“HORROR IN THE SKIES: A Flying Creature and Airline Terrors” | More True Horrors! #WeirdDarkness
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Welcome, Weirdos! I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained – coming up in this episode:

Sightings of a strange flying creature have been reported in Maryland since back in the 1700s. But even stranger is the unfortunate name this creature has been tagged with. What the heck is a "Snellygaster"?

They say it's actually safer to fly than to drive on our country's highways, and seeing how Chicagoans drive, I might tend to believe it. But when something goes wrong in your car, you don't plunge 30,000 feet to your demise. And while it may be safer than driving, there are still a lot of things that cannot go as planned and leave you screaming towards your doom.

Of course, more can go wrong on a flight than just you dying, although that probably should be at the top of the list of things to avoid when traveling by air. But some other strange and bizarre things have also happened in the skies that might make you rebook your next vacation on a train instead.

And, in many cultures, there are stories of screaming skulls haunting and terrorizing people. What could this phenomenon be? And are all the incidents related?

If you're new here, welcome to the show! While you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise, to visit sponsors you hear about during the show, sign up for my newsletter, enter contests, connect with me on social media. Plus, you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you're struggling with depression or dark thoughts. You can find all of that and a whole lot more at WeirdDarkness.com. Bolt your doors. Lock your windows. Turn off your lights.

For centuries, a large winged beast known as the Snallygaster is said to have terrified the people of Frederick County, Maryland. The dragon-like beast is described as being a half-reptile and half-bird that lives deep in the caves of South Mountain. The mysterious creature is said to swoop silently down from the sky, stealing farm animals and children from the unsuspecting farm folk.

Some say it's real. The area was settled by German immigrants beginning in the 1730s who called the creature a "Schnellergeist" meaning "quick spirit" in German. The earliest folklore mixes the half-bird features with nightmarish features of demons and ghouls. Other descriptions describe the beast as half-reptile, half-bird, with a metallic-like beak lined with razor-sharp teeth. Sometimes it's described as having octopus-like tentacles.

The earliest stories claim that this monster sucked the blood of its victims. The Snallygaster has one widely known enemy, called Dweo. The Dweo is reported to be a mammalian biped with features similar to a wolf, but the stance and stature of a human. Sounds like a werewolf to me. The Dweo and the Snallygaster have reportedly had vicious encounters dating back to the early settlement of the Middletown Valley.

For years, the Snallygaster lived only on the pages of folklore until 1909, when stories of the beast began to appear in newspapers. Encounters between local residents and the winged creature in February and March of 1909 described it as having enormous wings, a long, pointed bill, claws like steel hooks, and an eye in the center of its forehead. Further, it was said to make screeches like a locomotive whistle.

A February 1909 article claimed that a man had been seized by the winged creature, which proceeded to sink its teeth into his jugular and drain the body of blood before dropping it along a hillside.

The story was carried prominently in Middletown, Maryland's Valley Register, and soon spread far and wide, so much so that the Smithsonian Institution offered a reward for the hide, and U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt reportedly considered postponing an international trip to personally hunt the beast. In the early issues, the flying beast seemed to be everywhere at once. In New Jersey, it was reported that its footprints were first discovered in the snow.

In West Virginia, it was said that the flying beast almost caught a woman near Scrabble, was found roosting in a farmer's barn, and laid an egg the size of a barrel near Sharpsburg. A man in Casttown, Ohio, wrote a letter to the Valley Register telling of a strange creature that flew over his area, making terrible screeching noises. He described it as having two huge wings, a large, horny head, and a tail 20 feet long.

In Maryland, it was sighted by a man who operated a brick-burning kiln near Cumberland. Spied near the kiln sleeping, when it awoke it emitted a blood-curdling scream and angrily flew away. It was only sighted near Hagerstown, south of Middletown at Lover's Leap, and seen flying over the mountains between Gatland and Burkittsville, where it was reported to have laid another very large egg.

The last sighting in Frederick County occurred in March 1909, where three men fought the creature outside a railroad station for nearly an hour and a half before chasing it into the woods of Carroll County. Afterward, there were no more sightings of the mysterious creature for the next 23 years, at which time it once again appeared in Frederick County, Maryland. The first reports said the bird was seen just below South Mountain in Washington County,

It was surmised at the time that, as the life expectancy of a Snallygaster was estimated at about 20 years , the new sightings were from the offspring of the 1909 creature. At this time, the Middletown Valley Register requested that local residents who spied the creature should provide as accurate and detailed a description as possible for scientific purposes.

Two residents soon reported having seen it just east of Braddock Heights, flying about 25 feet overhead, confirming the descriptions published the previous week. The next thing heard of the Snallygaster is that it had died in Washington County when it was overcome by the fumes of a moonshine still and fell from the sky into the 2,500-gallon vat of alcohol. According to the story, revenue agents soon arrived and destroyed both the vat and the carcass of the beast.

No appearances have been reported since. They say it's actually safer to fly than to drive on our country's highways. And seeing how Chicagoans drive, I might tend to believe that. But when something goes wrong in your car, you don't plunge 30,000 feet to your demise. And while it might be safer than driving, there are still a lot of things that cannot go as planned and leave you screaming towards your doom. That's up next on Weird Darkness.

Hey Weirdos! If you enjoy what you're hearing from me in the Weird Darkness Podcast throughout the year, may I ask for a Christmas gift from you? It's an easy one, and it's free to give. This month, just invite two or three people you know to give Weird Darkness a listen. That is truly the greatest gift you could ever give to me.

Letting your family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, and others know about the podcast is incredibly valuable to me, my bride Robin, and our cat, Miss Mocha Monster. That's it. Tell someone about the show. Drop a link to Weird Darkness in your social media. Maybe send a text to a few folks to wish them a very scary Christmas with a link to the show in that text. It doesn't matter how you do it, but it does make a huge impact when you do.

From all of us here at Marlar Manor, thank you, and Merry Christmas.

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Explore over 300 programs at asuonline.asu.edu. Good day, everyone. This is your captain speaking. We'll be leaving the gate shortly for our three-hour flight. The weather looks fine, so we should be looking at a smooth, comfortable ride.

*** Unless he doesn't de-ice the wings before takeoff, or gets disoriented and thinks the ocean is the horizon, or misses the runway at landing, or... well, here are a few ways that your pilot might kill everybody on board. Brace for impact. It takes a special pilot to get passengers killed before even attempting a takeoff.

On December 3, 1990, at Detroit's Wayne County Airport, Northwest Airlines Flight 1482, piloted by Captain William Lovelace and First Officer James Schifrins, was set to depart from Pittsburgh with 40 passengers. The day was notable for its dense, low-hanging fog, but nothing the DC-9 couldn't quickly outclimb. Departing its gate, Flight 1482 headed for Runway 3C, but instead turned onto another taxiway,

To correct the error, they were instructed to make a right to double back. Apparently not satisfied with one dumb mistake, Lovelace and Schifrins instead somehow managed to turn directly onto the active runway. They realized the mistake and contacted air traffic control who, duh, told them to leave the runway immediately. Five seconds later, Northwest Flight 299, a Boeing 727 taking off en route to Memphis, came barreling toward them.

The 727's wing sliced through the right side of Flight 1482, cutting through the fuselage just below the windows. It then chopped off the DC-9's right engine. Flight 299's pilot, who it must be said performed phenomenally, initiated a rejected takeoff and stopped the aircraft safely. Its 146 passengers and eight crew were all unhurt. The DC-9 caught fire and was destroyed.

7 passengers and 1 flight attendant died, with another 10 seriously injured. In addition to Lovelace's culpability, the ensuing investigation criticized the airport's control tower for "failure to use progressive taxi instructions in low visibility."

Making sure that ice is not accumulated on an airplane's wings is such a crucial and common occurrence that even back in the comparably cowboyish 1980s, commercial cockpits contained clearly marked ice protection systems. Unfortunately, Captain Larry M. Wheaton managed to overlook this standard pre-flight checklist item despite more than 8,000 hours of airtime under his belt. And despite the fact that it was snowing.

On the afternoon of January 13, 1982, Washington, D.C.'s National Airport was just reopening after a deluge of the same white stuff currently accruing on the wings of Wheaton's Air Florida Flight 90 bound for Fort Lauderdale with 74 passengers,

The experienced pilot he was, Wheaton recognized his error shortly after leaving the gate. But instead of returning for proper de-icing, he and First Officer Roger Pettit had a novel idea — to use the exhaust from the plane ahead of them in the takeoff queue to defrost their wings. How resourceful!

The shockingly unsound judgment didn't stop there. Wheaton decided to proceed with takeoff even after his impromptu de-icing attempt predictably failed. And after detecting a power problem while taxiing, Flight 90 took off and began climbing to about 350 feet. Then it lost lift. The Boeing 737 dropped from the sky and slammed into an overpass before plunging into the Potomac River,

70 passengers and four crew members died, including both pilots. Four motorists on the ground were also killed. Only five survivors were plucked by helicopter from the frigid river, though as many as 19 likely survived the initial crash. On August 20, 2008, Captain Antonio Garcia Luna and First Officer Francisco Javier Moulet did everything right, then did everything wrong.

Unfortunately, the latter was irredeemable. SPAN Air Flight 5022 was a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 carrying 166 passengers and six crew from Barcelona to Madrid. It was scheduled to leave an hour earlier than it did, as the pilots had wisely abandoned a departure due to an excessive reading from the RAM air temperature probe.

The aircraft was taken to a parking area, where maintenance workers deactivated the RAT probe's heater, which was fine since no ice buildup would occur on a fair-weather August day in Spain. Then Luna and Mullet both forgot to deploy the flaps and slats required for takeoff. Without these high-lift devices, the wings could not generate enough lift to keep the aircraft airborne.

It didn't help that the warning system malfunctioned, failing to alert the crew of their mission-critical mistake. Flight 5022 left the ground momentarily, rolled sharply to the right, and smashed into the ground beside the runway. The wings separated, and the fuselage snapped into two parts, the larger of which was engulfed by fire. The asinine accident killed 154 people. Only 18 survived.

On June 1, 2009, Air France Flight 447 took off from Brazil's Rio de Janeiro Airport en route to Paris. The Airbus A330 was carrying 216 passengers and 12 crew, including three flight-trained officers rather than the typical two. The flight comprised 13 hours of duty, and Air France's policy was that pilots can serve no more than 10 hours before taking a break.

The extra first officer allowed for two qualified personnel to fly the plane at all times. Captain Marc Dubois took the mid-flight break shift while the plane was over the Atlantic Ocean. Just 15 minutes later, First Officer David Robert summoned him back. During his brief absence, the plane had entered turbulent airspace and was also accruing ice on the wings. The plane had begun to stall and the two pilots, neither of whom were captains, reacted incorrectly.

Just before Dubois re-entered the cockpit, Co-First Officer Pierre-Cedric Bonin exclaimed, expletive, "I don't have control of the airplane anymore now." Dubois' first words upon returning were not encouraging. Noticing the various alarms going off, he asked, "What are you doing?" The aircraft had its nose above the horizon but was descending steeply,

Soon after this, Roberts said, "Climb!" four consecutive times. Bonin replied, "But I've been at maximum nose up for a while." When Captain Dubois heard this, he realized Bonin was causing the stall and shouted, "No, don't climb! No, no, no!" Flight 447 crashed into the ocean, killing everyone aboard. Had a captain-level pilot been in the cockpit, it never would have happened.

It should be far harder to kill 264 people than 26-year-old First Officer Wang Manzheng's simple error. On April 26, 1994, he and Captain Wang Lochi were in the home stretch of China Airlines Flight 140 from Taipei, Taiwan to Nagoya, Japan. The flight had been uneventful, and the Airbus A300 was descending into Nagoya on time and at a safe angle. That all changed just three miles from the runway.

At an altitude of 1,000 feet, First Officer Meng Jiang inadvertently selected the "take off/go around" setting, which at that height is instructing the plane's aircraft autopilot to increase the throttles for a second pass at the landing. The crew reacted by manually reducing the throttles and pushing the yoke forward.

but the autopilot, acting on the inadvertent go-around command, countered by increasing its own efforts to overcome the pilot's actions. It moved the horizontal stabilizer to a full nose-up position. Still unaware of the autopilot's go-around command, the crew then independently decided to go around. The result was a compounded action that raised the plane's nose far too high,

The steep pitch caused an aerodynamic stall, and Flight 140 dropped like a brick. Only seven of the plane's 271 occupants lived, crashing into another bad pilot in mid-air. What are the chances, right? Apparently, up until the mid-1950s, those chances were quite good. Then one collision led to much-needed changes.

On June 30, 1956, a TWA Super Constellation and a United DC-7 carrying a combined 128 people collided over the Grand Canyon in Arizona at 21,000 feet. The TWA plane's tail was sheared off while most of the United flight's left wing was severed. The TWA Super Constellation plunged in a near-vertical dive, crashing onto a plateau 300 feet above the Colorado River.

The United DC-7 sputtered another mile or so before slamming into a butt and careening into a rugged gulch. Everyone perished.

It doesn't seem difficult for two planes to avoid each other in the air, especially in the less crowded skies of the mid-20th century. But such mid-air massacres had become a trend. A 1956 Aviation Week article noted that between 1948 and 1955 there were 127 mid-air collisions in the U.S., 30 of which involved commercial airliners.

In the aftermath of the TWA United disaster, investigators determined that although the pilots had simply failed to see each other, not really sure how, America's antiquated air traffic control system was also a factor. Fallout from the accident led directly to the 1957 formation of the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board.

It's a bit harsh to call the crew of Eastern Airlines Flight 401 "dim bulbs," but this might be the flat-out stupidest reason a commercial airliner ever crashed. On December 29, 1972, Flight 401, a Lockheed TriStar carrying 163 passengers and 13 crew members from New York City's John F. Kennedy Airport, was beginning its approach into Miami.

Upon lowering the landing gear, First Officer Albert Stockstill noticed that the gear indicator — a green light confirming the nose gear is locked in place — had not illuminated. There were three trained commercial aviators on the flight: First Officer Stockstill, flight engineer Donald Repo, and Captain Robert Loft, a 32-year veteran. Loft told the Miami flight tower about the landing gear situation and received permission to go into a holding pattern at 2,000 feet.

He sent Repo down to the avionics bay to report on the landing gear's position, then told Stockstill to engage the autopilot while they removed the light assembly. Only the autopilot was on the wrong setting. Instead of circling at a steady altitude, it descended so gradually that no one noticed until the plane crashed into the Everglades. Loft's final words, recorded 10 seconds before the crash, were, "'Hey, what's happening here?'

"Oh, nothing, Captain. You're just getting everyone killed because none of the three pilots could bother to look out the window." 101 people died. The landing gear indicator issue was later determined to be a simple burned-out bulb, and even if it wasn't, the gear could have been lowered manually. Despite the comparative complexity of the landing process, modern cockpit instruments significantly simplify its execution, making both approach and touchdown as automated as possible.

Such tools have helped make air travel the safest means of transportation. Unless, of course, the pilot misuses that technology. On February 9, 2009, Captain Marvin Renslow and a scarily young First Officer, 24-year-old Rebecca Shaw, were beginning their descent into Buffalo, New York on Colgan Air Flight 3407 from Newark, New Jersey.

The Bombardier Dash 8 was carrying 49 passengers, a packed flight for the relatively small commercial aircraft. Upstate New York is frigid in winter, and the airline's policy called for landings to be performed manually in conditions likely to cause ice accumulation on the wings. Despite this, Renslow kept the plane on autopilot as it slowed for landing. And slowed.

...and slowed until the shaker stick, a warning system intended to jolt the pilot to attention, warned of an impending mid-air stall. Renslow, who should have already been manually guiding the aircraft, responded by abruptly pulling back on the control column and increasing thrust to 75% power. Neither of which was the right thing to do. The proper stall recovery technique is lowering the nose and applying full power.

Flight 3407 pitched up, down, left and then rolled violently right. It crashed into a house and burst into flames, killing everyone on board and one on the ground. Notably, the flight became a rallying call for pilots to receive more rest between flights, as fatigue was among the factors blamed for Renslow's deadly mistakes.

Nearly half of all fatal crashes happen during final descent and landing. By far the most dangerous leg. As the plane descends, the most important job for a pilot is to ensure the aircraft's angle and alignment head directly onto the runway. On September 27, 1977, the captain of Japan Airline Flight 715 was attempting to do just that as the plane approached Malaysia's Sultan Abdulaziz Shah Airport.

The weather was poor, so Flight 715 was on a VOR approach, which provides lateral guidance until the plane reaches its MDA, or minimum descent altitude. From there, pilots are instructed to maintain that altitude until the runway comes into view. The idea is to get below the cloud cover, but not so far below that the aircraft is endangered.

Flight 715's MDA was 750 feet. Landing gear down and flaps extended, the DC-8 jet dropped to 750 feet. Then it kept dropping. At 300 feet, it crashed into a hill four miles from the airport. The plane broke apart and burst into flames. Incredibly, only 34 of the 79 people aboard perished.

The cause of the crash was simple: the pilot descended below his minimum descent altitude without having the runway in sight. Instead of aborting the approach and circling back, the pilot took the plane to a height of a medium-sized Manhattan office building. Investigators also blamed the first officer for doing nothing to stop this flagrant procedural violation.

And finally, plenty of deadly crashes occur just as planes touch down, typically because they over or undershoot the runway. However, a deadly landing accident in 2020 occurred for an especially unusual reason. On May 22nd, 2020, Pakistani International Airlines Flight 8303 was descending into Karachi from Lahore, carrying 91 passengers and eight crew members.

The Airbus A320's descent was abnormally abrupt, unnerving air traffic controllers as the plane approached the runway. Then, unnerved turned to mortified. Captain Sajad Ghul and First Officer Usman Azam were about to land without landing gear, despite the multitude of procedures and warnings designed to prevent exactly that.

"It is unbelievable to me that an airline crew on a jet like an Airbus with all the warning systems would attempt to land the plane without the gear extended," said John Cox, an aviation safety consultant. "The plane's two engines grinded along the runway at speeds exceeding 200 mph, 40 mph faster than an Airbus should land with or without wheels. Amazingly, the pilots were able to re-ascend away from the airport, but only briefly."

The plane lost power — maybe it was that whole engines grinding the pavement at high speeds thing — and crashed into a nearby neighborhood, killing one person on the ground. Only two passengers lived. Of course, more can go wrong on a flight than you just dying. Although that probably should be at the top of the list of things to avoid when traveling by air,

But some other strange and bizarre things have also happened in the skies that might make you rebook your next vacation on a train instead. I'll share some of those incidents when Weird Darkness returns.

Hey Weirdos, our next Weirdo Watch Party is Saturday, January 18th and sci-fi film host and all-around nice guy Jukesua is back with another terrible B-movie – this one from the infamously inept Roger Corman. From 1958 it's "War of the Satellites." "And yet you propose to follow this tenth failure with another attempt?"

An unknown force declares war against planet Earth when the United Nations disobeys warnings to cease and desist in its attempts at assembling the first satellite in the atmosphere. It's a movie eight weeks in the making, and it shows on every frame of film. See the last few seconds with a wire holding up a planet.

See the satellites spinning in different directions every time you see them. There it is, the barrier. All those men in that satellite will die. See shadows somehow being cast onto the backdrop that is supposed to be outer space. Sigma barrier dead ahead. Crash emergency. All hands secure for blast. You'll even see actors wearing the same clothes day after day after day because...

Who knows? War of the Satellites! Join us online as we all watch the film together on January 18th at 7pm Pacific, 8pm Mountain, 9pm Central, 10pm Eastern on the Monster Channel page at WeirdDarkness.com. The Weirdo Watch Party is always free to watch – just tune in at showtime and watch the movie with me and other Weirdo family members.

and even join in the chat during the film for more fun. We're always cracking jokes during the movie, usually at the actors' or directors' expense, but hey, it's all worthy of criticism. It's Jukesua presenting Roger Corman's "War of the Satellites" from 1958.

You can see a trailer for the film now and watch horror hosts and B-movies for free anytime on the Monster Channel page at WeirdDarkness.com. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash TV. And we'll see you Saturday, January 18th for our Weirdo Watch Party. Lights are going up. Snow is falling down. There's a feeling of goodwill around town. It could only mean one... McRib is here!

People throwing parties, ugly sweaters everywhere. Stockings hung up by the chimney with care. It could only make ribbons hear. At participating McDonald's for a limited time. What's your favorite hunting tradition? Is it the early morning coffee by the campfire? Or the stories shared while waiting in the blind? Maybe it's that special spot you go back to every season. Just like the person who first took you hunting.

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Anyone who travels often enough will eventually run into a bad experience when they fly, even if it doesn't end in your death.

Annoying passengers and grumpy employees are two of the usual suspects. Such hassles are as much a part of flying as pat-downs and those pre-flight safety demonstrations that very few passengers pay any mind to. However, as the next few stories will show us, putting over 100 people in a confined space for an extended period of time can sometimes lead to some truly strange and awful circumstances.

Even as the experience of flying continues to decline, incidents like these stand out from the crowd. In 2016, a man was taking a flight from Algiers to Paris, and he tried to smoke a cigarette on board. Despite the fact that smoking on planes has been banned for years, he believed he was above the rules. He was told by employees that smoking was not allowed and was asked to stop. He wasn't allowed to have alcohol either.

That made him angry. So how did this man express his anger? He unzipped his pants and urinated on a fellow passenger. The victim stood up and punched the man, and they began to fight. Passengers took photos on their phones of the man who started all the trouble being held down by employees. For some reason, the unruly passenger also took his shirt off before letting loose, so to speak. The airplane had to land early in Lyon so that the man could be detained by authorities.

A 20-year-old college student was on a flight from Malaysia in March 2018 when he pulled up his laptop to watch a movie. That's perfectly normal, except that he was watching porn. Also, he stripped naked. An employee quietly asked him to stop, so he quickly put his clothes back on. It's possible that this man felt like he could get away with almost anything on this flight because he didn't exactly get in trouble for the porn.

Later, he tried to hug a stewardess and grope her. She pushed him away, and when he was rejected, he began attacking her. The other employees grabbed him and detained him until they landed. He was handed over to police custody.

For years, people have been bringing strange animals on airplanes with a doctor's note, claiming them to be "emotional support animals." In many cases, these pet owners have very little regard for fellow passengers, and pigs, ducks, turkeys, and other exotic pets on planes have become an issue.

In January 2018, United Airlines finally decided to put their foot down when a performance artist tried to bring a peacock on the flight, claiming that she desperately needed the bird sitting next to her for her emotional well-being. She was denied a seat on the flight and asked to leave. Not even traditional pets are safe to fly without a kennel anymore. In June 2017, a large dog that was brought on a flight as an emotional support animal bit another passenger,

Delta Air Lines now requires a 48-hour notice before bringing an animal on board, as well as documentation from a licensed medical professional with a true reason for why the animal should be on the flight. The support animal also must be up to date with vaccinations and have received training certifications for actual medical issues like blindness.

In March 2018, employees of United Airlines spotted passengers holding a 10-month-old French bulldog puppy inside a carrying kennel. It's not against the rules to carry a small dog in a carrier, and nothing has changed about that, even with the new regulations about support animals. However, a United Airlines employee took it upon themselves to insist that they needed to put the kennel in the overhead luggage area so that it was far away from other passengers.

When the flight was over, the dog's owner stood up to take down the carrier and the dog was dead. She collapsed on the aisle floor, sobbing. United Airlines issued an apology, saying that they never told their employees that pets should be in overhead bins and they are just as shocked as everyone else. They also said they'll make sure it never happens again. Everybody poops. But as was the case on one British Airways flight in 2015, some stink far more than others.

Very early into a seven-hour flight from Heathrow to Dubai, a passenger went number two in the airplane toilets — the appropriate place to do it, of course. Before long, the pilot made an announcement, asking for the managing employees to come to the cockpit to talk. After a few minutes of discussion, the pilot made the announcement that the smell of someone's liquid fecal excrement was so pungent that it could already be smelled at the front of the plane because of the recycled air.

Considering that they were in the beginning of a seven-hour flight, he felt that for the personal health and safety of the passengers, they needed to turn around and go back to Heathrow Airport. They'd only been in the air for 30 minutes. Everyone was asked to leave the plane and the passengers were given free hotel rooms for the night, before boarding a new and less pungent flight the next day.

Almost everyone who travels often enough has had to endure a crying baby or unruly child on an airplane kicking the back of your seat, but this story takes the cake. In 2017, a passenger filmed a toddler who was climbing on seats, running up and down the aisles, grabbing at the ceiling air vents, and screaming non-stop for almost all of the eight-hour flight.

According to witnesses who described the child's screams as "demonic," the mother quietly asked the boy to be quiet and sit down without being forceful or stern. When the stewardess asked the mother to please control her child, she replied that he had behavioral issues and countered that they should turn the in-flight Wi-Fi on so that he could play games on the iPad to distract him. This incident has sparked a debate over whether families with children should be placed in a separate section of airplanes from other passengers.

When the campy thriller "Snakes on a Plane" premiered in 2006, Samuel L. Jackson fans loved how funny and over-the-top this idea was, and quotes from the movie are well known, even to those who never saw it. However, in 2016 that nightmarish scenario became all too real when passengers on a Mexican flight spotted a green snake dangling from the overhead baggage compartment.

One of the passengers pulled out his phone to capture the moment, though when the snake began to drop, he unbuckled his seatbelt and got away from it as quickly as he could. Thankfully, everybody kept their distance from the snake and no one was bitten. The plane had to make an emergency priority landing in Mexico City. The employees tried to investigate how the snake got onto the plane in the first place, but it's still a bit of a mystery.

In March 2018, the cargo on a flight taking off from Yakutsk, Russia was possibly too heavy for the latch of the plane's door to handle, because it suddenly began flying out onto the runway. But this wasn't just any cargo. It was gold bars, gems, and precious metals. Altogether, the items that fell off the plane were valued at $368 million.

It all belonged to a Canadian mining company which had paid to transport their goods. An airline employee took a video on his phone showing an entire runway littered with valuables. Considering that the plane flew a few miles from the airport before landing, it's possible that some of that money fell onto some random person's land and they thanked God for their good fortune. Let's just hope they needed that money more than the mining company did.

On a JetBlue flight from California to Florida, passengers began to smell an unknown odor coming from the cockpit. The smell continued to circulate throughout the plane to the point where people began coughing and choking. It was so bad that they had to make an emergency stop in Oklahoma City, where two passengers and three crew members had to be taken to the hospital. Several more people needed to be given oxygen. The rest of the passengers had to wait to be put on a new flight.

and the source of the odor could not be determined. And I have saved the most infamous for last. The story most all of you have heard of, but it has to be mentioned. In 2017, United Airlines Flight 3411 needed to make room for four employees who had to make it to Louisville, the plane's destination.

The airline offered reimbursement in the form of vouchers, as well as a free hotel room and a seat on a later flight for any who volunteered to get off. But there were no takers. Ultimately, they randomly chose four people to kick off the flight. One of them was Dr. David Dow, a single passenger who was already in his seat.

He was told by employees to leave, to make room for someone else. He rightly refused to leave his seat and tried calling United Airlines customer service on the phone. He told them that he could not leave the flight, saying he was a doctor who had to see his patients at the clinic the next morning. Ultimately, three Chicago Department of Aviation security officers approached him, physically yanking him out of his seat.

During the altercation, Dow's head was smashed against the armrest. He screamed, and the employees ignored his cries that he was bleeding. Passengers were outraged, pulling out their phones to capture the moment on film. Dow was left with a broken nose, two front teeth knocked out, and a concussion. After the incident, United Airlines' stock price plummeted. Dow sued the airline, and they settled for an undisclosed amount of money. When Weird Darkness Returns

In many cultures, there are stories of screaming skulls haunting and terrorizing people. What could this phenomenon be? And are all the incidents related? That's up next.

If you or someone you know is struggling with depression, dark thoughts, or addiction, please visit the "Hope in the Darkness" page at WeirdDarkness.com. There, I've gathered numerous resources to find hope and solutions. For those suffering from thoughts of suicide or self-harm, there is the "Suicide and Crisis Lifeline" as well as the "Crisis Text Line." Both have trained counselors at all hours to help those in need, and the page even includes text numbers for those in the US, Canada, United Kingdom, and Ireland.

Those struggling with depression can get help through the 7 Cups website and app, and there's information for anyone to read more about what depression truly is and how to identify it through our friends at ifred.org. There are resources for those who battle addictions, be it drugs, alcohol, or self-destructive behavior, along with help for those related to addicts.

The page has links to help you find a therapist or counselor, to find help for those who have a family member with Alzheimer's or dementia, help for those in a crisis pregnancy, and more. These resources are always there when you or someone you love needs them on the Hope in the Darkness page at WeirdDarkness.com. "Lights are going up, snow is falling down, there's a feeling of goodwill around town. It could only mean one thing, McRib is here!"

People throwing parties, ugly sweaters everywhere. Stockings hung up by the chimney with care. It could only mean one big rib is here. At Participate at McDonald's for a limited time. What's your favorite hunting tradition? Is it the early morning coffee by the campfire? Or the stories shared while waiting in the blind? Maybe it's that special spot you go back to every season. Just like the person who first took you hunting.

Hunting season is finally here and Academy Sports and Outdoors has everything you need to gear up for less. From shotguns and rifles to feeders, game cameras, camo and more, we've got the brands you trust and the prices you'll love. Plus, text HUNT24 to 22369 and get $20 off when you spend $100 on hunting supplies at academy.com. Need a hunting license? Pick it up in store while you shop.

Academy Sports and Outdoors. Year up, have fun, and make this season your best one yet. Okay, let's take a poll. How weird does it feel to be called someone's fiancé? Right? The first time you hear it, you do like a double take. Your heart kind of flutters, and before you know it, you go from, let's just enjoy this moment, to, we're planning a fall wedding.

That's where Zola comes in. Zola has everything you need to plan your wedding in one place and have fun along the way. From free planning tools like a budget tracker, super necessary, and website, to a venue and vendor discovery tool that matches you with your dream team, everything on Zola is designed to make your wedding journey as easy as possible. And with invites that can be completely customized and a wedding registry packed with gifts you actually want.

Zola takes you from save our date to thanks so much without breaking a sweat. From getting engaged to getting married, Zola has everything you need to plan your wedding in one place. Start planning at Zola.com. That's Z-O-L-A dot com. Happy wedding! For thousands of years, across many different cultures across the world, people have believed that the head or a skull has held the soul.

Some tribes would preserve the skulls of their fallen enemies, and the Celts would decorate their shrines with skulls. In Britain, they have a strange folklore of skulls that scream if taken from the location where they were held. At Wardley Hall in Lancashire, the skull of 16th-century Catholic martyr Father Ambrose Barlow is on view at the head of the staircase, with the legend that if anybody removes the skull, it will emit a blood-curdling scream.

The Screaming Skull of Burton Agnes Hall. According to legend, Burton Agnes Hall in Yorkshire has another Screaming Skull legend, this one belonging to Anne Griffiths. After being attacked and beaten by robbers, Anne in her dying breaths expressed the wish that her head should be buried in the home that she so much loved. Nevertheless, her family buried her in the village churchyard.

After the funeral, terrifying groans and poltergeist activity such as doors slamming and crashes were heard around the house. The dead girl's body was exhumed and her skull was exhumed and bricked up in a wall off the staircase. Although at recent times the skull has been on display without any side effects. The Screaming Skull of Bediscombe Manor Bediscombe Manor in Dorset probably has the most famous screaming skull legend in Britain.

The Bediscombe Skull story starts in the 18th century, when a member of the Pinney family returned from living in the West Indies and returned with a black slave. Shortly after returning, the slave died after making his master swear that he would be buried in his homeland. The squire broke his promise, and the slave was buried in the local churchyard instead.

Similar to that of the Burton Agnes skull, the skull of the slave began to make agonizing screams that so much disturbed passers-by they asked the squire to make amends. Since the skull has remained on show at Bedescombe Manor, as with many legends, the truth is often very different from the legend. Analysis during the 1960s confirmed that the skull was in fact 2,000 years old and was that of a girl.

The legend, however, remains intact that if the skull is ever removed from the manor, the person who moves it will die within a year. Then there's the Celtic tradition of the death's head. The power of the death's head certainly dates back to prehistory and when our ancestors believed that the skull contained the soul, but also the skull is very important in magic.

In Papua New Guinea, widows would impale their dead husbands' skulls on poles to ward away spirits and unwanted attention. In England, the Trail of the Witch Anne Chaddocks, head of a family of Lancashire witches, was accused of digging up three skulls from a churchyard to use in some ritual or demonic recipe. For this, she was hanged. The Celts often took the heads of enemies killed in battle and kept those both as trophies and as offerings to the gods.

The Great Stone Shrine at Rocapertus had skull niches in the wall, some filled with representations of heads and others filled with actual skulls. Throughout the years, the skull has been seen as a mascot, trophy, or charm, and this is represented within the screaming skulls legends that still linger on in England today. And we'll end with a story from one of our Weirdo family members. Travis Heckle sent this one in. He titled it, Are Angels Real?,

Hey Darren, I've been debating on sending this or not, since it's not dark or weird but deals with angels. I was on the patio the other night listening to an episode of Weird Darkness when my 14-year-old daughter came out to ask what I was listening to. It was the episode about the Beast of the Land Between the Lakes, since we had just returned home from a lake in Kentucky and thought it'd be fun listening while sitting outside in the dark. She listened to the story with me and said, "You should send them my angel story."

While I've told several people, friends, and family, I never thought about sharing it to a nationwide audience. But after thinking it over, maybe it can give some relief to those that might question their faith or just may be curious about the afterlife. When our daughter was two, I had to take her to the eye doctor with me to pick up my new contact lenses. It wasn't a small office eye doctor, but a large chain-type eye center.

They have a large waiting area with around seven rows of chairs, with about ten chairs in each row. Since it was just opening, they had it on Disney, so we sat in the front row so I could keep her occupied for a few moments while I finished up some paperwork. While doing my paperwork, the door opened and in walked two men.

I curiously turned to see who was walking in and saw a normally dressed man accompanied by another man that looked disheveled, possibly homeless, but otherwise didn't pay attention and continued with my paperwork. Just then, my daughter stood up in the chair and turned around and started staring at the disheveled man. She then bent down and whispered in my ear, "'Dad, that man right there is an angel!'

It took me by surprise, and I asked her what she said. She repeated, "That man right there is an angel." So she did say that. It gave me a bit of a chill, and I didn't really want to turn around to stare, although she kept wanting to keep looking at him. I don't have a fabulous ending to this story, like this angel miraculously cured everyone's eyesight to 20/20 vision, but I sometimes look back at that moment

While I'm not an overly religious person, I still consider myself a Christian, but at the time, we had yet to take my daughter to church. She obviously knew of God as we prayed and such before meals, but they say the innocent see things that us sinners look over. So for those out there that might be questioning their religion or faith, maybe this story will help. That maybe we do have a guardian angel out there looking over us after all.

Thanks for listening, and be sure to stick around for the bloopers at the end. If you like the show, please share it with someone you know who loves the paranormal or strange stories, true crime, monsters, or unsolved mysteries like you do. You can email me anytime with your questions or comments at darren at WeirdDarkness.com – Darren is D-A-R-R-E-N –

WeirdDarkness.com is also where you can find information on any of the sponsors you heard about during the show, find all of my social media, listen to audiobooks I've narrated, sign up for the email newsletter. Also on the site, you can visit the store for Weird Darkness t-shirts, mugs, and other merchandise. Plus, it's where you can find the "Hope in the Darkness" page if you or someone you know is struggling with depression or dark thoughts.

And if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell, you can click on "Tell Your Story." You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com. All stories on Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you can find links to the stories or the authors in the show notes. "What the Heck is a Snellygaster?" was written by Kathy Weiser Alexander for LegendsOfAmerica.com. "Scares in the Skies" is by Christopher Dale for Listverse.

"It Happened Mid-Flight" is by Shannon Quinn, also a listverse. "The Screaming Skulls" is from MJWhelan.com. "Weird Darkness" is a registered trademark. Copyright Weird Darkness. And now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. Psalm 91:1-2: "He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty."

I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust. And a final thought: the goal isn't to get rid of all your negative thoughts, feelings, and life situations. That's impossible. The goal is to change your response to them – to grow so strong on the inside that nothing on the outside can affect your well-being without you giving it permission to do so. I'm Darren Marlar, thanks for joining me.

in the weird darkness.

However, a deadly landing accident in the year 2020 occurred for an especially unusual reason. In Papa New Guinea, widows would impale their dead husbands' skulls on poles to ward away spirits and unwanted attention. The Great Stone Shrine at Roquefortus

There's a word for you. Let's start. Requepertus. Requep... Yo, thanks for watching this channel. So, right now I will show how to pronounce this word. Let's start. Requepertus. And I will repeat again. Rokapertus. Rokapertus. Forget it, I'll just make something up. The great stone shrine at Rokapertus had skull niches in the wall. I curiously turned to see how was what...

I curiously turned to see who was walking in and saw a normally dressed man accompanied by another man that looked disheveled. What's your favorite hunting tradition? Is it the early morning coffee by the campfire? Or the stories shared while waiting in the blind? Maybe it's that special spot you go back to every season. Just like the person who first took you hunting.

Hunting season is finally here and Academy Sports and Outdoors has everything you need to gear up for less. From shotguns and rifles to feeders, game cameras, camo and more, we've got the brands you trust and the prices you'll love. Plus, text HUNT24 to 22369 and get $20 off when you spend $100 on hunting supplies at academy.com. Need a hunting license? Pick it up in store while you shop.

Academy Sports and Outdoors. Gear up, have fun, and make this season your best one yet.

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