Flying Humanoid Photographed in Pennsylvania?
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on December 27th, 2013
Extreme close up of “flying creature.”
This incident occurred on May 20, 2008, at about 2 P.M. in Washington County, Pennsylvania.
The weather was in the 50s, and partly sunny at the time. The location of the sighting was about two miles north of US Route 40, from the southbound lanes of PA Route 43. The roadway is a four lane divided highway, two north and two south, with a grass median between them. The witness who Jim interviewed, was traveling south on the four lane roadway, about two miles from the Route 40 interchange. The communities of Brownsville and California were off to his left, across from the Monongahela River.
As the man traveled down the road, his attention was drawn to what he thought at first was an aircraft moving over the trees. He soon noticed that the wings were moving. The flying thing was moving in the direction of his car, so he pulled off the road, and got out to get a better look. The winged thing passed over the car and moved behind the witness, about 100 feet overhead. At that point this creature appeared to be gliding, and getting lower, and it looked more like a giant bat than a bird.
The witness could see no feathers, only short dark gray or black hair on the body. The wings appeared to be a membrane stretched over bone. It was a little difficult to see the details due to the sky being so bright. The witness commented that a small amount of light could be seen through the membrane. He emphasized that it was not solid like metal. As the man watched, the creature dropped lower from the sky behind his car. Apparently other motorists also caught sight of the huge flying animal.
One car stopped down the road, and a person got out. That driver had a camera with him, and was seen taking pictures of the flying creature. As they watched, the creature glided down to no more than 20 feet above the road surface, and was seen flapping its wings once or twice. With each wing flap, the creature appeared to rise about 20 feet higher above the roadway.
Since the creature was flying so low, its huge wingspan was very evident to the witness. The man told Jim that when the creature spread its wings, they extended beyond the one edge of the pavement, to the other side of the two lane road. That would be about 20 feet or more in length.
Original photo. Flying creature is in the middle of the road at a distance.
The creature flew off towards the west, and was lost from sight over the trees on that side of the road. The man with the camera was seen running into the woods following the creature. The witness expressed to Jim that he was not going to stay around that location any longer and decided to leave. He was concerned that he could be attacked.
He commented that this flying creature was big enough that it could easily pick up a man. There were no sounds or other effects reported as the creature moved over. The entire observation was estimated to have lasted about 45 seconds to one minute.
For more information on flying humanoids, check out Ken Gerhard’s book Encounters with Flying Humanoids: Mothman, Manbirds, Gargoyles & Other Winged Beasts.
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
according to imageedited, the photo suggest it is probably not real due to the pixel changes in the photo from a photo editing program, it has been altered.
I’m on the fence about this one.
Altered or not, the animal in the photo is a black vulture, average wingspan of 5 feet.
If you’re interested in visual evidence, lone still photographs are the worst way to go about it.
Whatever kind of bird the original photo was, it is definitely a Photoshopped image now. There are a few folks that are really good at debunking things (not me). It would be nice if there was a serious place (website, etc.) where the best of the best could check things like this out prior to them getting published. It certainly would add a bit more credibility to cryptozoology. Of course, other than volunteer labor, I have no idea how that could be funded.
no disrespect to anyone but its noting more than a bird.
How do someone can jump to “this is a flying humanoid” from this photo is beyond me and I’d have to seriously question the mental state of the person.
if you look, you can see the way the body is opaque in the middle… same for the area around the “shoulder” going into the wings…. and the tail is opaque as well. and you can see some type of feathers.
that isn’t a human.
not even remotely.
its a bird.
Well no one has yet pointed out that this incident supposedly happened in May, yet the photograph seems to show snow on the ground. Is it not unusual for there to be snow on the ground in Pennsylvania in May? (I live in the south, so I don’t honestly know). Also, the “actual” road in the photograph looks like a single lane dirt road (covered in snow), not the two lanes of a 4-lane divided highway as was described. This definitely looks suspicious. That being said, the man’s description of the winged creature seems detailed enough to suggest that he really did witness what he described, yet I would have thought there would be more mention of the head of the creature. He described it looking more like a bat than a bird, but why didn’t he mention the head, especially since it was so close to him?
When I look at the photo, other than it being blurry (sigh…aren’t they all?), I do sort of see what looks like an outline of a human body; even the feet. I guess people make up bull patties just for the attention, but I wonder, why this kind of creature, and in this kind of detail? Just thinking out loud here.
Grasshopper – oh this is gonna be good…. i gotta hear how you come to the conclusion you see a human figure from that photo.
are you looking at the same photo we are?
please… tell us…
i’m dying laughing here.
If you go to the source page of the story (by following the link named “source”), it is made very clear that the photos have nothing to do with the story Cryptomundo published — they’re from a completely different sighting, and are never called photos of a flying human, just a large bird.
Here is the story connected to the photos:
“This photo is not related to the story on this page. It is a completely separate encounter with a large flying creature. The three views of the same photo on this page were taken by “joe1999”
“Picture of a giant bird seen in the pines I was driving along one day last winter, taking pictures and such, and I was surprized when I saw the size of this bird. I was driving so I couldn’t get a good shot of it. Couldn’t even get a second shot before it flew away, so this is all I have. When it opened its wings to fly, it nearly spanned the width of the road. Anyone have any idea what this could be?
“Seen within 5 miles of the Quaker Bridge. Not sure what road I was on at the time. Its right in the middle of the road a ways up… Joe1999”
http://forums.njpinebarrens.com
dconstrukt,
I don’t see a humanoid figure, either, but neither you or I have a monopoly on “the truth” and beyond that, it’s plain rude to ridicule another’s perceptions the way you just did. Come on down off of your pedestal and join the rest of us mere mortals, who are all just asking questions and seeking answers.
Says here the photo is from a different incident in 1999: http://s8int.com/phile/eyewit35.html
I have 4 comments;
1. The image in question on the original photo is so small that it shows next to nothing.
2. The enlargement of the image has been heavily reworked to show details.
3. It is not unusual for there to be snow on the ground in May in areas of western PA.
4. I live in PA, so I’ll keep an eye out for this ahh…thing. Which way was it heading?
It was unlikely for there to be snow on the ground. Looking at weather records for the date, the temperature was at a low of 41F on May 5, 2008 and a high of 60F on May 3, 2008 and averaging 48F from May 1 to May 20, 2008.
Or, it could be a rear view of this (or something like it):
Washington County is just southwest of Pittsburgh and in that area in May, “You can get all four seasons in one day”…as the song says. My daughter attended the University of Pittsburgh for a couple years and kept her horse at a stable southwest of Pittsburgh so I know the area.
bl00p – sorry pal… its a bird?
To make a jump from bird to flying human? c’mon man…. thats absurd.
really? you need answers for this?
its a bird.
my 9 yr old cousin can see this.
oh ya… my “high horse” is called COMMON SENSE.
you got any? 🙂