NUFORC Sighting 44582

Occurred: 2005-06-26 11:00 Local
Reported: 2005-06-26 13:42 Pacific
Duration: 6 minutes
No of observers: 1

Location: South Holland, IL, USA

Shape: Changing


Dark rectangular object in the sky which later appeared as a dark teardrop

At 11:00 AM CDT on Sunday, 6/26/2005 (I had just looked at my car's clock), I was driving by myself in my car, going west on 166th Street in South Holland, IL, approaching the intersection of 166th Street and Indiana Avenue, where I was going to turn left (north) onto Indiana Avenue. It was a perfectly clear morning, although a little hazy. While still driving on 166th Street heading east, and approaching the intersection with Indiana Avenue, I saw in the eastern sky, right above the treeline (actually between two bunches of trees in the distance), a dark grey or black rectangular object hanging in the sky, which seemed to be tapered on its lower end. It was about the size of a dime, if held at arms-length. Its shape was like a rectangle with its longer measure pointing up and down, but its lower end was more tapered than its top end, as if maybe the lower end was pointed away from me and the top end was pointed towards me, so that the top end appeared bigger and the lower end smaller. I don't know how far away it was, or how big it was, but I'd estimate, just by the way it looked through the haze, and the fact that it was low on the horizon, that it was only a few miles away.

It most definitely was not a plane. I suppose it could have been the rectangular underside of a dark green Huey-type army helicopter, but it sure didn't look like that, and I can't think of any reason why a military helicopter would be in that area (there aren't any military bases nearby), and hovering with its nose pointed up at such an angle, so that I could see its entire undercarriage from several miles away. I think that such an extreme manuever would have put any helicopter at risk of crashing. Also, Huey-type military helicopters make a very loud "whump-whump-whump" sound with their rotor blades that can be heard (and sometimes even felt) from miles away, but I didn't hear any sound. My first thought was that it might be some kind of strange rectangular advertising balloon, or a cluster of balloons in a rectangular formation, even though I'd never seen a rectangular configuration of balloons before. And, it just didn't didn't look like any balloons I'd ever seen. It looked like a solid object. I actually said aloud to myself, "What the hell is that?" I'd never seen anything like that before. It was very low on the horizon, and I was able to catch only a few glimpses of it between the many trees in that area, as I drove. When I first saw it on 166th Street, it seemed to be stationary, but after I got onto Indiana Avenue going north, I realized that it must have moved, because I couldn't find it again in the location where I first saw it. About 3 minutes later (11:03 AM), I got another glimpse of it as I drove east on 154th Street, near the intersection of 154th Street and Cottage Grove Avenue (I drive fast). At that time, it had definitely moved quite a distance to the northwest, because now it was almost due north of me, behind St. Jude Church, but still several miles away, and low on the horizon. I then drove further east on 154th Street, trying to find it again.

About 3 minutes later (11:06 AM), I saw it one last time as I drove east on 154th Street (also called Pulaski Road) in Calumet City, near the intersection of 154th Street and Michigan City Road. It was now directly north of me, way off in the distance behind Dirksen Junior High School, and it now looked like an elongated dark grey or black teardrop, with the larger bulbous end facing down. It was also obviously much farther away, because it was more obscured by haze at that point, and smaller.

After seeing it in the distance behind Dirksen Junior High School, I turned left onto Calhoun street, going north, attempting to get past all the trees in that area and find it again. But when I got to a relatively clear area near Calhoun street and Sibley Blvd. a few seconds later, it was gone.

This was definitely the strangest thing I've ever seen in the sky. I'm still trying to find a logical explanation for what it was. I thought maybe there was an air show downtown, and that this object might have been some weird aircraft that was part of the show. But as far as I know, there was no air show going in downtown Chicago on 6/26/2005. Then I thought, maybe it was some type of large advertising display being pulled by a small plane. But it was just too big and bulky-looking to be that. Usually, such aerial advertising displays are of the long, thin banner variety. Any advertising display which was so big and bulky would have interfered with the aerodynamics of the plane pulling it, and caused the plane to crash. Then I thought, maybe it was just a strange rectangular balloon. But it was just going too damned fast to be any type of balloon. I've seen Goodyear-type balloons in this area before, so I know what they look like, and how slow they travel. If it was a balloon, it could not have covered such a distance and disppeared from view so quickly. And, as I mentioned, it definitely was not a plane, and I don't believe that it was a helicopter, either.

I would like to know what the hell this thing was. It's really bugging me now. I actually called the non-emergency numbers for both the South Holland and Calumet City police, and asked them if anyone had reported anything strange in the sky at around 11:00 AM, but they both said that nothing had been reported. That doesn't really surprise me, due to the short length of time it was visible. But I would like to know if anyone else saw anything strange in the sky that morning, or whether it was just a big, dark colored helicopter or something.



Posted 2005-07-05

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