The Curse of the Thailand Airport

Benjamin looked out the window of the plane. He couldn't believe it. He was in Thailand. He grew up in Los Angeles and this was his parents' homeland. For as long as he could remember, visiting the country had been his dream, and now it was all coming to reality. The overhead lights came on and he heard the pilot announce that the plane was about to begin its ascent at the Swanapum Airport. This part of the flight always made him a little nervous. He had read somewhere that take off and landings are the most dangerous parts of flying, but he wasn't sure how true that was. He took a deep breath and buckled himself, but as soon as he did, the plane began to shake. It felt like the universe was playing a cruel joke on him. Benjamin looked around, and the rest of the passenger seemed as nervous as he was. The side to side shaking got worse. As the plane descended, the pilot made another announcement. Benjamin listened as the pilot told everyone not to worry, it was just some turbulence, and just then there was a violent jolt to the right and the oxygen masks popped out from the overhead chamber. This felt like more than just turbulence. Benjamin felt his breathing grow faster, his face started to feel numb, and his chest was burning. He was starting to panic. He couldn't reach his oxygen mask, and so he sat there, trying not to freak out. And then he felt a pat on his shoulder. He turned and saw a flight attendant. She told him it was okay to be scared. They were going to be okay. She reached up and helped him put the mask on. She stood with him until he calmed down, and then she smiled at him and walked away. Benjamin heard the pilot again. He apologized for the shake of but announced that they had landed safely. At the airport, everyone clapped and cheered. He was one of the last passengers to get off the plane. He looked for the flight attendant that had been so kind to him, but she was nowhere to be seen. He looked again, carefully studying each one, but no, she wasn't there. He had been so panicked that he hadn't even realized that she wasn't wearing the same uniform she had been dressed in traditional Thai clothing and apparently she had just vanished. It felt a little scared again, but shook it off. He grabbed his bag and rushed off the plane. But still he was confused. Who was the woman in the traditional tight clothing? Where had she gone? My name is Edwin and here is a horror story. Suwanapum Airport is the seventeenth busiest airport in the world. It serves as a connection to the rest of Asia, Oceania, Europe and Africa. The passenger terminal is seven stories tall and has three hundred and sixty check in desks, and the airport covers an area of eight thousand acres. This airport is also one of the biggest in the world, and you can see it behind me is just checking counter after checking counter Like this way, it's just more and important. At least sixty million people fly through the airport every year. With all this traffic and as many people coming and going, it wasn't surprised to hear that it's also one of the most haunted airports in the world. And it's not just due to the amount of people coming and going. It goes back to before it was even built. So one of whom was built of breast site known as No Knew How Cobra Samp, a marsh full of snakes that was once an ancient cemetery. The land was drained in nineteen seventy three and a lot of snakes were killed in the process. Locals believed this is why the land was cursed samed Suwanapum by King Abumipo Aduljadj and the name means the golden land. But golden or not, the events that followed really did make it seem cursed. Though the land was drained and set aside to become an airport in nineteen seventy three, it would take a decade for construction to be complete. The same year Cobra Swamp was purchased, drained and set for construction. The people of Thailand revolted. There was an uprising to overthrow Field Marshal tannom Akiti Katan. The next twenty years were full of political turmoil and the construction of the Swanapum was abandoned. In nineteen ninety six, the project was revived, but due to the financial crisis of Asia, it was forgotten again. In two thousand and two, plans for construction began again, and this time they actually started but one more time. It took a while for the airport to actually be built. It was just one thing after another. This project just seemed to be cursed doomed from the beginning. At one point, constructions stopped because they were over budget and they were flawed in the foundation, and corruption was running free. But those weren't the only problems. Construction workers kept quitting because they kept seeing ghosts. There were freak accidents that didn't make sense to anyone. The workers blamed the ghosts, especially when they discovered the airport they were building was sitting over a cemetery. They didn't want to be there anymore. When the runways were being built, they kept seeing shadows of people walking. It turned out the runway was built over an old temple. These kinds of sightings were happening day and night. The time didn't matter, and it wasn't just the runways either. The Fire and Rescue center employees also didn't want to work. They complained to the CEO and told them that they were being haunted while they tried to perform their work duties. In order to get the workers to come back and open the airport on time, monks were brought in ninety nine, Buddhist monks were brought to the airport and they performed rituals to a piece of spirits. There were offerings and left them at spirit houses across the airport. There are supposedly six of these characters of the airport, so I think there's must be a map somewhere. I don't think we're gonna be able to find them all. We're gonna try, so. One of Boom Airport was built with six spirit houses. Spirit houses are found all over Thailand. It's like a colorful alter type place where offerings can be left for ancestors. Most Thai families and businesses have one, but this Thai airport needed six. During the rituals, some of the monks encountered an elderly man who called himself pooh Ming. A group of monks saw blue figures staggering toward them. They splashed holy and it vanished before their eyes. And as a ritual was coming to an end, the monks were chanting Buddhist mantras. A baggage handler stumbled out of the crowd. He was shaking, his face twisted and he cried he arched his back and yelled that he was puming, and he declared that he was a cemetery guardian. He yelled that he would bring chaos to the airport and would only stop when a shrine was set up in his honor. One of the monks stepped forward and promised to set up a shrine. The baggage handler fainted and then returned to his normal self. The shrine was built and work to get the airport opened on time continued. Several test flights took place in July of two thousand and six. These were local flights. The first international test flight took place on September first of that year, and then on the twenty eighth, the airport officially opened. It seemed like this day was never going to come. The first passengers arrived from Kiev, Ukraine at four thirty in the morning, and the first departure flight one hour later. The first days after opening were a nightmare, though getting luggage was so slow that some passengers had to wait for four hours to get their backs. This delayed seventeen flights, and only nineteen were scheduled for that first day. There were problems with the check in systems and with the departure boards. These kinds of issues went on for months and the workers really believed that they were cursed. These kinds of issues eventually got better, but within a year of opening there were more problems. In two thousand and seven, ruts were discovered in the runway of Suwanapum Airport. Ruts are like damaged pavement layers, usually caused by traffic loads. When running gets serious, it leads to major structural failures. This was a serious issue at Suwanapum. Aircraft kept getting stuck on the tarmac. Not long after opening, the airport was facing some serious structural issues. The curs struck again. The airport had to close for a time and they were back within a year, and still the problems continued. On November twenty six, two thousand and eight, the People's Alliance for Democracy took over the airport and forced it to close to close the departure lounge, blocked exits and left three thousand passengers stranded in the main terminal. All flights were grounded and another three hundred and fifty thousand people were stranded in Thailand. They seized the control tower at noon and stayed there for almost one week. They agreed to leave the airport on December second, and Suwannapoom was open again three days later, but the problems just continued. The first of October of twenty ten, two hundred armed men occupied the airport's parking area for an hour, blocking the building's entrances and seizing the ticket booths to collect fares motorists. Airport security personnel failed to respond, reportedly because of an internal dispute within the parking management company and the firm that contracted to run the parking facilities. Since the airport opened, there have been a high number of suicides, at least one person a year. From two thousand and six to twenty thirteen, eight people had fallen to their deaths from the upper floors. It got so bad that in twenty thirteen, thirty three million BOT or eight hundred and ninety thousand US dollars were spent to build glass barriers that would prevent more deaths. Some people believe these suicides were happening because of evil spirits and that the tortured souls of the victims remained at the airport, and perhaps these deaths do have something to do with the ghost sightings at Suwannapoom. The story continues right after this Stay with Me. Flight TG six seventy nine landed on runway nineteen L at eleven twenty six pm on September eighth, twenty thirteen. It should have been a normal landing. This was a routine flight from Guangzhou, China. It was a full flight with two hundred and eighty eight passengers and fourteen crew members. As the plane was slowing down on the runway, it had suddenly went off to the right side and crashed. A fire erupted in the right hand engine and passengers began to evacuate on the left hand side of the plane. The scene was chaotic, there was no order to the evacuation, and officials on ground were not really helping any passengers. The flight attendants were just as scared, and the airport fire services were busy with the fire. Passengers had to evacuate themselves and at least twelve people were injured. One passenger told the radio station program that he would have gotten hurt if it wasn't for one flight attendant. She was the only one helping, but when he tried to find her later, she wasn't. With the rest of the crew. She hadn't even worn the same uniform. He thought back to the day and remember that she was in a traditional tie attire. He wanted to thank her for saving him, but she seemed to have vanished into thin air. People often see a woman who they believed to be a really kind and helpful flight attendant, but a uniform is always different from the rest of the crew. This ghostly woman is not the only one at the airport, though, so Wanapoom serves connecting flights to other parts of Thailand. People land there and rush to make it to their next flight. Jessica checked her watch. She had two hours to get to this plane and through immigration and then to the next gate. She was sure she could make it, but people took so long to get their things and go. When the people in front finally started moving, she grabbed her backpack and began to powerwalk. Once she got past immigration, she walked on the hall to her gate. It was late and mostly empty. She felt the hall get colder as she walked, but she ignored it. She thought she heard footsteps behind her, but when she turned around, no one was there. She kept walking, and then she heard the frail and weak voice of an old man in her left ear. She quickly turned around, expecting to see some creep behind her, but there was no one there, and even though she felt a little bit ridiculous, she went to her gate and sat next to a group of people who were already there. Pu Ming, the cemetery guardian that demanded a shrine is said to haunt the hallways of Sawanapum. Some people I've seen him from far away. He appears with blue aura around him and uses a walking stick to roam. The more unlucky travelers hear him speak, and they all describe his voice the same way, frail and weak, prattite. One Moudhah the grounds of the airport, doing his rounds as a guard. This was his first night shift of the week. It was so late that there was not a lot of travelers at this time. He walked by a young woman who seemed to be in a rush. She was probably late for her flight. He decided to head in the same direction since he hadn't been to those gates yet. He walked slowly, and the young woman walked further away, and suddenly there was an old man behind her. He could see the blue aura around his head and he walked with a stick Pratitit called out to him, but the man vanished before his eyes. Panupong was a squadron leader back when the airport first opened. He was in charge of a thousand airport security personnel, and they all had weird stories. Strange footsteps were heard around the halls at night. Traditional time music could randomly be heard, but they could not figure out what it was coming from. None of this aired him as much as one incident. He was driving to the airport when suddenly a pale woman holding a baby walked in front of his car. He swerved to the side of the road to avoid hitting them, and when he came to just a few seconds later, the woman and the baby were nowhere to be seen. Several people have also seen the ghostly woman carrying a baby inside and outside of the airport. She has been blamed for several car accidents that happen on the road to Suwanapum to call her the pale woman. In twenty eighteen, when a plane lost control and slid off the runway, the pale lady was blamed for the accident. If you have traveled through the Bangkok Airport and for some reason ended up in the custom security area. You'll find a strange looking pillar. The customs area room is seven meters wide and fourteen meters long. The height of the pillar from Florida ceiling is just over three meters. Is a storage room for luggage and belonging to foreigners who stopped by to do business or travel in Thailand but don't wish to bring luggage into the country. When returning from the country, they were able to pick up their luggage from there and take it back home. This strange looking pillar is in the middle of the room. It's not smooth like the rest of them. It looks like it was ripped apart and sloppily put back together. It looks like it was drilled, then new cement was poured over it, and according to legend, that's exactly what happened. Legend tells that a Bermese construction worker fell into the column's mold and was buried alive in the concrete. Some versions of the legends say that he was assaulted, murdered, and then placed into the mold. The workers left and returned to see a human figure in the pillar. They chipped and drilled at it until they could see her, but cutting her out was harder than they thought it would be. They couldn't cut the pillar down. It was part of the structure now and it wouldn't be safe. So they decided to cut the parts of her that were sticking out, and then they just port some men over her again. Night shift workers hear footsteps and luggage wheels despite no one being there. Offerings have been made to try in a piece or spirit, and so far it might be. Working workers began playing lottery numbers in her honor, and if they won, they would bring offerings for the woman in the pillar. Every Saturday, the employees at Sawanapum Airport have to pause and pray across six different shrines. Airlines also hold their own group prayer sessions to try and keep the spirits happy. Workers and travelers frequently leave offerings for the spirits, anything to try and calm the curves and the hauntings of the airport. And if you find yourself flying into Bangkok, pay calls attention to the flight attendants on your plane and bring an offering for the ghosts. This episode of Horror Story was written by Rasina Lamaghi, with audio and production by me Edwin Ko Rubias. To listen to this episode and the rest of the Scary FM shows without ads, head on over to scaryplus dot com. Thank you very much for listening. Keep it scary everyone, See you soon.