Featured Image Credit: Netflix
Topics: World War 2
Aisha Nozari
A young boy gave his parents (and everyone reading this) a serious case of the heebie-jeebies.
James Leininger had been a fan of planes since he was just two years old, but what at first seemed like a pretty run-of-the-mill interest for a young lad soon turned sinister when he awoke screaming in the night.
James was one of the subjects of Netflix documentary Surviving Death. You can watch the trailer below:
James’ parents say that on the night in question back in 2002, their son shrieked the house down when he woke up, claiming he’d experienced a plane crash.
But wait, it gets a whole lot creepier.
Advert
The young boy said he was in a plane that had been shot down by another aircraft bearing the symbol of a ‘red sun’, which James’ parents interpreted as a Japanese plane.
James’ parents soon became concerned their son had been reincarnated after he started speaking about memories of being someone named James McCready Huston.
As it turns out, Huston was a World War II fighter pilot from Pennsylvania and died more than 50 years ago in Japan.
His cause of death? Being knocked out of the sky by a Japanese aircraft.
Advert
Speaking to ABC, James' mother Andrea said her son would also scream ‘aeroplane crash, on fire, can’t get out, help’ during his sleep.
James also told his parents that he’d flown an aircraft called the Corsair, having set off from a boat named Natoma during the WWII.
After carrying out some research, they discovered that Huston had actually been on a plane called Natoma Bay when it was hit on 3 March 1945.
James’ dad Bruce said that as part of their research, he and Andrea wrote a letter to Huston's sister, Anne Barron, explaining what their son was going through.
Barron believed James was the reincarnation of her older brother, saying: “The child was so convincing in coming up with all the things that there is no way in the world he could know."
Advert
Meanwhile, psychologist Jim Tucker told National Public Radio (NPR) that Huston’s plane crashed in the exact same manner that young James described.
"James Huston's plane crashed exactly the way that James Leininger had described - hit in the engine, exploding into fire, crashing into the water and quickly sinking,” said Tucker.
"And when that happened, the pilot of the plane next to his was named Jack Larsen."
When asked whether James’ story could have been a figment of his imagination, Tucker replied: "If we had never been able to verify that what the child said matched somebody who died, then you could certainly just mark it down as being fantasy.
Advert
"But in cases like James', the previous person, James Huston, was so obscure - I mean, he was a pilot who was killed 50 years before; and he was from Pennsylvania, and James was in Louisiana - I mean, it seems absolutely impossible that he could have somehow gained this information as a 2-year-old through some sort of normal means."