched that of many other aviators from the time: the creatures were about 1 to 1.2 meters (3–4 ft) tall, with numerous sharp teeth, and on this occasion, their eyes glowed a bright red. He also noted that their arms appeared unusually long.
After regaining his composure, L.W. began flying the B-17 erratically, hoping the creatures would lose their grip, which they seemed to eventually do, though he could not see what happened to them. It wasn’t until days later, when another pilot mentioned seeing the same creature, that L.W. decided to report the incident to his superiors.
6. Charles Lindbergh’s Famous Flight
Aviator Charles Lindbergh, who made history with his solo flight from New York to Paris in May 1927, reported encountering strange “transparent-like creatures” that “looked grim and menacing,” freely moving about the plane during his journey. Despite their eerie presence, he remarked that he “never once felt frightened.”
Unlike other tales of chaos and trouble, Lindbergh’s account was different. He described engaging in conversations with these beings, whom he believed were more spiritual than physical. He claimed that they spent hours talking with him, sharing knowledge of a “mystical nature.” Strangely, despite his detailed account, Lindbergh chose not to elaborate further on the content of these conversations, fearing he would be ridiculed.
As you might expect, despite the widespread fascination with gremlins during Lindbergh’s 1927 flight, most people have since dismissed his story. Critics pointed out that the creatures only appeared nearly nine hours into the flight, suggesting that they were most likely hallucinations brought on by the high altitude or the intense stress of the journey.
5. Official Advice
As mentioned earlier, the surge of reports from Royal Air Force (RAF) pilots and personnel led the British government, through the Ministry of Defense, to issue formal guidance on how to handle these mysterious creatures. Remarkably, campaigns were launched that suggested planes should be designed with rounder edges instead of sharp ones, arguing that this would give these mischievous beings fewer places to hide, ultimately preventing them from gaining traction on the aircraft and terrorizing the pilots.
There were even private discussions, mostly within military circles, which proposed that these creatures were somehow linked to the Nazis and had been deliberately sent to torment British pilots. However, as similar reports emerged from American and Allied pilots, this theory was discarded. After the war, when German pilots shared their own encounters with the same creatures, it became clear that the theory was unfounded.
4. The Story of Captain Wikner
Researcher and author John Laming, who served for decades in the aviation industry in both Australia and the United Kingdom, not only had his own alleged encounter with a plane whose engines appeared damaged by an unknown force in 1960, but he also gathered several previously unknown stories from World War II pilots.
One of these stories comes from Captain Wikner, who in August 1944, while transporting an Avro Lancaster bomber between air bases over the United Kingdom, experienced a truly strange encounter. While conducting test exercises with a younger pilot in friendly airspace, the aircraft's engines suddenly cut out.
Thanks to his extensive flying experience and skill, Wikner was able to regain control of the aircraft and make an emergency landing at the nearest air base. Oddly, as soon as the Lancaster touched down, the engines roared back to life. Even more bizarre, the bomber was immediately placed under armed guard, and Wikner was replaced by an unknown pilot to complete the delivery. Wikner later revealed that several unreported crashes involving Lancaster bombers had occurred during this period, all of which resulted in the tragic deaths of their crews.
3. The Hopkinsville Goblin Encounter
The Hopkinsville Goblin Incident is a strange and unsettling story, featuring claims that two entire families were terrorized by creatures that bore an uncanny resemblance to the gremlins described by pilots. These beings, with their menacing appearance, caused a night of fear and confusion.
In August 1955, after sharing a meal in the Suttons' home near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, members of the Sutton and Taylor families experienced a strange attack by glowing, otherworldly beings. These creatures, with exceptionally long arms ending in sharp claws, stood around 0.6 to 1.2 meters (2–4 ft) tall and were described as having bat-like ears. They were capable of floating upward without the aid of any vehicle or propeller, echoing the descriptions of beings from other encounters, like the one described by L.W.
Despite the families firing at the creatures, the bullets had no effect, seemingly bouncing off without causing harm. The strange assault continued for hours. Police, who arrived after the incident, noted distinct evidence of an external disturbance, but the event remains unresolved and unexplained.
2. The 'Alien' of Brown Mountain
Though these two incidents did not occur in the air, the creatures involved closely resemble those described by World War II pilots. Moreover, both events occurred after the 1950s, a period when pilot sightings had seemingly ceased, whether by coincidence or not.
In 1961, Ralph Lael was investigating the Brown Mountain Lights when he encountered a strange orb measuring between 3 and 3.7 meters (10–12 ft) in diameter. He felt as though the orb 'scanned' him before he followed it into the caves of Brown Mountain. Inside, he navigated through a maze of precisely carved underground tunnels, eventually reaching a large chamber. Lael claimed that it was in this chamber that a voice from the orb communicated with him, offering him cosmic knowledge.
Later, Lael revisited the cave, where he allegedly traveled to Venus. There, he met several Venusians and, in an extraordinary claim, had an intimate encounter with a beautiful Venusian woman. After returning, Lael discovered a mummified alien body in the cave. Despite taking photos of the body, it was reportedly destroyed in a fire at his shop under suspicious circumstances.
Whether real or fabricated, the creature Lael discovered closely resembles the gremlins described by pilots decades earlier and is often referred to as 'goblin-like.' This similarity leads us to the final entry in this account.
1. Chris Jarrett Leaps From Falling Plane
Another story attributed to Laming involves Chris Jarrett, the lone survivor of a wartime mission that took place in 1942. The mission, involving a Lancaster bomber, ended in a crash in Northern France. Jarrett, who Laming spoke with in the mid-1990s, recounted that the Lancaster was on a night raid to Germany when disaster struck.
As the bomber crossed into French airspace, one engine began to fail, which triggered a chain reaction that caused the remaining three engines to shut down simultaneously—a highly unusual occurrence. Jarrett recalled telling Laming, 'That left us with nothing but a full bomb load and plenty of petrol, so we just went down.'
Jarrett then made a daring escape by jumping out of the crippled aircraft’s front hatch, landing just as the plane plunged over a hill and exploded in flames. While the exact cause of the crash remains unclear, rumors at the time suggested the involvement of gremlins. This incident mirrored numerous other similar accounts from pilots who reported engines failing in the same strange way, like the one experienced by Wikner, which we discussed earlier.
