I’m an airport worker at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport - I’ve been here almost 20 years, since I was a teenager, but only once in that time have I experienced something truly paranormal. Sure, there’s been lots of Mothman sightings in the area (https://q985online.com/mothman-sighting-illinois-airport/, https://dailycaller.com/2023/04/24/the-why-files-mothman-explainer-video-chicago-ohare/) but I’ve yet to see anything for myself. I’m primarily on the night shift, so I’ve been on the lookout for that for a while. I know a truck driver who had a Mothman sighting, but he only told me the story once and he won’t tell it again, just like my grandfather only told me about his experiences in the South Pacific during WWII once and only once. I’ve seen my fair share of meteorites and a few larger - usually green - meteors streaking across the sky, but I’ve never seen a UFO/UAP or anything of the sort. I’ve told this story to several people, but I just discovered this subreddit. I’m generally new to Reddit, too, so bear with me.
Back in late 2013/early 2014, I was towing a 747 back to the cargo ramp known as “South Central Cargo” on the Southern end of the airfield, stuck between FedEx Cargo and United Cargo. Also located right there is a small cemetery, named Resthaven Cemetery. Here’s a short video about the graveyard: https://youtu.be/cLJlAXun9zw?si=x9oabkOtc2DhIIw2
During the many phases of the O’Hare Modernization Plan (OMP), the expanding airport required new runways and taxiways, extensions of existing pavement, and replacement of aging concrete and asphalt. As such, parts of Bensenville, Illinois - including 3 cemeteries - had to be removed. Resthaven was the last of the cemeteries, and several living relatives of those buried there opted not to have their family members’ remains exhumed and relocated. The other 2 cemeteries and a residential neighborhood were completely removed to make way for Runway 10C/28C and Taxiways Q, BB, CC, and P.
So, that brings us to the present, we have a small cemetery surrounded by a huge airport. No one seems to mind it. I sure didn’t until the night in question.
I’m towing a 747 Freighter that’s just undergone some repairs by the hangars on the North end of the field back to the cargo ramp so we can load it, fuel it, and get it out of here. My buddy who we’ll call J.D. is up in the cockpit as my “brake rider” and doing all communications with air traffic control so we can cross taxiways and runways safely and I’m driving a towbarless aircraft tractor that lifts the airplanes nose gear off the ground and gives me full steering control of the aircraft. It’s an awesome job, I love it. As we cross RWY 10C on BB and turn left onto Quebec, all I can think about is parking this airplane and heading back to the break room to enjoy my pasta that I’d packed before my shift. It’s been a normal day, the usual workload, the usual bullshit from the bosses and the safety department when suddenly, I lose all contact with my brake rider upstairs, the lights on my Goldhofer’s dash all start flickering, the engine sounds like it’s about to die, and everything is not cool. At that moment, my mind wasn’t on the fact that we were passing the cemetery, I was worried that my engine was going to quit and I had no way to stop or tell my brake rider upstairs to stop the 200-ton behemoth directly behind me. Fortunately, the engine didn’t quit and as soon as we passed the cemetery, I was able to re-establish comms with my coworker upstairs.
Me: “Hey! J.D., are you there! Come in!” J.D.: [keys mic, but doesnt speak right away] “Dude, what the fuck just happened?” Me: “I don’t know! All my lights started flickering and I lost you! You good?” J.D.: “Yeah, but…did you hear all that screaming?” Me: “Uhhhh…no…what screaming?” J.D.: “If you’re fucking with me, I swear I’m gonna beat the shit out of you.” Me: “Dude, I’m not, what happened? What screaming?” J.D.: “I…let’s just talk about it when we park.”
Well, come to find out, while my dash lights were flickering, the cockpit went completely dark for J.D. and he heard what he described as horrible screaming “as if a lot of people were being murdered” on his headset. It was so bad, he had to take it off and he was trying to call my cell phone, but he had no signal. Everything just blacked out as we passed Resthaven. My phone was in my pocket, so I never realized whether I lost signal or not.
It gets better - we started telling this story to people around the airport and learned that during the construction of all this new pavement, the construction workers would experience their equipment turning on and off seemingly on its own. They’d leave for the night and come back in the morning to equipment completely out of fuel. Their machines would start acting haywire at random to the point that even hitting the emergency stop wouldn’t shut them off as they’re designed to. Weird stuff.
After that night, anytime I had to tow an aircraft out of or into South Central Cargo, I requested Taxiway DD (Double D, hehe) so I wouldn’t have to go next to Resthaven Cemetery. After the 2nd or 3rd time, the air traffic controller working ground control handling us asked why we didn’t want TWY Q, so I said “I’ll call you in a bit on the unrecorded line.” So I did and I told him the story of that night. He seemed to understand, but asked me several times if I was kidding. I am 100% not. I almost lost a multi-million dollar airplane and tow tractor that night, lol. I would not joke about this. Apparently, the tower management had heard about the construction workers’ equipment spazzing out from the city airfield workers and they corroborated my account with those from the construction workers, so more and more people no doubt have heard my story.
I guess this is what we get for the pranks we used to pull on each other. See, we used to take people’s backpacks or jackets out of the crew van that we used to get to the cargo ramp while they were working, and we used to hop the fence into Resthaven and put their stuff in the middle of the cemetery. When they got back in the van and asked where their stuff was, we’d tell them that someone (not in the van) had put their personal effects in the cemetery, so they had to go get it. We’d drive them there and as soon as they hopped the fence into the cemetery, we’d peel off and leave them there to walk back to work. This prank worked best at night. It was good fun, a little bit of harmless hazing. They did it to me when I was a new guy at that ground handling company and I did it to guys newer than me and so on.
After that night, as far as I know, the cemetery pranks ended. It wasn’t funny anymore. We awoke whatever’s restless at Resthaven. I don’t even want to know. Evil spirits? Ghosts? The souls of the damned? I really don’t want to know. I just want to do my job and go home, lol. I’ll keep an eye out for the Mothman or any other weird happenings at the airport.