Around the time of the Chernobyl Nuclear Disaster, a strange bird was seen by workers of the plant. This legend would become to be known as the Chernobyl blackbird. Both before and after the nuclear meltdown, workers would report seeing a strange humanoid being with a massive 20-foot wingspan and glowing red eyes. Some of the people who had seen the creature would report having strange frightening dreams and terrifying phone calls. It’s reported that sightings increased up to the day the accident occurred.
On April 25 & 26th, 1986 workers at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in the Soviet unit were tasked with performing a safety test designed to examine in the event of a complete loss of power, that the electrical generator’s turbines would spin long enough to power the cooling pumps until the diesel backup generators kicked in.
As a result of an unexpected electrical demand on the afternoon of April 25, the test had to be delayed until eleven o’clock that night and the inexperienced night shift was chosen to run the test.
When it finally started, the unprepared engineers felt pressed to make up for lost time, were pressured by Deputy Chief Engineer Anatoly Dyatlov, to reduce the reactor’s power level very rapidly.
This terrible mistake caused a rapid buildup of neutron-absorbing fission by-products in the reactor core, which poisoned the reactor. To compensate for this, the operators withdrew a majority of the reactor’s control rods, but even with the rods withdrawn, they were unable to increase the power level to more than 30 megawatts, a low level of operation at which the reactor’s instability potential is at its worst and that the Chernobyl plant’s own safety rules forbade.
At this point, the operators had two choices, wait 24 hours and restart the test or increase power immediately. Regulations state wait 24 hours, but Dyatlov refused, and the operators began increasing the reactivity in the core by removing control rods.
It should also be noted the operators deliberately bypassed and disconnected every important safety system, including the emergency core-cooling system. They also disconnected every backup electrical system, down to and including diesel generators.
Finally, at 1:23 in the morning, the engineers proceeded with their experiment by shutting down the turbine generator. Reactivity suddenly shot up in the unstable reactor and the operators quickly realized they needed to reduce reactivity quickly by inserting more control rods.
When it kept spiking, the AZ- 5 button or the button for the emergency power-reduction system was hit. The engineers drove all 205 control rods as well as the emergency protection rods into the reactor core. But the rods had a design flaw, they had a graphite tip and increased the reaction, rather than reducing it. This set off a runaway chain reaction and things went horribly wrong leading to the reactor exploding.
After the reactor exploded Radioactive debris of fuel and reactor components rained over the area and contaminated the area nearby. Even worse in the immediate aftermath, there were multiple activities that had to be performed in the deadly area. The reactor fire had to be put out. Hundreds of helicopters were brought in with sand and boron dropped in. Perhaps more threatening, was the possibility of a thermal explosion occurring or nuclear material seeping into the groundwater. Both issues were resolved due to brave men, knowing they would probably die due to their mission.
During the deadly cleanup mission, several workers would report seeing the Chernobyl Blackbird as well. It’s reported that of all the people that saw this creature and reported it, all would soon pass away. This makes investigating this story much more difficult for cryptozoologists and researchers.
Despite this, this The Blackbird of Chernobyl is popular today. These frightening cryptid sightings raise all sorts of questions and theories.
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The first concerns whether it actually appeared? It seems likely that these workers did see something. With so much fear in Chernobyl with radiation it seems a bit odd for a story like this to arise. There also appear to be quite a few people that heard the stories second hand from the people that witnessed the entity.
Interestingly, sometime after the meltdown there wasn’t any more reports of people seeing the creature. It should be noted though few go in the exclusion zone, and most are there during the day.
The next question concerns what is it? Or what was it?
The most popular theory is that the blackbird was the same creature spotted in Point Pleasant, WV in 1966 and 1967. This cryptid, known as The Mothman, was seen for around a year by many town residents up to the town’s biggest disaster, the collapse of the Silver Bridge, which killed 46 people. Many are convinced the being either caused it or perhaps was trying to warn residents. There’s no denying that both the Mothman and the blackbird are very similar in appearance and also both are associated with horrific events and mass deaths.
One other theory is that the Chernobyl blackbird was some type of evil entity such as a demon. It seemed to be malevolent in nature and its behavior can be seen as threatening.
Some say the blackbird may have been actually just that, a massive blackbird flying around the radioactive area. Still, no known bird in the area is near the size of what was described nor has red eyes.
With all the witnesses passed away and the exclusion zone limited to access, it’s unlikely we will ever get closure on what these people actually saw in April of 1986.
Perhaps though its better too, that there haven’t been many sightings of this entity, as it appears to be linked with death and catastrophe.
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