Trio of Witnesses Report Security Response to Winged Humanoid Sighting at O'Hare International Airport

An illustration by artist Donie Odulio of the creature people have been describing in and around Chicago and the greater Lake Michigan area. (Donie Odulio / Instagram: @donie_odulio)

Manuel Navarette of UFO Clearinghouse recently published an account from three witnesses who claimed to have seen a security detachment respond to a winged humanoid sighting at the United Cargo facility at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport.

The sighting reportedly took place on Thursday, July 22nd, at approximately 10:30 p.m.

Navarette received the initial report as an email submission.

I was walking to my car with two of my friends after getting off of work, we were talking about the day and how it felt good to get off and head home. As we approached the car, I saw something moving across the street but on the other side of the fence. It was dark but you could easily see it as the entire area was lit up, and there was a plane that had been brought up near the fence for unloading/loading and there was a lot of activity around the plane.
As we walked, I pointed it out to my friends and they also saw the same thing. About this time, a white SUV came driving up with its emergency flashing lights on and came to a halt on the road on the other side of the fence. Two men jumped out and shone some flashlights on this person, prompting the person to turn around and stare at them.
It looked to be about six to seven feet tall and was a very dark shade of grey, almost black, and had what looked like two large, glowing red eyes, but that could have been from the flashlights being shined in his direction.
About 10 seconds after the first vehicle arrived, another came up on the same side of the fence as this person and illuminated the person with its headlights. I remember hearing my friend say “Lord have mercy” as we watched the scene unfold in front of us.
It was about this time that the person opened up what looked like a pair of giant bat wings and flew up into the air; as it flew up and over the people that were now gathered around, it let out a loud screech that sounded a lot like train brakes or the brakes from a large truck. It flew around in a large circle twice, screeching and then flew out over the fence and toward the runways and the terminals in the distance.
As we watched, a white pickup truck with a TSA [Transportation Security Administration] emblem came up toward us with its emergency lights on and told us and the others who had gathered in the parking lot to clear out and get in our cars and leave the area immediately. We did as we were told and as we drove out of the parking lot, we saw another three marked vehicles and just as many unmarked vehicles pulled into the street and parking lot, all with their lights on.
I took my friends home and we talked extensively about it. One of my friends who worked the later shift at United told me that airport security and TSA were in the area and asking people who stepped outside to please go back in for their safety and were out there for at least an hour to an hour and a half. I did some research and came across a podcast where you had been the guest and got your information.

The investigator said he was later able to speak with all three witnesses over the telephone.

"All three witnesses are in their mid-thirties and work at the United Cargo sorting facility and have been there for a number of years," Navarette said. "All three witnesses were interviewed separately and all three basically tell the same story, as seen from three different points of view. All three tell of the entity being seen by the initial witness who then told her other two friends to 'look at that over there.'"

What stuck out as odd to them was the fact that the entity was so close to the fence and was clad in all black, in contrast to the high visibility attire worn by ground personnel. One of the witnesses said that she initially was worried that it was a person who had hopped the fence and was going to approach the nearby plane. The witnesses told [me] that there were multiple ground personnel working in the area and that one of the control towers was about 100 yards away, which probably prompted the immediate response by airport security and the TSA.
When asked to describe the entity, all three gave pretty close descriptions of a solid black entity, about six to seven feet in height (approximations considering the distances of the witnesses) and when it turned to face the security personnel, it was described as having glowing red eyes but the witnesses could not agree on if the eyes were self-illuminating or they were simply reflecting the light of the security personnel’s flashlights.
All three witnesses did describe that the entity did have a large set of bat-like membranous wings that were approximately 10 to 12 feet in width and that it did flap them to get into the air. All three described the noises the entity made as sounding like train brakes or truck brakes and all three described the sound as very loud.
The entity did circle the area at least twice, which is something that until now has not been described by prior witnesses. The entity then flew off to the north and toward the active runways.
All three witnesses did describe the response by airport security and the TSA as “aggressive and swift”. They described that they were asked to leave the area immediately and in no uncertain terms. This is also unprecedented [compared to] prior sightings, [since] the response by airport security [to those sightings] was not as swift and aggressive as with this one.

Navarette noted that this sighting "is only a few hundred yards from the now infamous Resthaven Cemetery and the Fed-Ex cargo facility where a number of anomalous sightings have been reported, and is next door to the facility where a supposed grey alien was sighted about two years ago. The entire area where this latest sighting occurred has accounted for a large number of sightings that have been reported."

"It is [my] opinion that this warrants further investigation by the UFO Clearinghouse investigations team and all information be passed onto the Phantoms & Monsters Fortean Research Team for possible follow up investigation," he added.

As part of that effort, The Singular Fortean Society has submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with TSA for more information on this report. Any response to that request will be published as it is received.

Lon Strickler of Phantoms & Monsters had this to say on August 4th regarding the incident: "About an hour ago, I received a call back from my source, who is a ground supervisor for one of the airlines at O'Hare. They were made aware of several sightings during the past two weeks...but not officially. Just rumors throughout their terminal."

Strickler said his contact "has heard nothing from her people lately, but that doesn't really mean nothing is going on. O'Hare officials have warned workers in the past to not report sightings."

When asked if TSA security had increased as of late, his contact responded that "it's possible, but for other reasons. That's all I know now."

O’Hare International Airport has been the epicenter of recent winged humanoid sightings in the Lake Michigan Mothman investigation, with over a dozen sighting reports coming from the airport itself since August of 2019, and many more reported in the surrounding communities. Reports from the larger investigation have come from every state bordering Lake Michigan and date back to 1957.

This report constitutes the latest news in a string of ‘Mothman’ sightings from within a few hundred mile radius surrounding Lake Michigan, including every state bordering the great lake. These sightings ostensibly began in the spring of 2017, but more historical accounts are being reported as more people become aware of the phenomenon. They generally take place in the evening or at night, often in or near a park or natural area, and around water. Witnesses consistently describe a large gray, brown, or black, bat or bird-like creature—although in a small number of cases the creature was described as insect-like—sometimes with glowing or reflective red, yellow, green, or orange eyes, and humanoid features such as arms and legs are often reported. Some witnesses have reported feeling intense fear and an aura of evil emanating from the creature they encountered. Many of the sightings are also of something seen only briefly or are described only as a flying creature with few details, which leaves open the possibility that a misidentified large bird—such as a heron or crane—or some type of anomalous avian species could explain some, although certainly not all, of the encounters. A number of associated high strangeness incidents have also occurred alongside the creature sightings; these include reports of UFOs, other anomalous flying creatures and mysterious humanoids, parapsychological phenomena, and bizarre events experienced by those investigating the sightings.

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 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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