Original subtitles

[Music]

I've never paid much attention to UFO

sightings I've read about the occasional

incident but my curiosity has never

really expanded beyond those few cases I

just find that far too often the focus

of UFO stories is on the mystery itself

as opposed to the resolution of that

mystery plausible explanations take a

backseat to fantastical embellishments

there's an documentary and Netflix right

now and I'm using the term documentary

very loosely about a man who claims to

be harassed and pursued by aliens in one

scene he literally has someone bombed

one of those alien masks you'd get for

Halloween outside a window and it is

played completely straight what you're

doing holy

we the audience are supposed to believe

that this is a close encounter of the

Third Kind when it looks like a close

encounter of the trick-or-treat calendar

nevertheless this documentary did pique

my interest and so I began to learn more

about the UFO phenomenon immersing

myself in this expansive mythos of which

I only had a very limited understanding

from the very start I was taking down

this convoluted path of alien abductions

government conspiracies and alien

experiments that read like rejected the

drafts of the x-files but every now and

again I came across something a bit more

credible as stories that were genuinely

difficult to rationalize nothing that

would convince me the earth as a

galactic resort but mystifying stories

all the same to get you on the same page

as me we need to go back to the year

1947

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in the summer of 1947 news and

government agencies across North America

were flooded with reports of strange

objects in the sky this UFO mania was

provoked by a pilot named Kenneth Arnold

on June the 24th Arnold was flying over

the Cascade Mountains in the state of

Washington when he observed a formation

of nine saucer-like

objects zooming across the sky

unbeknownst to Arnold this innocent

description would come to popularize the

term flying saucer the scintillating

disc codes appeared to be traveling at

the speed of some 2,000 km/h a speed yet

to be achieved by any man-made airplane

in 1947

Arnold initially suspect that he'd

observed some secret military test

flight but the US Air Force quickly

denied responsibility and made a dismiss

de sighting as some form of optical

illusion but it wasn't quite that simple

not only was Arnold an experienced pilot

but his story was corroborated by a

number of witnesses on the ground who

all described a series of oval-shaped

objects traveling at a tremendous rate

of speed furthermore other sightings

have been reported dates before and

would continue for many days after more

than 800 cases in less than a month

including the famous Roswell incident

publicly the US Air Force dismissed the

sightings as nothing more than a

combination of overactive imaginations

and misperceptions of natural phenomena

but internally the Air Force was just as

mystified as the public and actually

quite concerned

hundreds of unrelated persons from all

walks of life including high-ranking

military officials scientists engineers

politicians and professional pilots

reported uncannily similar experiences

in the span of a few weeks both the

public and the intelligence community

grew increasingly convinced that

something was hiding amongst a cloud

you

in late June of 1947 the Air Force

covertly launched a preliminary

investigation into the sightings as they

suspected that some UFOs could be

vessels of foreign or celestial origin

by late September the existence of

advanced aeronautical x'

could not be eliminated while the

majority of cases could be ascribed to

natural phenomena the maneuverability

and evasive behavior displayed by some

UFOs defied all conventional

explanations it was speculated that

these seemingly mechanical UFOs could be

part of some top-secret military project

either foreign or domestic it was feared

that the Soviet Union had ceased German

technology of the World War two and

developed some advanced aircraft capable

of covert infiltration of US airspace

this led to the formation of project

sign a classified investigation that

would attempt to determine whether or

not UFOs posed a threat to national

security while the project members

entertained a number of plausible causes

by the summer of 1948 a minority of

credible and well documented UFO cases

could not be resolved these cases became

known as the unknowns by process of

elimination project sign therefore

concluded that the most probable

explanation for the most inexplicable of

cases was the extra-terrestrial

hypothesis in other words the unknowns

did not appear to be from this earth

however once this report reached the

Pentagon it was rejected the

interplanetary explanation was thought

to be unsubstantiated and so the report

was ultimately scrapped project sign was

dissolved soon thereafter and subsequent

investigations ultimately failed to

ascertain the nature of these unknowns

project signed successor Project Blue

Book merely concluded that it was

statistically improbable that UFOs

represented technological capabilities

beyond her own as the vast majority of

UFO sightings are misperceptions of

natural phenomena the presumption was

that all UFO sightings are likely to be

misperceptions as such funding for UFO

research could no longer be justified as

the threat to national security was

evidently non-existent government

sanctioned UFO research officially ended

with the dissolution of Project Blue

Book in 1969 and the Air Force a sense

proclaimed the issue resolved out of the

twelve thousand six hundred and eighteen

UFO reports in its collection 701 were

marked unknown upon its conclusion

although some would argue that many

cases were mischaracterized and at more

than 1700 cases should be regarded as

unknowns while the US government may

dismiss these unknowns as mere

statistical anomalies the fundamental

question remains what did people see

what kind of natural phenomenon evades

resolution despite decades of scrutiny

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[Applause]

late in the afternoon on May 24 1949

six civilians were on a fishing trip on

the Rogue River in the state of Oregon

suddenly one of them observed a round

and scintillating object in the sky it

barely moved as it silently hovered some

fifteen hundred meters above it was

difficult to discern any details with

the naked eye but fortunately one of

them had brought a pair of binoculars

with eight times magnification the

binoculars revealed a clearly

distinguishable metallic craft of

unfamiliar design it was round and flat

about 10 meters in diameter and had a

rounded fin on the roof it had a

reflective silver colored surface that

appeared to be somewhat dirty it lacked

any conventional means of propulsion and

made absolutely no sound after some two

minutes of observation the UFO gradually

moved with in the opposite direction of

the wind until it disappeared with the

speed of a jet plane

besides the corroborating accounts and

detailed sketches what makes this case

so interesting is that two of the

civilian observers were also employed at

an aeronautical research facility so

they had ample knowledge of aeronautics

furthermore the story never reached the

public this is important because if this

was a hoax one would expect to hoaxers

to seek immediate ention yet the

witnesses who refrained from speaking to

the press the story never reached the

public eye until many years later when

you follow gist sun cover the case files

which revealed that project Bluebook had

rather dismissively concluded it must

have been a misidentified airplane or

weather balloon so all we need now is a

plane shaped like a pancake or a

self-propelled balloon unaffected by

wind

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items on display include the latest in

meteorological devices the weather

balloon is equipped for the Radio Sun

which permits measurement of atmospheric

temperature humidity and pressure at

various altitudes if you spend some time

reading about UFOs you will soon come

across an explanation that is repeated

time and time again weather balloons the

Battle of Los Angeles balloon the

Roswell incident top-secret balloon the

Mantell incident once again a balloon

unfortunately for proponents of the

extra-terrestrial hypothesis it is often

a rather convincing explanation however

it is far less convincing when the

witnesses of a UFO are themselves

launching a balloon on April the 24th in

1949 a group of five balloonists had

just launched a weather balloon in the

New Mexico desert and were tracking said

balloon with a special telescope

suddenly the person operating the

telescope sighted another object in the

sky and alerted the rest of the group

who could all see the UFO with the naked

eye it had an elliptical shape and was

white silver and yellowish in color it

was impossible to accurately determine

its altitude and size due to the lack of

reference points but it appeared to be

flying at an extremely high altitude and

moved so quickly across the sky it was

difficult to track with a telescope it

remained visible for about a minutes

until it suddenly stopped its horizontal

motion and disappeared by near vertical

ascension into the clear blue sky it

made no sound and traveled crosswind

a year prior a very similar incident had

taken place on the 5th of April three

balloonists in the New Mexico desert

were observing a weather balloon when

they spotted a UFO moving at a very high

rate of speed it had a round shape and

was white gray and goldish in color

it flew erratically across the sky and

performed vertical loops for about 30

seconds until it disappeared the desert

was completely silent yet the UFO

violently maneuvered without making a

sound then on January the 16th 1951 two

balloonists and a number of pilots and

civilians in the New Mexico desert

observed two UFOs in the vicinity of the

balloon they were observing the balloon

had reached an altitude of 35 kilometers

and even though it was about 30 meters

in diameter the two UFOs were about

three to five times larger and appeared

to be flying above the balloon they had

an elliptical shape and were white and

gray in color they orbited at the

balloon for about 40 seconds until they

disappeared into the distance at a

terrific rate of speed and these are

just three examples of many similar

cases and despite the fact that the

spectators involved could not have been

more qualified to identify aerial

phenomena none could explain what they

had seen

[Music]

just before midnight on July the 19th

1952 radar scopes in and around

Washington DC picked up a cluster of

five to ten unidentified targets there

were no scheduled flights in the area

and the UFOs did not adhere to an

established flight paths the possibility

of a malfunction was quickly eliminated

as radar scopes at three separate

airports displayed the same

unidentifiable targets eventually the

objects could be visually confirmed as

orbs of light slowly moving across the

sky after a while the objects began to

fan out zooming across the night sky of

Washington DC they flew above the White

House the Capitol building and many

other restricted areas in a disorganized

and unpredictable fashion on numerous

occasions the UFOs performed sharp

90-degree turns and some would

completely reverse course in a matter of

seconds radar operators were baffled no

manmade aircraft could perform such

maneuvers air traffic controllers radar

operators pilots military personnel and

countless civilians all reported

sightings of UFOs one pilot remained in

close proximity to the UFOs for about 14

minutes describing them as white lights

with no recognizable shape while some

lights flew in parallel to the plane

others appear to be flying outside the

Earth's atmosphere

the sightings by the pilot also

coincided with a radar detection

suggesting that these were indeed if

physical flying objects as opposed to

radar misidentifications of some kind of

the more than three hours to jet

fighters were dispatched to intercept

the UFOs but moments before they arrived

the objects accelerated to speeds in

excess of 10,000 km/h and disappeared

out of sight

however when the Jets returned to refuel

the UFOs returned to disguise some five

hours after initial detection the last

UFO vanished from the Raider scoops but

a week later the UFOs returned once more

on the evening of July 226 the numerous

UFOs were observed streaking across the

skies above and around Washington DC

they shared many similarities with the

UFOs from the week before appearing as

orbs of light capable of extreme

supersonic velocities the crew and

passengers of some commercial flights

could once again visually confirm the

existence of many of the UFOs detected

by radar four Jets were dispatched

during the night and two of the pilots

did see something on two separate

occasions one pilots of four white

lights while the other saw a single

white light however neither came close

enough to make an accurate

identification as the Jets were easily

outmaneuvered by the UFOs under mounting

pressure from the public to explain this

apparent invasion of the US Capitol the

Air Force held a press conference on

July the 29th I am here to discuss the

so-called flying saucers the air force

interest in this problem has been due to

our feeling of an obligation to identify

and analyze to the best of our ability

anything in the air that may have the

possibility of threat or menace to the

United States however there have been a

certain percentage of this volume of

reports that have been made by credible

observers of relatively incredible

things it is this group of observations

that we now are attempting to resolve we

can say that the recent sightings are in

no way connected with any secret

development by any Department of the

United States at the conference they

claimed that temperature inversions were

to blame it's an atmospheric condition

in which layers of warm air

traps pockets of cold air which can

result in false returns on a radar scope

conversely the visual sightings were

supposedly misperceptions of stars meet

yours or strange reflections of natural

sources of light in other words it was

all just a big misunderstanding and

there was no cause for alarm it's a very

odd explanation given that it completely

disregards crucial pieces of information

for one thing visual observations and

radar detection were confirmed to be one

and the same on numerous occasions when

pilots claimed they had visual contact

with a UFO ground personnel confirmed

its existence and location on the radar

scopes when pilots claimed a UFO

disappeared it simultaneously

disappeared from the radar scopes

another glaring issue is that

temperature inversions occurred on a

daily basis throughout the summer of

1952 yet unidentified radar targets only

appeared on a two nights in question

personnel at Andrews Air Force Base were

not quite sure as to what they had seen

claiming they may have seen meteors or

other natural phenomena but the senior

air traffic controller at Washington

National Airport was certain they had

detected solid maneuvering objects while

explicitly denying the possibility of

weather-related targets furthermore none

of the radar operators agreed with Air

Force's conclusion everyone was certain

they had been tracking metallic flying

objects even the national weather bureau

disagreed with a temperature inversion

theory claiming that such phenomena

would appear as amorphous streaks across

the radar scopes as opposed to sharp the

Linea ball dots in spite of these

glaring contradictions the Air Force

concluded the temperature inversions

were to blame and that nothing

extraordinary had taken place though

somewhat paradoxically the project

Bluebook files list the case as an

unknown while simultaneously agreeing

with the air force's conclusion

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on April the 24th 1964 police officer

Lonnie Zamora was chasing a speeding car

outside a city of Socorro in the New

Mexico desert when he was alerted by a

loud noise and a bright flame in the sky

believing it to be an explosion he broke

off the chase and drove towards the

light to investigate the flame was blue

and orange and appeared to be descending

towards the ground about half a

kilometre away after a difficult drive

through the rough terrain he noticed the

white and silver colored object some 200

meters distance it initially appeared to

be an overturned car and he could see

two men in white coveralls standing

beside it the two men seemed alarmed by

Zamora's presence and looked straight at

him but after clearing a small hill

which momentarily obstructed his view

the two men had vanished Samora could

now discern that it wasn't a car but

some kind of elliptical object supported

by four metallic legs the white

ellipsoid was about five meters in

diameter and had a red insignia printed

on the side he then proceeded on foot

and was about thirty meters away when he

heard loud thumps as if someone closed

the door and then a smokeless flame

reminiscent of a welding torch suddenly

erupted beneath the craft the flame was

once again blue and orange in color and

it produced the same roaring sound that

was increasing in frequent

ever so slowly the object began to rise

at this point Samora became frightened

and the loud noise gave him the

impression that the UFO was about to

explode so he ran for cover behind his

car but after a while the UFO went

completely silent and was now hovering

some six meters above the ground its

speed gradually increased until it

disappeared into the distance while

Samora was the only person to observe

the craft up close a number of witnesses

had independently reported sightings of

an oval-shaped UFO and a bluish flame

before the story had reached the press

one particular witness had observed a

descent of an oval-shaped UFO and a

police car chasing after it a second

police officer arrived within minutes

and both the FBI and the Air Force would

soon converge upon the site the

supposedly anding site was thoroughly

investigated and photographed grass and

bushes had been burnt and were still

smoldering when the first officers

arrived at the scene some of the burnt

plants were notoriously difficult to set

a flame the investigators also covered

four wedge-shaped indentations in the

ground and they appeared to be fresh as

the dry topsoil had been pushed aside

revealing the still moist subsoil a

cluster of footprints were also

discovered within the rectangular region

of the indentations no helicopters had

been in the vicinity the insignia on the

craft could not be identified the site

was not radioactive radar had not picked

up any unusual activity nor did a soil

samples collected from the landing site

reveal any evidence of chemical

propellants some claim that vitrified

sand had been collected which is when

extreme heat melts sand into glass

however others refute this claim so it's

difficult to know for certain

nevertheless none of the investigators

believed it to be a hoax the cluster of

footprints were localized and did not

lead away from the notations assuming

Samora created indentations himself and

somehow managed to ignite in

near inflammable vegetation he must have

done so without leaving any evidence or

footprints except for a small cluster

near the center Samara was deemed highly

reliable by everyone who knew him but

more importantly by those who

interrogated him despite plenty of

opportunities to do so he never

capitalized on the sighting nor did he

seem to appreciate the attention the

story attracted no evidence of a hoax

has ever been uncovered and Sam Morris

integrity remained intact until his

death many decades later the project

Bluebook investigation failed to reach a

conclusion the most plausible

explanation seemed to be that Lonnie

Zamora had witnessed some kind of

classified experimental aircraft an

explanation favored by the local

population as well as Samora himself

given that the highly secretive military

testing range known as the White Sands

proving grounds is located right next

door this is certainly a possibility

however the unusual design and advanced

capabilities of the craft observed it

still makes it difficult to believe

unsurprisingly the military denied the

existence of such a craft many years

later the Air Force captain in charge of

the investigation recalled a strange

phone call he'd received at a time a

high ranking military official at the

Pentagon had called and personally

questioned him about the case which he

found to be highly unusual he thought it

was unconventional for a colonel to be

making such a call and so he wondered

why in the world were they so interested

[Music]

why is it that even though half the

global population walks around with a

high-resolution camera in their pocket

high-resolution footage of flying

saucers seem to be non-existent as in

variations of this line of reasoning

before and at first glance it may seem

quite decisive while it is true that

cameras are more readily accessible and

video quality has improved significantly

over the past few decades so has the

quality of forgeries thanks to software

like After Effects almost anyone can

create a convincing forgery which means

that videos like these will never be the

definitive proof they likely would have

been a few decades ago imagine an ideal

situation for a moment imagine that the

reliable individual with no background

in visual effects and no previous

interest in UFOs captures an actual

unidentifiable aircraft on a

high-resolution camera not some blob of

pixels as if it was filmed by a Japanese

adult film studio nor some indiscernible

streak that requires CSI Eskin Hansons

but an actual clearly distinguishable

craft that defy all conventional

explanations even then the authenticity

of that footage would inevitably come

into question and it would in all

likelihood be impossible to prove that

it actually happened and remember back

in 2011 a UFO in Jerusalem was captured

on video by multiple people from

multiple vantage points the case

attracted worldwide attention and the

multiple locations lent credence to the

sightings authenticity

however some time later a team of

journalists tracked down the cameraman

responsible and found that one was a

filmmaker and film teacher while the

others just so happened to be students

at the same school drones have also made

it far too easy to stage UFO sightings

strange lights in the dark night sky

performing seemingly impossible

maneuvers drones got you covered what

appears to be a solid craft and a clear

blue

guy that looks nothing like conventional

drone drones got you covered it's become

next to impossible to eliminate

conventional explanations as virtually

every person on the planet has gained

easy access to the heavens above at this

point nothing short of a spaceship

landing in the middle of Times Square

should be deemed convincing this is at

least in part why I chose to focus my

attention on the older cases as none of

these problems existed a few decades ago

the first director of Project Blue Book

Edward J ruppelt would later go on to

write a book about the cases he and his

team investigated in it he describes a

drastic shift in the attitude towards

UFO research following the rejection of

the extra-terrestrial hypothesis the Air

Force no longer sought to understand the

nature of UFOs but rather sought to

debunk the phenomenon at large in his

own words everything was being evaluated

on the premise that UFOs could not exist

no matter what you see or hear don't

believe it

following the affer mentioned washington

DC incident in 1952 this predisposition

was only reinforced investigators were

instructed to focus on cases they could

solve and to never discuss the unknowns

in public the subject was to be debunked

and ridiculed and so it was what had

initially been perceived as a potential

threat to national security had now

through an orchestrated public relations

campaign been reduced for socially

unacceptable pseudoscience grumbled

writes in his book this change in the

operating policy of the UFO project was

so pronounced that's I like so many

other people wondered if there was a

hidden reason for the change was it

actually an attempt to go underground to

make the project more secretive it was

it an effort to cover up the fact that

UFOs were proven to be interplanetary

and that this should be withheld from

the public at all cost to prevent the

mass panic

maybe I was just playing the frontman

too big cover up rumpled is of course

just speculating but given that he was

the head of the operation it does make

you wonder if there may have been some

truth behind those concerns assuming the

military is lying then how does one

distinguish a lie about alien spaceships

from a lie about classified aircrafts we

know nothing of either so the two

deceptions would appear identical I mean

I I want to believe but I'm just not

sure what I'm supposed to believe in

after working my way through a few

hundred cases I feel even more

conflicted than I did when I began but

things were just so much simpler than I

could just laugh at a man pretending to

be scared of a Halloween mask no grand

conspiracy ZnO extraterrestrials none of

that just mortal fear and a piece of

plastic

times

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you

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