The R101 medium sitting

On 7 October 1930, two days after the R101 airship disaster, medium Eileen Garrett held a sitting in London that spiritualists said reached an R101 officer.

The Psi Encyclopedia of the Society for Psychical Research records that on 7 October 1930 a mediumistic sitting took place in South Kensington, London, at Harry Price's psychical research laboratory. Price owned and ran the laboratory. Ian D Coster, an Australian journalist, requested the sitting, hoping to contact the Spiritualist Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, dead for three months by then. The R101 airship had crashed two days before.

Wikipedia says spiritualists claimed that the medium, Eileen J. Garrett, made contact with Herbert Carmichael Irwin and discussed possible causes of the accident. Wikipedia adds that a reporter's presence brought the event worldwide attention. It also records that Major Oliver Villiers, a friend of several men aboard the airship, took part in further sittings with Garrett, where he claimed to have contacted Irwin and others. A later book by John G. Fuller tells of Garrett's reported vision of the disaster and of a sitting with the dead officers afterwards.