All language subtitles for The Alaska Triangle S01E08 Flight 1628 and Thunderbird 1080p AMZN WEB-DL DDP2 0 H 264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR: Alaska --

a vast, remote wilderness
twice the size of Texas...

ENOCH: There are dangerous,
unpredictable

forces at work here.

NARRATOR:
...in one of the most mysterious

corners of the globe.

A lot of things can kill you
out here without even trying.

NARRATOR: This is a place
hundreds of times more deadly

than the Bermuda Triangle.

MAN: Oh, my God.

Stories of alien abductions...

I believe it was a UFO.

NARRATOR: ...the paranormal,
vanishing airplanes,

and strange beasts...

The Alaskan Bigfoot --
he can rip you in half.

These accounts
are really widespread.

[Bleep] It peeked out
of the tree right there.

NARRATOR: ...have haunted
those who dare set foot here.

In the last 30 years,

16,000 people have disappeared
without a trace.

MAN #2: More people
have disappeared

than the Bermuda Triangle --
two to three times the amount.

NARRATOR: Witnesses tell us
their shocking stories...

[ Growling ]I was petrified.

NARRATOR: ...and we've gathered
some of the world's

leading experts
in their field...

I'm always after
scientific evidence

that can be
independently corroborated.

NARRATOR:
...to try and unlock the mystery

of the Alaska Triangle.

♪♪

Alaska.

Thousands of people
have mysteriously vanished here.

Is something otherworldly
causing these disappearances?

♪♪

ENOCH:
When we look at the Triangle,

the presence we find of UFOs

is a sign
that something very strange

could be happening there.

GOUGH:
Could UFOs be the cause

of the many
unexplained events in Alaska?

♪♪

NARRATOR:
In the last 60 years,

over 9,000 planes
have mysteriously crashed here,

but one near miss in 1986
between a 747 and a UFO

the size of an aircraft carrier
made aviation history.

ENOCH: This is one
of the most important

and well-documented cases
of a UFO sighting in the world.

DERRY: These people believed
what they were seeing.

They saw something that
scared them very, very badly.

RAY:
This happened over Alaska,

but what makes this
even more interesting,

that it happened
over the Alaska Triangle.

♪♪

NARRATOR:
The Triangle is a hot spot

for extraterrestrial activity.

Since the early 1950s,

top-secret
U.S.-government documents

have revealed UFO sightings
across Alaska.

In some reports, military planes
have even been stalked by UFOs

mid-flight.

Journalist Andrew Gough has been
investigating this phenomenon.

There really are a few places
on Earth as isolated as Alaska,

so one can only infer that,

if there was
extraterrestrial activity,

if there were UFOs,
why wouldn't they go there?

NARRATOR: As reports of
unidentified flying objects

continued into the 1980s,

U.S. Air Force bases
across Alaska

upgraded their radar systems.

America's
Cold War enemy, Russia,

then called the USSR, was just
56 miles from its doorstep.

The U.S. government understands
the strategic importance

of the location of Alaska,
and as a result,

it has beefed up the Air Force
bases in that region.

This area is a highly
surveyed region.

NARRATOR: But 1986 would see
an invasion of Alaskan airspace

that many believe came
from neither Russia

nor any other enemy
on this planet.

Japan Airlines flight 1628
would have a strange encounter

with a UFO that would trouble
the U.S. government

for many years to come.

On November 7th, the 747 cargo
plane with no passengers

on board
entered the Alaska Triangle,

90 miles north of Fort Yukon
at 5:05 p.m.

It was en route
from Paris to Tokyo.

Veteran U.S. Air Force
pilot Dan Hampton

has retraced
the jet's fateful encounter

with an unidentified
flying object.

This is the cargo version
of Japan Airlines' 747.

Here in the cockpit would have
been the first officer,

and here was
Captain Kenju Terauchi,

a 10,000 flight-hour veteran
of the Air Force,

ex-fighter pilot.

NARRATOR: Captain Terauchi
had 20 years' experience

as a commercial airline pilot,

but as flight 1628 flew deeper
into the Triangle,

he would witness something
never before seen.

At 5:11 p.m., the captain
looks off to the left,

and about 2,000 feet below him

are what he thinks
are military aircraft

because who else would be up
here with him at 35,000 feet?

NARRATOR: So Captain Terauchi

radioed Anchorage air
traffic control at 5:19 p.m.

What follows is the actual
recording of communication

from the cockpit.

Soon, air traffic control
picked up a high-speed object

tracking the 747.

Jim Derry was an investigator

for the Federal Aviation
Authority at the time.

At first, they weren't
too frightened

when they saw the lights.

They thought it was
another aircraft,

but our air traffic control
people contacted the military.

NARRATOR: A controller radioed
the regional command center

at the nearby U.S.
Air Force base, Elmendorf,

to see if the mysterious
aircraft belonged to them.

The military had nothing
in that sector.

NARRATOR: Unable to identify
these unknown aircraft,

the air traffic controllers
were troubled.

Could this be an incursion
from Cold War-foe Russia

or something more sinister?

Our big concern was, when you
have something at 35,000 feet

that's not under
air traffic control,

it is a major safety hazard.

NARRATOR:
But what happened next

suggested these certainly
weren't Soviet,

and they were
no ordinary planes.

They were about to perform
a gravity-defying maneuver.

Something impossible happens.

♪♪

These two things instantly
jumped from 2,000 feet below

to shooting forward

to a position
in front of the aircraft.

Jets can move
quite quickly, of course,

but there's nothing
that can do that.

GOUGH: The objects exhibited,
according to Captain Terauchi,

a complete disregard
to the limits of gravity.

It would start.
It would stop.

It would accelerate.

Can you imagine what
that must have been like?

You've never seen anything
like that in your life.

♪♪

NARRATOR:
UFO investigator James Fox

believes these were
extraterrestrial.

UFOs have the ability to appear
in one spot

and literally blink out
and appear in another location.

Conventional aircraft
don't do that.

This was a bona fide
UFO encounter

that was documented on radar
and had visual confirmation.

NARRATOR:
Now just 500 feet ahead,

the unidentified aircraft
started closing in on the 747.

Captain Terauchi was terrified
of a midair collision.

HAMPTON: The captain is saying
these lights

are unlike anything
he's ever seen before.

No wings or real fuselage
in the conventional sense

that we would think of,

and he still can't identify
what these things are.

NARRATOR: The unidentified
flying objects

continued to close in.

The lights become so bright.

They fill up the cockpit,

and then the aircraft
began to shake.

If this is an otherworldly type
of flying object,

then these could quite possibly
be some types of scan,

maybe infrared,
heat-based initially

and then ultrasonics

could account
for the aircraft shaking.

GOUGH: So incredible was this
encounter that the captain said

he could feel the heat on his
face from the craft next to him.

HAMPTON:
And at that point, of course,

he's very, very concerned

because what is this thing
or things,

and why are they so close
to his aircraft?

NARRATOR: Then the UFOs
mysteriously disappeared.

With the calm of the Alaskan
night skies around him,

Captain Terauchi and his crew

assumed this terrifying
UFO encounter was over,

but the Triangle had something
even more petrifying in store.

♪♪

[ Ice cracking ]

[ Ice cracking ]

♪♪

NARRATOR:
The Alaska Triangle,

a place that's infamous
for the strange and paranormal.

♪♪

The Triangle also has many
reports of UFOs

stalking the Alaskan skies.

MAN #2:
Ah, what is that?

ENOCH: We find this incredible
amount of UFO sightings,

which really makes us
ask the question,

"Is there something
going on here

which defies conventional
explanations?"

NARRATOR: One of the most
well-documented UFO cases

in aviation history

took place near Fort Yukon
in the north of the Triangle.

Japan Airlines flight 1628
was en route to Tokyo

when it was stalked
by gravity-defying aircraft.

♪♪

The evidence was seen on radar

by Anchorage air
traffic control.

♪♪

HAMPTON: They're so fast.

They disappear off
into the sunset.

Only when they come back,

they are flying in formation
alongside of a third object.

NARRATOR:
Captain Terauchi and his crew

said they watched in terror

as another huge UFO approached
their 747,

its size and scale left
the seasoned pilot awestruck.

What came back was
the mother ship

the size of an aircraft carrier,
only walnut-shaped.

It could only have been a UFO.

8 to 10 times
as big as his aircraft

in height and width,
and he is astonished.

NARRATOR:
Anchorage air traffic control

alerted the nearby U.S.
Air Force base Elmendorf.

Amazingly, they, too,
had picked up

the hostile
unidentified aircraft on radar.

DERRY: It was a large aircraft
of some kind,

and the radar dots
that were picked up,

it moved very rapidly.

And the military people said,

"We checked out
our primary target

with another piece
of equipment

we have here,
and it also detected it."

The fact that
it's correlated now

between not only a civilian
control agency on the ground

but the regional operations
center at Elmendorf to me

means this is something
we have to take very seriously.

NARRATOR: Air traffic control
were so concerned,

they hatched
a plan of emergency.

In a rare move,
they advised the 747

to make a drastic maneuver.

Remember, a 747
is not a fighter jet.

It takes about 5 minutes
at that altitude

and airspeed
to turn a 747 360 degrees,

and you're talking about
trying to get away

from unidentified objects
that have been bouncing back

and forth
between the horizon and you.

So he really doesn't have any
type of evasive

or escape maneuver.

NARRATOR:
With few options left,

flight 1628 descended
to 31,000 feet

and started its 360-degree turn.

♪♪

The UFOs continued
the stalk the airliner.

Air traffic control
had one last choice --

military action.

HAMPTON:
The air traffic control says,

"Would you like our military

to send some fighter jets
up to have a look?"

And he says, "Negative.
Negative,"

not just once but twice.

He's very emphatic about this.

NARRATOR: The captain refused
a fighter jet

because he feared it could
provoke a hostile response

as it's believed happened

in the infamous
Mantell Incident of 1948.

♪♪

That year, National Guard
pilot Thomas Mantell

was sent in hot pursuit
of a UFO seen at 10,000 feet

over a Kentucky air base.

Thomas Mantell was chasing a UFO
when his plane just dismantled

and fell violently to the Earth
and to his death.

Conspiracy theorists believe
that the evidence points

to the nuts
and bolts of his plane

being undone somehow by
the UFO technology alongside it,

and that's why
he plummeted to his death.

The captain knew
about this incident,

so he had
the wherewithal to say,

"I'm not gonna
have that again.

I'm better off just dealing
with this by myself."

Whatever these things
are haven't hurt him yet,

and he doesn't want to run the
risk of that or provoking them.

It must have been a very,
very nerve-racking situation.

NARRATOR: When Captain Terauchi
refused military assistance,

air traffic control
radioed a civilian jet

flying just south
of Fairbanks.

They asked United Airlines
flight 69

to approach the Japanese 747
and investigate.

♪♪

But the UFO disappeared
off the radar

as the United Airlines pilot
closed in.

HAMPTON:
He gets close enough.

He asked the JAL flight
to turn on its lights.

The United captain sees
the JAL flight but nothing else,

so whatever it was
that was following

the JAL flight has vanished
by that point.

NARRATOR:
After 42 long minutes,

Captain Terauchi's reported UFO
encounter was finally over.

One of the most significant
UFO incidents

ever in the Alaska Triangle
was now on record

and witnessed
by air traffic controllers,

military radar and three
professional crew members.

Flight 1628 was requested
to land at Anchorage.

There U.S. government agencies
were set to swoop in,

and all records
of this UFO incident

were to mysteriously disappear.

♪♪

[ Ice cracking ]

[ Ice cracking ]

♪♪

NARRATOR: On November 7, 1986,
Japan Airlines flight 1628

entered the mysterious
Alaska Triangle.

Suddenly it was intercepted
by unidentified flying objects.

GOUGH: Whatever happened
to Japan Airlines 1628,

it is now the most documented
and thus most famous

UFO incident
in modern aviation history.

This UFO incident is probably
one of the most credible cases

in the history of ufology.

NARRATOR: But there were many
outstanding questions.

Why would alien life-forms

want to target
a commercial cargo plane?

Even if it's believed these UFOs
were extraterrestrial,

they may not have had
malevolent intent

according to researcher
Jonny Enoch.

There's all kinds of reasons
why they could have been there.

The plane itself could
have been in danger.

They could have been stopping it
from entering a portal,

but my guess is,

it would have been
some sort of scientific work,

some sort of scientific analysis
they were doing.

NARRATOR: Whatever the reason
for the encounter,

when flight 1628 landed
in Anchorage,

investigators were keen
to talk to the crew.

Federal Aviation Authority agent
Jim Derry was asked to attend.

I got a call from our operations
center saying,

"We've had some
strange incidence

with an aircraft
coming in over the poles."

So this made us
pretty interested.

My first thought was that
we had a Russian intruder.

During that period
in the late '80s,

while the Cold War
was still going on,

Russians would come over
and would intrude,

but the military usually sensed
it right away and responded.

But the military detected
no one out in that area,

so we were doubly interested.

NARRATOR:
At Anchorage airport,

Jim Derry
met Captain Terauchi

and his crew within hours
of their reported UFO encounter.

I found it interesting
when I shook hands

when I met them,
their palms were very sweaty.

Pupils were very dilated.

They saw something that
scared them very, very badly.

These people believed
what they were saying.

They were very sincere,

and they were very,
very believable.

NARRATOR:
But when Captain Terauchi

described the mother ship

and sketched it
for investigators,

they were shocked
by what they saw.

♪♪

This is the captain's
original drawing of the UFO.

What I've got here on the screen
are the drawings

by the Japan Airlines captain,

and the size of this object
blew everybody's mind.

He's putting his aircraft here
in proportion

to the size
of the overall object,

which as he said, it looked
like a flying aircraft carrier.

This is like comparing a 747

to a 6,000 passenger
cruise ship in size --

massive.

There's nothing that size
that flies that we know of.

The other investigator
and I rolled our eyes

at the time
when we saw the sketches

because it seemed
really way-out,

but after we saw
that it showed up on radar,

we weren't quite
as skeptical about it.

NARRATOR:
This is the original radar data.

These lines show the flight
path of JAL 1628,

then the UFO appears on screen.

♪♪

It comes and goes
as it tracks the 747

at over 500 miles per hour

before it mysteriously
vanishes altogether.

No known aircraft can perform
such maneuvers.

Soon this data was sent to
the Federal Aviation Authority

headquarters in Washington.

A senior investigator,
John Callahan,

would prepare a file
about the case for the CIA,

but the file would be buried
in what some believe

was the start of
a major government cover-up.

[ Ice cracking ]

[ Ice cracking ]

♪♪

NARRATOR:
On November 7, 1986,

one of the most infamous UFO
encounters occurred in Alaska.

♪♪

Once safely on the ground
at Anchorage airport,

the case of flight 1628
was investigated

by the Federal
Aviation Authority.

This is a remarkable case
because this isn't

some reported sighting
in some backcountry area,

where someone could be
making something up.

These are professional,
career-focused pilots

that are telling us that
they had a sighting in the sky

and it startled them.

NARRATOR: The FAA's senior
investigator, John Callahan,

prepared a file on flight 1628's
near-miss with the UFO.

He then briefed the FAA
about his shocking conclusions.

John Callahan was blown away
by the amount of data

that they actually had,
UFO data, not just seconds,

over 30 minutes of data
to comb through, radar data,

coupled with the voice
cockpit recordings.

If you listen
to the cockpit recordings,

you'll hear Captain Terauchi

extremely concerned
about what he's looking at.

He's looking at something 5,
6 times bigger than a 747,

and he's unable
to identify this thing.

And you can hear it
in his voice.

The guy is freaking out.

John Callahan did not believe
in UFO encounters

prior to this incident.

And after reviewing the evidence
was convinced that UFOs existed.

NARRATOR:
An urgent meeting was convened

with the CIA the next day,

where John Callahan presented
his disturbing findings.

FOX: They reviewed
the evidence.

The reviewed the cockpit
recording tapes,

and they were all silenced

and told that this matter
was classified top secret

and not to ever speak
about the incident.

DERRY: John Callahan said that

when they briefed it
at the national level,

there was a person from
the intelligence community

there who collected
all the paperwork afterward,

said, "This is classified."

RAY: The CIA official said,
"We're going to confiscate

all the radar data
that you guys have,"

and told him, "I was never here.

This meeting never took place."

NARRATOR:
But word did get out.

Captain Terauchi told his story
to reporters

and re-created his initial
sketches for the world's media

as seen in this photo.

Under pressure
of the media spotlight,

the Federal Aviation Authority

went public four months
after the event.

ENOCH:
The FAA held a press conference

denying that there was proof of
any unidentified flying objects

that were captured using radar.

They attributed this
to an illusion

called a split radar image.

NARRATOR:
The Federal Aviation Authority

claimed the blip seen
tracking flight 1628 was no UFO,

but a shadow created
by the Japanese airliner itself.

Former FAA investigator
Jim Derry

questions this explanation.

The FAA even produced a rather
elongated report

telling how this kind of
shadowing takes place,

but any radar specialist
that I have talked to before

or since denies that that was
any kind of a radar shadow.

NARRATOR:
So how has flight 1628 become

one of the most
well-documented cases

of a UFO incident
in U.S. history?

It's thanks to John Callahan,
who, in 2001, went public

with the cockpit recordings
and radar data,

contradicting
the FAA's statement.

FOX: He had made copies
of the cockpit recordings,

of the radar confirmation.

Every bit of investigation
that took place with the FAA,

John Callahan had kept copies
at his desk

because they tried to cover
this incident up.

So if it wasn't
for John Callahan,

no one would probably know about
the details of this incident.

NARRATOR:
As a result of the publicity,

Japan Airlines
grounded Captain Terauchi

for two years,
but pilot Dan Hampton believes

the evidence revealed later
by John Callahan vindicates him.

As a pilot, I am always
skeptical of non-pilots,

even other pilots, that say
they've seen something strange,

but Captain Terauchi

is a professional
commercial-airline pilot.

He's an ex-military aviator

with over 10,000 hours
of flying time,

and he knew very well that
by saying anything about this,

it would impact his career.

And it did, but I have to say,
in all honesty after

looking at all the evidence,
reading the transcripts

and analyzing it from my
standpoint, I believe him.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Flight 1628 also
opened Jim Derry's eyes

to the many reports of UFOs
in the skies above Alaska.

I haven't seen any UFOs,
but I have interviewed people,

a lot of people, who have seen
them, to include many pilots.

Considering the size
of the universe,

for us to think that we are
the only life-form

out there is
extremely egotistical of us.

We don't know what's out there.

NARRATOR: Indeed.
What else is out there?

Are there other mysteries
waiting to be discovered?

And what might the U.S.
government know about them?

The JAL incident had a lasting
impact on all involved,

and no one more so
than Captain Terauchi.

Now in retirement, he's
withdrawn from the public eye.

But in the skies
of the Triangle,

it's not only UFOs that have
caused panic and confusion.

There have been reports
of a giant flying creature

big enough to prey upon moose
and even whales.

[ Bird squawks ]

Can such a creature
really exist?

Could a monstrous bird be behind
the numerous disappearances

of the Alaska Triangle?

[ Ice cracking ]

[ Ice cracking ]

♪♪

NARRATOR: If there's one place
on the planet

where strange
and mysterious creatures

could exist under the radar,

it could only be
in the Alaska Triangle.

Here native legends
tell of terrifying beasts

that roam the lands
and stalk the skies.

The most frightening of all --
the giant thunderbird.

Thunderbirds are reported to
be really huge raptors,

much bigger than the 7,
8-foot wingspan

of a Steller's sea eagle,

more approximating
the wingspan of a small plane.

NARRATOR: But there have been
reports of this gigantic

flying predator
right up to present day.

I was just flabbergasted
by its wingspan.

It was so huge.

A human would have been like
a midday snack.

[ Bird squawks ]

♪♪

NARRATOR: In Alaska, the legends
of the giant thunderbird

have been passed down
through the generations.

Qituvituaq Litchard is
a native shaman

who was brought up on stories
of this fearsome creature.

Thunderbirds have always been
a part of our native history.

Stories of them go back as far
back as native stories go back,

and they've always been
a terrifying presence

to native people.

NARRATOR: Terrifying
because of their massive size

and unimaginable strength.

Elders warn their children
to keep safe

from this flying beast

for fear of being
plucked away from their parents.

They are known to hunt
everything from moose,

caribou to beluga whales.

Beluga get up to 3,000 pounds,

and they're able to lift
a full-grown beluga.

So you've got to think,
"How big do these birds

have to be in order
to lift that much weight?"

♪♪

People were terrified
of the thunderbird

because it would swoop
down and kill people.

People were so terrified
of it, in fact,

that we wouldn't even
attempt to hunt them.

We didn't want to have anything
to do with the thunderbird.

NARRATOR:
But for the Tlingit people,

who inhabit the southeast
of the Alaska Triangle,

the thunderbird is much more
than a mere physical creature.

Anna Brown Ehlers is a fellow of
their national heritage center.

The giant thunderbird

has always been a part
of our native folklore.

It is a spiritual being.

It has thunderous wings
and can control the weather,

causing rainstorms and floods.

NARRATOR: Anna is a weaver
of traditional blankets.

These carry the legends
of her ancestors,

and the thunderbird
is a common motif.

BROWN ELHERS:
It's sacred to our society.

When we are wearing it
on our blankets,

or if it's in our totem poles,

it is a depiction
of a powerful being.

NARRATOR:
But stories of the thunderbird

aren't confined to native
Alaskan legends.

In modern times,

there have been numerous
sightings of the airborne beast.

In June 2005, Charles Gaines
was on a road trip

close to the Canadian border

in the southeastern corner
of the Alaska Triangle.

On his way back north,

Charles was looking
out the window.

[ Bird squawks ]

I saw a giant bird down
in the valley

that had a wingspan what
I estimated to be 20 to 25 feet.

[ Bird squawks ]

Well, the minute I saw the bird,
I knew what it was.

I knew that I was seeing
the thunderbird

that I'd been reading about

and hearing about,
and I was excited.

I was glad that I had gotten
a chance to see it.

NARRATOR: Charles could tell
that the trees

on either side of the bird
were about 40 feet apart,

and on both sides,

each wing was less than 10 feet
from these same trees.

So did the math.

Figured it had 20-,
25-foot wingspan.

NARRATOR: At this size,
the bird would be twice

as big
as the California condor,

the largest known bird
in North America.

Charles was the only witness
to this sighting,

but there have been credible
reports with multiple witnesses.

In 2002, near Dillingham
in the west of the Triangle,

the pilot and passengers
of a local airplane

came close to a huge bird
flying at around 1,000 feet.

Researcher Hugh Newman

has been investigating
the press reports.

NEWMAN: A remarkable eyewitness
account of a thunderbird

was reported,

and they witnessed
something they believed

to be the same size
as their plane,

some kind of massive,
unknown flying creature.

NARRATOR: The plane had
a wingspan of 35 feet,

making this creature larger
than any bird on the planet.

Cryptozoologist Lance Hightower
has also been investigating

these reports
of a thunderbird

and found that a villager
on the ground

corroborated the sighting.

It was huge.
It was massive.

It was the size
of a small plane.

Well, it bothered him
so much

that he radioed
the next town over,

and he contacted
the local authorities,

who then told people
to stay indoors,

especially the children.

This is remarkable and one of
the most interesting sightings

ever witnessed in Alaska.

HIGHTOWER: All these people,
these eyewitnesses,

they all can't be wrong.

NARRATOR:
Since this sighting,

there has been
no official report

from any pilot or passenger
in the skies of the Triangle,

but now native Alaskan
Qituvituaq Litchard

is going in search
of this elusive creature.

LITCHARD:
This is a mountainous area.

I'm gonna see if I can find
any nest

or any evidence
that they're around here.

NARRATOR: Qituvituaq will have
to stay on his guard.

For any creature that hunts
moose and whales,

he would make easy prey.

[ Ice cracking ]

[ Ice cracking ]

♪♪

NARRATOR: Alaska is a strange
and foreboding place.

Some believe a mysterious
airborne cryptid is hiding here,

the giant thunderbird,

but is this creature a forgotten
relic from prehistoric times?

And could it really exist?

Thunderbirds most definitely
still exist in Alaska.

If you think about it,
we have 664,000 square miles

and only 700,000 people.

Most of the people live
in two cities in Alaska,

and the rest of it
is just vast wilderness.

There's a lot of huge animals
for them to hunt.

There's a lot of open spaces
for them to fly

and never be seen.

NARRATOR: But today,

Qituvituaq is on
the trail of the thunderbird,

and his best chance
to see it is from the air.

LITCHARD:
I brought a drone with me.

These drones can cover about
4 miles in diameter around me.

It's hard to say how many
thunderbirds could be out there.

I want to see if I can find
anything unusual

that would indicate thunderbirds
being in this area.

♪♪

There's a lot of trees here.

♪♪

I'm trying to look for an area
to see if there's anything

that would resemble
a nesting site.

[ Bird squawks ]

NARRATOR:
If the creature is out there,

one man who won't be surprised
is Dr. Robert Ally.

He's a former professor
from the University of Alaska

who has been studying
the thunderbird phenomenon

and has come to
a truly radical conclusion.

DR. ALLEY: Newspaper reports of
large birds being seen in Alaska

could only be explained
biologically

by the possible continued
existence

of relic populations

of something like
the Ice Age pteratorns.

NARRATOR: The pteratorn had
an estimated 23-foot wingspan,

and it towered over humans
at more than 6 feet tall.

DR. ALLEY: To discover

a continuing,
living relic population,

even an individual of a bird
that was only known from fossils

dating back to the Ice Age,
it would be huge.

Whereas an eagle can easily pick
up a lamb from a mountain crag,

a thunderbird such
as a pteratorn,

would easily be able
to pick up something

the size
of a full-grown sheep or goat,

perhaps even a human being.

A pteratorn would be
an apex scavenger from Hell.

NARRATOR:
This is a life-size model

of the biggest prehistoric
pteratorn

made for the Natural History
Museum of Los Angeles.

This monster once ruled
the skies of the Americas

with a reported wingspan
of up to 26 feet.

♪♪

But now evidence
has come to light

that the thunderbird
may be even bigger.

♪♪

This comes from a resident
of Kokhanok

on the shores of Lake Iliamna...

Gary Nielsen.

♪♪

While hunting with a friend
in 2004,

Gary says he saw a thunderbird

that dwarfs the size
reported in other sightings.

NIELSEN:
We were hunting rabbits,

and I stopped for a break.

And my buddy asked, "Who's
that standing on that hill?"

And we looked.

I said, "You know, I don't think
that's a man."

♪♪

I looked at it through my scope,

and it wasn't a man,
and it wasn't an animal.

And I couldn't figure out
what it was.

♪♪

It was very tall, and we were
probably about a mile away,

a mile and a half.

So we took off
straight toward it,

and we got within a half mile.

This thing that we thought
was a very tall person

spread out its wings.

And the wings engulfed
both edges of the hill.

♪♪

In just a few flaps,
it was airborne...

[ Bird squawks ]

...and it started spiraling up.

And we were just watching it.

You know, "What is it?
What is it?"

We were seeing it,
but we weren't believing it.

I mean, it was so huge.

NARRATOR:
Gary has lived here all his life

and knows all the birds
of the area,

but he had never seen
a wingspan like this.

Even though I'm saying it,
it sounds fantastic,

but I would say 50 feet.

I was just flabbergasted
by its wingspan.

It was so huge.

NARRATOR: A creature this size
could pluck a moose or caribou

from the mountain planes
with ease.

As it was flying over,

we saw a caribou in the brush.

It was there,
trying to get that caribou,

but the caribou was inside
a patch of cottonwoods.

And it would not come out.

Something that size,

a large moose would not
have been a problem.

A human would have been nothing,
midday snack.

NARRATOR: The sight
of that massive creature

has haunted Gary ever since.

He can't prove what he saw,
but he's in no doubt.

For Qituvituaq, capturing
such a sight on camera

would be the fulfillment
of a lifelong wish,

but in this landscape,
the range of a drone

is a drop in the ocean.

LITCHARD:
This is a very vast landscape,

and I'm only covering
a few square miles here.

So they're still out there.
They're just avoiding us.

If we're gonna find
thunderbirds in the future,

I'm gonna have to cover
a lot more ground than this,

but I believe it's only
a matter of time

before my investigation
finds thunderbird.

♪♪

NARRATOR: For now, it seems

the giant thunderbird
remains elusive,

but it's a creature
that's feared across Alaska.

And it may not be alone.

No one knows what else could be
lurking in the hundreds

of thousands of square miles
of unexplored forest here.

On land and in the air,

the mysteries of
the Alaska Triangle

continue to defy explanation.

The truth is out there,

but for the moment,
it remains beyond our grasp.