Monday 26 April 2010

Winged Omen of Disaster?

Mothman was said to have been seen when disaster threatened. It is not the only winged creature to be seen before a disaster. The “Black Bird of Chernobyl” was said to herald the explosion at a nuclear plant in the Ukraine. On April 26, 1986, a massive explosion rocked the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Thirty people died immediately ,followed by other deaths from radiation poisoning. For nine days the reactor continued to burn, resulting in tremendous environmental damage. The local population has suffered with the consequences ever since. The Chernobyl Disaster, as it was called , is considered the worst accident in the history of nuclear power.

In the days before the tragic occurrence , several Chernobyl employees had reported seeing a large, dark/ black shape like a headless man with gigantic wings and red , fire like, eyes. As with the appearances of Mothman , people who had seen the phenomena had been having nightmares and some received strange phone calls. Some of the employees reported the strange things to their supervisors at the plant. Whether any sort of action was taken is unknown. After the explosion Helicopters were brought in to drop extinguishing agents on the flames. Some of the pilots and the surviving workers said they saw a giant black bird flying away from the smoking reactor. Described by many as “a large black, bird like creature, with a 20 foot wingspan, gliding through the swirling plumes of smoke “.The bird has not been seen again.

The theory out forward was that the bird was a rare Black Stork. However the stork has a clear visible head and it’s wingspan is only about 6 feet(1.9 metres) and it stands about 3 feet(1 Metre) tall. It also would not explain the strange dreams and phone calls. So was this winged creature a portent of the disaster? There are other tales such as,( but not the only story ) ,like Mothman about winged creatures being seen before disaster. We can only wait and see if more tales surface, though I rather hope they don’t if it portents something bad happening.

1 comment:

Neil A said...

It's interesting how the Mothman legend came about even though it never resembled a moth! There were certainly sightings around West Virginia decades before.

It seems that many of these critters are perceived as bad omen's, when I wrote my 'Monster!' book I was amazed at the amunt of cultural monsters, from phantom hounds, to ghostly turtles, and winged humanoids, which when sighted were connected to an impending doom.