On the night of 4–5 October 1930, the enormous British airship R101 set out on what was intended to be a pioneering flight to India. It would never reach its destination.
In the early hours of 5 October, R101 came down near Beauvais in northern France. Fire engulfed the wreckage and 48 of the 54 people aboard lost their lives.
It was a catastrophe that effectively brought Britain's great experiment with rigid airships to an end.
But the story of R101 was about to take a remarkable turn.
Only days after the disaster, medium Eileen Garrett entered a trance during a séance arranged with psychical researcher Harry Price. The original intention had not been to contact anyone connected with R101. Yet Garrett reportedly began communicating with a personality identifying itself as Flight Lieutenant H. Carmichael Irwin, the airship's captain.
What followed became one of the most famous and controversial episodes in the history of twentieth-century mediumship.
Technical statements concerning the airship, its condition and the circumstances surrounding the disaster were reportedly delivered through Garrett. Later séances produced further material, prompting the extraordinary question: could information about the fate of R101 have been communicated by someone who died aboard it?
Or were there other explanations for what Garrett appeared to know?
On 5 October, the anniversary of the disaster, Haunted History Chronicles returns to the story of R101 with my special guest Sarah Blake, creator of Hushed Up History.
Together we explore the ambition behind R101, its catastrophic final journey and the lives lost when it came down in France. We then turn to Eileen Garrett herself — her life, her mediumship and the remarkable séances that became forever entwined with the story of the doomed airship.
It is a story in which aviation history, tragedy, psychical research and Spiritualism unexpectedly collide.
Nearly a century after R101 fell from the sky, the séance that followed remains almost as intriguing as the disaster itself.
#R101 #R101Disaster #R101Airship #EileenGarrett #AirshipDisaster #HauntedHistory #ParanormalHistory #Spiritualism #Mediumship #PsychicalResearch #Séance #Seance #GhostStories #Paranormal #Unexplained #Supernatural #AviationHistory #BritishHistory #DarkHistory #HistoricDisasters #LifeAfterDeath #SpiritCommunication #HarryPrice #HistoryPodcast #ParanormalPodcast #HauntedHistoryChronicles
