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Good evening. In life there is one certainty, and that is that it ends. Fear of dying is

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a fear of the unknown, of taking a journey into uncharted waters. But is it a leap into

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the abyss? There are people who claim to have glimpsed what lies beyond. They're not psychics

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or mystics, but normal, everyday people who've had what is known as a near-death experience.

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It was so brilliant. The feeling of love, joy, knowledge, super. And off we went.

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The fact that it seemed likely that I was going to die in a strange country away from a family

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and friends was totally unimportant. In some ways it was a rather wonderful experience because it

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brought about such an enormous transformation in my life. I felt some peace and contentment. I

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seemed happy. After all the noise and explosions and the flames and sparks I'd gone through,

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it was so peaceful. The near-death experience is a phenomenon that has been widely recognised

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for many centuries. When people have been on the brink of death recover, they report

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remarkably similar experiences. Neurosychiatrist Dr Peter Fennick is Britain's leading clinical

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authority on the subject. I've studied over 400 cases, but at the moment I can't see

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a satisfactory scientific explanation which really explains the data. At the age of 17

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David Whitmarsh was in the Navy serving on a frigate in the Far East. Part of my duties

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was testing sockets. All of a sudden big flash, like an explosion in the mind of my brain.

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And I realised that I'd taken the full 415 volts. David then entered a state which had

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all the classic features of the near-death experience. You become very frightened and then

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suddenly you're transfused by calmness and then you start to lose consciousness. I felt

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myself in a beautiful darkness. It was lovely, peaceful. I'd gone to go down, down a tunnel.

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The tunnel you usually float down, it's black, then you see a speck of light at the end and

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you float towards the speck of light, get bigger and bigger and as you enter it you

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enter into a feeling of universal love and compassion. I found myself standing in this

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beautiful yellow cornfield and I appeared to be wearing a blue gown and then I saw from

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the corner of my eye what appeared to be a train on the horizon. Then I felt myself

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go, going towards the train, moving towards it as though it was zooming into it. There seemed

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to be figures in the train. I couldn't see their features, they were misty, shadowy.

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Then they appeared to be beckoning and all of a sudden I was in the train. I was sat there with

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them. It was just a babble of excitement, happiness, contentment and then my happiness appeared to

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be shattered. I felt a pressure on my shoulders. I couldn't understand what was happening. I wanted

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to stay here and for some story and reason I felt myself going up, always being pushed down

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within a period of a few seconds I was back on the deck of the ship again.

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I was so angry. I just didn't want to leave, I just wanted to go back.

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What battled scientists is that David Whitmarsh like many others has a precise memory of his

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near-death experience even though he was unconscious. An unconscious state is when the brain ceases

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to function. For example, if you faint, you fall to the floor, you don't know what's happening

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and the brain isn't working. The memory systems are particularly sensitive to unconsciousness

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so you won't remember anything but yet after one of these experiences people come out with clear

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lucid memories. It was so clear and so it wasn't mixed up like a dream or an hallucination could be.

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It was the same as I'm talking now. Now this is a real puzzle for science and I've not yet seen

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any good scientific explanation which can explain that fact. One theory is that the near-death

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experience is simply a function of anoxia, the condition when the brain is starved of oxygen.

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Alan Pring is a former Royal Air Force pilot who knows what it's like to be without oxygen.

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I was rather stupid and I went far too high without oxygen. You get light-headed, euphoric and

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nothing seems terribly important. But Alan has also had a near-death experience which he recalls

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with absolute clarity. He insists it's quite distinct from the mental confusion of oxygen

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deprivation. It's there like no other memory. It began during a routine operation. I knew

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that I was dead. I wasn't bothered and I felt as if I was waiting for something to happen

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and it did. In a flash the whole of my life passed before me. Everything that I'd ever done,

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ever thought, ever said was there and I floated off through this darkness and

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drifted down into a large, very large room. And in each corner there was a figure.

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They all seemed to have like a monk's cowl and they all had their faces turned away from me.

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And then they started to ask me questions. What do you regret about your life?

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I suppose the times I've hurt people. What is the most important thing you've learned?

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To be wise with humility. Alan Pring found himself being judged, a familiar feature of

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the near-death experience. It's very moral and very judgemental and but the person who's judging

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is you. You judge yourself and all those nasty little grabby things you've done you don't like

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very much. And now I was in a place that words cannot describe. Just a wonderful

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aurora of light. All embracing love, compassion, knowledge or pouring in.

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What happened next was the worst moment that I'd ever known.

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I realized I couldn't go on. I had to turn around and come back.

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The reason I had to come back was that I felt was that I was very much in love with my wife.

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And I wanted to be able to tell her that you can't die. It's impossible to die.

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So what accounts for Alan Pring's visions of a possible afterlife if it's not a lack of oxygen?

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Drugs, whether taken medicinally or recreationally, often lead to similar states. Could this be the

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answer? The difficulty with those theories is that when you create these wonderful states by

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taking drugs you're conscious. In the near-death experience you're unconscious. And one of the

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things we know about brain function in unconsciousness is that you cannot create images and if you do

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you cannot remember them. Drugs certainly had no part to play in the experience of psychologist

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Margo Gray. On holiday in India in 1982 she caught typhoid and felt her life ebbing away.

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I found myself out of my body and I was very surprised you know how Eli looked but I felt

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totally detached from the whole experience. Margo's experience was not immediately one of joy and

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peace. She first faced a battle with death itself. With a young girl who looked very familiar.

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In a curious kind of way it was rather like a doppelganger experience. It was rather like

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looking at myself at that age. I looked on the other side of the pool and I could see this dark

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murky patch on the bottom of the pool and I knew that it was a dead body without it being told

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and I didn't want to go over but somehow I was compelled. It came up from the bottom and grabbed

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me in a vice-like grip and started dragging me down and just as I felt I couldn't hold on any

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longer I did actually just my head came out of the water and with my free arm I said to it oh no

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you don't I said you have no power over me I'm stronger than you are and with that it let go

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and at that moment I found myself back in my body and in my bed but the extraordinary thing was at

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that moment the temperature broke and after that I started to make really quite a speedy recovery.

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I think the interesting point about the near-death experience is that it tends to make you more

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moral in other words more concerned for other people less concerned for yourself and of course

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most importantly it takes away the fear of death. I think the most important thing it taught me is

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not to be afraid of life and once you cease to be afraid of life then the whole quality of life

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changes. I'm not afraid not afraid anymore of death I know where I'm gonna go now if it is the same

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as that I've been through then I should be very happy. I truly believe that the world would be a

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better place if more people had had the experience than I had and they considered the possibility that

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death is not the end and that existence consciousness or whatever goes on.

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Dylan Thomas eloquently described fear of death when he wrote do not go gentle into that good night

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old age should burn and rave at close of day rage rage against the dying of the light.

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Well whatever actually happened to our witnesses in near-death encounters

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they now have no fear of the dying of the light. In part two the hoax of order World War two bummer

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that takes a chilling twist.

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Just another school choir photograph at least it would be if it went for this mysterious

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gatecrusher. The children are from St Hugh's school in Woodhall Spa the Lincolnshire village

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once home of 617 Danbuster squadron. They were marking the laying of a memorial to the airman

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who died during the mission to bomb the Ruhr Valley Danes. No one knew who the dog was or how he got

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there. Some say he was the ghost of Wing Commander Guy Gibson's black Labrador the squadron's

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mascot. It's not the only strange story linked to wartime bombing missions. Tonight we visit

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Cosford in Shropshire to consider just such a mystery. The brooding presence of the Lincoln

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B2 the last of the Second World War bombers. In the 1970s this plane was the focus for an

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elaborate and highly successful hoax but the prank had a bizarre twist. Nearly 20 years ago

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a team of engineers arrived at Cosford Aerospace Museum to carry out restoration on the bomber

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number RF 398. Before completing their work they were told the plane was to be transferred to a new

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museum opening in Manchester. The star of the the museum should always remain there and when we found

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out she was on the movement roll to go to Manchester we were literally horrified. We wanted 398 to stay

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at Cosford. Yeah all right. The engineering team came up with the plan to prevent the bomber being

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transferred. Right what are we going to call it then? Don't know what about Pete the poltergeist?

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How often does it come around once a week once a day what? Well I think he's here now.

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I can feel him. We actually invented a ghost on the aircraft and the more people that came to

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see the aircraft at Cosford the more chance the aircraft actually had at Stain here.

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Hello. Hello. I'm Carol Hardy I'm from the Gazette. I spoke to Jim about the plane.

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Oh that's right hello. What's been happening then? Well I wouldn't believe it's been extraordinary.

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Once the the local newspaper got in on the scene we then had local radio

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that the jokers we saw actually got out of control. Hey Jim you never guess what's happened?

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The local vicar's been on the phone he's only offered to exorcise the place.

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We can't get rid of Pete now. I know. Well just sign him up for the union.

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Lee was about 1980 or 1981 where we were informed that the Lincoln would be staying at Cosford

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and as such our task with the funny ghost was completed. The hoaxing seized because there was no

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need we had saved the aircraft. Today the plane remains at Cosford. Of course we've discovered

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now that the so-called hauntings were a hoax but there is something we can't account for. The

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plane has become the center of a new mystery. For nine years paranormal researcher Ivan Spensley

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has been investigating a series of unexpectedly strange noises in the bomber.

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I decided to do some sound recording so I placed a microphone near the radio operator's position

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and set the machine running and the hangar was evacuated.

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Ivan returned to the hangar and played back the tape. He was staggered by what he heard.

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This is his actual recording from the empty plane in the deserted hangar.

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The first recordings I made here I didn't know whether it was the sound of the hangar changing

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as as the heat of the day left the building. I really wasn't sure and I didn't know what to

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make of them. What I needed to do was do some more recording and also observe the the natural

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ambience of the hangar. During his many visits to Cosford Ivan has always meticulously ensured

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that nothing can contaminate his recordings. I seal all the outdoors with a strip of paper which I sign

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and if that paper is broken then I know somebody has gained entry but since I've been doing it

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I've never found any broken seals. To ensure the sounds aren't caused by faulty equipment

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Ivan uses several different recorders and microphones. When the time came to publicize

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his findings he invited radio fore producer Gwyn Richards to join him for an all night vigil on

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board. It was about half past midnight and we'd been sitting there for some time. I looked down

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to the Red Gunners compartment and I thought I saw a pinprick of light and I nudged Ivan and said

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can you see what I can see and he said yes and this tiny pinprick of light by this time seemed

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to have been getting nearer and it was moving slightly from one side to the other and we looked at

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each other and we thought well we did see it. After making a radio program about his experiences

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on board the plane Gwyn received a sack full of letters. I mean there is no explanation really

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but one letter only at the end gave me something which I thought was possible. It said that when

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the crew was on night flying they used to reverse the little concave reflector in their torches

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and cover the bulb with them so that only a tiny pinprick of light was emitted from the torch in

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order to save the pilot's night vision and that seems to me to be something which approximates

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what I saw. But what about the noises? Ivan and Gwyn made further recordings on that occasion.

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I didn't expect to hear anything and then suddenly on the tape was this incredible bang.

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I said my god I play that again and he fooled you that played it again.

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This is absolutely ridiculous I just don't believe but it's there.

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Also on the tape was a sound that Ivan's recorders had not picked up before. This is the actual sound.

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Could the tape simply have picked up radio signals from atmospheric interference?

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I wanted those sounds verified by somebody who might know what caused them.

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Which was the worst part? Landing or takeoff? From my point of view it's landing.

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Ivan contacted the former 398 crew. Among them pilot Phil Pritchett and navigator Gary Lewis.

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We climbed aboard and took up our positions. I was a pilot so I took the captain to the seat.

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Gary was up in the nose in the navigator seat and we went through all the drills that we have to do

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before we start flying.

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The noises we heard on the tape they certainly sounded like the normal noises that we get on an aeroplane but somewhat modified.

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The noises on the tape resembled the clicks made by the switches during the cockpit drills.

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As for the whistling sound Gary has his own theory.

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Eventually we worked out that it was a navigation aid called Consul.

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This surprised us because as far as we knew the navigation aid had been out to service for about 25 or 30 years.

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I thought it was very strange to get these noises in the middle of the night.

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Hangar doors locked, nobody on the aeroplane, just tapes recording. Very strange indeed.

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The last Consul navigation unit was decommissioned in 1956.

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Thinking about it since then I still can't find any logical explanation.

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It just defeats me completely.

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But could the recording simply be the sound of the hangar contracting as it cools down at night?

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The roof of the hangar creaking and that kind of thing. It's an easily distinguishable sound.

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It can't be mixed up with anything else.

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So what do the original hoaxers make of the strange noises Ivan has recorded?

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There are noises which may need further investigation but there is probably a logical answer to those noises.

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But what that is I don't know.

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I've listened very carefully to the noises I've recorded on that plane.

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I've tried to find natural causes for those noises.

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After nine years I haven't been able to do so.

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But Ivan does know of one theory linked to the plane's history.

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The story on record here at Cosford is that RF-398 was flown by master pilot Hila on its final flight.

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It said that he liked the plane so much that he would haunt it when he died.

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The strange thing is that Hila was taken off Lincoln Bombers

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and transferred to a Dover aircraft which crashed not too far away from Cosford and he was killed.

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The other thing is that part of that crashed aircraft was brought back and housed at Cosford.

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When we tried to trace the operational history of the bomber we found gaps in some of the plane's official records.

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One explanation it's believed to have flown on secret missions.

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All together it seems there are more questions than answers about RF-398.

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Good night.

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you