Something was happening, in between, up there

A nice sampler of creepy mid-air stories comes from Mark Wahl.  He references Thomas Pynchon (1990), John Varley (1978), and an X-Files episode (1997). 

"There were unconfirmed reports of incidents high above the planetary surface that no one talked about in any but the most careful euphemisms. The list of passengers who arrived was not always identical to the list of those who'd departed. Something was happening, in between, up there." (Vineland)

I would add the long decades of in-flight UFO stories, which form the background for these.  Not to mention that terrific Twilight Zone Shatner episode (YouTube).

There's something different about these airborne fears, apart from general anxieties concerning air travel (fear of crashing).  It's a mix of features: the loss of control in a large vehicle controlled by someone else, the associations with dreaming (since many sleep), being closer to the skies and space.  And the general complex of technology anxieties are all in play, too.

Any other stories out there, concerning uncanny events on planes in flight?

Comments

[Mark]

Conan Doyle's "The Horror of the Heights" is an extremely early example: http://www.forgottenfutures.com/game/ff3/heights.htm

[Mark]

The Doctor Who "Time-Flight" serial is good fun, as well: http://www.veoh.com/browse/videos/category/entertainment/watch/v4187319bKntg5z3

[Gardner]

And of course there's the other Twilight Zone in-flight episode--the one in which the flight gets caught in a time vortex that first takes it to Idlewild Field and then to prehistoric Manhattan: "The Odyssey of Flight 33."

[Bryan Alexander]

Good ones, Mark and Gardner!

Mark, did you catch the Librivox reading of that Doyle story?

[HP]

"As I ran at full speed, with my nose up in the atmosphere, and intent only upon the purloiner of my property, I suddenly perceived that my feet rested no longer upon terra-firma; the fact is, I had thrown myself over a precipice, and should inevitably have been dashed to pieces but for my good fortune in grasping the end of a long guide-rope which depended from a passing balloon.

As soon as I sufficiently recovered my senses to comprehend the terrific predicament in which I stood or rather hung, I exerted all the power of my lungs to make that predicament known to the æronaut overhead. But for a long time I exerted myself in vain. Either the fool could not, or the villain would not perceive me. Meantime the machine rapidly soared, while my strength even more rapidly failed. I was upon the point of resigning myself to my fate, and dropping quietly into the sea, when my spirits were suddenly revived by hearing a hollow voice from above, which seemed to be lazily humming an opera air. Looking up, I perceived the Angel of the Odd. He was leaning, with his arms folded, over the rim of the car; and with a pipe in his mouth, at which he puffed leisurely, seemed to be upon excellent terms with himself and the universe. I was too much exhausted to speak, so I merely regarded him with an imploring air."

-- Edgar Allen Poe, The Angel of the Odd, 1844

Not exactly one of Poe's horror stories, but even his comic works and fantasies have a dark undercurrent. And at 1844, this must be one of the earliest incidents of supernatural menace in a flying vehicle.

[HP]

Of course, it goes without saying that in the world of genre fiction, Poe did it first. :)

[Mark]

No, I haven't heard it yet, but I'm downing it now. Thanks, Bryan!

[Thomas]

There's this television series, /Lost/. Have you heard of it? ;-)

[Bryan Alexander]

Excellent, HP. And of course, Poe is the primal creator.

Did you expand your post even further, Mark?

Thomas, ha! You are correct.
Question: did the show ever return to the doomed flight, after season 3? That's as far as I've seen.