Silhouette in the Sky
Mystery of Flying Humanoids and Other Cryptids
On April 26, 1986 the No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in northern Ukraine experienced a lethal nuclear accident. Several explosions culminated in an open-air reactor releasing radioactive contamination for nine days. In the aftermath stories circulated of a flying humanoid figure with glowing red eyes seen days before the incident.
The creature became known as the Black Bird of Chernobyl. It’s described in some instances as being humanoid, other times as a headless torso with giant wings that measure approximately twenty feet across.
Workers in the control room and power plant it made known to their superiors they had seen it weeks before the meltdown.
In hindsight, many believe that its appearance was a portent of the coming disaster. Those who laid eyes upon it described having horrific nightmares and receiving strange phone calls, with only static on the other end.
In 1997, Andrei Kharsukhov a nuclear physicist from the University of Buffalo visited Chernobyl to research a leak appearing to come from the containment chamber. He experienced an alarming incident, that he described this way:
I got to the Chernobyl power plant early in the morning. I immediately went to the downed reactor’s sarcophagus, Reactor Four, to assess the radiation levels and look for any potential leaks. I immediately overheard someone yelling for help and saying that there was a fire inside while I was taking radiation and roentgen readings by the entrance.
I hurried upstairs to alert security or locate an official, but they stated there was no way anybody else could have been in the reactor control room as I was the first person to open that door in three years …at least living. The alarm would have gone off automatically if someone had broken into the reactor, and they would have been quickly led out.
I heard what I heard even though the door had several authenticating security measures in place and hadn’t been opened in years. Later that night, as we were dining close to the factory, the floodlights unexpectedly turned on. The only method to turn it on could be by physical switch manipulation, but the entire team was out to supper.
We initially assumed it might have been a power surge, but just as we considered that the electricity returned. It seemed as though someone was paying attention to us and was responding appropriately. Chernobyl is home to something, and I don’t think it’s beneficial for anything.
Pripyat, the nearby abandoned Chernobyl worker town, is believed to be haunted. People have had the feeling of being watched when walking past the city hospital. Apparitions and shadows are often seen. Some have even reported being touched. Before the disaster 50,000 persons lived there, and within 24 hours they were evacuated, but who knows if any were left behind.
The Pripyat Amusement Park was scheduled to open on May 1st, but since 1986 it has stood frozen in time. The Ferris wheel, the bumper cars, a boat swing were all left to disintegrate.
It’s been almost 40 years since the disaster and wildlife and flora appear to be thriving, however there are still clues that this area was radiated. A study that was begun in 1991 found that organisms responsible for decomposition showed signs of contamination. Of these is what’s been named The Bloody Red Forest, where all the pine trees turned bright red after the meltdown, and then died, but did not decay.
Chernobyl had about 14,000 residents before its evacuation. However as the exclusion zone widen, more people were evacuated including those from the nearby city of Pripyat. In total 68,000 were resettled elsewhere. Many of these and first responders died due to radiation poisoning. After more than thirty-five years first-hand witnesses are hard to find, especially those who claimed they saw it flying among the black plumes of smoke coming from the plant after the explosion.
In the aftermath of the meltdown there was more than a 200% increase in birth defects and deformities in children.
Of the 240,000 personnel who came to deal with the after effects of the disaster between 1986 to 1987, and were dubbed the Chernobyl Liquidators, 165,000 were left disabled, and 60,000 died.
There are three reactors, that although no longer operational, still need to be monitored since they contain nuclear fuel. About 3,000 workers come to the Zone of Alienation on a limited number of shifts per week, and the site is to be cleared by 2065.
The question though still lingers as to what exactly was seen in those hours before the disaster. Some theorized the figure seen was a black stork. It’s a rare bird, and with a wingspan of about six feet, and a body type easily identified as avian, it would be difficult to confuse it with anything but what it is.
MOTHMAN
Some liken the stories of the Black Bird of Chernobyl to the reports of Moth Man, most famously linked with the disaster at Point Pleasant, West Virginia when the Silver Bridge collapsed on December 15, 1967.
The Point Pleasant incident is not the only one tied to weird sightings of a large, winged creature. On September 10, 1978 in Freiburg, Germany there was a collapse in the Black Forest Mine.
Early that morning when the first workers arrived they found a man standing at the entrance to the mine. He appeared to be wrapped in a long, black trench coat. Several of them approached the figure, only to be horrified when what they thought was a coat turned out be a pair of large wings that unfurled from its back. Then it shrieked several times, sending the men running back to their companions, who stood observing it. The figure then tucked its wings back in, and continued to stand at the entrance.
Despite the surreal experience, the miners started to prepare themselves for the day’s work, keeping a wary eye on the creature. At 8 AM, the ground shook beneath their feet and an explosion rocked the mine. They ran to the entrance, where smoke and fire poured forth. The creature who was later dubbed the Freiburg Shrieker had disappeared.
An investigation into the incident concluded that if not for the delay of the sighting, 36 miners would have been killed. Several months later, reports filtered out that less than 30% of the workers continued working at the mine, and others went on to suffer from mental afflictions possibly connected to their encounter with the Freiburg Shrieker. Many were unable to return to work, dying young and in poverty; a similar fate shared by some who saw Moth Man.
There have been reports of a similar creature in Chicago since 2011. There was a resurgence in 2017. It’s been seen along the coast of Lake Michigan and over O’Hare Airport as well. The descriptions are consistent with a winged, bat-like or insect-like creature with a humanoid appearance. The eyes are ruby red, yellow or reflective.
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Are these creatures, like the banshee, portents of doom; are they perhaps there to serve as a warning which goes unrecognized? Or, perhaps they are drawn to the violent energy that is soon to explode in a moment at a certain place in time?
Perhaps they are only watchers.
​And now at Chernobyl something is flaring up from an inaccessible basement room. Ukrainian scientists fear that a fission reaction has started reoccurring. Causes for the fission reaction is rainwater leakage, humidity and radiation. This does not mean a second Chernobyl disaster could occur, but it could bring the Shelter itself down since it is over 30 years old. There is no doubt that something still flickers in the buried uranium fuel masses.
Will the Black Bird of Chernobyl return?
