What do you think?
Rate this book
The Airmen Who Would Not Die
A detailed investigation of the crash of the British dirigible R101 uncovers a famous medium's prevision of the catastrophe and the fearful warning given to another mystic concerning the airship and presents evidence of life after death
Paperback
First published January 1, 1979
17 people are currently reading
102 people want to read
About the author
John G. Fuller
33 books36 followersJohn Grant Fuller, Jr. (1913 - 1990) was a New England-based American author of several non-fiction books and newspaper articles, mainly focusing on the theme of extra-terrestrials and the supernatural. For many years he wrote a regular column for the Saturday Review magazine, called "Trade Winds". His three most famous books were The Ghost of Flight 401, Incident at Exeter, and The Interrupted Journey.
The Ghost of Flight 401 was based on the tragic Eastern Air Lines airplane crash in December 1972, and the alleged supernatural events which followed; it was eventually turned into a popular 1978 made-for-television movie.
Incident at Exeter concerned a series of well-publicized UFO sightings in and around the town of Exeter, New Hampshire in the fall of 1965 (see the Exeter incident). Fuller personally investigated the sightings and interviewed many of the eyewitnesses, he also claimed to have seen a UFO himself during his investigation.
The Interrupted Journey tells the story of the Betty and Barney Hill abduction. The Hills were a married couple who claimed to have been abducted in 1961 by the occupants of a UFO in the White Mountains of New Hampshire while returning home from a vacation. The book was the first to seriously claim that competent, reliable witnesses were being abducted by UFOs for medical and scientific experiments. The book remains one of the most influential in UFO history; and has been hotly debated since its publication. Like The Ghost of Flight 401, The Interrupted Journey was also turned into a made-for-television movie in 1975.
Fuller wrote The Great Soul Trial (1969) about the disappearance of Arizona Miner James Kidd and the later trial regarding his will, which left his fortune to anyone who could prove the existence of the human soul. The book was published prior to the final resolution of the case in 1971.
John was also married to a NorthWest flight Attendant who was the researcher mentioned in his book "Ghost of Flight 401" His book We Almost Lost Detroit deals with a serious accident at the Fermi nuclear power plant near Detroit. The book title was later the title of a song by Gil Scott-Heron on the No Nukes live album recorded by the Musicians United for Safe Energy.
He wrote two plays -- The Pink Elephant, which opened in 1953, and Love Me Little, which opened in 1958, both on Broadway.
His most important book was the fictional novel We Almost Lost Detroit. There is a song by Gil Scott-Heron, same title.
Fuller died of lung cancer in 1990.
The Ghost of Flight 401 was based on the tragic Eastern Air Lines airplane crash in December 1972, and the alleged supernatural events which followed; it was eventually turned into a popular 1978 made-for-television movie.
Incident at Exeter concerned a series of well-publicized UFO sightings in and around the town of Exeter, New Hampshire in the fall of 1965 (see the Exeter incident). Fuller personally investigated the sightings and interviewed many of the eyewitnesses, he also claimed to have seen a UFO himself during his investigation.
The Interrupted Journey tells the story of the Betty and Barney Hill abduction. The Hills were a married couple who claimed to have been abducted in 1961 by the occupants of a UFO in the White Mountains of New Hampshire while returning home from a vacation. The book was the first to seriously claim that competent, reliable witnesses were being abducted by UFOs for medical and scientific experiments. The book remains one of the most influential in UFO history; and has been hotly debated since its publication. Like The Ghost of Flight 401, The Interrupted Journey was also turned into a made-for-television movie in 1975.
Fuller wrote The Great Soul Trial (1969) about the disappearance of Arizona Miner James Kidd and the later trial regarding his will, which left his fortune to anyone who could prove the existence of the human soul. The book was published prior to the final resolution of the case in 1971.
John was also married to a NorthWest flight Attendant who was the researcher mentioned in his book "Ghost of Flight 401" His book We Almost Lost Detroit deals with a serious accident at the Fermi nuclear power plant near Detroit. The book title was later the title of a song by Gil Scott-Heron on the No Nukes live album recorded by the Musicians United for Safe Energy.
He wrote two plays -- The Pink Elephant, which opened in 1953, and Love Me Little, which opened in 1958, both on Broadway.
His most important book was the fictional novel We Almost Lost Detroit. There is a song by Gil Scott-Heron, same title.
Fuller died of lung cancer in 1990.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
June 29, 2018
Just finished reading “The Airmen Who Would Not Die” by John G. Fuller. When I selected the book, I had no idea it was about a psychic. The cover fooled me. The story is about the 1930 crash of the British dirigible R-101. The book is about a psychic, Eileen Garrett, who claimed she received a message from Captain Raymond Hinchcliffe about the pending crash of the dirigible. Also, in the story was Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who helped her. The interesting thing is the dirigible did crash as Garrett predicted. Then she received a message from the dirigible’s captain telling about what caused the crash and a lot more intrigue.
The book is well written and is non-fiction. The book reads more like a novel maybe because of the psychic material. For me, the information about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made the book more interesting. The book was well researched and documented. If you are looking for something a bit different to read this summer, give this book a try.
I read this as a hardback book, it is 348 pages and is published by Putnam in 1979.
The book is well written and is non-fiction. The book reads more like a novel maybe because of the psychic material. For me, the information about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle made the book more interesting. The book was well researched and documented. If you are looking for something a bit different to read this summer, give this book a try.
I read this as a hardback book, it is 348 pages and is published by Putnam in 1979.
September 25, 2010
This is one of the books that stay with you for a long time.
It basically is a well-documented story of dead men communicating through mediums. What makes it so interesting to me is, of course, the link it has to early aviation.
When the giant airship R-101 crashed in 1930, almost everyone on it died. But a few months later, a medium called Eileen Garrett began to get messages from the dead airmen. Not your basic "there is no death" messages, but verifiable data as to why the airship went down.
Ms Garrett was able to deliver data on individual struts inside the hull, and how the Diesel engine backfired into the ship and many more items that were known only to men who died in the blaze. I will leave it up to you to read the evidence, but even a close scrutiny makes it impossible to claim it's a hoax.
This is the best book by Fuller, tho the Ghost of 29 Megacycles is interesting (if scary) too, and so is The Ghost of Flight 401. Arigo, the Surgeon of the Rusty Knife is not as good as these three.
It basically is a well-documented story of dead men communicating through mediums. What makes it so interesting to me is, of course, the link it has to early aviation.
When the giant airship R-101 crashed in 1930, almost everyone on it died. But a few months later, a medium called Eileen Garrett began to get messages from the dead airmen. Not your basic "there is no death" messages, but verifiable data as to why the airship went down.
Ms Garrett was able to deliver data on individual struts inside the hull, and how the Diesel engine backfired into the ship and many more items that were known only to men who died in the blaze. I will leave it up to you to read the evidence, but even a close scrutiny makes it impossible to claim it's a hoax.
This is the best book by Fuller, tho the Ghost of 29 Megacycles is interesting (if scary) too, and so is The Ghost of Flight 401. Arigo, the Surgeon of the Rusty Knife is not as good as these three.
July 19, 2012
This is nothing short of a remarkable book.
The early years of aviation were full of achievement, glory, and death in the air or when the ground was met unintentionally. Three separate stories of men who died and then returned to tell their stories are intertwined to produce some of the most compelling evidence of survival after death.
First there's Alfred Lowenstein, a Belgian pilot and financier, who leaps to his death from his private plane over the English Channel. Then, Captain Raymond Hinchliffe, WW1 ace and one-eyed master pilot, who disappears over the Atlantic while trying to be the first to cross the ocean east to west (carrying Elsie Mackay, heiress and celebrity, as passenger). And finally, the crew of R-101, Britain's largest rigid airship and apple of Air Minister Thomson's eye. The airship crashed en route to India, killing nearly everyone on board.
But even is the official inquiry was a whitewash, the intelligent and profuse medium Eileen Garrett channeled the story of the crash as seen by the men who perished in the crash and the ensuing fire. The person who sat at the seances taking notes was one major Villiers, who never revealed his identity to the medium, but was one of the key players in the development of the R-101 at the Air Ministry. The sheer amount of technical data provided by he medium, who could not possibly have known the nautical terms applied to the dirigible by the men who built the ship and flew it, is astounding.
So is the attitude of the crew. At first reticent, but later on very vocal in their need to tell what really happened to R-101, the crew come across Eileen Garrett's voice and tell the harrowing tale of sacrificing the best brains of the airship design and flight teams to the altar of Lord Thomson's ego. Hinchliffe appears from beyond time and space to try and warn the crew not to take off as the ship will not be airworthy.
John G. Fuller's writing style s somewhat technical and at times tedious, but his research is immaculate. To his great benefit, the documents pertaining to the R-101 and the other events described are stored at the Air Ministry, British Museum Archives, and the venerable British Society for Psychical Research (among other places), and they are fully referenced. Of particular interest are the transcripts from the original sessions of Major Villiers with Eileen Garrett. These, if nothing else, will convince you this is no hoax.
Many times people say, there can't be any truth to parapsychology for the lack of evidence. But absence of evidence is no evidence of absence , as it is often said, and the story as told in this book is very strong for the case of human survival.
I cannot recommend this book strongly enough to anybody interested in the subject matter.
The early years of aviation were full of achievement, glory, and death in the air or when the ground was met unintentionally. Three separate stories of men who died and then returned to tell their stories are intertwined to produce some of the most compelling evidence of survival after death.
First there's Alfred Lowenstein, a Belgian pilot and financier, who leaps to his death from his private plane over the English Channel. Then, Captain Raymond Hinchliffe, WW1 ace and one-eyed master pilot, who disappears over the Atlantic while trying to be the first to cross the ocean east to west (carrying Elsie Mackay, heiress and celebrity, as passenger). And finally, the crew of R-101, Britain's largest rigid airship and apple of Air Minister Thomson's eye. The airship crashed en route to India, killing nearly everyone on board.
But even is the official inquiry was a whitewash, the intelligent and profuse medium Eileen Garrett channeled the story of the crash as seen by the men who perished in the crash and the ensuing fire. The person who sat at the seances taking notes was one major Villiers, who never revealed his identity to the medium, but was one of the key players in the development of the R-101 at the Air Ministry. The sheer amount of technical data provided by he medium, who could not possibly have known the nautical terms applied to the dirigible by the men who built the ship and flew it, is astounding.
So is the attitude of the crew. At first reticent, but later on very vocal in their need to tell what really happened to R-101, the crew come across Eileen Garrett's voice and tell the harrowing tale of sacrificing the best brains of the airship design and flight teams to the altar of Lord Thomson's ego. Hinchliffe appears from beyond time and space to try and warn the crew not to take off as the ship will not be airworthy.
John G. Fuller's writing style s somewhat technical and at times tedious, but his research is immaculate. To his great benefit, the documents pertaining to the R-101 and the other events described are stored at the Air Ministry, British Museum Archives, and the venerable British Society for Psychical Research (among other places), and they are fully referenced. Of particular interest are the transcripts from the original sessions of Major Villiers with Eileen Garrett. These, if nothing else, will convince you this is no hoax.
Many times people say, there can't be any truth to parapsychology for the lack of evidence. But absence of evidence is no evidence of absence , as it is often said, and the story as told in this book is very strong for the case of human survival.
I cannot recommend this book strongly enough to anybody interested in the subject matter.
July 15, 2023
In 1928 a monoplane carrying famed World War I ace Captain Raymond Hinchliffe and his copilot, the flamboyant heiress-actress Elsie Mackay, vanished without a trace over the stormy Atlantic. As news of the disappearance made front-page headlines around the world, British workers raced to complete the largest and most advanced airship yet designed, the monumental R 101, despite medium Eileen Garrett's terrifying pre-vision of a dirigible tragedy, and an even more fearful warning from the dead Captain Hinchliffe to another mystic. Finally, in a séance that includes both mystics as well as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (creator of Sherlock Holmes), Hinchliffe warned the navigator of the R 101 of its various structural problems. But the 777 R-101 took off on schedule -- and plunged to the ground on the French side of the Channel, killing all but six of the fifty-four aboard.
But two days after the crash, through a séance, the dead commander of the airship recounted in horrible detail the anguished end of the R-101 and its crew. A series of séances followed, with several more crew members desperate to tell their stories. Journalist Fuller offers the shorthand records of those meetings, along with transcripts of the hearings and other contemporary documents that offer compelling evidence of human survival after death.
But two days after the crash, through a séance, the dead commander of the airship recounted in horrible detail the anguished end of the R-101 and its crew. A series of séances followed, with several more crew members desperate to tell their stories. Journalist Fuller offers the shorthand records of those meetings, along with transcripts of the hearings and other contemporary documents that offer compelling evidence of human survival after death.
June 2, 2015
Fascinating account of what was supposed to be a routine seance to attempt to contact the recently deceased Arthur Conan Doyle, turns into a channelling of a more recently deceased airship captain of the R101.
The Medium was able to provide information that only the crew on the ship would have access to, or those who would later investigate the wreckage, something that had not happened at the time of the seance.
Certainly a riveting story of early aviation even if you refuse to buy into the life after death element.
The Medium was able to provide information that only the crew on the ship would have access to, or those who would later investigate the wreckage, something that had not happened at the time of the seance.
Certainly a riveting story of early aviation even if you refuse to buy into the life after death element.
June 8, 2014
Mighty good read, if more folk were minded to give thought to what happens when we 'leave our physical overcoats' the lack of a fear of death would have the potential to transform society.
Running alongside the theme of 'existence beyond physical form', the story of the 'Pride of Empire' airship 101 and the establishment cover up following the crash and loss of life while on route to India.
Interesting cast of real life characters with a storyline that keeps the reader engaged, highly recommended.
Running alongside the theme of 'existence beyond physical form', the story of the 'Pride of Empire' airship 101 and the establishment cover up following the crash and loss of life while on route to India.
Interesting cast of real life characters with a storyline that keeps the reader engaged, highly recommended.
March 27, 2023
This nonfiction account of paranormal events and attempted advances in the field of British aviation taking place in 1928-31 [and the ensuing years of investigation] was sometimes dry and sometimes quite compelling. There were a plethora of characters but a Who's Who guide precedes the story. I am glad that I took the time to read it.
October 14, 2012
Fantastic book. Perfectly frames up one of the very best cases for life after death. Meticulous and well researched in every regard.
October 1, 2020
Certainly it´s a book to stay with us for ever. I wish I had the skill of a writer to speak about this book.
I am Argentine.when I went to London, I visited the British Lybrary, looking for this book.It not exist.
I understood, that it was a top secret for some authority.When I return to Bs As, I contact an old book seller, and there was this necessary and important story, to know something essential to our lives.
I should like to contact to people who appreciate this case, to share and comment all the facet of this story.I am grateful to have this book in my computer and give a hope to those who did not believe in
the Spirit. Love and peace to all.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 13, 2022
A classic. An eminently readable account on a very impressive experience with the airship R101 in England in 1929 and its crash in France on October 5th 1930. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R101)
As such it was part of the series of airship crashes of the 30's that put an end to the development of airships.
A series of mediumistic experiences around the event produced some very detailed accounts of the disaster which were eventually mostly corroborated by various pieces of evidence, including personal diaries of some of the participants and so on. There was a level of detail that was impossible to ignore. A fascinating and engrossing story. If you did not already believe in some form of life after death, you cannot avoid it at this point.
As such it was part of the series of airship crashes of the 30's that put an end to the development of airships.
A series of mediumistic experiences around the event produced some very detailed accounts of the disaster which were eventually mostly corroborated by various pieces of evidence, including personal diaries of some of the participants and so on. There was a level of detail that was impossible to ignore. A fascinating and engrossing story. If you did not already believe in some form of life after death, you cannot avoid it at this point.
August 25, 2024
A bit of fun fluff that makes good reading around Halloween. However the scariest thing in this book is the frightful amount of tediously written padding that Fuller uses to extend the book. It is also believed that Fuller was not too shy to make stuff up where the facts didn't suit is narrative, but one can forgive that because it adds to the fun. The padding, however, is as much unforgivable as it is unreadable. Fuller seems to write under the assumption that if something can be said in one paragraph, it can be said even better in three. Egads, not for the faint of heart.
November 7, 2022
Excellent book about the possibility of life after death. Very well researched lot of details.
August 18, 2023
Astounding!
April 2, 2014
One of the most compelling arguments ever made about the possibility of life after death.
Fuller quotes extensively from the official British inquiry into the crash of the airship R101 on October 5, 1930. A British medium immediately began relaying highly technical details of structural and operational aspects of the dirigible, messages she said came from the dead crew.
This was information she would not have been able to find anywhere. Even if she had somehow boned up on the state-of-the-art technology she spoke about for hours, she was never tripped up by investigators familiar with the machinery and techniques she discussed.
A thoroughly uplifting book. Highly recommended.
Fuller quotes extensively from the official British inquiry into the crash of the airship R101 on October 5, 1930. A British medium immediately began relaying highly technical details of structural and operational aspects of the dirigible, messages she said came from the dead crew.
This was information she would not have been able to find anywhere. Even if she had somehow boned up on the state-of-the-art technology she spoke about for hours, she was never tripped up by investigators familiar with the machinery and techniques she discussed.
A thoroughly uplifting book. Highly recommended.
August 8, 2015
So is there life after death? After his plane goes missing attempting to cross the Atlantic captain Hinchcliffe appears to two friends, he then seems to make contact with two women, who eventually pass on the information to his widow. However the story doesn't end there, soon he's sending warning of a tragedy that will take place, but this is the 1930's and the air ministry has more things to take into consideration, like Lord Thompson's need to be in India on a set day to take notice.
If you like history and a touch of the spooky this is great, and if it all really happened as it appears to then it does pose a few questions.
If you like history and a touch of the spooky this is great, and if it all really happened as it appears to then it does pose a few questions.
March 15, 2024
Não sei exatamente como categorizar esse livro já que:
Não é um relato - Há por demais especulação e informação de segunda mão para ser tal.
Não é uma ficção - O autor deixa bem explícito que não é uma narrativa inventada - pelo menos até certo ponto.
Não é um livro de História - não há análise historiográfica ou recuperação de memória.
O que temos é um amontoado de informações que vão desde transcrições a narrações especulativas sobre o que parece ter sido uma catástrofe prevista por uma médium. Se o texto não fosse tão confuso, poderia ser interessante.
Não é um relato - Há por demais especulação e informação de segunda mão para ser tal.
Não é uma ficção - O autor deixa bem explícito que não é uma narrativa inventada - pelo menos até certo ponto.
Não é um livro de História - não há análise historiográfica ou recuperação de memória.
O que temos é um amontoado de informações que vão desde transcrições a narrações especulativas sobre o que parece ter sido uma catástrofe prevista por uma médium. Se o texto não fosse tão confuso, poderia ser interessante.
November 9, 2010
Interesting book with lots to think about. However the technical detail associated with aviation was hard to read and boring. If you can get over that then I would certainly recommend you give it a go.
April 9, 2009
I LOVE it
July 29, 2019
Interesting account of the crash of the R101.
January 5, 2013
Dry but interesting read on life after death. Copious notes taken in the 20's and 30's in a blind, scientific way. Also anecdotal.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews