It's Not a Bird...It's Not a Plane

By Dr. Abner Mality

I don’t like to fly. It causes me excruciating pain in my ears and it doesn’t do my stomach any good, either. Plus the hassle of delayed flights, lost luggage, crowded airports and overbearing “security procedures” also add to the “fun” of the “friendly skies”. Perhaps it’s just as well that I stay earthbound, because the wild blue yonder is also the home of some of the strangest and most ominous phenomena on our planet.

Aerial oddities fall into several different categories. Of course there are the regulation UFO’s and strange aircraft which themselves break down into sub-divisions. We won’t be talking about those…there are so many books and articles on that subject that UFOs simply don’t seem that strange or even special any more. At least to a true seeker of the bizarre such as myself.

No, we will be discussing strange LIVING creatures that have been seen flying, floating and flittering in the air. Once again, these break down into a couple of different categories: large bird-like creatures and flying humanoids. We’ll be examining avian anomalies like the Thunderbird and the Kongamato in a later article. Today, we’ll be looking at man-like creatures who have haunted mankind with their flying antics for centuries.

Humanity has always seen winged versions of itself. Of course, angels come immediately to mind…but many demons have wings as well. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the difference. For wasn’t Lucifer originally a shining angel complete with wings? And don’t demons have the ability to appear in a pleasing shape?

Winged beings, both angels and devils, have been appearing to and advising mankind for centuries. Before the Age of Enlightenment, these creatures were all considered religious manifestations. But as science began to supersede faith, the winged creatures lost their religious aura and began to be reported merely as freakish beings.

An exception occurred in Portugal in 1915, when four young shepherd girls were amazed by seeing a luminous figure like a transparent statue floating in mid-air. Many believed the girls had seen an angel, but the creature lacked a head, which certainly does not sound all that angelic.

The year 1922 brought a strange array of flying creatures to the heartland of America which could be interpreted as aliens, demons, angels or perhaps a combination of all three. A man named William Lamb was hunting in rural Nebraska when he saw a large cylinder drop from the sky and land nearby. Lamb watched in amazement as a "magnificent flying creature" eight feet tall emerged. Lamb tried to keep the creature in sight but soon lost sight of it. Another report from the same time and period had an anonymous witness confronting a winged demonic being that also exited from a flying object.

Admittedly, these vague reports sound iffy, but the closer we get to our own time, the more substantial and solid the accounts of winged man-like beings become. The year 1948 brought one of the most classic accounts of these odd creatures.

The place was Chehalis, Washington and the date was January 6. Mrs. Bernice Zaikowski was one of several people who saw a most amazing "man" flying low over the outskirts of the city. She had heard a noise like sizzling bacon and looked up to see a man dressed in a peculiar flying harness drifting about 20 feet above her barn. Mrs. Zaikowski had the most detailed description of all those who saw the intruder that day. The flyer was standing straight up as he floated past and had large silver metallic wings attached to his shoulder by straps. He seemed to be controlling his flight by manipulating dials and buttons on a box that was on his chest. The wings did not seem to flap or otherwise move. She could not make out details of his face.

The Chehalis flying man was seen by many witnesses, including a school bus full of children. Sherriff Tom Murray was asked to investigate but laughed it off, saying he could not "put any stock in it at all". Three months later, a trio of flying men similar to the Chehalis aerialist were seen in nearby Longview, Washington. The witnesses this time said the men seemed to be looking for something and they all wore helmets of some kind. Mrs. James Pittman made this description: "They looked like three men in flying suits flying through the air. They wore dark, drab suits and as far as I can judge...I'm not very good at judging distances...they were about 250 feet high, circling the city. They were going about the same speed as a freight train and had some sort of apparatus at their sides which looked like guns. But I know it couldn't have been guns."

These Washington flyers sound like they may have very well been Earthbound humans trying out some secret personal flying apparatus. Was it the government at work? Or was it private inventors? Or were these flyers human at all? Their "flight suits" seemed to be successful. So how come nothing like them has ever shown up in even rare instances? Certainly successful personal flying apparatus could be used in many different ways...and somebody would stand to make a bundle from it! But no one ever has.

The "batman" spotted in Texas in 1953 sounds more like something from a horror movie than any secret agent or Buck Rogers type. Hilda Walker and a couple of guests were enjoying a warm June night on their front porch when they saw a gigantic shadow cross their lawn. They found the source of the shadow in a nearby tree: "the figure of a man with wings like a bat," according to Hilda. The man was dressed in grey or black tight-fitting clothes and a cape. The man was surrounded by a sort of dim, greyish glow. When the glow faded, they lost sight of the flyer. Hilda and the other witnesses were certain that the "man" had batwings attached to his shoulders.

An even more bizarre flying creature, but with similarities to both the Chehalis and Texas "airmen", was spotted in Falls City, Nebraska in 1956. The anonymous witness saw what he at first thought was a large kite, but which he was later amazed to see was a huge winged humanoid flying low above the ground. The creature was 8 to 9 feet tall and like the Chehalis flyer, had large silver wings attached to its shoulders by some sort of harness contraption. Also like Chehalis, the being was manipulating dials and switches on a box located on its chest. The face, though, was like something out of a nightmare, with wrinkled grey skin and huge blue eyes. The witness described the creature as looking "almost demonic". Could this have been the same flyer seen over Chehalis...or a similar type?

The next great flap (sorry about the pun!) over flying men started in West Virginia in 1961. This evolved into the legendary "Mothman" incident, which really deserves an entire article all by its self. Mothman has grown to become one of the most famous and disturbing paranormal incidents of the 20th century and it all centers around a flying humanoid. This one, though, was completely different than the entities we've described above. Mothman was only roughly man-shaped and not seen to wear clothing or contraptions of any type. It seemed to be more of an uncanny type of living animal unlike anything in the record of natural history.

Mothman was spotted by many in West Virginia, primarily during the years of 1966-67. Descriptions were always generaly the same: a large bulky figure covered with soft grey fur or feathers. There was no head as such and the one feature that everyone insisted on reporting were the gigantic red eyes of Mothman, which seemed to be located in the middle of its "chest". It had no arms, but enormous wings which it would fold out from behind its back. It would shoot straight up in the air like a VTOL style aircraft and could fly at tremendous speeds of over 100 mph. Its appearances were sometimes accompanied by a high-pitched squeaking noise. Many witnesses of Mothman were overcome by a feeling of complete fear or revulsion.

The Point Pleasant area of West Virginia, the stomping grounds of Mothman, were the site of many other strange phenomena during the same period. UFO's, animal mutilations, mysterious "men in black" and general psychic oddities were all widespread in the area at the time. John Keel, whose book "The Mothman Prophecies" was made into a so-so film starring Richard Gere, believed that Point Pleasant was a "window" area where entities from other dimensions entered our world with relative ease.

The United States is not the only place where flying humanoids are seen. Kent and Cornwall in England were haunted by an eerie "Owlman" in the mid-70's...a being with some similarities to Mothman. One of the peculiarities of the Owlman is that he appears for the most part to young girls...male witnesses are extremely rare. Here is a description of the creature from Sally Chapman, who saw him in 1976:

"It was like a big owl with pointed ears, as big as a man. The eyes were red and glowing. At first, I thought that it was someone dressed up, playing a joke, trying to scare us. I laughed at it, we both did, then it went up in the air and we both screamed. When it went up you could see its feet were like pincers"

The Owlman is often seen in the vicinity of the ancient Mawnan Church, which leads many to suspect it has a supernatural origin. Others are much more skeptical, noting that many of the Owlman reports come from British eccentric "Doc" Shiels, who has been known to trick and hoax the public in the past. The Owlman has been seen in fairly recent times, though...reports have been made in 1996. But the anonymous nature of the witnesses and the involvement of "Doc" Shiels in the Owlman saga make it very hard to take Owlman as seriously as Mothman.

A very different kind of flying being was seen in Viet Nam in 1969, right in the heart of the Viet Nam war. The witnesses were a trio of U.S Marines serving near Da Nang. The chief witness was Earl Morrisson. He and his buddies were spending a night shift in the open air on their base when Morrisson spotted a peculiar greenish glow floating towards them. As the glow got nearer, the men were amazed to see a naked, black skinned woman at the center of the glow...a woman with large bat-like wings attached to her shoulders. This bizarre creature came very close to the Marines, so close they could hear the sound of her wings flapping. Flabbergasted, the men watched as the creature gradually disappeared. This case is totally unlike any other "flying man" report that I'm aware of.

Earlier this year, there was a wacky case in Mexico where a police officer claims he was attacked by a flying "witch". A Youtube video of a vague flying object caused a sensation for a while, with many concluding the object was some kind of balloon in the shape of a witch that was possibly radio controlled. The testimony of the obviously shaken officer seemed authentic and his buddies in the force backed him up, but it would be hard not to conclude this is some kind of hoax. You can check out the Youtube video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNbe0YWXUuc

STOP THE PRESSES! I just found out about a flying man-beast case less than a year old and right in Wisconsin. Apparently a "man-bat" was seen in rural LaCrosse on Sept. 26,2006 on Briggs Roads. A Cherokee Indian man named Wohali and his son saw a 6 foot tall flying humanoid with bat-like wings and a hideous face full of sharp teeth. This encounter was a very physical one, as the man-bat almost struck the truck being driven by Wohali and then emitted a piercing shriek. This is surely the nearest and most recent report of a flying humanoid I've been able to find.

It is easy to break down the above cases into two categories: 1. Relatively human looking figures using mechanical wings or apparatus to fly and 2. Much more non-human entities to whom the power of flight is natural. Both kinds have been seen with regularity over the years. In recent times, it seems that more of Flyer #2 have been seen, where as prior to the 1960's, more of #1 were seen.

The type #1 flying men may indeed be just that...men, testing out some personal flying gear for either the government or private companies. Hysteria and warped memories may be responsible for some of the weirder aspects of these flyers. It's interesting to note that in the late 1800's, many mysterious airships were spotted in America and elsewhere. These were NOT UFO's but more mundane looking flying craft of mysterious origin. Perhaps there is a connection of some kind between the mystery airships and the #1 flyers.

The #2 flyers are much more bizarre and much more ominous. Unlike sea monsters and Bigfoot, which are relatively benign and rarely act hostilely, these terrifying flying beings seem to be unfriendly to man. The Mothman sightings ended when the Silver Bridge over the Ohio River collapsed, killing over 40 motorists. The Owlman seemed definitely hostile and was seen in an area where a lot of bloody history had taken place. The Viet Nam flying woman was seen in the vicinity of Da Nang, where the biggest battle of the Viet Nam war took place. Could it be that the #2 flyers are drawn to areas of "bad" psychic energy? Does this energy enable them to "cross" over from another dimension?

Answers will not be forthcoming soon. These airborne anomalies have been seen throughout human history and will probably continue to be spotted for many years to come. Maybe someday there will be an answer, but for now, it's wise to remember that famous line from the 1951 SF classic "The Thing": "Look to the skies! Keep watching the skies!"

This is Dr. Abner Mality, turning out the lights...