The 1984 blockbuster movie Gremlins may be pure fantasy, yet the notion of mischievous, wing‑clipping sprites has sparked a surprisingly large collection of “10 crazy claims” from aviators and witnesses across the globe. From early 20th‑century newspaper columns to wartime combat reports, these accounts paint a picture of tiny, malevolent beings meddling with metal birds. Below, we rank the most jaw‑dropping testimonies, preserving every quirky detail while adding a dash of fresh, conversational flair.
10. Early Reports In The Spectator
Perhaps the very first printed mention of odd critters harassing Britain’s elite flyers appeared in The Spectator during the early 1920s. The article claimed, “The Royal Naval Air Service in 1917 and the newly constituted Royal Air Force in 1918 seem to have detected a horde of mysterious and malicious sprites whose sole purpose was… to cause as many inexplicable mishaps as possible.” Although many scholars cite this passage, the exact publication date remains elusive.
There is no doubt, however, that these bizarre entities were a hot topic among British pilots right up until the mid‑1940s, when the war reached its peak. In fact, The Spectator ran another piece on January 10, 1943, describing gremlins as roughly 1.2‑metre‑tall (4 ft) creatures with oversized ears and teeth. Some suspect the article was a tongue‑in‑cheek nod to Walt Disney’s aborted animated gremlin project, but the description lingered in the aviation lore.
9. The Massacre In Midair
An unsettling encounter allegedly took place in 1939 aboard a U.S. military cargo aircraft. UFO researcher Jerome Clarke uncovered the story in a San Diego newspaper and later re‑published it in the 1950s magazine Flying Saucer Review. The plane departed San Diego bound for Hawaii and seemed to be cruising without incident for several hours before distress calls suddenly flooded the control tower.
Minutes later, the aircraft returned to its home base and landed. When ground crews opened the doors, they found every crew member dead, each bearing gruesome, gaping wounds. The pilot had perished, while the co‑pilot managed to bring the plane home only to die moments after touchdown. Even more bizarre, each pilot’s service pistol lay empty, with spent cartridges scattered at their feet.
8. Pilot Ditches Plane Off England Coast, Blames ‘Little People’
In 1923, a Royal Air Force pilot was forced to ditch his aircraft into the chilly waters off England’s shoreline, sparking a media frenzy because he blamed the mishap on “little people” that allegedly hopped aboard his plane. The pilot claimed these tiny beings had emerged from a beer bottle the night before and tormented him throughout the evening and into the morning of his flight.
According to the account, the mischievous sprites interfered with the aircraft’s controls and navigation gear, becoming such a nuisance that the pilot felt compelled to abandon the plane in the sea. The fate of the creatures remains unknown, but the incident helped fuel government‑level investigations that, in hindsight, appear downright absurd. For the airmen, any accident or glitch was instantly attributed to these gremlins.
7. ‘L.W.’ And The B‑17 Incident
One of the more famous wartime reports involves a pilot identified only as “L.W.”, who was flying a B‑17 Flying Fortress over Europe when the extraordinary occurred. Out of nowhere, L.W. spotted a bizarre, menacing creature peering at him from outside the fuselage, followed shortly by a second creature perched on the bomber’s nose.
Both entities matched other pilots’ descriptions: roughly 1 to 1.2 metres (3‑4 ft) tall, bristling with teeth, and this time sporting glowing red eyes and disproportionately long arms. L.W. attempted to shake them off by maneuvering erratically, eventually forcing the creatures to release their grip. He only learned of similar sightings after other pilots reported comparable encounters, prompting him to file an official report.
6. Charles Lindbergh’s Famous Flight
According to aviation legend Charles Lindbergh, who completed his historic solo New York‑to‑Paris flight in May 1927, a trio of “transparent‑like creatures” with a grim, menacing visage appeared and roamed freely throughout his aircraft. Despite the eerie presence, Lindbergh claimed he never felt a hint of fear.
Unlike the chaotic accounts of other pilots, Lindbergh described these beings as spiritual rather than flesh‑and‑blood, engaging him in lengthy conversations that imparted “mystical” knowledge. He was reluctant to elaborate on the content, fearing ridicule. Modern skeptics argue the creatures likely manifested as altitude‑induced hallucinations or stress‑driven visions, especially since they only appeared after nine hours into the flight.
5. Official Advice
As the flood of early reports from Royal Air Force personnel grew, the British government—via the Ministry of Defence—issued official guidance on how to cope with these mischievous entities. One campaign, astonishingly, advocated redesigning aircraft with rounded edges rather than sharp angles, theorising that smoother surfaces would deny the gremlins places to cling and sabotage.
There were also whispered discussions, mainly within military circles, suggesting the creatures might have been a Nazi‑engineered weapon aimed at British pilots. However, as more Allied and American aviators recounted similar sightings, the theory lost traction. Post‑war German pilots also reported gremlin encounters, indicating the phenomenon transcended any single nation’s agenda.
4. The Account Of Captain Wikner
Researcher and author John Laming, who spent decades in the aviation industry across Australia and the United Kingdom, not only claimed a personal 1960 encounter with a plane whose engines appeared damaged by an unknown force, but he also compiled several obscure World War II stories. One such tale comes from Captain Wikner, who in August 1944 was ferrying an Avro Lancaster bomber between UK airfields.
During a training exercise with a junior pilot, the Lancaster’s engines abruptly cut out. Thanks to Wikner’s seasoned skill, he regained control and executed an emergency landing at the nearest base. Astonishingly, as soon as the aircraft touched down, the engines roared back to life. The plane was immediately placed under armed guard, and Wikner was replaced by an unidentified pilot to finish the delivery. He later suggested that numerous unreported Lancaster crashes that month, all ending in total crew loss, might have been gremlin‑related.
3. Chris Jarrett Leaps From Falling Plane
Another Laming‑documented account features Chris Jarrett, the lone survivor of a wartime mission in a Lancaster bomber that crashed in northern France in 1942. Jarrett recounted to Laming, during a mid‑1940s interview, that the aircraft was en route to Germany on a night sortie when an engine began to seize.
Attempting to regain control only triggered a cascade, causing the remaining three engines to stall simultaneously—an event that should have been impossible. Jarrett recalled, “That left us with nothing but a full bomb load and plenty of petrol, so we just went down.” He leapt from the front hatch just in time to watch the doomed bomber plunge over a hill and erupt in flames. While the precise cause remains unknown, contemporaries blamed gremlins, noting the pattern of simultaneous engine failures echoed in other pilots’ testimonies, such as Captain Wikner’s.
2. The ‘Alien’ Of Brown Mountain
Although the following two examples occurred on solid ground rather than in the sky, their creature descriptions align strikingly with the gremlins reported by wartime pilots. The first, from 1961, involves Ralph Lael, who was investigating the famed Brown Mountain Lights. He claimed to encounter a massive, 3‑ to 3.7‑metre‑wide (10‑12 ft) orb that seemed to “scan” him before guiding him into a network of precisely carved underground tunnels.
Lael said the orb’s voice disclosed cosmic knowledge, and on a subsequent return he was allegedly taken to Venus, where he met several Venusians and even engaged in an intimate encounter with a beautiful Venusian woman. He later recovered a mummified alien corpse from the cavern, photographed it, but the body was supposedly destroyed in a suspicious fire at his shop. Whether hoax or reality, the goblin‑like alien bears a strong resemblance to the gremlin descriptions from earlier decades.
1. The Hopkinsville Goblin Incident
The final entry, the infamous Hopkinsville Goblin Incident, showcases a truly outlandish series of claims. In August 1955, after sharing a dinner in the Sutton household near Hopkinsville, Kentucky, members of the Sutton and Taylor families found themselves besieged by strange, glowing beings. These entities matched gremlin lore perfectly: they possessed unusually long arms, razor‑sharp claws, bat‑like ears, and stood roughly 0.6‑to‑1.2 metres (2‑4 ft) tall, capable of levitating without any visible propulsion.
Even as the families opened fire, the bullets seemed to ricochet harmlessly off the creatures. The night‑long assault continued, leaving the local police to note unmistakable signs of an external disturbance when they arrived. To this day, the Hopkinsville Goblin Incident remains an unsolved mystery, cementing its place alongside the most bizarre gremlin sightings in history.