 Ads heard before, during, or after the podcast are not endorsed by Paranormality Magazine or myself unless voiced by me personally. All other ads are pre-recorded, inserted by ad agencies, and are not under our control. Welcome to Paranormality Magazine. Each week, Paranormality Magazine explores all 40 subjects, from phantoms to UFOs, and every cryptid creature in between. Each week, you're treated to a collection of well-researched and investigated stories, interviews, and reports on cutting-edge paranormal projects and topics they know you crave. And here in the podcast, I share stories from the magazine to give you just a taste of what you receive in every issue. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Paranormality Magazine. Stationed at RAF Benbrook in Lincolnshire, England, Captain Bill Shafter was well-liked among his peers. He was appointed to the ranks of Fifth Squadron. When he moved to England, he brought his family, wife Linda, children David, Glennon, and baby Michael. The squadron was assigned to patrol the air over the North Sea for the ever-present danger of the USSR during the Cold War. If alerted to an object seen coming close to their territorial waters, they would need to shadow them, warn them off, or shoot them down if necessary. On that day, they were assigned training. For the entire day, lightnings zoomed off to look for this imaginary threat, returning to refuel and take off again. Shafter wasn't scrambled until the evening. By then, the weather had started to worsen. He climbed to 10,000 feet over the North Sea as he searched for the dangerous radar alert. He checked back in with the RAF radar station three minutes and five seconds later to be told he was to shadow another plane to pretend it was a Russian threat. He was told to shadow and shepherd the enemy plane, which he had practiced but had not been cleared to perform yet. Darkness was approaching. At that point, he had only 18 hours of night flying experience in a lightning. The speed of the quote-unquote enemy Shackleton placed was 185 miles per hour, and the slowest that his lightning could go in that operation would have been 230 miles per hour. This most likely would have tested his flight skills. Flying at night makes it very difficult to see the horizon, which meant that the water and the sky would blend together. His task was suddenly changed to intercept the Shackleton and escort it back to RAF Binbrook. Shafter dropped to 5,000 feet and was told to increase his speed to Mach 0.95, or 728 miles per hour, toward the enemy flying about 28 nautical miles away. At 942, just 12 minutes after he had blasted off from RAF Binbrook, he got another set of instructions. If target aircraft approaches within three miles of the UK coastline, it is to be directed to land at Waddington, another RAF base in Lincolnshire. He never responded. The flight controller began to panic as they could no longer see Shafter on the radar. Radio calls were blasted out, but he still did not respond. RAF pilot Chris Coville flew toward Shafter's last known location to look for his missing friend, but he could not find him or his craft. Something terrible had happened to Bill. It was obvious that he had crashed into the sea, but there was still hope, he said. The RAF sent a lifeboat and an RAF Marine Branch rescue vessel to search for the missing Shafter. Coville said, if he had ejected and triggered his survival beacon, it would transmit a signal to allow rescuers to home in on him. But the rescue crew detected no beeps. The RAF had the unfortunate task of delivering the terrible news to Bill Shafter's wife, Linda. She recalls an RAF doctor arriving with a box of Valium to calm her. I was in total shock, she said. I was told Bill was probably dead, but what did probably mean? How could they know? I stayed up most of the night, hoping, praying that they would find him. Every time I heard a noise outside, I rushed to the window to see if it was him. No sign of Bill or his craft could be found. Until one month later, a minesweeper was scanning the North Sea when a large object pinged off their radar five miles northeast of Flamborough Head, lying in mud on the seabed about a hundred feet from the surface. They sent down a diver who came back and identified it as Shafter's missing craft, but the diver relayed something strange. Cockpit closed, looking in now. It's empty, no sign of the pilot. Once it was hauled to the surface, it was confirmed that the top canopy was closed, but the cockpit was vacant, the ejection seat was still inside. The altimeter was frozen with the craft's speed upon impact, 180 miles per hour. The mystery lived on until 1999 when their youngest son Mike, age 29, decided to start seeking answers. He can only locate an official report stating his father's missing date and time. One day he was browsing online and stumbled upon an article regarding his father. Quote, About ten pages into my search I saw the words 8 September 1970 and RAF Benbrook. It was the date my dad died and his base. I was astonished. Once he opened the link, up popped a 1992 article in the Grimsby Telegraph, entitled The Riddle of Foxtrot 94. The article stated a young USAF pilot, Captain Bill Shafter, had been scrambled in his lightning along with the six RAF fighters from other bases, three tankers and a Shackleton early warning aircraft to intercept a mystery contact. This was referring to an unidentified flying object, a UFO. Even more articles were gathered by independent UFO hunters. One article even contained what it claimed was an official transcript of Bill's final radio calls with his flight controllers. I have visual contact, repeat, visual contact. I'm alongside it now, maybe 600 feet. It's a conical shape. Geez, that's bright. It hurts my eyes to look at it for more than a few seconds. The article then claimed Shafter now saw an object the size of a large football, like it's made of glass bobbing up and down at the back end of the mystery craft. It's not connected. Maybe a magnetic attraction. Could be the power source. It's within a haze of yellow light. There's no sign of ballistics, he said. Suddenly he radioed in, panicking. It's turning, coming straight for me! I'm taking evasive action! His radio then went silent. Mike and his brothers tried to contact people within the U.S. Air Force who could answer their questions. The reply was immediate and direct. This is utter hoax, it's just a bunch of made-up junk, they said. After the shock wore off, Mike agreed. Clearly it was utter rubbish, but the fact that there was so much information out there about my dad spurred me on to investigate more. He and his brother were also angered by the stories of doing their distinguished and decorated father a gross disservice. My dad was a pilot, I was horrified his name was linked to this UFO nonsense. But one rather large mystery still remained. None of us could understand why the ejection seat was still in his jet, but my father was not. It became my mission to establish what had happened to him that night. Years passed when one day the BBC reached out to them. They stated they were looking into Bill Schaffner's death and trying to pressure the British Ministry of Defense to release information from the accident report. The Ministry of Defense claimed they did not have the information that it was most likely destroyed, but they eventually found it. It had the actual transcript of their father's last radio messages. This transcript made the UFO transcript appear false. It claimed Bill's death was entirely an accident. The mystery remained about why he had not ejected. Crashing into the sea at 180 miles per hour would probably have resulted in severe injuries, Chris Coville says. He had tried to eject at some point and failed, but he had then clearly unstraft from his ejection seat, managed to open the cockpit canopy and struggle out as the jet initially floated on the water. So why was the jet later discovered with the canopy sealed shut? Didn't that point to some outside interference, whether alien or a cold war enemy? No. After Schaffner had escaped from his cockpit, the aircraft began to sink deep into the sea and the increasing water pressure forced the canopy shut again as it continued to descend. According to Coville, there was only one answer to his friend's disappearance. Incapacitated and without his survival dingy, Bill almost certainly drowned in the cold North Sea. It was sheer bad luck that several elements combined on that fateful night to take him to his death. I'm no flight expert, nor do I have any flight experience. For those of you out there with more insight, what do you think of this? Is it just one big coincidence wrapped in a tragedy? Or do you think something else happened to Bill Schaffner? In the realm of UFOs, unidentified flying objects, the world has grown accustomed to stories of strange phenomena in the skies. Yet there is another mysterious dimension that remains relatively unexplored, the enigma of unidentified, submerged objects, USOs. While the sightings of unknown entities in the heavens are well documented, the intrigue surrounding objects emerging from and disappearing beneath the ocean's surface has gained traction in recent years. Notably, leaked US Navy footage has captured instances of objects observed descending into the deep blue. Could the ocean's depths be a clandestine refuge for other worldly visitors? According to Brian Helmuth, a distinguished professor of marine and environmental science, the ocean presents an ideal vantage point for extraterrestrial observers keen on studying our civilization. Helmuth remarked, if I were an investigator exploring an alien planet akin to Earth, the ocean would unquestionably be my starting point. He emphasized that the ocean encompasses the vast majority of Earth's living space and organisms, all while being relatively untouched by the one species notorious for harming the planet, humans. Helmuth stated it would be a prime location for observation. This perspective could explain why NASA sought the expertise of oceanographer Apollo Bontempi to contribute to the panel presenting the space agency's recent UFO report. Helmuth expressed confidence in Bontempi, describing her as highly respected within their field and as an ideal candidate for the committee. Nonetheless, the sheer immensity of the ocean's depths poses a formidable challenge. Searching for evidence of extraterrestrial presence beneath the waves is akin to seeking a needle and a colossal haystack. In a strange turn of events in Saltillo, Mexico, an attempted rescue mission that was initiated after cries for help were heard from a well took a baffling twist when authorities reached the bottom and discovered that no one was there. This eerie incident left both witnesses and police bewildered. The perplexing saga commenced when a passerby strolling through a residential neighborhood heard desperate pleas for assistance emanating from an open drainage well that plunged approximately 20 feet deep. Promptly alerted to the situation, local law enforcement swiftly converged on the scene. Their mission clear, rescue the woman in distress. However, what unfolded next would confound them all. Gathering around the well, police officers shouted down, trying to establish contact with the woman and ascertain her identity. In response, a faint voice from the depths of the well replied with a name, Juanita, seemingly validating the initial report from the concerned resident. However, despite the use of powerful flashlights to scour the well's depths, no visual confirmation of the woman's presence could be made. The situation took an even more misdefying turn when the fire department arrived, armed with specialized equipment designed for rescues in confined spaces. One daring rescuer descended into the well fully prepared to save Juanita. To the astonishment of everyone present, the well was entirely devoid of any sign of her. It was as if she had vanished into thin air. A thorough search of the surrounding area, including another nearby well, yielded no trace of the woman, leaving many to contemplate the possibility that the voice crying out from the well may have belonged to a ghostly presence. This inexplicable occurrence has left the community of Saltillo in a state of intrigue, with questions outnumbering answers. The search for Juanita, whether a real person or an apparition, has prompted locals to speculate about the supernatural and the unexplained, creating a mystery that continues to baffle both authorities and residents alike. A Malaysian man recently encountered a spine-chilling experience during his stay at a hotel in Bukit Mara, which he documented on TikTok. The man arrived at the hotel around 7.09 pm and proceeded to check into his room. Initially, everything seemed normal, but within just two minutes he claimed to have experienced unsettling disturbances. According to his account, he heard knocks on the door and the toilets began flushing unexpectedly. Feeling unnerved, he started praying for comfort. Strangely, the disturbances ceased momentarily, but resumed right after he finished praying. Deciding to capture the eerie events, he began recording the incident. Curiously, once he started recording, the paranormal activities seemed to subside. Nevertheless, he felt an overwhelming urge to leave, not wanting to take any chances, especially as he was the sole guest in the entire hotel. He hastily packed his belongings, left his room, and while waiting for the elevator, he alleged that he saw a ghost just as the lift doors were closing. At the lobby, he promptly returned his room keys to the counter staff and hastily exited the hotel. The man recounted, It was less than thirty minutes and I was already disturbed. I took out my phone to charge it for a moment and suddenly, the door behind me slammed shut. I called out to inquire if anyone was there, but there was no response. Alarmed, he decided to record his surroundings and claimed to have heard the curtains in the bathroom rustling as if being pulled, though no one was present. Realizing that the night ahead would be far from peaceful, despite having already paid for the room, he made the swift decision to check out after just twenty minutes of checking in. Many netizens expressed concern for his safety given the hotel's long-standing reputation for being haunted. Some were relieved that he made it out unharmed, while others found it astonishing that he had even checked into the hotel in the first place. The man clarified that he shared his experience not to offend anyone, but to serve as a warning to others to steer clear of the haunted hotel. In light of these events, it leaves you to ponder, would you have remained in the room under similar circumstances, or would you have followed suit and made a hasty exit? If you'd like to see the man's TikTok video, I've linked to it in the show description. In a harrowing incident along the Sanamkai Canal in Thailand's central province of Samut Sakon, a Thai woman narrowly escaped drowning, attributing her near-death experience to a chilling encounter with a ghost that allegedly compelled her to take a perilous leap off a bridge. The dramatic ordeal was captured on a security camera, and the footage revealed the woman's desperate struggle to stay afloat, her life hanging in the balance. Thankfully, a group of courageous individuals rushed to her aid, successfully rescuing her from the water's clutches and promptly transporting her to a nearby hospital. As the victim's condition improved, her perplexed relatives embarked on an investigation into the mysterious circumstances surrounding her bridge jump. Their astonishment deepened when the woman recounted her unsettling encounter with a mysterious figure, a man cloaked entirely in white, who she claimed coerced her into taking the perilous plunge. According to her account, the enigmatic figure had gestured to her while she was riding her motorbike along the canal. Intrigued, she parked her vehicle and approached the spectral stranger, only to lose consciousness soon after. The woman could recall only one chilling utterance from the eerie encounter, with the man repeating hauntingly, I want you to die! I want you to die! Upon awakening in the hospital, the woman found herself in a state of confusion, as she had no prior health issues and had never harbored any thoughts of suicide. She firmly believed that she had fallen under the sinister influence of a vengeful spirit. News of this fine-tingling incident quickly spread, prompting another woman, Anuma Tapyanthong, to come forward and share her own eerie experience related to the same event. Anuma revealed that she and her mother were traveling by car and had reached that bridge at approximately 9.30 am on the day of the incident. To her surprise, she spotted the same man in white attire perched atop an electricity pole, an eerie sight indeed. She immediately queried her mother about the unsettling figure, but her mother claimed not to have seen anything out of the ordinary. In an attempt to unravel the mystery, Anuma returned to the bridge for a closer look, but found no trace of the ghostly apparition. Upon learning that another woman had also encountered the enigmatic figure, Anuma couldn't shake off her goose bumps and decided to share her own supernatural encounter with the media. She even provided dash cam footage from her car, featuring her conversation with her mother, who consistently denied seeing the spectral figure. It appears that urban legends may have played a role in the supernatural encounters witnessed by these two women. The Setamkai Canal and its environs have long been associated with eerie tales with some Thai internet users sharing on social media that the area was once a desolate spot where individuals tragically chose to end their lives. Additionally, stories of children drowning in the canal and fatal boat accidents only add to the eerie aura surrounding this location. I'm Darren Marlar and I'll have more paranormal for you next time from Paranormality magazine.