The Creepiest Plane to Ever Land in WW2

One morning in November 1944, a battered B-17 bomber landed on Belgium. To the astonishment of Allied soldiers on the ground, when they checked inside, there were no wounded crew, no bodies, and the parachutes laid neatly packed. The only clue they got was a cryptic message from a notebook that read “bad flak.”

How did this battered bomber, manned by a crew of ten manage to fly back to base and land on its own?

A Ghost Plane

On November 23, 1944, a B-17 known as the “Phantom Fortress” embarked on what should have been a routine bombing mission over Germany. The target? A heavily defended oil refinery at Merseburg- is known to be one of the most dangerous assignments because of its anti-aircraft defenses.

The Phantom Fortress took off with a nine-man crew. As the plane approached the target, the flak filled the sky, the plane was hit repeatedly, sustaining severe damage.

With its engines failing and the situation deteriorating, the crew had no choice but to abandon the aircraft, parachuting out one by one, believing they had left the plane to its doom. But the B-17 had a will of its own, defying the odds, the bomber went on its flight, cruising aimlessly over the war-torn landscape of Europe.

Hours later, it appeared over the Belgian countryside, descending slowly. The RAF personnel stationed at Cortonburg watched the plane do a rough but controlled landing. The Flying Fortress landed itself with no human hand guiding it.

Legendary Feat

How did the Phantom Fortress manage such a feat? Investigations were launched, but no definitive answers were ever found. Some speculated that the plane’s autopilot had somehow been engaged, guiding the plane to a safe landing.

Others believed it was a combination of sheer luck and the B-17’s durability that had allowed it to return in one piece.

This ghostly tale remains one of the most enduring mysteries of WWII, a testament to the plane’s ruggedness and the extraordinary events that happened during the war.