Nearly a month ago, the Anchorage Daily News, Alaska’s largest daily newspaper, reported "a bird the size of a small airplane was spotted flying over southwest Alaska, puzzling scientists."

"At first I thought it was one of those old-time Otter airplanes," said Moses Coupchiac, 43. "But when it saw me, it banked to the left. That’s when I noticed it wasn’t an airplane." Coupchiac is a heavy equipment operator from the village of Togiak. He said as soon as the bird flew over a hill and out of sight, he radioed several Togiak residents to "keep the children indoors."

Other witnesses from the villages of Togiak and Manokotak were quoted by The Daily News saying the sighting was like something out of "Jurassic Park. It had a wingspan of about 14 feet—big enough to be a small airplane, but definitely not an airplane."

Scientists said the reports were so numerous that the observers must have seen something flying, but they doubted that there’s a bird in Alaska with a 14 foot wingspan.

Phillip Carlson, a raptor specialist, said, "I am certainly not aware of any flying creature with a 14-foot wingspan that’s been alive on this planet in the last 100,000 years."

A local pilot said he saw the bird in late October. Giles Higgenbotham said he dismissed early reports of the bird sightings, "until one day I was flying some passengers and saw the bird flying about 1,000 feet below my Cherokee."

Higgenbotham said both of his passengers also saw the bird. "He’s huge, he’s huge, he’s really, really big," the pilot said, "you wouldn’t want to have your children out, he could snatch them up and carry them off, and that’d be it."