Original subtitles

- [Heather] Phil, do you see anything? - [Phil] Nothing.

- [Heather] There's nothing? - [Phil] What did it look like?

- [bleep]. - Oh.

- [Phil] Look at that. - [Heather] Holy [bleep].

[Josh] On this episode of "Expedition X"--

[Phil] All right, there's a lake.

[Josh] Norway's ice-cold Hessdalen Valley

is one of the world's hottest spots for UFO activity.

Who here has seen the lights?

[Josh] With hundreds of reported sightings

dating back two centuries.

Using cutting-edge tech,

Heather and Phil will scour the skies.

[Phil] I see two lights.

[Heather] Oh, you're [bleep] right.

- [cracking] - [screams]

[Josh] And dive the depths in search of the truth

behind the Hessdalen lights...

What is that?

[Josh]...asking the earth-shattering question--

are aliens among us?

[Heather] Yes!

[Phil, on radio]

[theme music plays]

OK, guys, as you may recall, when I was 11,

I think I saw a UFO.

Ah, yes, that extraordinarily nerdy letter.

Yes, I saw this diamond shape up in the sky.

It suddenly disappeared, and I wrote down every single

detail I could remember. - [Heather] It's cute.

- [Josh] It's cute. - And I'm still obsessed

with getting to the bottom of what

may be up in the skies. And here's the thing.

There's been some really compelling recent evidence of,

you know, potential UFOs. Take a look at these.

- [Josh] Look at that! - And there's another.

- [Heather] Oh, wow! - [Phil] Right there.

[Josh] Wow.

[Phil] None of these are planes, none of these are satellites.

Every single one of them is unexplained.

And they all come from the same remote valley in Norway,

in northern Europe. It's called Hessdalen.

Oh, I've heard of this, the Hessdalen phenomenon.

- [Phil] Yes. - Right?

There are, like, hundreds of these sightings, right?

And it goes back, like, centuries.

This is not some instance of the Northern Lights,

this is something that's, like, out of this world.

[camera snapshot]

[Josh] Just south of the Arctic Circle

lies Norway's Hessdalen Valley, an area that's infamous

for being the world's most active location for UFOs.

The first documented sighting comes in the winter of 1811.

Priest Jacob Krogh writes about a huge, glaring star

with bright branches in the night sky.

Then, in 1895, a local newspaper runs a story

about more strange lights above the valley.

The phenomenon intensifies following World War II.

In 1947, multiple witnesses including a town mayor claimed

to see an egg-shaped craft land or crash in a nearby lake.

[people yelling]

[Josh] The early 1980s see another surge in sightings with as many

as 50 recorded in a single week.

News cameras capture the eerie lights,

drawing scientists from around the world.

In 1998, a multinational effort establishes

the world's first automated anomaly detection system

to monitor Hessdalen 24/7.

Researchers capture hundreds of videos, radar readings,

and electromagnetic anomalies.

But, today, more than 25 years later,

there is still no consensus on what is causing

the Hessdalen lights.

UAP are airborne objects

that cannot be immediately identified.

We are committed to a focused effort

to determine their origins.

In the wake of the Pentagon's admission that there are

unidentified aerial objects among us, there's been

a renewed interest in what's been happening over Hessdalen.

Meanwhile, reports of strange activity only continue to rise.

Wingless craft are reported flying over the valley

every week.

Stranger still, some say they see otherworldly lights

alongside these UFOs,

as if the lights and the UFOs are communicating somehow.

So far, no one has been proven right or wrong.

Is the truth out there in the Hessdalen valley?

I'm obviously not saying it's definitely aliens,

but the fact that scientists have been studying

this phenomenon for 40 years

and still haven't managed to crack the case,

there's something really special here.

This is a huge mystery.

I think it demands our attention.

Totally agree with you, we have to check this out, right?

We've done UFO stories before,

but not one with hundreds

of scientifically-investigated sightings.

What do you think, Heather?

Well, look, for the record, I've seen some UFOs as well.

When I was in high school, I saw six unexplainable lights

in the sky. So this is right up my alley.

- I'm all-in. - [Josh] All right,

so we all agree this needs to be checked out,

and the timing really couldn't be better.

This close to the Winter Solstice this far north

means very short days and a lot of dark skies

to look for unexplained lights.

Exactly. And I've already put the word out for witnesses.

So by the time we land, there should be a long line

of people ready to share their stories.

And maybe we can go to a Christmas market.

- [Phil] If we have time. - [Josh] You're not gonna

have time for anything if you don't

beam yourselves out of here. Get going.

- Maybe a snowman? - [Josh] Oh, my word.

- Maybe a snowman. - Snow alien?

- Oh, yeah. - OK.

[Josh] It's an eight-hour flight from New York to Oslo, Norway,

then another six hours driving north on snow-banked roads

to the Hessdalen Valley, only a few degrees latitude

from the Arctic Circle.

[Phil] It is a winter wonderland out here.

Look at this place.

[Heather] Well, I've got a fun, little, Norwegian fact for you.

- [Phil] Let's hear it. - [Heather] Did you know

that only a couple of hours away from here is where they filmed

the ice planet Hoth in "The Empire Strikes Back"?

- No way! - [Heather] I know.

So if you get cold enough, does that mean you're gonna

slice open a reindeer and crawl inside?

No, I'm not doing that.

You could then eat the reindeer.

Reindeer meat's great.

I am not eating reindeer either.

We need to find some reindeer meat when we get to town.

- I am not eating Rudolph. - Delicious.

No.

[Heather] Oh, look!

It's the Christmas market of my dreams!

At the mouth of Hessdalen Valley is the town of Roros,

world famous for its Christmas market.

[Phil] I mean, this has got to be the most festive town

on the planet! - It's adorable!

This is amazing!

See the Christmas tree back there?

[Heather gasps]

[Heather] I love it. I love it.

Did you know this is one of the places

that inspired "Frozen"?

So, this is like a mini Arendelle.

Yes.

And I feel frozen right now, so it all makes sense.

[Heather] Oh, my gosh!

Ooh, look, candy canes and Christmas garland.

- Ooh, and Santa Claus hats. - Oh, my God, those.

That's exactly what I was looking for.

- Two reindeer sausages, please. - Two?

Uh-uh.

One reindeer sausage and one cookie.

- [both] Ooh. - [Phil] Thank you.

- [Heather] Oh, it's like a hot dog. - [Phil] Yeah.

[Phil] What did you think? It's in the shape of a little reindeer?

- [Heather] Well, I don't know. - Ketchup's frozen.

I'll eat it plain.

[Phil] Do I have reindeer in my teeth?

- [Heather] No. - [Phil] OK.

[Phil] After our tasty treat, we drive another hour north,

deeper into the Hessdalen Valley.

We head to a local church where we've arranged a town hall

in order to hear from as many local witnesses as possible.

Thank you all for joining us.

Only 150 people live in the region,

but because the phenomena is such a chilling mystery,

our town hall appears to be the hottest ticket around.

To me, the Hessdalen phenomena is the most underappreciated

mystery in the entire world.

The fact that they are real, they are here, they're being

studied by scientists, they're being seen countless times

for hundreds of years, and we still don't know

what it is, what they are, who they are.

By a show of hands, who here has seen the lights?

All right, that's awesome! There's a lot of y'all.

Anybody care to start out and share your story?

Two years ago, when I was out ice-fishing at night,

I was there on the ice, waiting for the fish to bite.

And I can see an orange light in the sky,

quite strong.

I forgot about the fish. My heart was moving so fast.

[heartbeat thumping]

And then...

the light disappears.

I've never seen anything like that.

It's amazing. Thank you.

[speaking foreign language]

[translator speaking] First time I saw the objects was early '80s.

[speaking foreign language]

[translator speaking] At first, I thought it was an airplane,

and it was hovering above the river.

It had the shape of a banana, but it was a bit bigger

in the middle.

It followed the rivers, and then it disappeared

into the woods.

So we call them the Hessdalen Lights,

but what you're talking about seeing that sounds

more like a physical object flying around here.

Many people have seen object, many.

The light stops, and change direction,

and disappears. It was very big.

- 20 meters wide, maybe. - That's huge!

When it was two meters from the ground, it stopped.

The impression I got was not welcome.

One of the cases we have where there's seen beings

rushing over the field.

Wait, so people are reporting seeing beings?

[witness] Beings.

Listening to all the stories, if you add together,

it doesn't sound like natural phenomenon.

It sounds too intelligent.

There is something that interacts with people.

There is some kind of phenomenon we don't understand.

What did it do?

[scientist speaking]

You think it mimicked your light.

[Phil] You've been studying them for how long?

40 years.

Where do we start if we want to try to see this?

[Phil] The White Box is a small research station

perched atop Skarvan Mountain,

overlooking the Hessdalen Valley.

It was established in 2018 by local scientists

to study the light phenomena.

And Heather and I have been granted exclusive access to it

for our investigation.

I think right around here is as close

as the road's gonna take us.

But getting there will be a serious workout.

All right.

It looks like we've got a four-mile hike

and 2,000-foot elevation gain.

Yeah and we gotta get there before the sun sets.

- Yeah, so we should get moving. - [Heather] All right.

[Phil] The terrain is too rugged and rocky for snowmobiles,

so the only option, snowshoes.

We've got to get a move on.

There's less than two hours of daylight left

before a 19-hour night falls when temperatures can get as low

as negative 22 degrees Fahrenheit.

- [Phil] Ready? - [Heather] Yeah.

- [steps crunching] - [music plays]

Gotta get up there. A long ways to go.

[bleep].

[Phil] You got it. Tall steps.

This is some harsh, harsh conditions.

- [Heather] Whew, OK. - [groans]

- [Phil] Having fun? - [Heather grunts]

[Phil] You got it.

[wind whistling]

[Phil] There it is, look! The White Box!

[Heather] We made it! Finally!

[Phil] Oh my god.

[Heather] Phil, I see something. Holy [bleep].

[Phil] We're almost right on top of it.

- [bleep]. - What is that?

[Phil, on radio]

[whoosh]

- [Heather] We made it! - [Phil] Woo!

[Heather] Oh, home sweet home.

[Phil] Oh my gosh!

Wow! This is wild!

[door squeaks]

- Woo. - [Heather] Woo.

- Oh, my gosh. - [Heather] Look at this place.

[Phil] That...

was a mountain. - Yeah, you're not joking.

Look, we got bunks, table, roof over our heads.

OK, life of a research scientist up here.

- Control room? - Let's check it out.

[Phil] Wow. OK.

- [Heather] This is it. - [Phil] My contact said, all the computers are running.

[Phil] We just gotta open them up.

[Heather] OK.

[Phil] Look at that. Incredible!

So, over here, looks like a weather station.

It's got wind, temperature, solar radiation.

Amazing!

Geiger counter, measuring microsieverts.

We got different live feed cameras.

[Heather] Definitely an airline tracker.

We know when flights are going over.

[Phil] Yes. Star tracker right there.

This is the EMF reader. What else do we got?

360 camera and magnetometer.

- A lot of toys in this toy box - [Phil] Oh, yeah.

But we got a couple more toys we can add to the mix.

Should we set up the DAP-cam?

[Heather] Yeah, let's go set up our stuff.

[Phil] The DAP-cam stands for Data Acquisition Project.

It's something we deploy any time we're on

a sky-watching expedition like this.

We had great success with it in Japan

and in Utah's Uinta Basin.

OK. DAP-cam should be live.

This thing has a 360 view of this entire area.

It will lock on and track anything flying in the sky.

And because it's connected to the internet, it can identify

those things and categorize them as airplane,

as satellite, or-- - UFOs.

Other. All right.

[Heather] As we begin our sub-arctic skywatch,

I set up in the cozy White Box control room,

where I'll monitor the DAP-cam

and the other instruments.

Meanwhile, Phil got the short straw

and will be braving the elements outside,

keeping an eye on the skies over the valley.

You set it on a time-lapse

because this is a light phenomena,

and any light should show up pretty well on this.

I've got nothing on the DAP-cam.

I do have the town in sight,

so I can see if something is coming up from the ground,

which some of our witnesses have spoken about.

I've got a pretty good range, and I'm tracking the sky,

so if something shows up, we'll be able to see it.

[Phil] Oh, my God!

It is freezing out here! The wind is relentless

So, this camera has a super-high ISO sensor,

meaning it can capture even the dimmest of lights.

And I paired that with my wildlife lens.

This is a 500-millimeter lens.

It's basically like a telescope.

As far as I know, no one has had a camera combination

as powerful up here, meaning we potentially could

document the Hessdalen Lights like never before.

[ominous tone plays]

[Phil] Wow.

What is that?

I got a light.

[Phil talking]

I can't tell if that is a farm below that I'm seeing

in the valley,

but that's the way we came up,

and I didn't see any farms down there.

It's really hard to tell if the light is moving

or if it's stationary, so...

I'm a little skeptical,

but I have no idea what that is.

And it's gone. Disappeared.

What I do know, I got some good video of it

so we can review the footage and find out.

Bizarre. Heather, you copy?

Yeah, what's going on?

- Saw my first light. - No way, where?

It was over the lake.

As far as I can tell, it looks stationary.

So there's still a chance it could have been a farm

or a campground or something out there, but got it on video

and then disappeared. - No.

Yes.

Anything showing up on the DAP-cam?

I've got nothing so far, and nothing on

the Geiger counter or the EMF detector.

Well, the night is young, so let's keep at it.

Copy that.

[anticipatory music plays]

[camera shutter snaps]

[computer beeps]

[Heather] Holy [bleep].

- Phil, I see something. - [Phil] What'd you see?

Go to city side.

Look at this! Holy [bleep].

Phil, tell me you're seeing something out there right now.

[Phil] Where, where, where, where, where, where, where?

I'm over here, Heather. I don't see anything.

[Heather] EMF is spiking. We're at 104 right now.

It just disappeared.

I'm getting out there.

- [Heather] Phil, you see anything? - [Phil] Nothing.

- [Heather] There's nothing? - [Phil] Just city lights.

Saw some headlights from cars that would flash at times?

[Heather] No, that's not what I saw.

[Phil] What did it look like?

[Heather] It looked like this light.

It was up in the sky on the horizon,

and then it disappeared. - [Phil] Wow.

- [bleep]. - Oh!

Look at that!

- [Heather] Holy [bleep]. - [Phil] Oh my God!

[whoosh]

- [Phil] There it is! - [Heather] I told you I saw something!

[Phil] Oh my god!

No way! Recording, recording.

Just got to get it in focus.

- [Phil] Yo, where'd it go? - [Heather] It's gone.

[Phil] What?

- [Heather] Oh, there it is. - [Phil] It's back.

[Heather] [bleep].

- Wait, I see two. - No.

- [Phil] I see two lights. - [Heather] Oh, you're [bleep] right.

- [Phil] You see it? - [Heather] Yes!

[Phil] What the hell? I mean, yeah, I see flashing.

It looks like a plane, but it moved

to the right and left. - [Heather] It did.

[Phil] OK, I'm getting this.

What the [bleep]? Where'd it go?

Where'd it go? Where'd it go?

[Heather] It's gone!

There's two of them. There's two of them.

We got to check that on flight tracker.

Wow! Totally different than what we saw before.

You saw it move to the right, too, right?

I did. It was moving left,

and then it looked like it jumped right.

I'm not getting any sleep tonight.

[Phil] No. Hessdalen Valley's putting on a show for us.

Yeah.

[Phil] All right.

Eager to finally get a break from the bitter cold,

I head into the White Box control room

to see if our DAP camera

managed to capture any of the strange lights we witnessed

with our own eyes. - [Heather] Did we get it?

Yes. Take a look at this.

[Heather] Wow!

[Phil] You really get a sense on the DAP-cam how the light is

getting brighter. - [Heather] Yeah.

[Phil] And dimmer, moving left, right.

[Heather] And it's tracking it the whole time.

[Phil] Yeah.

[Heather] There's no flights on the flight tracker?

[Phil] Nothing!

And those are stars that are starting to show up.

OK.

That is so much brighter than a star.

- Yeah. - [Heather] And the DAP-cam didn't identify it.

[Phil] Isn't that wild?

DAP-cam is still running, and we have one

very good recording.

- Of a UFO. - Of the Hessdalen phenomena.

It's getting late, and we need to constantly be watching

this thing, I think we should take some shifts.

OK.

Does that mean you're taking first shift?

[Heather] Sure. It looks like you need a nap.

[Phil] Yeah, I'm gonna get some shut-eye.

I call bottom bunk.

[Heather] We take turns watching the valley skies from

the control room throughout the rest of the night.

But we don't capture anything else as compelling

as that light.

[dramatic music plays]

[Phil] After a long night becomes a very short day,

Heather and I split up to find out more about the possible

sources behind the lights we saw at the White Box.

Thank you so much for granting us access to the observatory.

- That place is wild. - Yes.

- Not easy to get to. - No, it is not.

[Phil] I go to meet Anna-Lena Kjoniksen,

an engineering professor at Norway's Ostfold University.

She and a team of scientists have been trying to solve

the Hessdalen light phenomena for more than 25 years.

We've talked to many witnesses here.

- Yeah. - People claiming to see different types of lights

in the sky, people claiming to see crafts flying around here.

We saw some interesting things ourselves at the observatory.

We saw some brief flashes of light in the valley. - [Anna-Lena] Yeah.

Could that have been the Hessdalen phenomena?

This first clip here,

believe me when I tell you, it was weird.

[ominous music plays]

[Anna-Lena talking]

- [Phil] Really? - [Anna-Lena talking]

What are they?

What is under the ground in Hessdalen Valley

that's unusual?

[Anna-Lena talking]

- [Phil] OK. - [Anna-Lena talking]

So there are so many metals in the ground that

they've basically formed a circuit...

- Yes. - ...under the ground

that can carry electricity from one side

of the valley to another?

So how does what's happening underground

connect to what's happening in the sky?

It seems like you've got a tough job.

All right, see what we can find.

[Heather] While Phil is off gathering intel at the local university,

I head to the other end of the valley to meet with

a leader of another group researching

the Hessdalen phenomenon.

[Rune talking]

[Heather] Good to see you.

- [Rune talking] - [laughing]

[Heather] Rune Rostad is one of the local with local witnesses

we met at the town hall.

He spent a fortune building this one-of-a-kind mobile

research station devoted to solving the mystery

of the Hessdalen lights.

Tell me about this place.

[Rune talking]

Yeah, and it's hard to get to, and it's cold.

[Rune talking]

[Heather] I imagine you can go anywhere in this thing.

[Rune talking]

Wait, so you saw something, too, last night?

We saw lights last night, too. What did yours look like?

Because I know at different points in the valley,

they look different to different people.

[Rune talking]

But theoretically, when you see these lights

and you have this unit, what are you gonna do?

You think it's a physical object, then?

[Heather] Now, in all your years researching, what has been

the most exciting piece of evidence?

[Rune talking]

[Heather] What am I looking at?

So I'm looking at a UFO right now, under the water.

The mayor saw this UFO land on this lake?

[Rune talking]

You think that maybe it's still there today?

[Rune talking]

Well, maybe we can help you with that.

- [Rune talking] - Yeah.

You share those coordinates, and we'll figure out

what's going on.

I think I'm gonna send Phil on that one.

[laughing]

Rune's story may sound like science fiction,

but after doing further research,

it actually checks out, except for the year.

In the summer of 1947, the same year the Roswell Incident

made headlines in the US, multiple sources

described an unidentified object plunging

into Lake Djupsjoen.

The event sparked a UFO search.

Nothing conclusive was discovered.

Rune's sonar anomaly

is the best evidence captured to date.

Could it confirm the bizarre reports from 80 years ago?

Phil and I meet back up to follow Rune's coordinates

to the frozen lake and discover for ourselves

what's really down there.

[engine humming]

- [Phil] All right, there's the lake. - [Heather] Oh, yeah.

- [Heather] All right. - [Phil] OK.

[Phil] Let me check GPS, see where we're going.

My lord!

So, according to Rune's coordinates,

the crash site should be about a mile from shore,

and see the island?

Let's aim about 300 yards to the right of there.

You think this thing is really gonna hold us, though?

- I mean, I say let's find out. - Oh, Jesus.

[engine rumbles]

[Phil] Lake Djupsjoen is about three miles long

and has an average depth of 420 feet.

[Phil] What could be under the ice?

That's the question.

[Phil] By mid-December, it's already been frozen

for over a month,

and the locals say it should be able to hold us.

[Heather] So far, so good.

[Phil] GPS shows about 100 meters out.

Should be about 20 feet in front of us.

Stop, stop, stop!

We're almost right on top of it.

- [cracking] - [screaming]

[whoosh]

[Heather] Oh my god.

I am incredibly nervous right now.

See any cracks in the ice?

- No. - OK.

- That was loud. - Yeah.

I mean, listen, a lake this big

should have thousands of tons of ice, very thick.

It's gonna make little adjustments here and there.

It's growing pains. It's winter.

- [Heather] So that's normal? - Within the realm of normal.

[Phil] But do you see what's right in front of us?

Are we here?

[Phil] GPS says we're basically right here.

X marks the spot. Time to bring out the big guns.

[Heather] All right.

[Phil] OK, first things first.

We'll drill down, see how thick this is.

[Heather] Oh, boy

This goes against everything inside of me right now.

[scraping]

Why are you getting so far away?

I'm just playing it safe.

[Phil] Whoa!

I'm in! Look at that!

- It's about six inches thick. - I'm sorry, what?

Six, seven inches.

- Isn't that not that thick? - That is.

We could probably drive a car on this ice.

- [Heather] So what's next? - [Phil] Let's get the chainsaw.

- [dramatic music plays] - [motor cranks]

[Phil] Our plan is to carefully cut a hole in this lake ice

big enough for our state-of-the-art ROV

to squeeze through.

If it sees anything on its sonar,

particularly any possible traces of the reported UFO crash

from 80 years ago,

then I'll dive down into the lake myself

to try and confirm

and maybe even recover a piece of it.

To be able to dive under the ice using this hole too,

the triangular shape allows for the easiest entry and exit

because of its closer angles.

All right, look at that!

We officially got our hole in the ice.

- Let's push them under. - All right.

- Ready to start with this one? - Yep.

OK, on three.

One, two.

[grunting]

[Phil] Wow!

[Heather] You got that one?

- [Phil] Giant ice cube. - [Heather] All right.

[Phil] Get this thing under.

[Heather] OK.

- You know what they call that? - [Heather] What?

- An ice-osceles triangle. [isosceles]. - Oh, god.

[Phil] But to be honest, it's a giant hole in the ice.

- Let's not fall in. - [Heather] Yeah, of course.

Let's get eyeballs on this thing.

[Phil] Let's do it. Grab the ROV.

The alleged UFO at the bottom of this lake is believed to be

buried under a thick layer of mud.

- [Heather] There she is. - [Phil] Oh, yes.

[Phil] Luckily, our ROV sonar can penetrate those layers.

So, similar to what we use in Loch Ness,

this is an underwater ROV with the normal lights and sonar

and video, but has this technology that's not even

on the market yet from Norbit Subsea.

It is a sub-bottom scanner.

This thing supposedly crashed here 80 years ago,

so there's gonna be some muck on top of it.

Using this technology, I think we'll be able to see

what's down there. - [Heather] OK.

[Phil] All right, help me throw it in.

All right, ready? One, two, three.

[splash]

Now let's get this thing...

moving.

[Heather] Phil, is that a Nintendo controller?

Oh, yeah. OK, going down.

So the way this scan works, if we look on this sub-bottom

profiler right here, that line right there,

that is the bottom of the lake, first layer.

Anything below that, that's where it gets interesting.

OK, so we'll keep eyes on that.

[Phil] So, going straight down.

OK, 16 meters. Should be close to the bottom.

Right now, it is just pitch black.

- [Heather] Whoa! - [Phil] Holy [bleep].

[Phil, whispering] It's the bottom.

Look! Something's showing up!

[Phil, normally] That top layer, that's the bottom.

Right there, we got something solid.

- It's huge! - [Phil] There's something down there!

[bleep] is there something there?

Holy [bleep]. What is that?

[Phil] Look at that. Look at that shape.

It's almost triangular.

It looks like debris or something.

[Heather] Yes.

- [Phil] Oh my god. - [Heather] I think we found it.

The Hessdalen phenomena

might be Scandinavia's most active UFO mystery,

but it's far from the first.

On April 8, 1665, six fishermen in the Baltic Sea,

south of Sweden, reported an astonishing sight.

Flying vessels locked in an epic aerial battle overhead.

And things would only get stranger.

A massive, flat, round shape

then began hovering ominously directly above them.

The men sailed home in terror,

reportedly still shaking the next day.

Newspapers were in their infancy,

but they jumped on the story,

publicizing it throughout the region.

So what's the truth?

Is this story an example

of 350-year-old media sensationalism?

Or is it the chilling first evidence of the UFOs

that many say still visit Scandinavia today?

[whoosh]

[Phil] Look at that. You can see it.

There's something down there.

Holy [bleep], we found it!

This confirms it. We're in the right spot.

Yeah, this is exactly where Rune said it would be.

[Phil] Shoot, that's silting up the entire bottom.

[indistinct] where to go.

We're losing visibility.

We're losing it.

[bleep].

Whoa, is it dead? It's just dropping.

- Lost manual control. - Lost control.

[Phil] Oh my god.

OK, back on.

Now, before we really lose this thing,

I think we should pull it out.

We've got the data.

It's gonna take a while to analyze to give us a sense

of the scale and actual shape of this thing.

But while it analyzes,

I think I should dive and see if I can figure out what

it's made of, maybe even collect a sample.

- You sure about that? - Oh, yeah.

[Phil] This will be the most dangerous dive of my life.

I'll be diving using a special dry suit to shield me

from the near-freezing water temperatures,

at least temporarily.

I'll only have about 20 to 30 minutes down there

before I'm risking hypothermia.

If anything goes wrong, I will have to abort immediately.

And because I'm diving under solid ice,

I have to be constantly aware of my surroundings.

I can't just surface anywhere like a normal dive.

There's a real risk I could end up trapped.

under the ice. The stakes could not be higher.

- [Heather] You're insane. - [Phil] Do you want to join me?

[Heather] No.

[Phil] Once I get under and get adjusted to the temperature,

Heather will pass down the metal detector.

It will hopefully confirm that the object down there

is indeed metal, and will also help me find it

in the near total darkness.

Phil, you ready?

[Phil talking]

[Heather] Copy that.

- [splash] - [bubbling]

[Phil talking]

[ominous music plays]

Don't be a hero, Phil, if you're too cold, surface.

[Phil talking]

How's visibility down there?

[Phil talking]

Are you OK?

[Phil talking]

- You got a hit? - [Phil talking]

Great job Phil, I think we found it.

I think you found a UFO.

[Josh] Next time on "Expedition X"--

The team's investigation of Hessdalen comes crashing down

to earth with reports it's not just lights people are seeing

out in the frozen forest.

Suddenly, I saw two creatures running on two legs.

[Josh] It's alien beings.

And you are certain they were not human,

they were not wildlife? - Very, very certain for that.

[Josh] Their search for answers leads them underground.

Look at that.

[Phil] Holy [bleep].

[Josh] Then, back to the skies.

Can Heather and Phil find a way to have a close encounter

of the third kind? - [Phil] Holy [bleep].

[Phil] Look, look, look.

[dramatic chord strike]