Original subtitles

ANNOUNCER: This program is rated PG, and contains

ANNOUNCER: This program is rated PG, and contains

mature subject matter.

Viewer discretion is advised.

)

- [Michael] It was a perfect black, equilateral triangle.

(air whooshing) (eerie music)

- [Narrator] Tonight on "Unidentified,"

the hunt for answers to one of the greatest UFO mysteries.

- [Eyewitness] Until I put binoculars on it,

I would've never known it was a triangle.

(electronics screeching)

- [Narrator] Strange triangles are being seen in our skies

by people all over the world.

- [Eyewitness] This craft made no sound whatsoever,

other than a very slight humming noise.

- The slow speed is a very creepy aspect to this.

You have this large stealthy object

moving very slowly through the sky.

(air whooshing) (eerie music)

- [Narrator] Are the mysterious triangles

Top Secret military aircraft or UFOs on a possible mission

that threatens our national security?

- If it's ours, that's great.

(air whooshing)

If it's not, we've got an awful lot to worry about.

(sinister music)

- [Narrator] Everything we know about UFOs is changing.

(static crackling)

Thanks to a team led by former Pentagon UFO investigator,

Lue Elizondo.

- That is real, whatever that is.

- [Narrator] And former top Intelligence official,

Chris Mellon.

- This is a current, continuing phenomenon.

It's happening, it continues to happen.

(air whooshing) (electronics beeping)

- [Narrator] They discovered five unique characteristics

that UFOs have in common called the five observables.

They also released groundbreaking videos.

(electronics chirping)

- [Narrator] That forced the Navy to admit

its pilots were coming face to face

with unidentified objects.

(electronics screeching)

- [Reporter] The U.S. Navy made a shocking admission today.

- [Reporter] Strange flying objects caught on tape

by their own fighter pilots are in fact UFOs.

(intense music)

- [Narrator] Now, a new wave of military witnesses

is coming out of the shadows.

- I never seen anything move like that.

Shape, size, speed, it's clearly unidentified.

- [Narrator] The team is united on a new mission.

(electronics chirping)

Connect the dots to reveal the truth about UFOs.

- [Eyewitness] This thing had no capability

like anything on earth.

- [Narrator] And warn the world

about the dangers they might represent.

- [Chris] Carl Sagan once famously said,

"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof."

He was absolutely right,

but now we have the proof.

(static crackling) (soft dramatic music)

(intense music)

- [Narrator] Throughout history,

unidentified flying objects of various shapes and sizes

have appeared in our skies.

Thousands have witnessed mysterious flying saucers,

orbs, cubes, and Tic Tacs.

(static crackling)

But unidentified triangle-shaped craft have been reported

by thousands of witnesses over the last four decades,

so the team has launched a new investigation.

- Hello. - How are you?

- [J.T.] Fine, thank you.

- [Lue] Good, come on in.

- [Crew Member] Take one, marker.

(dramatic music)

- I was in the Army for 24 years.

I got to Fort Bragg in January of 1990.

Come August 1990 is when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait.

(engines rumbling)

- What Iraq has done violates every norm

of international law.

(explosion booming)

- [Narrator] In December 1990,

on the eve of the Gulf War,

a veteran who asked to be called J.T.

is deployed to a large American outpost in the Saudi Desert.

- I was deployed north to Hafar Al Batin.

It's in heavily-scanned restricted airspace.

(intense music)

It was Super Bowl Sunday. It was just past sunset.

Everybody else was watching the pre-game show

and I was the only one out there.

As I looked up into the sky,

I saw something that really caught my attention

because it was the only thing there.

It was a triangle of three orangish-white lights

drifting silently and slowly through the sky.

They moved as though they were part

of an isosceles triangle.

This was not a high-altitude object.

Probably between 1,000 and 2,000 feet

is what I would estimate.

It was following a perfect due east course,

drifting elegantly through the sky.

There was absolutely no sound at all.

I mean, nothing.

(intense music)

I was stunned. I was straight up stunned.

I went back inside the tent

and I told my best friend about it, only him.

And he had told me that he had heard others

talking about similar things.

And we really didn't go into it too much

because the Super Bowl started

and Whitney Houston sang the national anthem.

♪ Of the brave ♪

- That was it, everybody else was sucked into the game.

I've never seen anything like it since then or before then.

- [Narrator] J.T.'s sighting matches

descriptions the team has heard before.

- [Chris] He had a very clear view of lights

on the corners of the triangle.

It's part of a stunning global pattern

that's reported by people from all walks of life,

as well as military and law enforcement personnel.

- That doesn't fit any type of known aircraft

that I'm aware of.

(intense music)

- [Narrator] Another Gulf War veteran

believes he witnessed a similar triangle UFO

just over a year later in the same area.

- It was 1992 in the central Persian Gulf.

I was a Navy cryptologic technician

trained in Persian Farsi, the national language of Iran.

I often deployed to the Persian Gulf

where we provided theater-level support

to intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions.

- This is probably one

of the more highly-trained individuals

that the U.S. military and the Intelligence Community has.

For all intents and purposes,

this gentleman is a spy on the combat field.

(soft dramatic music)

- [Narrator] The Gulf War had ended only a year earlier.

Tensions remained high.

Michael Via was on the USS Mobile Bay,

patrolling the Persian Gulf not far from the location

of J.T.'s Saudi Arabia sighting.

- I was temporarily assigned

and I was taking some time to come get some fresh air

and see what was going on.

I made my way up to the O6 level,

about as high as you can get on this particular warship.

I was up there just sightseeing,

skylarking as they say in the Navy.

There were no flight ops underway.

And all of a sudden,

there was a pulsing sound that I felt as much as heard.

It was a very low frequency rumble.

Between a rumble and a pulse.

Like a (imitates aircraft rumbling).

I looked up and there it was.

It was the most pristine,

equilateral black triangle

flying directly over our ship

as if it had right up our wake.

In each corner were these bright round areas.

The altitude of this thing was about 10,000 feet

and its relative speed appeared to me

to be somewhere between 300 and 500 miles per hour.

The aircraft did not leave a contrail.

(eerie music)

It was absolutely stunning, majestic.

From the time that I first saw the craft

until it faded from view, it was no more than 10 seconds.

So I went back down below deck

and I saw no indication

that this thing was being tracked on radar.

(radar beeping) (dispatchers chattering)

At the speed at which

I had seen this thing passing overhead,

it should've still been on the radar picture.

It was in broad daylight, a direct overflight

of some of the most sensitive airspace on the planet.

I was astounded by what I saw.

- [Chris] Hmm.

- [Narrator] Though Michael Via's Gulf War sighting

is similar to J.T.'s,

the team notices one striking difference.

- Once again, here we have this black triangle

that shows up, and this was in broad daylight by the way.

This wasn't at night.

- Which is unusual.

- Yes, two aircraft at that time that I can think of

that would fit that pattern of a triangle,

one being the F-117, (engine roaring)

and the other one may have been some sort of stealth bomber.

- [Chris] But the silent profile would reduce observability.

- [Narrator] A low-flying triangle

with lights on each corner, no contrails, no sound of jets,

and no visible source of lift.

(mysterious music)

Could the triangle spotted by J.T. and Via

be explained by a Top Secret U.S. warplane?

(engine roaring)

Triangle-shaped aircraft are a part

of U.S. stealth plane history.

America's first stealth warplane,

the hypersonic SR-71 Blackbird,

first saw action in the late 1960s.

The B-2 Stealth Bomber was unveiled in 1989.

And the F-117 Nighthawk, a stealth attack aircraft,

played a crucial role in winning the Gulf War.

All three aircraft used

the radical new triangle-shaped design,

but the military witnesses are certain

these are not what they saw.

(intense music)

- It was not a F-117 Nighthawk.

It was not a B-2 Bomber.

It had no sawtooth edges.

It was a perfect black, equilateral triangle.

- Even at 1,000, 2,000 feet,

you're going to hear something from a F-117

or any other aircraft.

As it moved through the sky,

there was absolutely no sound at all, not even a whisper.

I mean, nothing.

- I have an advanced degree in aviation science.

I worked government aerospace for 20 years.

This didn't fit anything

that had previously been rolled out publicly.

(curious music)

- [Narrator] The triangle mystery deepens

when a similar object is seen over American skies

in Utah 30 years later.

(intense music) (static crackling)

Coming up on "Unidentified."

- [Chris] We've been approached by an individual

with a military background who reports multiple sightings

involving triangular aircraft.

- [Eyewitness] It was so bright.

Until I put binoculars on it,

I would've never known it was a triangle.

- [Chris] The fact that they're not ours

and they're operating here

is understandably and necessarily concerning.

- Oh, they were searching for something.

- You think it was searching?

(dramatic music) (static crackling)

sic)

- I'm on my way to Moab, Utah to meet with an individual.

He's former military, highly credible,

who saw one or more triangular UFOs

inside the national park.

- [Narrator] Former Deputy Assistant

Secretary of Defense for Intelligence, Chris Mellon,

is investigating triangle-shaped UFOs.

This witness has never before spoken publicly

about his UFO encounter.

- [Chris] I'm expecting to gain some new insights

into the issue of whether or not

these are U.S. manufactured military vehicles

or, in fact, foreign or of some even more exotic origin.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Due to his background in Army Intelligence,

the witness has asked to remain anonymous.

- [Chris] I'm expecting the witness to arrive at nightfall.

(mysterious music)

Hey, there.

- [Eyewitness] Hi, Mr. Mellon. How are you?

- [Chris] Good, how are you doing?

- [Eyewitness] Good, nice to meet you.

- [Chris] Thanks for coming out.

- [Eyewitness] Well, thank you.

- [Narrator] The former Intelligence analyst

was with his father shooting night sky photography

in September 2019 when they noticed an unusual light.

- [Eyewitness] I had wanted to get Milky Way

photos for a long time,

so I was pretty focused on doing that.

- [Chris] Mmm-hmm

- [Eyewitness] We got here around 10 o'clock.

I was setting up this way.

My dad saw a light that was very, very active.

I mean, it was just a quick streak.

And I didn't think much of it,

that it was probably a meteor.

And it was within three or four seconds that it did it again

and I kinda stopped

and I was like, "Dad, I think that's a UFO."

So then, we started watching it

and it was here for a long time.

- [Chris] Really?

- [Eyewitness] At times, it would be gone.

And it would look like a streak,

and then it would appear over here.

Until I put binoculars on it,

I would've never known it was a triangle.

- [Chris] Did you subsequently

think about reporting it to any authorities?

- Yeah, I did think about calling it,

but I didn't think it would do any good.

We kept thinking, "They're gonna be gone at any second."

- [Chris] Was it hovering at that point?

- [Eyewitness] Yes, it was kind of stationary.

There was no sound out of it,

so you heard nothing that would keep it hovering.

(aircraft warbling)

- [Narrator] He says the triangle

moved methodically around the canyon as if it had a purpose.

- [Chris] Did you have a hypothesis about

what these things were?

- Well they were searching for something, you know?

- You think it was searching?

- Either searching or it was taking

some kind of detailed map.

You know, it was crazy.

- [Chris] I've always wondered

if that might be what's occurring with these objects.

If the surface of the earth isn't being mapped

extensively, comprehensively,

and in minute detail.

So, it corroborates to some degree my own thinking.

It's interesting to see another Intelligence officer

having a similar reaction.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Mellon examines the photos

for further evidence.

Any similarities between this sighting

and other triangle events.

- This is the one that appeared to be one bright light

until you put binoculars on it,

then you could see it was a triangle.

(mysterious music)

My lens was set up for about a 10 second exposure.

- [Narrator] The witness's camera was set

for long exposures, ideal to capture the stars above.

But anything moving becomes a blur.

Afterwards, he took the photos to a friend,

who is a graphic artist,

to help create a composite of what he says he witnessed.

- [Chris] Wow!

- [Eyewitness] I showed it to my dad.

He was like, "Wow, it's dead on."

- [Chris] Thank you so much for sharing that.

How has this experience affected you?

- For one thing, I realize we're not alone now.

To me, it's fact.

I don't mean to be cliché,

but it went from science fiction

to science fact for me that night.

- His story was absolutely believable.

He had a security clearance,

held a sensitive and responsible position.

(curious music)

- [Narrator] The Utah sighting occurred in September 2019.

For Chris Mellon, that's key because it means

the object was not the triangle-shaped F-117,

which was retired in 2008.

Or the B-2,

which flew its most recent combat mission in 2017.

But could the object over the Canyonlands National Park

that night have been some kind of still classified,

secret military technology? (engines roaring)

- [Reporter] Folks in Texas are a bit concerned

over something mysterious floating above their heads.

- [Man] Watch the spotlights.

I'll tell you when to look.

It shines back at you, ha!

- [Narrator] For years, there have been rumors

of an alleged triangle-shaped spy plane,

code-named the TR-3B.

Speculation about its existence has long fascinated

many in the UFO and aviation communities.

- Everybody from hikers in the Sierra Nevada mountains

to airline pilots were starting to see things,

and they were reporting them to people like us

at "Aviation Week."

- [Narrator] Bill Scott

is a former Air Force flight test engineer and pilot

who spent years as a reporter

trying to solve the triangle mystery.

- The reports varied considerably in quality,

but what we found trying to piece all these things together

were some of it was correlating with known programs.

It very quickly became almost the cottage industry.

We know for a fact there are a whole lot

of these flying triangle-type vehicles.

Out in Groom Lake, Area 51, they're still very classified.

- [Narrator] The rumored TR-3B spy plane

was said to have a massive wingspan

and fly extremely slow at low altitudes.

(engine roaring)

But for Chris Mellon,

these stories are more legend than fact.

- Every source that I've gone to and spoken with

in the aerospace industry, in the Pentagon,

has denied that we have a TR-3B

or anything matching the performance,

even remotely, of what's being observed.

(mysterious music)

- [Narrator] The new witness believes

the mysterious triangle was hovering

above the ground mapping the area.

If these hovering flight characteristics

can't be explained by modern aviation

or decades-old conspiracy theories,

then Mellon believes we might be facing

a new and uncertain national security risk.

- The fact that somebody's operating these craft

directly inside the United States

in close proximity to sensitive locations is alarming.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Mellon dedicated his career

to protecting America from unconventional threats serving

as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence

under Presidents Clinton and George W. Bush.

- [Chris] I was really concerned

with dealing with insurgencies,

with terrorism, unconventional threats.

- As the senior civilian official

at the Defense Department

responsible for Intelligence,

Chris Mellon was essentially a king

of the Intelligence Community in the military.

He had access to anything he wanted.

(intense music)

- Chris is the kinda guy that doesn't like unknowns.

He's always thinking.

He's always trying to figure out.

And I think, from Chris's perspective,

this may be one of the greatest mysteries yet

that need to be solved.

- [Narrator] With the triangle over Utah still an unknown,

Mellon seeks out the one man who may have answers.

(static crackling)

Coming up on "Unidentified."

- These are case files, news clippings, scrapbooks,

and there's over 17,000 cases files.

- 17,000?

(static crackling) (dramatic music)

I'm in Albuquerque, New Mexico today,

heading to the home of David Marler,

who's the world's leading authority

on the phenomenon of black triangle UFOs.

This is something that is being reported globally

and has been for many years.

So there's actually a considerable amount of data.

(static crackles)

- [Narrator] Some think the triangles

are secret U.S. military aircraft.

Others believe they could be here

to map the earth's surface.

(static crackles)

Chris Mellon believes a mapping mission by an unknown entity

could pose a serious risk to American national security.

He hopes David Marler might have fresh insights

into the phenomena.

- [Chris] David!

- [David] Chris?

- [Chris] How are you?

- Nice to finally meet you.

- [Chris] Hey, thank you, such a pleasure.

- [David] I'm interested in showing you some of my research.

- [Chris] Incredible.

- 30 years in the making.

So here we are, the research room.

- Wow, this is incredible.

- (chuckles) This is rather interesting.

This was one of the witnesses that I interviewed,

he does woodworking and he developed a actual model-

- [Chris] Interesting.

- Not only depicting the object,

but the lighting characteristics.

These are case files, news clippings, scrapbooks.

Here we have a database and there's over 17,000 case files.

- [Chris] 17,000?

- Which, of course, is just the tip of the iceberg.

- Most people don't even report their sightings.

- [David] No.

- [Narrator] David Marler combines methodical research

with gumshoe detective work,

making him the world's leading author and lecturer

on triangular UFOs.

- Okay, Dave, so let me ask you, "Why triangles?"

- When we look at the 1960s and the 1970s,

there was a massive increase in triangular UFO reports

and this pattern has even continued to this day.

(dramatic music)

There was a fantastic series of sightings

in Southern Illinois that I personally investigated.

- [Narrator] In the early morning hours

of January 5th, 2000,

a strange object was spotted by a truck driver

in Highland, Illinois,

a small town southeast of St. Louis.

(intense music)

- Lebanon Police Officer Ed Barton pulled his squad car over

and he observed a large triangular silent platform

moving over his head.

- [Narrator] As the craft made its way

across Southern Illinois,

multiple police departments began to call in sightings.

- Officer David Martin of the Shiloh Police Department

looked up and he said, "I see something,

"but I don't know what the heck it is."

Shortly thereafter,

it disappeared and continued to move to the southwest.

The unique aspect of the Southern Illinois case

is we have multiple police officers

from neighboring municipalities

in radio contact with each other

at the time of the sightings.

(radio chirps)

(air whooshing)

- Officer Craig Stevens of Millstadt, Illinois

tried to take a Polaroid picture of the object,

which did not come out very well.

He then radioed to another police officer

in the neighboring town of Dupo, Illinois

to see if that police officer could see anything.

- It rapidly accelerated to the southwest.

(dramatic music)

We had the complete absence of sound

coupled with the large size.

Most of the police officers stated

the object was only 500 to 1,000 feet altitude.

(mysterious music) (static crackling)

- [Narrator] The characteristics of the Illinois triangle

are consistent with what Mellon has heard

from other eyewitnesses.

But the question remains, what are triangles doing?

- If this is a military aircraft, what's its mission?

I assume that there's a mission.

It is surveillance of some nature,

or scanning or analyzing the terrain, the topography.

- Well, they do seem elusive,

as though perhaps they're collecting intelligence.

And I have wondered whether they might be doing

some kind of highly, highly detailed mapping.

- When we look at the behaviors associated

with some of these reports,

the low altitude flight, the slow speed,

it could be a mapping operation of the geography,

they could be mapping something subterranean,

below ground, below surface.

We simply don't know.

Unfortunately, there's a lot of data,

but that doesn't necessarily equate to answers.

- [Narrator] If the triangles are on a mapping mission,

why would this craft be interested

in detailing the farmlands of Southern Illinois?

- The triangle flew within an estimated one to two miles

of Scott Air Force Base, but it flew by the base.

It was not reported taking off or landing there.

It simply did a little bit of a flyby.

(menacing music)

- [Narrator] Scott Air Force Base

is home to Air Mobility Command,

a crucial part of our nation's military,

coordinating troop transportation across the globe.

- There have been many instances

in which these vehicles have been observed over bases,

such as Scott Air Force Base.

And that level of intrusiveness

is something that we're not engaged in over Russia and China

and surprised unpleasantly to find occurring here.

- [Narrator] A 2001 study by a UFO research group

founded by space entrepreneur, Bob Bigelow,

documented reports of triangles

near 50 different Air Force installations across the U.S.,

including eight sightings near Scott Air Force Base.

It's a pattern Mellon finds disturbing.

(ominous music)

Coming up on "Unidentified,"

can a mass sighting just outside America's biggest city

provide new clues to these mysterious triangles?

- [Eyewitness] Everybody was in such awe

that we were speechless.

- [Eyewitness] If I close my eyes,

I can see it today just like I saw it 35 years ago.

(static crackling) (dramatic music)

- [Eyewitness] I was in shock.

I couldn't believe my eyes.

- [Eyewitness] It was the size of a football field.

- [Narrator] From 1983 to 1986,

giant triangle-shaped craft were repeatedly seen

flying just 50 miles north of America's most populated city.

- [David] We have one of the highest concentrations

of UFO activity,

specifically regarding these triangular UFOs.

- [Narrator] In the early 1980s,

New York's Hudson Valley was the scene

of possibly the largest mass sighting of UFOs in history.

(static crackling)

- We're very close proximity to roughly 14 million people.

Absolutely busiest parts of the country,

both in terms of avionics, air flights.

- This is one of the heaviest traveled air corridors

within our country.

We have these unusual objects moving in our airspace.

It begs to be answered.

(soft dramatic music)

- I'm a retired lieutenant

from the Yorktown Police Department.

This sighting's burned into my mind.

- [Narrator] Police officer, Kevin Soravilla,

was one of the first witnesses.

- In the spring of 1983,

I was on routine patrol on Route 118.

I observed a large craft approximately 100 yards

from wingtip to wingtip.

It then stopped over the Business District

and it made a 45 degree turn

and started to head westbound along Route 202.

- So I was taking my dog out for a walk

and all of a sudden,

I noticed something sitting above my head.

- I was so in awe of this object,

I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

This craft made no sound whatsoever

other than a very slight humming noise.

- Completely silent, it hovered,

and then it banked immediately doing a 45 degree turn

and shot across, is the only thing I can say, very fast.

It was gone within a second.

(curious music)

- When I responded to the police station,

the phones were ringing off the hook.

Myself, desk officer, and a highway department employee

went out to the courtyard.

Then, in about five minutes,

the craft moved directly above us, right over our heads,

less than 500 feet in elevation.

At this point, I was totally confused.

I had no idea what this was.

I didn't know whether it was maybe a military craft

or possibly a UFO.

- [Narrator] If it was a military craft,

the most likely source

would be Stewart Air National Guard Base

in nearby Newburgh, New York.

- Stewart Air Force Base is right nearby

and they were housing, at the time, the C-5s.

And the C-5's wingspan is 220 feet wide.

- [Narrator] The C-5, seen from below,

could be mistaken for a triangle.

- [Kevin] I directed the desk officer

to call Stewart Airport,

if they had any type of object on radar.

Desk officer got back to me

indicating that nothing was indicated on their radar.

- [Narrator] Stewart reported no flights

in or out of the base that night.

(engines roaring)

(ominous music)

Later, in the fall of 1983,

the triangles allegedly returned to the Hudson Valley area.

This time hovering over a major highway.

- These were so significant

that we had multiple motorists pulling over

off the Taconic Parkway- - [Chris] Wow!

- That was literally causing a traffic jam

because everyone was getting out of their cars

to look at these objects.

- When we got near the object, it was huge.

And everybody that was driving on the Taconic Parkway

pulled off to the side of the road.

- The interstate had come to a complete stop

and I could see about 50, 60 people outside of their cars

looking up above their heads.

- [Narrator] For Marler, these sightings are significant

because the witnesses didn't just report seeing lights,

as with many UFO sightings,

but the clear outline of a triangle-shaped craft

moving slowly at a hover.

(aircraft warbling)

(gentle music)

- Definitely triangular in shape

and going very, very slowly.

I almost felt I could almost walk faster than it.

So, so slow.

- It was in the shape of a V for Victor.

We were thinking, "Was it extraterrestrial?"

I mean, if it was some kind of a new spy ship,

what were they doing hovering over the parkway?

- [Narrator] But had the residents of the Hudson Valley

mistaken something commonplace for something extraordinary?

- I think that there's got to be a connection

between what people were seeing on TV and in films

and what they said that they were seeing in the sky.

(soft dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Leading UFO expert, David Clarke,

says civilian witnesses are often highly susceptible

to cultural influences.

- From the 1970s onwards, you get this increasing trend

for people to see giant triangular objects

or wedge-shaped objects.

And I think the easiest place to look for an answer

is popular culture.

Now, the film that I remember seeing from childhood,

which had a huge triangular-shaped or

wedge-shaped object,

was the very first "Star Wars" film.

When was that released? 1977.

You get the huge Imperial Star Destroyer coming into view.

Strangely enough, this is the same period of time

that people start seeing

these huge dark triangular-shaped objects

with pulsing lights moving silently

across the countryside at night.

(eerie music)

- [Narrator] For David Marler,

the volume of sightings, their consistency,

and the craft's alleged hovering behavior,

coupled with sudden accelerations

leads him to believe

this was not American military technology.

- There are some unusual characteristics

that argue against the military explanation.

You look at that and in addition to that

the ability to hover and then rapidly accelerate

and, as many witnesses have stated,

"Within the blink of an eye,

"it went from one portion of the sky

"clear over to the other,"

it just doesn't make any sense from the conventional,

aerodynamic principles. - It's bizarre, it is bizarre.

(mysterious music)

- [Narrator] David Marler has delivered

crucial new information

to Chris Mellon's triangle investigation.

But Mellon still has questions.

Could the Hudson Valley mass sighting

be of something else developed by the military?

Something so Top Secret that it might even require

covert testing over an unsuspecting population?

(dramatic music)

Coming up on "Unidentified."

- Best guess is Special Ops guys,

get 'em behind enemy lines and get out.

(static crackling)

(digital chirping)

- Hey, Lue. - Hey, Chris.

- How are ya, man? - Good.

- Good to see ya.

- [Narrator] Chris Mellon is debriefing Lue Elizondo

on his investigation into triangle UFOs.

- [Lue] So how did Utah go?

- Outstanding, met a gentleman named David Marler,

who is a treasure trove of information on UFOs.

These reports from a former Army Soldier in the desert

to a police department in Illinois,

and find the same precise description time and time again.

Hundreds of cases, at a minimum,

the evidence is very persuasive and compelling.

(curious music)

- [Narrator] Triangles have been spotted in the skies

all over the U.S.

According to eyewitness reports,

they fly low, display lights in each corner,

and are capable of hovering and instantaneous acceleration

all with little to no sound.

- It's highly credible information.

(graphics whooshing) (static crackling)

- [Narrator] Instantaneous acceleration

is one of the five observables

identified by Lue Elizondo while at the Pentagon

to track flight characteristics common to UFOs.

- These objects fit very neatly

within some of the observables,

the five observables that my program, AATIP,

was able to identify.

And that is first one being instantaneous acceleration.

(graphics beeping)

- [Narrator] Some speculate

that the Hudson Valley sightings,

which occurred 50 miles north of New York City

and were witnessed by hundreds of civilians,

might be explained by military testing.

Chris Mellon wants to know if the U.S. military

would ever have any reason to fly a Top Secret plane

over a heavily populated civilian area.

- The stealth fighter, the F-117 Nighthawk,

because of their mission

had to start flying over populated areas.

(engine roaring)

- [Narrator] The V-winged F-117

was designed to bomb urban areas.

So former test flight engineer, Bill Scott,

says the military would have good reason

to test it over cities.

- Guys flew right over big city Los Angeles.

At night, they had a certain way of doing it.

They spaced out each airplane like six minutes apart.

Sometimes, you wanna see what the reaction is.

How many reports do we get?

Are the phone lines and 911 lines flooded?

That's great data if you're developing something

that you may wanna use in an urban environment.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] But the Hudson Valley witnesses

didn't describe a fast-moving bomber.

They saw a giant, slow-moving aircraft,

very similar flight characteristics

to what was described

by Gulf War veteran, J.T.

- It was a triangular formation.

There was absolutely no noise associated with it.

And it was moving so slow, like a blimp or something.

I mean, moving just that quietly and slowly.

- [Narrator] Bill Scott says a military source told him

he witnessed something at Edwards Air Force Base

in the 1980s that may hold the key,

the test flight of a craft

similar to the large hovering triangle

spotted in the Hudson Valley and elsewhere.

- He watched this thing slowly climb,

going a little faster than he was.

He described it as a very large triangle,

but with very blunt wingtips and nose.

And he said it was kinda thick, too.

And we're pretty certain

that it was part of a new type of vehicle

that we called a near-neutral buoyancy, rigid-hull airship.

- [Narrator] Rigid hull airships

are similar to the Zeppelins of old.

Powered by hydrogen gas,

but reimagined with incredible new technology.

(static crackles)

During the war in Afghanistan,

the U.S. Air Force spent $200 million

to develop a recognizance airship called the Blue Devil.

It was outfitted with sensors, cameras,

and listening devices.

The program was scrapped in 2012.

(film reel clicks) (static crackles)

The original airships of last century may have blimp-shaped,

but the rigid-hull airship design

described to Bill Scott was triangular.

(static crackles)

- What would it be good for?

Well, it could be a very stealthy vehicle.

So the best guess, and that's all it was,

was that maybe these were vehicles being used

by the Special Ops guys.

They could get 'em in behind the lines

and not be detected and get out.

(static crackles)

- [Narrator] These new airships could carry

large numbers of troops and equipment

and were designed to fly nearly silently

under the cover of night to avoid detection.

They could account for some triangle sightings,

but can it explain them all?

(intense music)

Coming up on "Unidentified,"

Chris Mellon seeks conclusions from his team of insiders.

- I can't think of any other pattern

in the UFO phenomenology

that's really as persistent and strong and clear as this.

(static crackling) (dramatic music)

- [Narrator] The trail of triangular UFOs

has led Chris Mellon to the Canyonlands of Utah

and to investigate mass sightings in Illinois

and New York.

(graphics beeping)

Now, he wants to see if his partners

can help him put the pieces of the puzzle together.

(suspenseful music)

Jim Semivan is a former CIA Operations officer.

Steve Justice helped run Lockeed Martin's Skunk Works,

which built some of America's most advanced warplanes,

like the SR-71 Blackbird and F-117.

- Would you agree

that it would be extremely difficult to hide this?

- If it's as large as what they're describing,

yeah, it's just that much harder.

- [Jim] Okay.

- [Narrator] The team is tackling the central question

at the core of Mellon's investigation,

are triangle UFOs the work of a long-running,

still classified government program?

(suspenseful music)

- Early days of Stealth, there were just tons of rumors

of something going on before the airplane showed up.

And so it's not unprecedented.

- You're intimately familiar with tests and development

of cutting-edge stealth aircraft.

When we look at the pattern of observations

of these triangles, in the United States,

the continental United States,

in and around municipal areas, urban areas,

is that the kind of thing we do?

- The testing that I'm familiar with,

we were restricted to test areas.

The pattern of behaviors of these things

just makes no sense to me from a test standpoint.

- Why would you want this thing flying over populated areas,

which they have, and over military bases, which they have?

Why would you want to expose your technology?

- Right, so if you're trying to keep something secret,

why would you fly it over a major populated U.S. city?

- It doesn't make any sense that it's ours.

There's a social aspect and a legal aspect of this, too.

So you're driving home.

You're with Mom and Pop and two kids in the backseat

and all of a sudden, at 200 feet,

a massive triangle comes over your head

and scares the living daylights out of everybody in the car.

How would they possibly justify that?

- [Chris] Right.

- [Narrator] The group of former insiders

is unanimous in their belief the U.S. military wouldn't test

highly sensitive experimental planes over civilian areas.

But Mellon's investigation discovered

another possible explanation,

an airship designed for the War on Terror.

- The slow speed, the relative silent nature

that these things are traveling,

could it be some sort of semi-rigid airship

that we're seeing?

Are they capable of accelerating in the way that people-

- No, no. - Some people are describing?

- No, no, these are giant lumbering elephants.

- These triangular aircraft, whatever these are,

have the ability to float silently like a balloon

and then, all of a sudden, now they've achieved

this incredible acceleration and hypersonic velocities

and are absolutely gone.

- [Narrator] With the alleged ability to hover silently

and then instantly achieve hypersonic speeds,

the team concludes

triangles defy any known aviation technology.

- They typically have a configuration of lights,

one in each corner and one in the middle underneath.

The one in the middle underneath is often red.

(air whooshing)

- [Narrator] The three cornered lights

were found in each case Mellon investigated,

from the recent sighting in Utah

to the Hudson Valley 40 years earlier.

He believes these lights are key,

permitting detailed and triangulated data collection.

(mysterious music)

- Why would you build and operate a craft in that manner?

Why would you want something that large that flies that low

and flies slow, has that triangular shape?

If you wanted to map a surface in exquisite detail,

you'd fly low, you'd fly slow.

- [Narrator] For Mellon, a mapping operation would be

at the center of any potential recognizance mission.

- Triangulation is a way to measure things

in extraordinary detail.

And if it's really as advanced as it appears to be,

it might be able to collect information

for not only what's on the surface below it,

but perhaps the subsurface.

It might collect on the wiring, the plumbing, the 3-D.

- Well, Chris, we call it triangulation

because exactly that.

You're using three points, data collection points,

to collect pinpoint accuracy on a point.

- Exactly, so I don't believe these are ours.

(dramatic music)

I am hopeful that we can make headway in discovering where

at least some of these things are coming from

and how they work.

(light music)

- [Narrator] After investigating

multiple sightings of triangles,

Mellon has urgent new questions.

Are the mysterious vessels on recognizance missions?

And if they are,

what are the national security ramifications?

- [Chris] One of the lessons of history is,

when you detect a potential threat,

you need to pay attention and investigate it.

When Cortés landed in Mexico in the 1500s,

he was viewed as potentially the fulfillment

of an ancient Aztec prophecy and possibly as a god.

But, unfortunately for the Aztecs,

they didn't take the trouble to investigate,

to understand a potential threat, a potential adversary.

And they lost everything as a result.

(dramatic music)

It's a matter of trying to help the people in government

understand that this is something that is real

and needs to be taken seriously.