All language subtitles for Alien.Abduction.Travis.Walton.2023.1080p.WEB.h264-CBFM

[narrator] It's one of
the greatest alien abduction
stories of all time.

In 1975, six men
in northeast Arizona

witnessed their crew mate
kidnapped by a UFO.

I hollered out,
"They got him!"

[narrator]
But was Travis Walton

really taken by aliens
or did his crewmates

have something to do
with his disappearance?

[John]
The sheriff kept telling me,

"If you just tell us
where the body is?

"If you just tell us
where the body is?

We can all go home."

[reporter 1] The six men
who reportedly eye witnessed
the incident

have taken lie detector tests.

[narrator] The story became
an international sensation,

inspiring books,
and a Hollywood movie,

and it ripped apart
a small town.

This doesn't sound
like a true tale to me.

[narrator] What happened
to Travis Walton

that fateful night?

What torture
was he subjected to?

Forty five years later,
shocking new evidence

Forty five years later,
shocking new evidence

reveals the true story
behind...

Fire in the Sky,

the abduction
of Travis Walton.

[dramatic music playing]

[man 1] A.P.R.O.

The Aerial Phenomena
Research Organization

in Tucson, Arizona.

They were seeing several
hundred reports of UFO

sightings each year
from all over the world.

But one of the most bizarre
reports came recently

from A.P.R.O.'s own backyard,

the town of
Snowflake, Arizona.

[chainsaw buzzing]

[narrator] The story
begins on an ordinary day.

[narrator] The story
begins on an ordinary day.

A seven men logging
crew packs up after hours

of hard work
in the Apache-Sitgreaves
National Forest.

[John] It was a typical
day of working hard
out there.

We worked up until
the sun started going down.

And by the time
we got all loaded up

and ready to go,
it was getting fairly dark.

[narrator]
The tight-knit crew begins

the rough 30-mile drive back
home to Snowflake, Arizona.

Foreman Mike Rogers
is behind the wheel

when the men noticed
something strange.

We hadn't gone very far.

I mean, maybe
a quarter of a mile.

The guys started seeing
a light through the trees.

[Steve]
There was a bright light

[Steve]
There was a bright light

over to the right of us
and we couldn't really tell
what it was.

[John] I first thought it
was the Moon.

I turned, I looked over
the other way

and there's the Moon,
you know?

[narrator] Could it
be a hunter's campfire?

An airplane crash?

The answer
is even more terrifying.

Right when you
come around that bend

it just hits you all at once.

It was just like a saucer

just sat in the air,
not moving.

It was, uh, softly glowing.

Like from the inside out.

[narrator] Twenty-two-year-old
Travis Walton

in the passenger seat
startles everyone.

Before Mike even stopped,

Travis had, had the door
open and was getting out.

[Mike] Travis took off
in a fairly brisk walk up
towards it.

[Mike] Travis took off
in a fairly brisk walk up
towards it.

And he stood there
for just a few seconds

and this thing
started making noise.

[eerie sound]

It was shocking,
very shocking.

I heard this noise,
I go, "Oh, crap."

I felt this rumble, you know,
in the steering wheel.

That spooked me.

[indistinct shouting]

We were yelling,
"Come on, get back in here!"

Travis, come back!

[John] We were all terrified.

[John] We were all terrified.

And all of the sudden,
this bluish light came out.

The woods lit up
like a bluish green.

It zapped him in the chest.

He flies back
about 15 feet at least.

His body
bounces off the ground.

Mike turns on the pickup
and takes off.

[Mike] There was blind panic.

White knuckles.

We went down the road
about a quarter of a mile...

...then I hit the brakes.

[tires screeching]

[indistinct chatter]

The guys in the truck
were saying,

"What are you stopping for?

That thing could be
chasing us," you know?

And I said, "We left
Travis back there.

So, we have to go back."

That's when I became
hysterical, basically.

Go back, right now.

Go back, right now.

You don't know what it was.

We have
to go back and get him.

While we were outside
of the truck we saw a flash.

Now, I assumed
it was that craft.

Just in a straight, just...
Like that.

[Steve] Everybody got
their courage back

till we saw it take off.

[John] Couldn't leave
Travis out there.

You just don't leave
a guy behind.

[Mike] We went back...

...very slow.

Buddy!

Travis!

[John] We walked around
the perimeter

looking in the bushes
and that, you know,

to see if he had crawled off.

-Travis.
-Travis!

Travis!

Travis!

[John] But he was
nowhere to be found.

That's when Mike,
he kinda fell down

That's when Mike,
he kinda fell down

to the ground
and kinda lost it.

I broke down.

I broke down because Travis
wasn't there.

He was my best friend.

[narrator]
Guilt-ridden, terrified

and in way over their heads,

and in way over their heads,

the crew members decide to
call law enforcement for help.

[Mike] We all got back
in the truck, and we left.

And that was a very,
very emotional trip.

All right, there's telephone.

[Steve] There's this phone
at the sub station

as we get coming off
the dirt road.

We called
the sheriff's apartment.

We called
the sheriff's apartment.

[narrator] The first
officer arriving on scene

is Navajo County sheriff's
deputy, Chuck Ellison.

[Chuck Ellison] They were
obviously very upset.

And I tried to get just
as close to each one of them

as I could to see
if I could detect odors

of marihuana, alcohol...

I didn't detect any.

[narrator]
Sensing something amiss,

Ellison talks to each
member of the crew.

Ellison talks to each
member of the crew.

Starting with foreman
Mike Rogers.

[John] Mike, he was
the boss, you know?

He called the shots
and how things go,

where you're gonna go,
you know, and all that.

[narrator] The missing man,
Travis Walton,

dated Mike's sister, Dana.

Also in the crew is Mike's
brother-in-law John Goulette.

John's the kind of person
who gets along with everybody.

[John] I've known Travis
for a long, long time.

I met him
when he was a teenager

when I came up there
to stay with Katie and Mike.

[narrator] Goulette
brought two other friends
onto the crew.

Dwayne Smith and Allen Dalis.

Allen Dalis was a...
Mike said, "the black sheep."

here on the crew.

[John] He was a character.
He was...

You know, he had his run ins

with the law and that,
you know.

[narrator] Rounding up
the crew are 26-year-old

Kenny Peterson
and 17-year-old's
Steve Pierce.

I was the gofer, you know?

'Cause I was the youngest.

[narrator] When the frightened
crew members tell
Deputy Ellison

that Travis was attacked
by a UFO,

Ellison calls in his superior,

Sheriff Marlin Gillespie.

[Shelley Moore]
Marlin Gillespie
was my father.

He was the sheriff
of Navajo County
for many years.

He was the sheriff
of Navajo County
for many years.

At the time
that the incident occurred

they called my father out

to involve him
and other deputies.

[Steve] Sheriff Gillespie
showed up

and we told him what happened,

and he was looking around
for beer bottles and stuff,

'cause he didn't really
believe our story.

[Shelley] He thought
that these men saw something.

That part he believed because
he said they were scared,

but he wasn't sure
were they scared

because of what they had done

because of what they had done

or were they really scared
because what they believed

that Travis
had been taken by a UFO?

[Steve] He looked at Mike,
he says,

"You gotta go back
and I want two volunteers

to come back with me.

The other three, I want you
to go back to Snowflake

and don't leave town."

[narrator] Mike Rogers,
Allen Dalis

and Kenny Peterson
lead the sheriff

and his deputies to the site.

There's no trace of Travis.

Or the alleged craft.

I could not see
a skid mark of any kind, like,

as if some kind of aircraft
that touched on the ground.

I could not see a footprint
of any kind.

I couldn't detect any odors.

I didn't see any burns,

and I said, "Well,
we may as well leave
because he's not here."

[narrator] Without industrial
lightning equipment

[narrator] Without industrial
lightning equipment

or a huge force of officers,

the small-town sheriff's
hands are tied.

He'll have to wait
until morning to launch
a search party

to find out if Travis
Walton is injured,

dead or is it possible

that he was abducted
by aliens?

[instrumental music playing]

[narrator] Twenty-two-year-old
Travis Walton is missing.

Travis' older brother, Don,
recalls the night

that changed
his family's life forever.

[Don] Mother came over
to my home about three o'clock
in the morning.

Mama's pretty hysterical
when she got there.

She kept repeating,
"They got him. They got him."

I didn't know what to think.

[narrator] Across town,
the other crewmen's families

anxiously await the arrival
of their loved ones.

[Angie] I was at Mike's
house because

Mike's then wife, Katie,
and I were putting on a quilt.

We were gonna make this big
ole quilt for a wedding,

and Mike didn't come home
when he normally does.

Once it's dark you can't saw
trees out in the woods.

We were starting to get
kind of worried about him.

We were starting to get
kind of worried about him.

Katie's younger brother
worked with Mike, too.

John Goulette,

so she was worried
about him as well.

[narrator] But when Mike
finally does make it home,

his family's worries
only intensify.

They started telling
us what was going on...

[dramatic music playing]

That's when we found out
that it was Travis

That's when we found out
that it was Travis

that was missing,
and my brother Mike

looked like he had aged 20-30
years just in that day.

Mike felt this big, huge
weight on his shoulders.

He felt
responsible for Travis.

[narrator] Mike and Angie's
little sister, Dana,

who dated Travis at the time,
can't believe what she hears.

Was her boyfriend
attacked by an alien ship?

They just
told me what happened.

I think they said "UFO."

And I was, you know, kind of
shocked about what happened.

Like, it was hard to believe.

But it was really scary,

I was really worried
about Travis,

but I could tell those guys
were telling the truth.

They seemed very traumatized.

It scares the hell out of you

because your reality
just becomes so different.

[dramatic music playing]

[serene music playing]

[narrator] As rays of early
morning sunlight

stretch across
Navajo County, Arizona,

the sleepy town of Snowflake

awakens to an unearthly,
unsolved mystery.

When we got up
the next morning, you know,

my mother had let us know that
my father was investigating

my mother had let us know that
my father was investigating

something that had happened

out in the woods and that
somebody had been abducted

by a UFO.

[narrator]
News of Travis Walton's
UFO abduction

spreads like wildfire.

I've always thought
there could be UFO,

but, uh... That story's
kinda farfetched.

We've seen 'em.

-You've seen 'em?
-Yeah.

This doesn't sound
like a true tale to me.

[Tammy Mills] My father was
the deputy sheriff
in Navajo County.

I remember my father
coming home

and talking about it
and he was rolling his eyes,

and talking about it
and he was rolling his eyes,

like... Hmm.

[Shelley] There was
a lot of skepticism.

Most people were having
a hard time believing it.

[John] It's a very
religious community.

The elders
of the church and that,

they were telling people,
"Hey, you know,

this ain't true.
You all don't believe it."

[Mike] My wife didn't know
whether to believe it

or not, you know?

She was skeptical, you know?

[narrator] As the town
of Snowflake debates

the existence of aliens
and UFOs,

the rest of the world

focusses their attention
on human space flight.

[man 2 over radio] Moving out.
Clear the tower.

[man 3 over radio]
Roger. Tower clear.

[narrator]
Just seven years earlier,
Apollo 11 first landed humans

on the Moon, and just
a few months earlier,

in July of 1975,

the decade's long space race
between the United States

the decade's long space race
between the United States

and the Soviet Union

officially came
to a peaceful end.

Proving that space
exploration could overcome

such earth-bound conflicts
as politics and nationalism.

Yet as mankind casts
its hopeful eyes

to the sky, other mysteries
from deepest space emerge.

to the sky, other mysteries
from deepest space emerge.

Reports of UFO sightings
and alien abductions

were on the rise
in the mid-1970s.

1975 in particular was a,
uh, an active year for UFOs.

Across the country
there were sightings,

and we call this a flap.

It's a period
of activity researchers,

uh, look for patterns as to
why this particular location,

why this time?

[narrator] The state
of Arizona routinely ranks

among the top areas
in the world

for UFO-related events.

[Ben Hansen] If you go back
to the summer of '47

there's newspaper
articles of a craft

similar to what was
described in Roswell

that happened only weeks
or months before.

Then you have 1952,
the Marana Air Force Base.

A silvery disk
was reported hovering

over the air force base
and when they scrambled jets

to try and get to it,
it disappeared.

to try and get to it,
it disappeared.

[Bryce Zabel] The American
Southwest is home

to all kinds
of military installations.

It's where we created
the first nuclear bombs.

[explosion]

It's where Roswell happened.

Why does all this
happen with UFOs?

Because it's so important to
the United States government

and to our military projection
of power,

and so it would make sense
that if another intelligence

and so it would make sense
that if another intelligence

was here to find out
what makes humans tick,

they might start there.

[narrator] Is there something
in the Southwest territory

that attracts
extra-planetary explorers?

Authorities in Snowflake
don't believe claims

that Travis Walton
was abducted by aliens.

But with the loggers
whereabout unaccounted for,

law enforcements
launches a massive manhunt.

law enforcements
launches a massive manhunt.

[Shelley] The sheriff's
department went up

on the rim
to the Turkey Springs area

where this incident
supposedly occurred.

They had the sheriff's posse
out looking for him.

[Angie] They had helicopters
and they had dogs.

There's people just walking.

They had all kinds of stuff
looking for him

and they just looked
and looked and looked.

[narrator] Travis' older
brother Don,

a forest service employee,
joins the search party.

a forest service employee,
joins the search party.

It was a madhouse out there.

There's probably
150-200 people

out searching for Travis.

[narrator]
The longer they look,

the more law enforcement
and Travis' family

become suspicious
of foul play.

[Tammy] They were thinking
the crew got

in some kind of a skirmish
and maybe killed Travis.

in some kind of a skirmish
and maybe killed Travis.

[Angie] Travis' family
was all looking at Mike,

like, "Okay, Mike,
where's our Travis?"

[Don] I thought maybe
a bad accident

had happened where
the chainsaw may hit his body.

[John] I did the first day,
I went out there with them.

They kinda split us up and had
us go in different routes.

And each group had
a deputy sheriff.

He kept telling me, you know,
"If you just tell us

where the body is,
we can all go home."

where the body is,
we can all go home."

[narrator]
Although they reported Travis

was captured by a UFO,

the crew now realize they're
suspected of murder.

[Chuck] As we started going
through these brush piles,

I wanna know
if there's anything

in those brush piles
that might resemble a body.

Couldn't figure out
what would happen to him,
where he went, you know?

We were all confused,
we couldn't figure out

why we couldn't find a body.

why we couldn't find a body.

[narrator] Travis Walton
may have disappeared

without a trace,

but there is evidence

that something very strange
happened in those woods.

[Don] Region headquarters
in Albuquerque,

they sent a man over
at the request

of the sheriff's department
to bring a Geiger counter.

Today I am the only
living person

who saw the readings
on that Geiger counter.

[narrator] Don claims
he witnessed the Geiger
counter needles spike.

Indicating a high
level of radiation

at the alleged UFO site.

[Don] It was off scale.

You could see
the difference in the...

What the needle was showing.

It would drop off after,
at 100 yards.

That scared me.
That kind of radiation.

[Geiger counter crackling]

[narrator] Could high levels
of localize radiation

be evidence of an alien craft?

[instrumental music playing]

[reporter 2] Wood cutters
said they were riding

in this truck along
an isolated mountain road

when suddenly a spaceship
hovered over them.

This is what the spaceship
looked like according

to one of the men
who drew this picture.

Another of the men,
22-year-old Travis Walton

reportedly got out
of the truck

and approached the spaceship.

and approached the spaceship.

[narrator] As law enforcement
and volunteers scour

the Sitgreaves National Forest
for a second day,

the search for Travis Walton
and the sensational claim

of his UFO abduction makes
headlines around the world.

Media outlets descend upon
Walton's hometown

of Snowflake, Arizona.

Our town had never really had
any reporters at all,

and then all of the sudden
there's like people

and then all of the sudden
there's like people

from all over the world,
all different countries.

[Angie] It was just
the strangest thing

that the word got out
that fast.

I think there was even some
reporters from Japan.

[reporters clamoring]

[narrator]
The media hounds everyone
involved in the case.

Including
Sheriff Marlin Gillespie.

I just remember the phones
were ringing off the hook.

[phone ringing]

No one had pagers,
no one had cellphones

and my father
couldn't take the phone

and my father
couldn't take the phone

off the hook because
he depended on that.

They needed to get
ahold of them for work.

[narrator] But reporters
aren't the only
curious visitors

to suddenly appear
in Snowflake.

Mysterious out
of towners cramp up

amongst the search parties.

You always tell, back then,
a government car

because it was just
a ugly color.

And the rims always
matched the color of the car.

There'd be two guys
sitting in there.

There'd be two guys
sitting in there.

Suits and sunglasses
just watching you.

[Ben] Most people know the Men
in Black from pop culture

but there have
been historically

verified incidents

where unidentified
government agents

follow up on cases like this.

[John] I take off
to go somewhere

and by the time I got
to where I was gonna go

they were already sitting
there waiting.

You know?
I don't know how they knew
where I was going.

[Bryce] People have suspected
over the years

that among that crowd
of people that included
journalists

that among that crowd
of people that included
journalists

and UFO observers
were people from
the United States government

who wanted to know
more about this case.

And why would they
wanna know more about it?

Because they knew UFOs were
real whether they admitted it

to the public or not,
but, uh, they thought

that the Travis Walton case
was a pretty good case.

[intense music playing]

[narrator] Travis has now
been missing for three days.

His loved ones face
an agonizing lack of answers.

[Dana] I think everybody
got more and more worried.

Everybody was more
tense and scared

the longer the time went by.

[narrator] With every
passing hour the crew

feels the crushing
pressure of suspicion.

feels the crushing
pressure of suspicion.

[Steve] I wasn't going out.

I was hiding
at a girlfriend's house

and staying away
from everybody.

I'd say four out of five
people thought, you know,

it was either a hoax or,
or was a murder or something.

[narrator]
Even without a body,

the sheriff's department
investigates the case

as a homicide.

It doesn't take long
to zero in on a suspect.

Crew member Allen Dalis.

[Steve] The cops,
they found out

about a fight that Travis
and Allen Dalis was in.

He'd fight anybody, and he
could get pretty ornery.

He didn't
like Mike and Travis.

[Don] I was pretty confident
in my head at that time

that Allen
had something to do with this.

I accused him
of killing Travis.

[narrator] Authorities
turn up the heat

on the remaining crew members.

on the remaining crew members.

[Tammy] I remember
my dad saying

that Marlin Gillespie was
questioning the boys down

saying, "Just admit,
you killed him.

Just admit it."

[Steve]
Flake pulls up and he says,

"We know you didn't do
the killing,

but we know for sure
that Allen Dalis killed Travis

or Jon Goulette killed him."

[John] Once I figured out
what they were doing
and what they thought,

you know, I pretty much stayed
away from the cops, you know.

[narrator]
The sheriff's department

asks Mike Rogers
and the other crewmen

asks Mike Rogers
and the other crewmen

to submit
to a polygraph examination.

Rogers jumps at the chance
to clear their names.

We told him, you know,
"We'll take polygraph test.

We'll... We'll take
sodium pentothal, hypnosis,

anything you can give us
because this thing
really happened

and we don't like this
thing about you accusing us
of murder."

[narrator]
The men are summoned

to take polygraph tests
at the Navajo County

courthouse in nearby Holbrook.

It was scary, really scary

to go into that courthouse.

The courthouse and the jail
was the same building.

[Steve] I was more scared
the day of the polygraph test

than I was when I saw
Travis getting zapped.

[John] I didn't know who
was gonna give us this test.

I was thinking, "You know,
they could be setting us up.

No matter what,
we're probably gonna fail this

No matter what,
we're probably gonna fail this

and we'll probably
gonna go to jail."

When we went in there we
figured we weren't coming out.

This polygraph test
went on all day long.

Up until the evening.

Because the test take
about two hours a piece.

[narrator]
As part of the test,
the polygrapher asks

each crewmen the same series
of questions three times.

The first
three questions regard

The first
three questions regard

the alleged murder
of Travis Walton.

The subject
of the final question

is the UFO.

[Mike] Once the test
got underway

he started changing his
mind really quickly.

By the time he had
tested all of us,

he seemed to be a believer.

[narrator]
Five of the six men passed

the lie detector
test outright.

Only Allen Dalis' test
comes back as inconclusive.

Allen actually passed
the first two run throughs
of this test.

Allen actually passed
the first two run throughs
of this test.

It was inconclusive
because he pulled himself lose

from a scene
in the last run through.

[narrator] The results
of the polygraph

stunned everyone
in the town of Snowflake.

Perhaps none more so
than the polygrapher himself.

I talked to him
after the test,

and he indicated to me that...
That apparently he was wrong.

Unofficially he said
that he believed

Unofficially he said
that he believed

that we had told the truth.

[narrator] For five
excruciating days,

Travis Walton
has been missing.

The skeptical
sheriff's department

is back to square one.

If Travis Walton
hasn't been murdered

and no one can find his body
in the woods,

where could he be?

[suspenseful music playing]

Late that night, the phone
rings at Travis' sister's
home.

[telephone ringing]

His brother-in-law,
Grant, answers.

[Grant]
I had come home from work.

Phone rang

and it was a voice
on the other side saying,

"This is Travis.

Come and get me."

[suspenseful music playing]

[narrator] Travis Walton has
been missing for five days.

When Travis' brother-in-law,
Grant, answers a late-night

phone call,
he assumes it's a prank.

[Grant] And I said,
"Yeah, right."

I get ready to hang up
he said,

"No, no, no, no,
please don't hang up."

And, so then
I started listening

And, so then
I started listening

and then
the conversation ended.

I got my wife out of bed,
we went to her mother's place.

His brother Duane
was there visiting.

We got in the truck,
drove to Heber

where he described
where he was.

I must've passed out
'cause it seemed like almost

immediately they were, um...
Headlights of the truck

were shining
into the phone booth

and my brother came
over there and lifted me up.

And I was just hysterical.

He sort of lifted me
into the truck

and I was just breaking down,
just disintegrating.

[narrator] In this rare
archival interview

Travis recalls the events
leading up to the phone call.

[narrator] Wandering
the road for what feels

like hours, Travis recognizes

the lights of Heber,
Arizona, in the distance.

[Travis] I ran down
into the town

and called my family.

"Come and get me."

[narrator] On the way back
to Snowflake,

Travis struggles to piece
together his experience.

[Travis] One of the biggest
shocks I had to deal with

when I was returned
was finding out

that this brief period of time

that this brief period of time

had somehow taken
over five days.

My brother, he asked me
to feel my face

and I had a, had a...
You know, weeks growth.

I was... It really took
my mind just to reel at that

because as far as I knew
it was the same night.

I was trying to describe
what I'd experienced,

but I was just
making it worst.

And he finally said,
"Don't try to talk right now."

He talked about how scared
the family had been.

He talked about how scared
the family had been.

[narrator] For Travis' family,
the past week

has been
an emotional roller coaster.

[Grant]
Everybody was relieved,

but they were still kind
of in a shock mode.

It didn't affect me as much
as it did my wife,

and she still doesn't
wanna be bothered with it.

[Angie] When Travis came back

we were all so relieved.

At the same time
the story was so hard

At the same time
the story was so hard

to fit in to your realm
of reality, you know?

[narrator] Even decades later,
the trauma of those five days

still weighs heavy on Travis
and his now wife Dana.

[Dana] I was really,
really worried,

and scared that you...
What happened to you,

I didn't know
if you'd ever be returned.

I didn't know
if you'd ever be returned.

Specially the more days
went by,

gets more and more scary.

Well...

[Travis] Did you ever
think for a minute

that maybe the guys
or Mike or something

-were covering up
a killing, a murder?
-No.

No, I never thought that.

Yep.

I even went out to the window,
and I looked up on the sky

and I said, "Will you please
bring Travis back?"

[sobbing]

-I'm sorry.
-That must've hurt you.

[narrator] With Travis
in such a fragile state,

his brother Duane
is determined to protect him

from any intense
scrutiny by the media

from any intense
scrutiny by the media

or law enforcement.

Desperate for assistance,
he reaches out

to the Aerial Phenomena
Research Organization

or A.P.R.O.

A Tucson based
UFO investigative group.

[Ben] Jim and Coral Lorenzen
really assembled A.P.R.O.

with the key focus
of having a credible

and scientific,
unbiased perspective.

That's why they brought in
medical doctors,

they brought in, uh,
scientists that were respected

they brought in, uh,
scientists that were respected

in their fields
and consulted with them

whenever they did a case.

[Travis] My brother Duane,
he had contacted

Jim Lorenzen, the head

of the Aerial Phenomena
Research Organization

who had a couple
of medical doctors

in their Phoenix membership

who agreed to do
an examination.

[narrator]
In the dead of night,

Duane Walton secretly sneaks
Travis out of Snowflake.

A.P.R.O. arranged for Travis
to go to a hotel in Phoenix.

He checked in
under an assumed name

and then they sent over
two A.P.R.O.

affiliated medical doctors.

[Don]
They didn't want any leaks

of what was happening
with Travis

with his, uh,
medical condition,

and, and all the testing.

[narrator] Before medical
tests are performed,

Travis tell the physicians
what he remembered

from the night
of November 5th, 1975,

from the night
of November 5th, 1975,

starting with the moment
he exited the truck.

[Travis] It just was kind
of a... A sort of an impulse.

Seeing this object there...

For some reason
I just kind of assumed

that it was gonna take off
before I got very far.

We could hear a real low
rumbling sort of a sound.

Pounding, you know, like
a heartbeat sort of a thing.

Pounding, you know, like
a heartbeat sort of a thing.

And then some real
high frequency
sorts of sounds.

Very hard to describe
these sounds.

The closer I got,
it suddenly got louder,

and it started to move.

I was startled and out of fear
I just jumped for cover.

Then I was figuring out,
"Boy, I've really got myself

Then I was figuring out,
"Boy, I've really got myself

in a bad situation here."

I stood up with the idea
of running back to the truck,

but as soon as I raised up,

that's when I felt
this stunning force.

[narrator] The next thing
Travis remembers

is waking up on the side
of the road five days later.

is waking up on the side
of the road five days later.

To make sense of
the missing time in between,

Travis agrees
to undergo a controversial

technique called
regressive hypnosis.

Regressive hypnosis
has been used, uh,

popularly since
the Betty and Barney Hill

abduction in 1961.

Tapes of Betty and Barney

while abducted are still
chilling even today.

Oh. Oh!

[narrator] An hypnosis session
is scheduled with A.P.R.O.'s

director of research,
Dr. James Harder.

In the meantime,
Travis' doctors perform

a battery of tests.

[Travis] Blood and urine
samples were taken

that were put through
the county medical examiners

that were put through
the county medical examiners

drug screen that's
extremely good at detecting

traces of drugs of
which there were none.

[narrator] Despite
A.P.R.O.'s and the family's
best efforts,

Travis' reappearance does not
remain secret for long.

The operator who
patched Travis through to call

his sister's house
listened in on the call.

Remember, this is 1975,
where they actually did have

operators who patched
people through.

She recognized the name
as he tried to make this,

uh, collect call
from Travis Walton,

that this was big news.

So she takes that information

and leaks it
to the sheriff's office.

[Shelley] His family was fully
aware that there had been

an ensuing search for Travis,

and yet they chose not to let
the law enforcement community,

um, know
that he had been found.

[narrator]
Travis' family feels he is

too emotionally unstable
to face questioning

from the sheriff's department.

from the sheriff's department.

For the first few days
after his return,

Travis' brother Duane acts
as the family's spokesperson.

[reporter 3] Obviously, Duane,
you know your own brother

probably better
than anybody else.

Do you believe the story?

I've never seen him
play a practical joke
in his adult life.

[narrator] The veracious media
runs with the story.

Before long,
it's international news.

Well, now the story
that has been hitting

the headlines all over
the United States

is the one we told you
about last week,

is the one we told you
about last week,

of the man who disappeared
after seeing

what his friends
thought was a flying saucer.

After a five days search
by police,

Travis Walton has turned up
unharmed and he says

that he was taken aboard
a spaceship but the police,

of course, no way
of checking his story.

[narrator] As law enforcement

and journalists scramble
hear the story firsthand,

Travis remains sequestered
in a Phoenix hotel room

reliving his experience
of abject horror.

reliving his experience
of abject horror.

[dramatic music playing]

[narrator]
On November 14th, 1975,

four days after his return,
Travis Walton

meets with Dr. James Harder

at the Aerial Phenomena
Research Organization

in a Phoenix hotel room.

Surrounded by his loved ones,

Dana and his brother Duane,
Travis prepares to go undergo

Dana and his brother Duane,
Travis prepares to go undergo

a technique called
regressive hypnosis

to help him face
his most petrifying memories.

[fan squeaking]

[narrator]
Physically, Travis is sitting
on the hotel room sofa...

...but mentally, Dr. Harder
takes him back to the moment

he was abducted
on board the alien ship

and the next terrifying
five days of missing time.

and the next terrifying
five days of missing time.

Visualize just what's
in front of you there.

Tell me what it is
that your eyes see.

[Travis] I was laying
on my back.

I came to slowly...

At first I thought
I was in a hospital.

I felt like there was
something seriously wrong.

I felt like there was
something seriously wrong.

There was a light above me.

It wasn't so bright I couldn't
look at it, but it sort of,

uh, interfered with seeing
other things around me.

But I was looking around
to see where I was.

It was a very small space,

but there was something lying
on my chest.

There seem to be,
you know, some kind of, uh,

There seem to be,
you know, some kind of, uh,

light coming from it.

When I looked beyond
the edge of that, I saw faces,

but it was so blurry
that I kind of assumed

it was like, uh, doctors
wearing, uh, surgical masks.

It was only a matter
of seconds

before I realized that these
weren't human doctors.

This was an alien face.

They were about five
foot tall, no hair,

They were about five
foot tall, no hair,

very white skin,

small features
except for large eyes.

[narrator] The beings
Travis encounters,

they're a striking resemblance

to grey aliens reported in
other UFO abduction stories.

Greys are the most
common description

of some of these others
that have been visiting us.

Three and a half
to four feet tall,

big black eyes,

larger heads,
not much of a nose,

larger heads,
not much of a nose,

not much of a mouth.

Spindly little things,
that's what he saw.

[narrator] To Travis,
this strange appearance

and blank expressions
are unnerving.

[Travis] The feeling of pain,
the feeling of suffocation,

at the same time
they expressed no emotion

to their face.

It seemed threatening.

I just freaked out
at that point.

I just freaked out
at that point.

And jumped off
of the table there.

And when I did,
this device fell off.

[narrator] Travis' survival
instincts kick in full force.

[Travis] It was were just
fight or flight

and I grabbed, um, rod or tube

and just started swinging
to the air.

The only opening in
the room was beyond them.

[narrator] Suddenly
and without warning,

the aliens change course.

[Travis] They left the room.

I was afraid they'd come back,

so I left there, uh,
looking for a way out.

The whole craft was lit up
in a way that I would consider

to be pretty, pretty dim by,
you know, human standards.

I felt like there was an
insufficient amount of air.

Like I couldn't get enough
air just breathing.

Air was thin but humid.

[narrator] Struggling to see
and desperate for air,

Travis comes
across another door.

The room appears to be empty
except for a single chair.

As Travis approaches,
he notices the light

in the room shift.

[Travis] There was some
kind of a projection

or some kind
of a viewing thing

in this room where you could
see a map of stars.

The points of lights
that came through it

were not real visible
until I got near the chair.

Away from the chair
the walls didn't seem

to have those points
of lights so much.

[narrator] Could it be
some kind of control room?

Travis looks
for any means of escape.

Travis looks
for any means of escape.

[Travis] On the arm of
the chair was a screen

and some colored spots,
uh, I took to be buttons.

I was just thinking
these buttons

might open one of these
doorway looking things.

Foolishly assuming that a door

would just be opened
to the air,

and I could drop
to the ground, you know?

Fifteen-20 feet.

I could handle that
just to get out of there.

[narrator]
The buttons have no effect.

[narrator]
The buttons have no effect.

Travis has no choice but
to look for another way out.

Just then he notices,
he's not alone.

The form looks oddly familiar.

Could it be human?

In a Phoenix hotel room,

Travis Walton's loved ones
sit in stunned silence

as he recounts
the traumatic nightmare

of being trapped aboard a UFO.

I didn't actually
hear the story

until he was put
under hypnosis,

and I was in the room
with him when...

So when he told
the story it was really...

Shocking, it was scary to me,
what he had to go through.

[narrator] After trying
in vain to open a doorway

or escape hatch,

Travis has no choice
but to return to the corridor

and search
for another means of escape,

only this time,
there's something or someone

blocking his way.

[Travis] There was
a what I took to be
a human being.

I immediately just assume
this was air force, NASA,

somebody, you know,
there to intervene

somebody, you know,
there to intervene

and, uh, take me away
from these creatures.

[narrator] In a rare,
archival interview,

Travis describes
his encounter with the being.

This was a...
A human-looking person.

They'd pass in a crowd
as an individual.

He was bigger than me,
taller, and more muscular.

Very large individual.

Very large individual.

I went up and, uh,
tried to talk to this guy

and, uh, he didn't answer me.

When I started
yelling questions,

trying to tell him,
"What are these things?

Where am I?" You know,

"Get me out of here."

All those kind of things,
he didn't really seem to,

uh, be responding
to anything I was saying.

[narrator] Instead,
the suited stranger

takes Travis by the arm

and escorts him further down
the corridor.

and escorts him further down
the corridor.

[Travis] I went down
the hallway with him,

very dimly lit,
but lit from above.

When we came to a door,

I did not see
this human-looking individual

do anything to make
the door open, but it did.

[narrator] Travis
and his enigmatic escort

entered what appears to be
some kind of an air lock.

We went into
a little booth-like section
of the hallway.

[narrator]
Then, Travis is overcome

by a sudden shift
in the environment.

[Travis] I could feel
that the air

coming in was cooler.

I could breathe better,

and that the outside light
was so much brighter
by comparison.

[narrator] Travis
describes being ushered

from something
like an alien aircraft hanger

in the seldom
seen BBC documentary.

[Travis] He let me out
of this craft,

which appeared to be
parked inside of a,

a larger building,
or a larger craft.

He just took me
right out of there

down a hallway to a room

where there were some other
people who looked like him.

[narrator] These two beings
are not wearing helmets,

giving Travis a clear look

at what ufologists refer
to as "Nordic aliens."

at what ufologists refer
to as "Nordic aliens."

Tall, human-like figures,
Scandinavian in appearance.

In the pantheon
of aliens that keep getting

described by people
who have had

abduction experiences you have
primarily the greys...

...but you also have something
called the Nordic.

The Nordic has come
to represent basically

a human-looking alien.

In Travis' case, the Nordic
he saw was about six feet
two inches tall,

In Travis' case, the Nordic
he saw was about six feet
two inches tall,

kind of brownish,
blondish hair.

Basically, like a Caucasian.
Could've been from Sweden.

[narrator] Travis' attention
quickly shifts

to an examination table
in the center of the room.

The mysterious being
in the space suit

pushes him toward it.

[Travis] He seemed to be
trying to get me

to get on the table

and I was very much
resisting that.

and I was very much
resisting that.

I became alarmed that he was
not answering my questions.

I was obviously terrified
and asking,

"Where are you taking me?
What's this all about?"

[narrator] Travis fights
with all his might,

but the Nordics step in
and overpower him

with superhuman strength.

[Travis] Very frightening,
I was fighting back

immediately,
no longer cooperating.

I thought I was pretty
strong in those days,

but they didn't have too much
trouble getting me down
on the table.

but they didn't have too much
trouble getting me down
on the table.

They put this mask
over my face,

it's kind of like
an oxygen mask.

There was no hose
connected to it,

they put it over my face

and that was the last thing
I knew, I just blacked out.

Next thing
I remember was waking up

outside, cold air

outside, cold air

coming into my clothes.

[narrator] In a Phoenix
hotel room,

Travis awakens from a trance,

after recounting his harrowing
alien abduction experience.

And to his loved ones,
it's clear

Travis will never be the same.

[Dana] He seemed
really different.

[Dana] He seemed
really different.

He seemed traumatized,
he seemed kind of scared.

I felt sorry for him in a way,

like I wanted to help him,
but I felt helpless.

Like, I couldn't do
anything for him.

[narrator] But a trauma
of alien contact

was just the beginning.

Travis' story would spark
a firestorm of debate

and speculation that ignites

the town of Snowflake
and engulfs the entire world.

[dramatic music playing]

After a strenuous battery

of medical tests
and regressive hypnotherapy

in Phoenix, Travis Walton
returns home to Snowflake.

[Don] When I saw Travis
the next time, he was...

He was skinny.

But the relief and the joy
that I saw on our mother

But the relief and the joy
that I saw on our mother

was awesome.

How she just stood there
and cried.

And my mother didn't cry
about anything.

But over that
she certainly did.

We thought we had lost
a family member.

[narrator] The media frenzy,

sparked by
the abduction story,

only intensifies as
Travis re-emerges.

[Don] Oh, it was a circus.

[Don] Oh, it was a circus.

Mother didn't have a fence
around our front yard.

There was probably
100 people out there.

Reporters, all kinds
of cameras.

[narrator]
In an effort to keep

the camera hounds at bay,
a still traumatized Travis

reluctantly grants
his first interviews.

[Barbara Frum]
Mr. Walton, how are you?

[Travis] I'm feeling
a lot better.

[Barbara] Where were you?

[Travis] I don't know.
[chuckles softly]

[interviewer] Did you tried
to communicate with them?

Well, I tried
to communicate with them

but there was no answer.

They never talked to me
or anything.

[narrator]
The unwanted scrutiny

pushes the town's people
to the brink.

[Shelley] I thought
the media attention
was insane.

There was
so much interest in it,

and at the time I just
remember thinking to myself,

"How can these people
really believe this story?"
You know.

Kinda skeptical.

You know, seeing is believing,
and I don't see nothing.

You know, seeing is believing,
and I don't see nothing.

It was the talk
of the town for a long time,

and I think there were people
that believed in UFOs

and people that felt that
people that believed in UFOs
were crazy.

I didn't know
if I went to a bar

if somebody's gonna
buy me a beer or,

or take
a punch at me, you now.

[narrator]
New rumors circulate

that this was all a hoax.

The crew,
once suspected of murder,

now find themselves
scrutinized alongside
Travis' family,

now find themselves
scrutinized alongside
Travis' family,

accused of pulling off
a massive con.

[Steve] You couldn't
walk through town

without people looking at you.

When he came back they thought
it was a big ole joke.

[John] Ten days after that
happened I left the area.

Went somewhere where
nobody knew me

and didn't know my involvement
in that and never told a soul.

[Don] It was tough.

[Don] It was tough.

I think people looked at us
in a way

that we were
putting on a show.

[narrator] Chief among
the skeptics

is a man who would become
Travis Walton's nemesis.

The king of UFO debunkers,
Phillip Klass.

[Ben] Phillip Klass
is probably

the most well-renowned
UFO skeptic, uh,

debunker, uh,
maybe of all history.

debunker, uh,
maybe of all history.

He had devoted
a great deal of time

and as a matter of fact had
written books ridiculing

the idea that UFOs should be
considered serious at all.

In my opinion,
the belief in UFOs

will persist as long as there
are people on this earth,

uh, but it is a myth.

[Bryce] Now, Phillip Klass
was a very bright man,
a journalist.

He just didn't buy
the Travis Walton story.

He thought these guys
made it up,

He thought these guys
made it up,

and he set out to prove
that anyway that he could.

[narrator] Klass does
extensive research

into the Walton story
and claims the crew

led by Mike Rogers
concocted the UFO scheme

to get out of their
logging contract.

We had completed
probably over 80%
of the contract,

but we were also nearing
the completion deadline

on the contract.

[Angie] And they wanted to
get it done before the snow

started coming because
this was in November.

started coming because
this was in November.

So they were trying to hurry
up and get it done before
it defaulted.

[Travis] The skeptics made
much of this

that this whole things
was some kind of a scheme

to get out of, uh,
finishing the contract,

but it was not at all
to Mike's advantage

for the contract to end.

There was a lot of money
being held back.

And we had completed
most of it,

but once the incident happened
there was no way

that the contract
was gonna get finished.

[Angie] After that happened,

Mike couldn't get that crew
to go back out there.

Maybe some of them
might've been willing,

but most of them were not.

[Travis] They brought
in another crew

to finish
what little we had left.

Much to Mike's
financial disadvantage.

[narrator] And if
Mike Rogers did think up
the UFO story,

how did he get
his six crewmates

to go along with his
farfetched scheme?

[Bryce] If you really think
about it,

the idea that you would
conspire with, uh, six
or seven people

to tell an outrageous story
that would cause people

to think you might be
a murderer,

it just defies logic.

[narrator] The level of
criticism he and the crew

faced is yet another shock
to Travis and his family.

I don't like it
when people came out

with accusations against him.

I knew he was telling
the truth,

I believed him
and that was it.

[Travis] Well,
there was from the get-go

a great deal of resistance.

The idea that there
could be any life

in the universe,
other than human life.

And I think that's
a very close minded

and limited thinking.

It's maybe partially
motivated out of fear
or people

feeling that it was a threat
to religious convictions.

But whatever it was,
many of the accusations

But whatever it was,
many of the accusations

that were levied
were easily disproved

because they were contraries
to verifiable facts.

[narrator] Yet some
allegations would haunt

Travis Walton for years,
leading him to wonder

if there's a coordinated
campaign underway

to discredit him,

and if so, who's behind it?

and if so, who's behind it?

[instrumental music playing]

In Snowflake, Arizona,

alien abductee Travis Walton
and his loved ones

struggle to get some
semblance of normal life.

About two years later
we were married.

We dated steady
for those two years.

Fell in love
and decided to get married.

We tried to make it
like nothing happened,

We tried to make it
like nothing happened,

so we didn't talk
about it a lot.

[narrator] But try
as they might,

Travis and Dana
find themselves hounded

by small town gossip.

You know, I could see
people looking at me

in the store and I could tell
they were thinking, you know,

things about me.

[Ben] And they start
making up rumors

saying, "Well, the crew was
probably all using drugs.

They were all hallucinating."

[Shelley] We're talking
in the '70s

and what really happened

and what really happened

if there was drugs involved,
alcohol or whatever.

[narrator]
Travis' medical tests reveal

no sign of drugs
in his system.

Travis didn't do drugs.
Travis hardly even ever drank.

If he did, I don't even think
he did drink.

[John] That job was
pretty dangerous, actually.

Those chainsaws
don't slice you,

they tear chunks of meat out.

You can't get high or drink
and do that job, you know.

You can't get high or drink
and do that job, you know.

I don't know
anybody who could.

[narrator]
Despite the naysayers,

Travis and the crew
have their champions.

Most notably groups
like A.P.R.O.,

who gather and examine
evidence to support
the abduction claims.

First on their list,

Travis Walton's
physical condition.

The people who came
and got Travis Walton

found a severely dehydrated
guy who didn't look good.

found a severely dehydrated
guy who didn't look good.

He was in the same clothes
that he was wearing

when he had disappeared

and when they
weighed him later,

uh, that next morning,
they found out he was
at least ten pounds

lighter than when he had gone
up in the mountains.

[narrator] Yet Travis' blood
test provides the A.P.R.O.

doctors with some
striking information.

[Travis] Part of, uh,
what they were looking for

was the presence
of what they call ketones,

which was to indicate
whether my body

which was to indicate
whether my body

had been consuming
its own reserves, you know,

fat, even muscle
in order to maintain life.

[Ben] He did lose
ten to 12 pounds

in a short period of time.

He was severely dehydrated

but yet no ketones
were present.

So, it is possible that these
visitors knew enough

about human biology.

They tried to nourish him
in some way.

[narrator] And if he
wasn't picked up

after his crewmates left him
in the woods,

after his crewmates left him
in the woods,

how did Travis survive
for those five days?

To believe he was left out

in Sitgreaves National Forest,
not only overnight,

but for five days
is outrageous.

At night it gets very,
very cold.

The guy had a jean jacket
and, and a pair of jeans on.

It would've been a tough,
tough things to survive.

[narrator] A.P.R.O.
researches in Arizona

also uncover evidence

of an increasing level
of UFO activity

of an increasing level
of UFO activity

in the months leading
up to the abduction.

[Ben] We had an event
that takes place in May,

just outside
the hills of Tucson.

We have a mother with her
children who comes across

a silvery glowing object,
but most interestingly,

she hears a low rumbling sound

that's very similar
to what Travis described

right before this thing
appeared to take off.

[narrator] Perhaps
the strongest evidence of all

[narrator] Perhaps
the strongest evidence of all

comes from
the sheriff's department.

[Travis] To have six
witnesses all testifying

in detail to the same events,
and all passing

lie detector tests
from the state police.

[Bryce] People have gone
back and forth over the years

about what a polygraph
actually means,

but one thing we do know,
though, is when somebody
passes it

and it's just them,
it gives you a certain
amount of legitimacy.

But when you have six
different people

taking a lie detector test

and they all tell
the same story,

your chances that the story
they're telling is accurate

is about,
uh, a million to one.

[Travis] Dr. James Harder,
he was saying

that the evidence to support
that this really happened

would've been sufficient
to convict a person

of murder
in an American court of law.

[narrator]
On February 7th, 1976,

[narrator]
On February 7th, 1976,

Travis and his brother Duane

take their own
lie detector tests.

The results shocked everyone.

In February of 1976,

Travis Walton
and his brother Duane

submit to
polygraph examinations.

They both pass.

Landing further credibility

to Travis' UFO
abduction claims.

For years after the incident,

Travis and his
six crew members

Travis and his
six crew members

never waver from their story.

Eventually, the tide
of public opinion

turns in their favor.

[Bryce] In 1975, when
the Walton case is big news,

the government's institutional
response to UFOs back then

was, "It's probably not
a real thing, don't sweat it.

Go on about your lives."

Now the government
says a couple

of really profound things.

First of all, they have
confirmed that there are

First of all, they have
confirmed that there are

many objects out there
and that they're real

and that they're unidentified.

And secondly, they said,
"We don't make them."

So, lots of people
believed in them before,

but now
we have a more of a sense

they are real because our own
government is admitting it.

[pilot] Oh, got it!

[narrator] And the attitude
in the Southwestern state,

[narrator] And the attitude
in the Southwestern state,

known for some
of the biggest UFO sightings

in the world has also changed.

I've known, uh,
Travis Walton for a long time.

After seeing UFOs
in New Mexico, Arizona

and California,
I said, "Well, there must be

something that,
uh... To what he said."

I do believe
that there are UFOs.

But you see things
cruising around up there

it's like,
"What the heck was that?

it's like,
"What the heck was that?

No, okay, is that a satellite?
No, it's moving a little bit
too fast."

[producer] Do you believe
there's something out there?

I think so.

Our tales completely
switched around

where four out of five
people do believe it now.

Before they didn't.

You know, it was
exactly the opposite.

[Steve] I'm sorry that Allen
and Dwayne Smith aren't here,

because for years people
just thought we were nuts.

Now, you've got people
who do believe,

Now, you've got people
who do believe,

and Allen and Dwayne Smith
aren't here to, to see that.

[narrator] The shift
in public perception

began in 1978

when Travis Walton wrote

and published a book
about his ordeal.

The Walton Experience
is the first book written

by a UFO abductee,

and it's sort of withstood
the test of time.

[Ben] My impression
of first reading

Travis' book,
it was so well written

that he presents the arguments
before his case

and against his case

and takes each individual
criticism and debunks it
one by one.

[Bryce] What it allowed
readers to do

for the first time
is to get in his head.

This is an honest man,
who' trying to tell us

what really happened to him.

[narrator] Travis' story
catches the attention

of Hollywood

and on March 12th, 1993,

Paramount Pictures
releases Fire in the Sky.

A film based on his book.

[Bryce] Talking about
the Travis Walton abduction,

there was X-amount of people
that sort of watched it

when it happened real time
with news coverage,

there were a few more
that read the book,

but then there were a lot more
that watched the movie.

And the people
who watched the movie

had their minds open

to the possibility that
an abduction could happen

because the movie starts with
"based on a true story."

[Dana]
After the movie was made,

people became more
and more enlightened I guess.

More and more people believed.

And more people came up
to me and said that they
supported us,

so... That was...
That was great.

[narrator] The media
forces Travis

into the spotlight
once more to share

into the spotlight
once more to share

the terrifying true story
behind the movie.

It was glowing,
disk-shaped object.

Uh, it's kinda, like,
shaped like two pie pans.

Placed lip to lip
with a dome on top

and it was glowing,
kind of a golden, uh,
yellow color.

[narrator]
Like clockwork,
Travis' credibility

comes under attack.

All the familiar
skeptics re-emerge,

including Philip Klass.

But this time,
Travis has the last word.

Are you saying,
Phillip, that all seven

of these people are lying?

I'm afraid we have
to say that on the basis

of physical evidence.

[Larry King] Meaning?

Physical evidence
that should've been there

but was not.

[Larry King] Why are
you laughing, Travis?

Well, because
this is typical of the sort
of reasoning pattern

this man uses in attacking
all UFO cases.

Uh, he's equating
the absence of evidence

to be the evidence of absence.

[narrator] The film's release
is a moral victory

for Travis Walton
and his crewmates.

[Ben] Fire in the Sky.

It wasn't just a close
encounters of the third kind

type of movie, this is
something based on real life.

This is what happened
to a man and six other

of his crewmembers.

We can't just easily
dismiss abduction cases

because look at all
the evidence in favor
of this one.

[narrator] In the aftermath
of Fire in the Sky,

a new generation
of UFO investigators

take up Travis' cause.

Can they find actual
physical evidence

to prove Travis' story

beyond any doubt?

In 2014,

UFO researcher

and documentarian, Ben Hansen,

meets Travis Walton

at the site of his UFO
abduction to examine

any remaining evidence
of Travis' alien encounter.

Years ago Travis, uh,
and I were filming, um,

kind of a survey before
we had a conference here.

So, right here
is where we determined

through the witnesses
and especially Travis'
recollection

through the witnesses
and especially Travis'
recollection

where this object
was hovering.

This is the first time
we're gonna open it up
to the public.

We didn't want
the public coming in here,

knowing the location
and start taking stuff
or planting things.

We wanted to know exactly
what kind of evidence,

if anything, was left over.

[narrator]
Ben and the research team

take a methodical approach
to the date collection.

[Ben] We gritted this
whole area and we treated it

like a crime scene.

like a crime scene.

While we're going through
everything, the topsoil, uh,

we're looking at rocks
to see if they're magnetic,

we come across some
of these tree stumps.

Now these have broken off
shortly after the incident.

You can actually count
back the rings, of course,

and see this tree
would've been here 1975.

[narrator]
On closer inspection

of the tree rings,
Ben and Travis noticed

something very strange indeed.

[Ben] If you think
of a tree ring,

[Ben] If you think
of a tree ring,

they're usually
very equally sized,

uh, concentric circles.

Okay, on all sides.

But these trees
had something unique.

The rings on the side
facing the clearing

was spaced out further.

Meaning there was a greater
volume of growth

on that side
of the tree alone.

And we started noticing
this as we're going around

And we started noticing
this as we're going around

in a circle and came across
the discovery

that they all seemed
to be pointing

in a direction
towards the center.

The epicenter where
the craft was hovering.

[narrator] Could radiation
from the UFO,

as evidenced by the Geiger
counter readings at the site

in 1975, have caused
these trees to mutate?

[Ben] I started
researching a bit

[Ben] I started
researching a bit

and I found
a couple of studies

that happened after Chernobyl.

The studies found
that these trees grow

exponentially greater
than any other time period.

So is that what happened here?

[narrator] At an independent
lab in Ohio,

the soil samples taken from
the site are tested against

the soil samples taken from
the site are tested against

to control group.

The findings
blow everyone away.

There was a higher
concentration of iron

and other ferrous materials
as compared to the controlled

samples which were
much further away.

Now what does that mean?

Other, uh, notable UFO cases
have indicated sometimes

a trace evidence
of ferrous materials

as if something, um, creating
a large magnetic field

as if something, um, creating
a large magnetic field

was pulling these particles up
from the lower layers.

[narrator]
Based on these findings,

Ben Hansen and many other
open-minded researchers

draw the same conclusion.

The Travis Walton
abduction case

offers perhaps
the best evidence to date

of alien visitation
to planet Earth.

I can say that I fully
believe what he experienced

is how he
and the crew experiences

very strange event.

[narrator] But as Walton's
story continues to be

more accepted as truth,
frightening questions remain.

Who are these alien creatures
and what do they want?

Travis Walton
makes one final trip

from his home in
Snowflake to the site
of his alien abduction.

It's, It's just, um, kind of
a PTSD kind of a thing.

I still feel apprehension.

We're getting close.

We're getting close.

[narrator] For Travis, this is
still an emotional journey.

[sighs]

[Travis] This was really
a turning point

in my life what happened here.

It's amazing to think
how much time has gone by.

It's amazing to think
how much time has gone by.

Little did I know, uh,

my life would
never be the same.

[narrator] Four decades later,

Travis reflects
on what it all means.

[Travis] Well, I had a choice
after this incident happened.

Could I just shut up about
it and hope people

will forget about it
and it'll go away

or get out there
and defend myself

and, uh,
set the record straight?

Aliens exist, we're not alone
in the universe.

I think people need to realize
that there is a reality here.

[narrator] And no one knows
this better

than the six men who
witnessed Travis'
alien encounter.

Every one of those
crewmen has stood by the story

of that happened
throughout their lives

and some of them are
no longer with us.

and some of them are
no longer with us.

They've had the courage
to stand up

to the naysayers and they
endured that

from the beginning, even...
Even before I was returned.

[Steve] I lived it and it's
still hard to believe.

Man, I've been called
a liar so many times.

[laughing]

I'm just used to it, I guess.
It doesn't really bother me.

If you believe it,
you believe it.
You don't, you don't.

[John] It's always
gonna be there, you know.

And sometime
if bothers me a lot,

And sometime
if bothers me a lot,

you know, but it did happen
and why did it happen?

Why was it us?

[Mike] Everybody was affected
differently, you know.

Greatly affected my life,
but it's all for the better
I think.

For the better.

It was real.

It was real that day.

[Dana] What I would say
to skeptics is

walk a mile in my shoes.

walk a mile in my shoes.

They need to do more research,

they need to be more
open minded.

[pilot] Oh, got it!

[laughing] Woo-hoo!

[narrator] Now, recent
government disclosures

lend further credence
to the experiences

of Travis
and his fellow crewmembers.

The last three years,
basically,

we have seen story after story
that establishes,

uh, that UFOs are more real
than anybody's ever believed.

[Ben] Perhaps the most
important modern-day

revelation from our
government is an official

acknowledgement that
the phenomenon is real.

Something is going on.

We definitely cannot
rule out extraterrestrial.

If the world had felt
the same back in 1975,

I don't think that
the case would've received

so much negative
criticism and ridicule.

[Travis] I think
that the reason

the Pentagon disclosures
film and statements

the Pentagon disclosures
film and statements

that they have evidence,
it's basically they're saying,

"It's a matter
of fact." It's very..

It's very good progress.

So it's a relief
that they're going to come

so far as to say,
"Yes, there's something here

and we don't know what it is."

[Bryce] I think that one
of the things
you're going to see

happening in the next
few years are we're
gonna have

congressional hearings
on this very topic

and I would submit
to the senators

and the congress people

who are thinking of putting
those hearings together

who are thinking of putting
those hearings together

that they might want
to consider calling up
Travis Walton

and bringing him up
to Washington and asking him

to tell his story directly.
I think they'd like to
hear it.

[Travis] This is the place
where my life
was changed forever.

Eventually I'm hoping
something good will
come of it.

At the minimum,

uh, make humans realize
that we're not so special,

uh, make humans realize
that we're not so special,

uh, that, uh,
the world there is.

The fact that these aliens
exist after all this time

with vastly
superior technology

has to mean that they, uh,

ceased to be war like
in attacking each other.

So it's, uh, sort of
a message to humanity

to figure out to be a whole
lot less savage

and a whole lot smarter
about where we're going
with all this.