Iconic RAF base now a 'ghost town'

FROM Dambusters to ghostbusters, a historic RAF base once home to the famous bouncing bomb is now attracting an altogether different kind of threat.

- By Tony Whitfield

Manston, the former Kent airfield which has also been used to house illegal immigrants, is now hawking itself out to spook hunters desperate to get in contact with the other side.

Ghostly airmen that disappear into thin air, the roar of a long-gone Spitfire, or shadowy aircraft taxiing along the abandoned runway, are just some of the ghoulish goings-on that make it a must for paranormal enthusiasts.

The airfield near Ramsgate is even home to the Manston Phantom, a semi-translucent figure wearing a flying helmet, Irvin jacket and Mae West life vest spotted by an MoD fireman on kitchen duty early one morning in 1970.