When is a “flying humanoid” an actual flying humanoid with no air quotes needed in the explanation? Perhaps it’s time we had some standards in reporting as multiple “flying humanoid” reports came in this past week from around the world and only one could be confirmed … albeit still needing an explanation. What are people seeing in the skies over Switzerland, Mexico and Russia that has them thinking things like ‘man on a flying water scooter’?

“The object can best be described as a humanoid figure sitting on an air vehicle. (the humanoid’s position is the same as someone who drives a water scooter).”

Let’s start in Mexico. UFO Sightings Hotspot shares a picture of something an anonymous tourist photographed on August 28, 2019 in the sky over the mysterious Pyramid of the Moon, the second largest pyramid in the ancient city of Teotihuacan at the end of the Avenue of the Dead. The location alone warrants further investigation of strange things in the sky above it (there have been others), so UFO Sightings Hotspot dutifully magnifies the UFO until it becomes … more U than I. However, it takes an awful lot of squinting and imagination to see what the site claims was submitted to MUFON as a “humanoid figure sitting on an air vehicle.” (Look for yourself here.) On the other hand, it doesn’t look like a balloon, drone, kite or camera anomaly either – so it’s still unidentified but far from ‘humanoid’ on the ‘What is this?’ scale. Finally, since it’s a photograph, we have to take the report’s word that it’s “flying.”

Moving on to Switzerland, where chocolate must affect the imagination.

“It is shaped like a vertical cylinder and points at the top to give the impression of a head.”

Well, that’s one interpretation of the UFO reported in The Daily Star with “Frenzy” in the title, although the report has nothing on a frenzy in Solothurn, a town in northwestern Switzerland where a number of YouTube sites reposted a video (see it here) taken on July 9, 2019, with descriptions along these lines (this one from Ufos & Aliens Santana):

“A women (sic) by the name didem y was on her way to work when she got the shock of her life. In the horizon she noticed a huge black object! After slowing down to stop, she noticed the huge object wasnt moving an inch! I also saw many other cars stop and people taking video.”

Under fuzzy magnification, the object resembles a robed or hooded person. While that would certainly cause a “frenzy” and cries of “it’s a miracle” if it were seen by multitudes, it seems only Didem Y caught it on video and most who watch it think it looks more like a condom or a soft drink bottle … both of which have been adapted into hot air balloons for advertising condoms and soft drinks … and laundry detergents and anything else that is sold in a bottle.

While unusual in Switzerland, similar monk-shaped UFOs have been seen in the past in parts of Russia. However, the recent “flying humanoid” seen over Russia recently is not a balloon or a guy on a motorcycle but a real humanoid named Fedor.

“A Russian humanoid robot called Fedor blasted off to the International Space Station (ISS) ferrying supplies for the orbiting lab. Designed to assist the crew of the space station, Fedor of Final Experimental Demonstration Object Research is a silvery anthropomorphic that was originally meant to build human settlements on the lunar surface. It made its grand space debut aboard Soyuz MS-14 spacecraft on August 22.”

Fedor generated worldwide excitement during his trip to the ISS. Unfortunately, this flying humanoid was a disappointment when he was stuck inside. The robots legs were not needed for its spacewalk and its hand didn’t work well gripping handrails on the spacewalk or a drill inside the ISS. Fortunately, the disappointed crew saved its receipt and was able to send Fedor back to Russia, where he flew again last weekend before getting a verdict on his future as a flying humanoid.

“He won’t fly there anymore. There’s nothing more for him to do there, he’s completed his mission.”

Yevgeny Dudorov, executive director of robot developers Androidnaya Tekhnika, delivered the news to Fedor before his power supply was disconnected forever — OK, that’s the one little bit of imagination in this otherwise real account of a flying humanoid.

Which brings us back to the original question: Do we need some rules for reporting on alleged ‘flying humanoids’ other than just prefixing them with ‘alleged’?

Fedor? Fedor?