Manuel Navarette of UFO Clearinghouse received a report recently from a man claiming to be an employee at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago, Illinois, who said that at around 11:30 p.m. on December 30th, 2021, he and two of his fellow employees saw three black, red-eyed, winged creatures while working near a hangar.

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

Although the man claimed that he and another employee recorded the event, he said that airport officials required them to delete the videos.

I was working this weekend, on Thursday 12/30/2021, at the American Airlines aircraft hangar at about 11:30 at night, I was outside with about three other individuals. We were in the process of bringing a 777-200 into the hangar to get some maintenance done on one of the engines. This was a routine that we did almost daily on a variety of planes at this particular hangar.

As we were hooking up the plane to the tug to move it and communicating with each other, I looked up and saw three large, black creatures over by the parking lot; they were about seven feet tall each and they were just staring right at us.

I yelled out to Carlos and he tells Robert and all three of us are looking straight at these things when one of them opens what look like large black wings and shoots off into the sky followed by the others, all three making a sort of screeching sound as they take off. A few seconds later, a security vehicle comes screaming up through the driveway and stops and some white, chubby security person runs out with his flashlight and starts checking the area. He’s shortly joined by three other trucks and a couple of supervisors that I recognized from staff meetings.

I looked over and Robert is doing the same thing I am doing and recording this on [his] phone, I know that both of us had to have gotten a glimpse of these creatures right as they took off.

One of the supervisors came up to us and told us to stop recording and to put our phones away or she would report us to our supervisors. The area where these things were has to have at least four different cameras, at least two are in plain sight for all to see.

After about an hour, we were approached by the same supervisor, our immediate supervisor, and three other men, and told to go into the break room and remain in there and not talk to anyone. They came in after 10 minutes and said that we were not to talk to anyone in regards to what we saw and that they were requiring us to send them the video we had shot on our phones and then delete the video off of our phones or we would be immediately terminated.

When we demanded that we see our union steward first, we were told this was a matter of internal security and that this superseded the authority of the union. We attempted to argue and were then told in a raised voice that we would not be allowed to leave without the deletion of the video in our phones.

I did not want to lose my job after eight years, especially when the benefits and pay were really good, so I sent my video to the supervisor’s phone and in front of her and the others deleted the video. We were told that we were to keep this to ourselves and [were] not allowed to speak to anyone or we could lose our jobs.

Well, after a lot of consideration, they can kiss my whole black ass, and I decided to write to you about what happened. I can not just sit back and get told to keep something a secret just because they want to keep lining their pockets. I called and asked my union steward and he told me he would look into it and get back to me; I’ve yet to hear back from him.

These people ain’t playing around, they have checked in on us at least twice and I have also heard from others [who] have seen the same thing that they were told to stay quiet or risk losing their jobs. So many people have been threatened with being fired if they told their story. What you hear reported are just a small piece of these things.

Navarette said he was able to interview the man, who claimed to be “an eight year maintenance employee tasked with performing mainly routine maintenance on a variety of planes flown by American Airlines and its various subsidiaries.”

According to Navarette, the witness described the work as "routine" and had performed it without incident prior to the encounter.

He told the investigator that the entities all looked the same, were about seven feet tall, thin in stature, and "jet black" in color, with eyes that appeared to be "light red."

Despite it being nighttime, the beings stood out against the background, since they were completely black compared to the rest of the area, which was illuminated by artificial lights.

The man then described the encounter again to Navarette, this time in greater detail, according to the investigator.

The witness stated that they were in the process of hooking up a plane to a tug to tow into the hanger for maintenance, when he turned to his right and saw the entities standing there next to the chain link fence that separated the tarmac from the parking lot. He stated that they were staring directly at him and his coworkers, and that is when he called out to his coworkers, who immediately noticed the entities.

He said he pulled out his camera and started to record the entities, which he claims he got about a minute of video of before the entities took flight. The witness stated the middle one took off first, followed by the other two. The witness said that security showed up within a few seconds of the entities taking flight and were quickly followed by American Airlines personnel who appeared to be supervisors. These supervisors instructed the witness and his coworkers to immediately stop recording and to return back to work.

The witness and his coworkers brought the plane into the hangar and were proceeding to do the required maintenance when they were again approached by the supervisors and told to report to the break room and await the supervisors there. They were not to talk or engage with anyone else until the supervisors got there.

When the supervisors arrived, they were joined by other [American Airlines] executives, and the witness and his coworkers were told to not talk about this incident to anyone and that they needed to forward the video they shot to the supervisors and then immediately delete the video from their phones in front of the supervisors and executives. They were told that they would not be allowed to leave the break room until they had done so. When the witness and his coworkers asked to speak to their union steward regarding what they were being asked to do, they were told that this superseded the union and there was nothing the union would be able to do to help them and this was a matter of “internal security”.

The witness reluctantly forwarded and deleted the video out of fear of losing his job, seniority, and benefits; as did his coworkers.

Navarette then said the man told him that when he and his coworkers approached the union about this incident, "they were told that the union would look into the incident and get back to them."

However, Navarette added, "to date the union has not followed up with the witness and has not responded to inquiries about the incident by the witness."

The witness told Navarette that "the airline has taken a very aggressive stance against witnesses in regards to these sightings and that many witnesses have either been terminated, laid off or reassigned to other workstations in order to keep these sightings under wraps."

Furthermore, the man said, employees have been warned against speaking about these sightings or they could face disciplinary action up to and including immediate termination.

He told Navarette that he had heard that many of the same employees who were present at the reported July 22nd sighting at O'Hare have either been terminated or laid off, and that those who were let go were meant to act as an example to others to encourage them not to talk about their sightings.

Navarette found this most recent witness credible and is currently attempting to reach out to any former employees involved in winged creature sightings. He said he will "keep everyone updated" as the investigation continues.

"It is [my] opinion that the witness is being truthful and this incident merits further investigation, and I will be forwarding this case to our partners at the Phantoms & Monsters Fortean Research Team for follow-up investigation," he said.

The reported July 22nd sighting mentioned by this witness has proven to be a contentious topic, with additional anonymous reports coming in after the initial encounter was reported, one of which went to the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON).

MUFON ultimately closed their investigation after losing contact with the witness who had submitted the report to them. That witness then reportedly went on to discuss their case with UFO Clearinghouse, instead.

The events surrounding the July 22nd incident were reported to be very similar to those described above, including a darkly-colored, winged creature seen near O’Hare’s cargo area and claims of a security response to the incident.

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.

 

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