All language subtitles for UFO Witness S01E05 The Mothership Returns 1080p AMZN WEB-DL DDP5 1 H 264-BTN_track4_[eng]

MAN: That is insane.

NARRATOR:
The Phoenix Lights event of 1997

is the largest mass UFO sighting
in our nation's history.

I saw 6 lights
over the airport

in absolute uniform,
in a V-shape.

It's unidentified, they're
flying, and it's 6 objects.

NARRATOR:
But it's not the first time
this has happened.

WOMAN: I see the light
on either side.

NARRATOR:
The government claims these
UFOs were not extraterrestrial

and have come up with countless
dubious explanations

for the lights.

Swamp gas. It's insulting
to anybody's intelligence.

Why is the government
covering up these sightings?

Do visitors from outer space

pose a threat
to our national security?

There's the government
you see,

then there's
the shadow government.

Whoa!

♪♪

I'm Ben Hansen,
a former federal agent.

My grandfather worked at a
highly classified Air Force base

and convinced me we are not
alone in the universe.

Then I had my own encounter
that changed my life forever.

MARSH:
Welcome to UFO country.

HANSEN: Now I've gained access
to a top secret archive

from Project Blue Book...

This planet has been under
surveillance for centuries.

HANSEN: ...containing reports
of over 10,000 UFO sightings

investigated
by the US government.

We could very well be standing
on the exact place

where a UFO crashed.

My mission is
to uncover the truth.

♪♪

♪♪

♪♪

I'm in Phoenix, Arizona,
on my way to meet a woman

who recently took some video
of some extraordinary UFO lights

in the skies.

The sighting
happened in 2019,

but there's been strange
activity here for over 60 years.

And eyewitnesses are convinced

these lights
are not of this world.

Dr. Lynne.
So good to see you.

I hear that you had
a really impressive sighting.

It was right in this area.

I was home, this is before
7 o'clock, and it was dark.

And I'm sitting
in front of the TV.

The lights
started to flicker.

And then those lights went out,
and the TV went off.

♪♪

I saw huge balls
of amber light...

...like nothing
you've ever seen before.

So I grabbed my camera,

and I started
photographing them.

Can I see the photos
that you took?

Absolutely. First one
and then another pop up.

So there were 4
altogether.

Yeah, I see there's 4.

NARRATOR:
The lights all appeared
in a line, a formation,

as if they were connected
to a singular craft.

They were so unusual
technology wise.

It seemed that there was
an intelligence behind them.

And I noticed an eerie silence,
as if time had stopped.

It felt like something
was watching me.

♪♪

Wow.
It was extraordinary.

Were you seeing any lights,
like, from aircraft
in the area?

They were planes coming in
to the airport,

Sky Harbor International
Airport, at the same time.

So we compare this,
which we know is a plane.

Look how bright these are.

Quite different
from any plane.

So you have video
of this, as well?

I do.
This is the video.

Oh, wow.

NARRATOR: The video also shows
the bright lights in formation

hovering in place.

They are too close to each other
to be helicopters

and too bright to be drones.

You got something
really impressive, like,

just hovering out there.
Exactly.

NARRATOR: But there's more.

This is not the first time
Dr. Kitei has seen UFOs

in the Arizona skies.

Almost 25 years ago,

Dr. Kitei filmed what has become
known as the Phoenix Lights.

I've been seeing these phenomena
since March 13, 1997.

NARRATOR: among Ufologists,

the Phoenix lights have become
one of the most iconic

UFO videos ever filmed.

20,000 citizens reported seeing
the strange object

pictured in Dr. Kitei's video.

They described it as a mile-
wide, triangle-shaped craft

with 6 distinct lights.

It crossed roughly
300 miles of airspace,

with reports coming in
from Phoenix to Tucson.

And one of the witnesses
turned out to be a famous actor.

One of the private pilots
happened to be Kurt Russell.

I saw 6 lights
over the airport

in absolute uniform,
in a V-shape,

and I reported it.

And they said,
"We're not painting anything.

We don't show anything."
I said, "Well, okay.

I'm going to declare
it's unidentified,

it's flying,
and it's 6 objects."

That was the most viewed
UFO event.

Over 20,000 people saw that.

Thousands of people?
What's going on?

It could possibly be,
I think,

the greatest mass sighting
in our country's history.

And you had a front row seat.
I did.

NARRATOR:
With so many witnesses
to this event,

the government was forced
to investigate,

bringing about what is believed

to be one of the greatest
UFO cover-ups in history.

They claim the lights were not
attached to an alien aircraft,

but were simply flares set off
during a military exercise.

When they had to come out
with something,

they came out
with the flare theory.

Flares drift
haphazardly with the wind,

have huge smoke trails.

It was bizarre.

The next morning,
headlines.

That's really
disappointing.

"Phoenix Lights
are flares."

It's like they bit it
hook, line, and sinker,

and said, "This is what
the military says.

This is what
we're going with."
Exactly.

Military flares leave behind
prominent smoke trails

as they fall,

which rules them out
as a suspect.

But others saw
the static hovering lights.

Dr. Kitei has assembled
a group of witnesses

to the 1997 Phoenix Lights
event.

Fearing retaliation,

a few have asked
to remain anonymous.

Wow.

Thank you guys
for coming here.

I understand you're all
witnesses to the
Phoenix Lights.

What did you feel like
when they come out

with this official explanation
in the newspapers
-- flares?

It's interesting
you say that.

My father fought in the I corps
area in Vietnam in '68 and '69.

He concurred
the same thing you said --

aviation flares,
they drop slowly.

Well, do you think we could all
agree then what
it was not?

These were not flares,
right?

MAN: They were not
lanterns either.

They were not lanterns.

They were not
conventional craft.

They were silent.

So if it wasn't that,
the alternative is...

♪♪

...it's from somewhere else.

NARRATOR:
2 of the eyewitnesses claim

they had close encounters
with the 1997 UFO.

Right.

I saw the same thing.

Where did you witness it?

I was on I-60.

I was driving home
from work.

♪♪

And I saw this huge
boomerang-shaped craft

flying towards me.

♪♪

[ Brakes screech ]

I slammed on the brakes.

♪♪

I jumped out of my truck
as it came up over me.

It was about 30 feet
over my head.

And I remember thinking
I could hit this with a rock.

30 feet?

NARRATOR:
David was paralyzed in fear

as the large imposing UFO flew
right above his head.

PARKER:
It was gunmetal gray

and there was, like,
thousands and thousands

of thumbprints in it.

It just meandered,

this huge craft that took up
70% of the horizon.

So from you being 30 feet
under, how wide would
it make it?

My guess was a mile
to a mile and a half.

Whoa.
From tip to tip.

But there was no one else
around.

I looked because
I wanted to have some validation

for what I saw,

but the nearest light,
I could easily see right into.

And out of that poured
what looked like lava.

And as it poured down
about 4 to 6 feet,

it stopped.

And then it went right
back up in,

and then more would come down.

And I remember thinking,
"I'm going to get burned,"

because I was that close to it.

But there was no heat,
and there was no sound.

And I stood there, and as it
passed by -- and I watched it

till it went out of sight --
I just started crying.

♪♪

It was overwhelming,
and that has stuck with me

from that day, from that moment.

Wow.

♪♪

We got over 700 people
calling.

We went out to try to
disinform people.

From there, it was chaos.

[ Whoosh ]
Whoa!

NARRATOR:
Ben Hansen is investigating
the Phoenix Lights,

a UFO sighting in Arizona
seen by over 20,000 people.

The government dismissed
the lights as military flares

despite thousands
of eyewitness accounts

describing a massive
flying craft.

I think we can all agree
that what it was not --

these were not flares.

Could the lights have been
visitors from another world?

And if so,
what do they want with us?

To find out about any other
mass UFO sightings

in American history,

Ben is headed to
the Center for UFO Studies

to talk with
historian Mark O'Connell.

So, Ben.

I have talked to
so many witnesses

who saw the Phoenix Lights.

You know, it was 1997.

There were thousands of people
who saw the triangle.

I talked to people
who saw this thing

as close as 30 feet
above their head.

PARKER:
And as it passed by,

and I watched it till
it went out of sight.

I just started crying.

Oh.
None of it made sense.

All I know for certain
is I believe

that there was
a disinformation campaign.

I'm baffled,
and I want to know,

does this type of thing
have precedence?

Has there been other cases

where there's been
a mass UFO sighting,

and the government is
so adeptly able to come in

and just take over
and silence them?

Let me show you a file
that I've been looking at.

Alright.

This is the official
Michigan '66 flap.

Swamp gas flap.

NARRATOR: Dr. J. Allen Hynek
was the lead scientific adviser

to Project Blue Book,

a government-funded
investigation

of the nation's UFO sightings
from 1952 to 1969.

According to Mark, in 1966,

the Air Force sent Dr. Hynek
to Dexter, Michigan,

a small town
outside of Ann Arbor.

There, he investigated reports
of a UFO seen by a farmer,

Frank Mannor, and his son, Ron.

There are a lot of parallels
between the Phoenix Lights

and the infamous

Dexter, Michigan,
"swamp gas" sightings --

dozens of witnesses,

the government
getting involved

in strange
and misleading ways.

So here's a recording of
an interview with Frank Mannor,

who was one of
the witnesses.

[ Click ]

♪♪

We were watching television,
and we have 6 dogs here,

and they started
raising a fuss.

[ Door creaks open,
dogs barking ]

I went outside on the porch.

I looked to the north,

and it looked like
a fallen star coming down.

I looked at it, and I thought
I was seeing things,

and a blue and a white light
come on it.

♪♪

Narrator:
Frank and Ron weren't the only
ones to witness the lights

hovering above the swamp
near his farm in Dexter.

In the neighboring town
of Hillsdale,

college students also reported
seeing a flying saucer

with 3 lights in a row,

much like the Phoenix Lights
of 1997.

When I saw it,

I just wanted to stay there
and keep my eyes glued to it.

I couldn't leave.

♪♪

♪♪

Well, when I was looking out
the window,

I saw what looked
to be shaped like a pie.

I could see the lights
on either side.

And then the red light
was sort of casting a glow

over the whole thing.

It becomes a huge,
huge national headline,

much like
the Phoenix Lights did, right?

Yeah, yeah.

I mean,
Air Force hates it

when a UFO story
becomes too big.
Yeah.

So what does
the Air Force do?

They send
Hynek to Michigan.

He interviews
the Mannor family.

But get this, he's getting
pressure from his boss

to make this case
go away quickly.

Everybody wants Hynek to say
"Spaceships! Little green men."

And instead, he says
"What these witnesses describe

could have been
swamp gas."

NARRATOR:
The official explanation --

swamp gas.

Flares caused by
the burning of gases

bubbling up
from the area swamp.

[ Click ]

Mr. Mannor, the farmer,

the lights they saw were
localized to the swamp area.

When a spring thaw comes

and the gases can bubble up
from below and get released,

the gases
can ignite spontaneously,

and they flicker
all over the place.

They'll flicker in one place
and then go out

and suddenly appear
someplace else,

which gives
the illusion of motion.

[ Click ]

Everybody just went crazy
when he said "swamp gas."

But none of it
really adds up.

The country's
leading UFO expert

just said everybody in Michigan
is an idiot

who can't tell swamp gas
from a flying saucer.

So that's kind of along
the lines of Phoenix.
Right.

It was really
the defining moment

in Dr. Hynek's career.

So, the government's going
to say it was
swamp gas.

Can we prove
that it wasn't?

There's a lot
of witness testimony.

I'd actually like to see if any
of these people are still alive.

I think the more you dig,
the more you'll find evidence

that the Air Force, of course,
during the Blue Book days,

but even beyond that,

that the Air Force
has really been up to no good.

It's a little bit
disturbing.

♪♪

HANSEN:
I'm in Dexter, Michigan,

on my way to see
Sheriff Harvey now.

Sheriff Harvey
has long since retired,

but in 1966,
he was the sheriff in charge

when Dr. Hynek was sent
to investigate the Dexter UFO.

♪♪

Sheriff Harvey,
pleasure to meet you.

I'm so excited to talk to you
about this case

because it's been
one of those iconic cases

I read about as a kid,

and I hope that you can kind of
fill in some blanks
for me,

get to the bottom of this.

I will do my utmost.

I have some of
the original documents

that might help jog
your memory.

First of all, if I could take
you back now
to 1966.

I was a young sheriff,

the second-youngest sheriff
in the state of Michigan.

At that time, there was
one sighting after another

in Dexter.

I understand you spent
a lot of time

with Dr. Hynek
when he came into town.

I'd never heard of
Professor Hynek.

Didn't know who he was.

But I knew that, you know,

he'd have to be
somebody important.

My curiosity
got the best of me,

and I said, "Dr. Hynek,
what have we got?"

And I remember him
saying to me, "I don't know."

♪♪

I found that very strange,
you know?

Uh-huh.

When we got back
to my office,

he said,
"I got to call Washington."

That stuck with me
so much --

"I got to call Washington."

Okay.

♪♪

He was in there
for quite a while.

♪♪

And he came out,
"Professor, what have we got?

What do we got?"

He said, "It's swamp gas."

I'd like to died.

Swamp gas.

So he was pretty definitive
about this?

Oh, boy. Yes.

You know, it didn't take
an idiot to figure it out.

I get a call from Washington,
and Washington is saying,

"You better say
it's swamp gas.

Get your butt out of there
and come on back to Washington."

You think about that
for a minute. He had no idea.

But then when he makes
a call to Washington,

all of a sudden, he comes out
with, "It's swamp gas."

How frustrating.
Wow.

Yes. I was disgusted.

What is swamp gas?

I've never seen it.
Yeah.

Insulting to anybody's
intelligence.

I think we'd have come up
with something better than that.

NARRATOR:
But there's more.

Sheriff Harvey has never
before revealed information,

something that doesn't appear
in any of Dr. Hynek's

Project Blue Book reports.

Hours before the news conference
and Hynek's call to Washington,

Sheriff Harvey and Dr. Hynek

visited the swamp
on Frank Mannor's farm

and found something.

♪♪

We got to the Mannor farm.

Dr. Hynek
got out of the car.

♪♪

♪♪

And in the back field,

the grass was down
in, like, a circle.

It was matted down,

you know, like something
just laid on it.

That's not in
any of the reports.

Is it possible

that Hynek
purposely left that out?

♪♪

♪♪

NARRATOR: In 1966,
dozens of citizens reported

seeing the same strange lights
fly through Dexter, Michigan,

only for authorities to dismiss
the mass UFO sighting

as swamp gas.

Did the government
cover up the truth, and why?

Ben Hansen is meeting
with a former Dexter sheriff

who, with Dr. Hynek,

saw what looked like the landing
spot of a UFO at a local farm.

HARVEY:
And Dr. Hynek walked
right up to it.

It's not in
any of the reports.

I don't see
any mention of it.

So is it possible that Hynek
purposely left that out?

♪♪

He left out what you had seen
with him -- the depression.

I know that I'd seen it.

So did Hynek --
he went up to it.

To Sheriff Harvey,
the possibility

that a UFO landed here
is real.

Sheriff Harvey,
the college students,

Frank Mannor and his son Ron,

all either saw the UFO

or direct evidence
of its presence.

And Ron Mannor is still alive
and willing to talk about it.

I'm on my way to talk
to Ron Mannor.

Now, Ron and his dad, Frank,
are the family

that witnessed the object
hovering over the swamp.

Ron was 18 at the time.

I don't think he's actually
talked about it since 1966.

♪♪

MANNOR: You must be Ben.
Come in.

Nice to meet you.
Thank you so much.

After all these years,

this is still
one of the most iconic cases.

You have so many witnesses,
an incredible event,

and then the government
steps in and says,

"You know, that wasn't
what it was.

It wasn't what you guys
experienced."

So, could you kind of

just take me back
to that evening?

I was on the back porch...

♪♪

...looking at the lights
down in the swamp.

So we sat there
and watched it for a while.

I told my dad,
It shouldn't be there,

but let's go see
what it is."

So we walked down there.

And you could see lights.

There were 3 lights --

an amber one, a red one,
and a blue one.

♪♪

Did they move
independently?

No.

I would have thought if it
was 3 different lights,

it would probably
have moved,

something would have --
Changed out of position.

Yeah,
you would have thought.

So, it's possible that it was
part of one structure.

NARRATOR:
Ron thinks it's possible

the lights were attached
to one UFO,

just like the Phoenix lights.

And so, couldn't get
a real good look at it,

so I suggested we get up
on this big hill

so we could look down
in the swamp.

So, we got over there,
and when we looked back,

the lights were gone
from there.

♪♪

And then they send out
Dr. Hynek.

He spoke
with your father.

So then Dr. Hynek
makes this press release,

and he says that
it's swamp gas.

What did your dad
feel like

when Hynek came out
and said that?

I think he felt
a little betrayed,

you know, like they were just
making him
look bad.

Well, I know
it's a real phenomenon,

but do you think
it's at all possible

that what you
and your father saw

was swamp gas?

Not possible.

Not with three distinct,
different lights.

No, not a chance.

Not a chance?
No.

With Hynek's burning swamp gas
story looking unlikely,

Ben comes up with an idea.

With Ron's permission
to access the property,

he heads to the swamp
to conduct an experiment.

Does methane gas
rising from the swamp

burn and give off
different colors?

And if so, will the flames
rise up high enough

to be mistaken for bright lights
on a flying object?

♪♪

This is really cool to be here.

You can see it's a little bit
frozen over.

To think a UFO could have
been here back in 1966.

♪♪

NARRATOR:
Joining him at the site
is a pyrotechnics expert

who will help Ben recreate
the swamp gas

that Dr. Hynek alleged
in his report.

Can't say that I've ever tried
to make swamp gas before.

WHITE: I've seen it once
down in Louisiana.

Oh, really?
Yeah,
in a pure accident.

Alright. So the water here,
it's a little bit iced over.

I need to get far enough in
to submerge this whole thing.

Whoa! Okay.

Well, now we know
how deep it is.

[ Sniffs ]
And it stinks, Schuyler.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. We definitely
will have some methane.

You can see the bubbles
already flowing.
Oh, yeah.

Look at the bubbles
already flowing.

There it goes.
There it goes.

Yeah, see?

I can feel the pressure
building up against my thumb.

Methane is flammable.
Mm-hmm.

Any ideas of how it
spontaneously combusts?

It would have to be like
a spark from an ember.

Can it be lightning?

Lightning
hitting a tree.

Almost there.

Here we go.

Alright, I feel
the pressure building up.

Thinking maybe we should
just give it a try.

Are you ready?

So, you go ahead
and light it.

3, 2, 1.
-Take a step back.

[ Whoosh ]
Whoa!

NARRATOR: In 1966,

witnesses claimed they saw a UFO
with 3 bright lights

flying over Dexter, Michigan.

Dr. J. Allen Hynek,

the UFO investigator
for the Air Force's

top secret Project Blue Book,

claimed the lights came
from burning swamp gas fires.

Ben Hansen is conducting
an experiment

to prove Dr. Hynek wrong.

HANSEN: So you go ahead
and light it.

3, 2, 1.

[ Whoosh ]
Whoa!

That would freak me out
if I was in the swamp.

WHITE:
[ Laughing ] Yeah.

I would never report that
as a UFO,

but I would be hightailing it
out of there, that's for sure.

This is exactly what
would happen with swamp gas.

And see,
that's the problem I have

with the official
explanation of this incident.

A lot of witnesses
were reporting this

up to 500 feet above,
or maybe a thousand feet.

That's ridiculous.

The Mannors, the Hillsdale
College students,

and numerous other
Dexter residents all stated

they saw 3 fixed, distinct
lights of different colors.

There were 3 lights --

an amber one,
a red one, and a blue one.

In fact,
Sheriff Harvey's deputies

claim to have chased the craft
down a country road.

MAN:
It moved very rapidly in any
direction it wanted to go.

NARRATOR: None of their
descriptions comes close

to the flames Ben has created
in this swamp.

This is really intense.

So we've reached
the max capacity of this effect,

and yet we're still
so far beneath

what the witnesses
were saying as far as height,

as far as different colors.

Oh, yeah.
What we've just done

is debunked the idea

that this could be
swamp gas.

Nature could not have created
what these witnesses saw.

I'm firmly convinced

that is not what
took place in 1966.

Ben feels confident this proves
the government covered up

the existence
of the Dexter UFO in 1966.

But what about the
Phoenix Lights UFO of 1997?

Can Ben prove The government
tried to cover that up, as well,

that the lights were attached
to a UFO,

and not caused by flares set off
during a military exercise?

♪♪

One local Arizona politician

claims to have
valuable information.

Frances Barwood
was a councilwoman

at the time of the incident.

Hi, you must be Frances.

I am.
I'm Ben.

Hi, Ben.
Nice to meet you.

Thank you
for agreeing to meet with me.

So, I talked to Dr. Kitei,

and I was in a room
filled with people

who have seen strange objects
and lights just recently

and then also back in 1997
when the event
took place.

Can you tell me
your journey

through what happened
in your exploration,

trying to find the truth?

Well, I was approached
by a reporter,

and he said he wanted to talk
to me about this object

that went over Phoenix.

"Can you find out
if anybody's investigating?"

Well, his article appeared
in Saturday's paper.

And then I get into
the office on Monday,

and my voicemail
was filled.

Oh, wow.

And it was, like --
this was overwhelming.

I got like over 700
people calling.

And I started calling
them all back.

And what was amazing to me,

they were all
the same description.

How many people that you know
can describe the
same thing,

unless they actually
saw it?
Yeah.

Each one of those people
I talked to

was with many others.

When you add it all up,
it's thousands.

And so I asked
for an investigation.

Okay.

Councilwoman Barwood
took the formal steps

to initiate a
government-backed investigation

into the Phoenix Lights,

but she was stonewalled by the
state's governor at the time,

Fife Symington.

I got this memo, and it said
this is a non-issue.

They didn't want to
touch it.

So odd. I don't know
why they would do that.

After hitting a dead end
with the local politicians,

Frances appealed to the public

to apply pressure
to the government.

I told everybody to call
the governor's office

because, you know,
he's the head of the state,

he can maybe help.

The flood of calls
couldn't be ignored,

and the governor
had to make an announcement

at an emergency
press conference.

In response, I suggested
that it was time

to end months
of speculation on the question.

And he said, "And we caught
one of the perpetrators."

Escort the accused into the room

so that we may all look
upon the guilty party.

You know,
this just goes to show

that you guys
are entirely too serious.

[ Laughter ]

It was shocking to me.

It's like they're making
a joke of this.

I imagine this was
not funny at all

to the people
who actually witnessed --

I've talked to people
who were within 30 feet of it

and could see the details
of the craft.

That is not funny.

No, it's not.

And it was not like him
at all.

Fife has no sense of humor.

There is no way that
he put that all together.

I think he did it

because they put
pressure on him.

NARRATOR:
Like Dr. Hynek in 1966,

it seems Governor Symington
was pressed

to deny the existence of UFOs.

Councilwoman Barwood
was more convinced

of the cover-up than ever.

And days later, she was
contacted by a local veteran

who claimed to possess
irrefutable evidence.

I got a phone call from a
man named Richard Curtis,

and he said
he got this all on video.

Unlike the video shot
by Dr. Lynne Kitei,

which shows a group of lights
with no visible craft,

Richard Curtis claimed
he recorded a detailed video

that showed the lights
were part of one spacecraft.

Richard promised to send a copy
of his video evidence

to Frances' office.

But when he called back
a week later,

it was clear someone
in the shadows had other plans.

And he goes, "What did
you think of the video?"

I says,
"I didn't get a video."

He says, "Oh, well,
they came from your office."

2 men claiming to be
from Frances' office

convinced Richard to hand over
the only copy of the video.

I don't have a man
working in my office.

I have three women.

Oh, my gosh.

So I said, "Okay,
what did they look like?"

"In 3 piece suits
with hats."

Now, mind you, this is July.
It's 110 degrees out.

And so it was like,
oh, my goodness.

Well, then Richard Curtis
got really sick

and they took him out
by ambulance,

and nobody's ever
seen him again.

Nobody knows where he is?
No.

NARRATOR:
Investigator Ben Hansen
is on a mission to prove

that the government
covered up the existence

of the 1966
Dexter, Michigan, UFO

and the 1997
Phoenix, Arizona, Lights.

In 1997, a man named
Richard Curtis

claimed he recorded
a detailed video

that showed the outline
of the Phoenix UFO.

But he and the video
mysteriously disappeared.

Nobody knows where he is?
No.

Neighbors of his said
they changed his medication,

he had a bad reaction,

they had to take him
to the hospital,

and he never came back.

Do we know if he's in the
obituaries, if he's passed?

Nothing,
no more information.

And I'm thinking, "How did
they know he called me?"

It was kind of creepy.

According to Frances,
a private investigator

checked her home phone line
and made a shocking discovery.

He said, "You have a tap
on your line.

It's coming from the
government, federal government."

Are you serious?

Somebody was tapping
your phone,

intercepted a conversation
you had with a witness,

and then showed up,

saying that they were coming
in your behalf

to get possibly
the only clear video

of the event
that's out there.

Right.

Do you have any idea
who these people might be,

that...tapping your phone?

Well, I was told
a long time ago

that there's
the government you see,

and there's
the shadow government.

It's not elected officials.
It's not the hired officials.

It's beyond that.

But the question remains,
why is the government

covering up
the existence of UFOs?

Frances believes
they are afraid.

Why do you harass
and wiretap

and take away the evidence
from people who saw it?

Because the government knows
that it's not them.

That's my only theory.

And so they're afraid
of losing power.

Yeah.

HANSEN: I believe that the
Phoenix Lights event

was not only
a massive government cover-up

but a smear campaign.

Frances Barwood
led this whole crusade.

Her phone was wiretapped.

The government and whoever
the secret keepers are

did a very effective job
in covering this up.

♪♪

NARRATOR: To uncover how
the conspirators deploy

and enact
their disinformation campaign,

Ben arranges a sit down
with a man

who recently identified himself
as a shadow government pawn

who was consistently deployed
to cover up government secrets.

Rick, thank you
for meeting me here.

Someone had
a legit sighting.

They wanted to dissuade
or distract the public.

The person that they would
call to do that is you.

It would be us,
special agents

with Air Force Office
of Special Investigations,

Counterintelligence Division.

Wow. Okay.

I was stationed
in Area 51 in the '80s.

You were?

I have a badge
to prove it.

Wow.

You don't think it
still works, do you?

No, I don't think
it still works.

The civilian sightings
were done

by Project Blue Book
investigators.

But the real mysterious
cases were handled

by the Air Force Office
of Special Investigations.

If someone has
a legitimate UFO sighting

and the government
comes in to discredit them,

how do they go
about doing that?

That was
part of our job.

We went out and tried to
disinform people

who have had
a UFO sighting.

And there's manuals that govern
exactly how we
do that.

It's actually written policy
how to go about doing this?

Yes.

And I have some information
here that will astound you.

Wow, wow, 'cause
I've always suspected

but I didn't know
that there was a playbook.

There's a playbook.

That manual in particular
dictates some other thing

that the Air Force
can blame it on

and exactly how we try
to discredit people.
Oh, my gosh.

There are incidents
where the sighting

was, in fact, a UFO.

We knew it was not
from this earth.

Extraterrestrial.

NARRATOR:
Ben Hansen is meeting
with Rick Doty,

a former agent
of the shadow government.

He claims he was one of
the Air Force special agents

sent out to cover up
the existence of UFOs.

There are incidents
where the sighting

was, in fact, a UFO.

We knew it was not
from this earth.

Extraterrestrial.

Those particular sightings,

we had to
disinform the public.

We got to make
those people --

make them think
that what they saw

was something other
than a UFO,

such as Mars or Venus
or a swamp gas.

That is incredible.

I've been
investigating the case

from 1966
in Dexter, Michigan.

And a lot of people
there were made to believe

that this incident
was nothing more than swamp gas.

Do you think
the government was involved?

Yes. Sounds like the government
was involved
in that.

For example,
the Phoenix Lights,

more recently -- 1997.

They come out
and say flares.

Do you see the same pattern
repeating here?

Yes.

There's a special unit,
and they're now classified

as the men in black.

These people are trained to go
out and collect intelligence

in a very mysterious
manner.

They were the master
of disguises.

And then they'll
come in more secretly.

They won't come in

spreading out their badges
and credentials.

Are you familiar

with a lot of the details
of the Dexter case?

Yeah, I saw it
in a classified report, yes.

Because I talked to Ron Mannor,
who's the son of Frank Mannor,

and both -- father, son --
saw this object.

Is it possible that someone
came to his dad

and kind of helped him
change his story?

That sounds like something
OSI would do.

[ Scoffs ]

NARRATOR: Over time,
Frank Mannor's account

of the Dexter UFO incident
changed,

and the public lost faith
in his story.

But is it possible
he was one of the victims

of a government campaign
to hide the truth?

I've investigated a lot
of incidents

where I disinformed people
or disinform the public.

I believed that
we had a mission

and we were doing
what we were supposed to do

and we were
protecting society.

We were protecting
the national defense.

But the reason I come
and speak now

is because I don't believe
that we did it right.

There's this thread
of disinformation

that is making it
very difficult

for us to know what is true
and what is not.

Why is the government
covering up these UFO sightings?

They're not going to go
to the public

and say, "You know what?

We just had an incident in
Dexter, and it was
an unknown."

Imagine what
the American people,

especially people
around Dexter, would think.

"Oh, my God,
are we being invaded?"

They had to cover it up
as an unknown.

It's about time
the public knows.

They need to know.
They deserve to know.

I thank you so much
for filling me in

and giving me
these insights.

This is amazing.

After hearing
Rick's disclosure,

Ben decides to call
Frances Barwood

and update her
with what he's uncovered.

Frances, hi, it's Ben Hansen.
How are you doing?

BARWOOD:
I'm doing good, Ben.

I have some very interesting
information for you.

Somebody who actually worked
for the Air Force,

whose name is Rick Doty,

Rick tells me that his job

was to actually
contact witnesses

who believed they had seen
UFO sightings

and to discredit them
to the degree

that they even
had them believing

that they themselves
were crazy.

I was just blown away
by his disclosure.

How does that
make you feel?

And that's what
I want to ask you.

What are they afraid of?

You think the government

believes that UFOs
are a national security threat?

Thank you so much
for your courage

and your efforts in this

and taking these witnesses
seriously

and bringing
their statements forward.

Thank you.
Alright.

Talking with Frances Barwood

and telling her
what Rick Doty said,

it really brings
everything full-circle.

I fully believe
that what she experienced

with these men in black
and the video being taken

and her phone being tapped

could possibly be exactly
the type of thing

that Rick Doty was working on
with the Air Force

in his special duties.

This is what the government
does to cover up the UFO story.

[ Warbling ]

We have seen this
decade after decade.

If you go back from 1966
in Dexter, Michigan,

to the '97
Phoenix Lights,

till now, we've confirmed

that the government
has provided disinformation...

Swamp gas.

...interfered
with the UFO investigations,

tampered with the witnesses,

and they're controlling
the media.

The government comes out with
such a ridiculous explanation.

[ Whoosh ]
Whoa!

It insults the intelligence of
these very credible witnesses.

There was a sense
of kind of a betrayal.

And after all of this, for what?

It's absolutely shocking,
it's disheartening,

and to think that it still might
be going on today.