Cryptid Winged Being Observed by Phantoms & Monsters Fortean Research Investigator (O'Hare International Airport, Chicago) (2024)

An investigator, associated with the leading team examining the 'Chicago Mothman' sightings, has his own encounter with the winged humanoid at O'Hare International Airport

Phantoms & Monsters Fortean Research team investigator Manuel Navarette had an actual sighting of what has been referred to as the 'Chicago Mothman,' or possibly one of a varied group of winged humanoids that have been seen in and around the Chicagoland area. Manuel contacted the team through it's message thread, at which time Tobias Wayland and I both called and talked to Manuel.

The following report is part of the information provided by Tobias at The Singular Fortean Society site:

Navarette has been actively receiving and investigating flying humanoid reports in the Chicago area through his website UFO Clearinghouse for the past several years.

"I was driving to work [on March 3rd, 2020], taking my usual route on Mannheim Road, and I’m talking to my wife on the phone," Navarette said during the interview. "So, I’m talking, and I’m coming up to the [intersection of Mannheim Road and Zemke Boulevard]—on the right side of it is an old Enterprise Rent-A-Car lot that used to be there, but they moved it to the other side of the airport. The building is still there and everything. I’m talking as I pull up to the red light, and I saw what looked like a large, winged being coming in like it was either landing behind the building or landing basically on top of it."

"The reason I say it was landing is because it was coming down, and it looked like it had its chest out with its wings flared up like it was trying to slow down enough to come in for a landing," he explained. "I remember yelling out to my wife ‘What the hell is that?’ She’s like ‘What? What? What?’ I told her what I was seeing. She said it could be a goose, and I said ‘This is way larger than a goose.’ I’ve seen geese. Right now, I see geese all over the place here. There are geese everywhere. They’re migrating."

According to Navarette, he was sitting in the third lane of traffic near the intersection when movement caught his eye. That's when he looked over and saw the creature.

"The street at the traffic stop is five lanes, and it was rush hour, so slamming on the brakes and trying to get a good look was an invitation to get into a wreck," he said. "I found a place to turn around and went back, drove around a few places. I couldn’t get onto their property, because it’s sealed off. It’s an old building, and I guess they’re using it for storage now. At least one of the garages is used for storage of compressors or something, because there was an open garage and I could see inside, and there were mobile compressors. Last thing I needed was to have airport security all over me for trespassing. So I drove around, and at one point there was an opening where I could go in. I went in, took a few pictures, and quickly got out, trying to find this thing, and I wasn’t able to find it."

Navarette said that the creature had "membranous wings" with "no feathers."

"Honestly, this did not look like a goose," he said. "It was brownish/grayish, more on the brownish side, and it didn’t look as big—it’s not like some of the reports we’ve taken since we started investigating—this thing wasn’t six or seven feet tall; it was maybe, at best, four feet tall. The wings were membranous. The only way I can describe them, the only thing I could compare them to, they kind of looked like an imp’s wings. I never got a really good look at the head. The sighting itself only lasted one, maybe two seconds."

"I know it only lasted two seconds, but you’re able to get a lot of information in that two seconds,” he added. “I can honestly tell you that it had no feathers. It looked like it had no feathers on it, just membranous wings. It was far larger than what a Canadian goose is. Its legs were tucked up beneath it, because it looked like it was coming in to land either on top of or behind the building. What I saw was basically the chest and the wings. What I got a good look at was the wings—they were completely outspread. It looked like it was trying to spread itself out so it could slow down for a landing."

Navarette added that he will likely return to the area and continue searching for the creature.

This is the most recently reported sighting in a series of unusual sighting reports that have taken place in the vicinity of O’Hare International Airport.

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