Woman Reports Sighting of "Strange Object in the Sky" over Chicago Loop

The Singular Fortean Society was contacted last week by Mary, a 47-year-old community college professor and resident of Chicago’s South Loop neighborhood, who wished to report that she and her son had seen a “strange object in the sky over the Aon Building” on May 9th of this year.

According to Mary’s initial report,

I was walking with my son on Northerly Island (just south of Adler Planetarium) last night around 8:30 p.m. (dusk) and we saw a strange object in the sky over the Aon Building. I’m thinking it was the Chicago Mothman, but my son is convinced it was a powered paraglider, not because [we] clearly identified it as such, but because it is the only possible scientific explanation.
It was a black curved object moving at a constant speed, with little to no change in altitude. It did not have any visible lights or audible motor (however, we were approximately two miles away). It glided between buildings southbound through the entire Loop and continued over McCormick Place until it disappeared from sight.
I emailed a paragliding school to ask if it was normal for paragliders to fly in the loop at night. They replied that it is forbidden for paragliders to fly over congested areas.
I’m reaching out to you to see if anyone else reported seeing this object last night. Again, this was in the Loop, potentially thousands of people could have glimpsed it outside their window.
Any feedback you have would be greatly appreciated.

Investigator Tobias Wayland responded to Mary, informing her that no other reports of a similar object from that area have yet been received and asking a series of questions about her experience.

She described the object as being roughly seven meters (23 feet) long and three and a half meters (eleven and a half feet) wide.

"This was huge," Mary said. "At first glance we assumed it was a helicopter."

Neither Mary nor her son were able to make out any other details of the object, she explained, because they "were about two miles away, observing without binoculars."

She also informed the investigator that "Both my son and I experienced no paranormal elements prior, during, or after the sighting. We simply felt intensely confused and curious."

“I know someone had to have seen it, besides us, since it was gliding through such a densely populated area,” Mary said of the object. “I know that someone had to have seen this, so thank you for publishing my report.”

The dimensions of the object as reported by Mary fall well outside those normally described by witnesses of winged humanoids in the Lake Michigan Mothman investigation, but a husband and wife did report separate incidents involving what they described as a “prehistoric bird” with a 40-foot wingspan near Gary, Indiana in 2016.

Both the husband and wife in the Gary sightings described a similar method of flight to what Mary and her son witnessed.

“The wings weren’t flapping,” the husband said of the winged creature he reported. “It was like it was just gliding.”

“The wings did not flap,” said his wife.

Gary is only about 30 miles southwest of the Aon Center in Chicago. Those sightings, like this one, occurred within the area around Lake Michigan where sightings of winged humanoids have consistently been reported since the spring of 2017.

It is not clear what, if any, connection there is between sightings of anomalous avians and pterosaurs, and the winged humanoid(s) referred to as Mothman.

To report a sighting reach out to us directly at the Singular Fortean Society through our contact page.

You can view a timeline of the sightings so far in the Lake Michigan Mothman investigation here.

To report your own encounter with the impossible, reach out to us directly at the Singular Fortean Society through our contact page.

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