'Flying Humanoid' in Video Could Be Balloon, Say Skeptics

A still image of the object in flight. (Pablo Morales / YouTube) — A still image of the object in flight. *(Pablo Morales / YouTube)*

A video of a roughly humanoid-shaped flying object posted to YouTube recently has prompted speculation from skeptics regarding its origin.

The video, titled Humanoid flying? UFO? What is this??, was published on May 10th to the YouTube channel of Pablo Morales.

According to Morales, the footage was shot on the previous Monday in Burbank, California, during cloudy conditions following a storm, and near an airport. In his opinion, the object is very much out of the ordinary compared to the commonly observed aerial objects in that area.

Morales’ video appears to have been shot with a cellphone camera, and is of poor quality. But, an object can be seen floating from behind a tree and across Morales’ field of vision as he tracks it.

“Is that Jesus Christ?” someone, presumably Morales, can be heard to ask during the video.

“It went behind the tree and I can’t see it no more,” he continued as the object momentarily moves out of sight. “Oh no, it’s right there.”

“You don’t think that’s balloons?” he asked.

The video ends with the statement that the object “looks like it’s coming down.”

Morales reportedly visited the object’s landing site, but found "no balloons or trash or anything that could have been that big."

Skeptics were suspicious of the off-camera investigation by Morales, and point out that the object looks and behaves like a balloon—or possibly several balloons tied together. The quality of the video makes the object’s exact makeup difficult to discern.

"I see a bunch of mylar balloons deflated," said one viewer.

Others guessed the object might be a novelty balloon, or partially deflated weather balloon.

The object does look very similar to a “weird, wormy” UFO reported in Chicago in 2017. That object was determined to most likely be a solar balloon.

A still image of the Chicago ‘UFO’ that was likely a solar balloon. (Alex Cook / YouTube) — A still image of the Chicago ‘UFO’ that was likely a solar balloon. *(Alex Cook / YouTube)*

The suspected solar balloon in Chicago was filmed during very similar weather conditions—a factor that likely explained its behavior.

"The weather pattern in the video (overcast as it is) would work with [the solar balloon theory] as the balloon could have become caught between two different pressure or temperature cells, which would cause it to lay sideways and maintain a certain height for some time until the weather shifted," said one expert who studied the Chicago footage.

So far, no one has come forward to claim responsibility for either sighting.

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