All language subtitles for Alien Files Reopened S01E06 1080p WEB h264-FREQUENCY_track3_[eng]

[narrator]
Ever since humankind first
looked to the heavens,

we have asked the question,

"Are we alone?"

Tales of otherworldly beings,

ancient prophecies
and predictions,

and sightings here on Earth...

have heightened our sense
of anticipation.

But in recent years,
these claims have become

more frequent...

Do you believe our government
has made contact with

intelligent extraterrestrials?

Something I can't discuss in
a public setting.

[narrator] ...more insistent...

Biologics came with some of
these recoveries, yeah.

[narrator]
...and ever more dramatic.

From November 1989,
over the course of two years,

Belgium was overwhelmed by
thousands of UFO sightings,

witnessed by hundreds of
credible observers.

Public investigations were
launched, explanations given,

but the truth remained elusive.

And whatever it was,
it appears to have returned

several times since.

Do you believe UAPs pose
a potential threat to

our national security?
-Yes.

-Yes.
-Yes.

[narrator] What are we not
being told?

Our team of experts
reopened the files.

They'll analyze
the intelligence,

investigate the science,

and reveal the truth.

[camera shutter snaps]

[narrator]
As the 1980s drew to a close,
an unassuming European country

became the global focus for
an unprecedented wave of

UFO activity.

In just two years, thousands of
Belgians claimed to have seen

swarms of UFOs flying at
low altitude.

And the similarity in
their descriptions

was startling.

This was the infamous
Belgian UFO wave.

The remarkable events of
29th November, 1989,

began just outside
the city of Eupen in the east

of the country.

It's early winter, just after
sunset, and it's dark.

Two local gendarmes are doing
their routine patrols when

they noticed a field
that's lit up like daytime.

They look up and see
a triangular craft hovering

above them.

In each corner,
there's a massive white

spotlight beaming down,
and in the middle,

a red flashing light.

[narrator]
As the craft begins to move,
the officers Heinrich Nicoll

and Hubert Von Montigny return
to their car and follow it.

They said it moved slowly
and almost silently.

They followed it to the German
border where it turned around

and headed back towards Eupen.

[narrator] The gendarmes call in
the sighting to

Albert Creutz, their dispatcher.

[Bader] He asked them if
it was Santa Claus

looking for a place to land.

He obviously wasn't taking
it seriously.

[narrator]
But the two officers continue
tracking the object as it

eventually comes to a halt
over Lake Gilleppe.

They parked up on a hill that
overlooked the lake,

and watched it hover.

It sent out two red beams,
each with a red ball at

the end, with an orange ball
flickering between the two.

[narrator] The gendarmes watch
as the craft circles

the city of Eupen.

Back at dispatch, Creutz was
contacting the local airports.

[Dr. Aderin-Pocock Mbe] Nothing.

They hadn't seen or heard
anything unusual, not visually

or on their radars.

Suddenly from behind the trees,
another object appeared.

[narrator] At this point,
they are around 90 minutes

into their encounter.

According to witnesses,
this object tilted over to show

the upper side.

And at that point,
witnesses saw a dome

and windows all illuminated.

[narrator]
They would only see this craft
for a few moments before it

flew away.

The incident seems
unbelievable, but it was

only the beginning.

[Bader]
Back at base, the dispatcher is
looking out the window,

and he sees the craft floating
a hundred meters away.

It only stayed for a few
seconds, but that's all it took

to convert him from
a skeptic to a believer.

[narrator] And the evening was
far from over.

About nine kilometers away,
near the village of

Henri Chapelle, two other
policemen, Dieter Plummans

and Peter Nicholl, witnessed
the craft and described it

in exactly the same way as
Nicholl and Von Montigny.

Same triangular shape,
same spotlights, same red ball

in the middle, same behaviors.

But suddenly, the red balls
start hissing, and heads

straight down.

[narrator] They weren't
the only ones to see it.

According to the Belgian Air
Force, that night, more than

143 UFO sightings were reported
with at least 250 witnesses.

13 of those were police
officers from eight

different locations.

A family of four saw the ship
pass slowly overhead as

they drove on the highway,

but it was rectangular,
not triangular.

[narrator]
Authorities investigated
70 of the sightings.

Some details differed,
though none could be

fully explained.

Something undeniably strange
was happening, and there was

more to come.

On December 1st,
1989, Francesco Valenazo,

a weather forecaster,
reported seeing a UFO as

he walked through a town square
in Ans, around 30 miles

from Eupen.

He described it exactly as
the police had, and said that it

moved slowly and silently over
the square before moving on.

[narrator]
It was one of four reports
which all described the same

thing, a triangular object with
three white lights,

and a single red light.

Then on December 11th, 21 more
witnesses came forward to say

they too had seen
the mysterious craft.

A 12-year-old boy even drew
what he had seen.

[McDonald] His three drawings
explain the discrepancies in

the reports of
the craft's shape,

triangular or rectangular.

The shape you see depends on
where you're looking from.

[narrator]
Within minutes of these
sightings, a witness from

the town of Ernage, about 96
kilometers west of

Henri Chapelle, identified the
same object flying above her as

she walked home.

On the same night of
December 11, 1989, at 6:45 p.m.,

Belgian Army Colonel André
Amond was taking a drive in

the country with his wife when
they both spotted the same

three white lights with
the red ball in the center.

He said that he stopped the car
and got out, and the craft

turned towards them.

It hovered silently,
pointing a massive spotlight at

them from about 100
meters away.

[narrator] It then made a sharp
left turn away from them before

speeding off.

That exposed the underside of
the craft and it was exactly

the same as everyone else had
been describing it.

[narrator]
Colonel Amond filed a detailed
report of his encounter.

He stated that in his opinion,

this was no known
aerial vehicle.

[narrator]
After two weeks of these
extraordinary reports,

the press were asking questions
and the man to answer them was

Major General De Brouwer,
Chief of Operations of

the Belgian Air Staff.

He stated that none of
the events had shown up on

radar, but since the sightings
were nationwide, his office was

taking this seriously.

Based on the reports that he'd
been giving, the reports from

November 29th weren't any
conventional aircraft,

and he was certain that
they were not also any kind of

stealth aircraft.

The Air Force would authorize
the scrambling of jets,

provided that two criteria
were met.

One, it would have to be
a police report, and two,

it would have to be seen
on radar.

[narrator] He set a high
burden of proof.

The vast majority of UFO
sightings are never reported

to the police.

And so far, all reports claimed
these craft moved very slowly,

which doesn't ping on radar.

It all combined to make
the scrambling of jets

extremely unlikely,
which perhaps was the point.

Major General De Brouwer made
one other

significant announcement.

[Bader] The Air Force would be
assisting SOBEPS,

the scientific research group
that were leading

the official investigations.

This also allowed them some
diplomatic distance if

the craft was identified as
a US or Soviet spy plane.

[narrator]
But after the initial burst of
sightings, months passed with

no significant reports of
any others.

[Bader] But more reports
would come.

And when they came, it would be
even more remarkable

than before.

[narrator]
After a series of sightings of
unexplained aircraft in late

November and December of 1989,
Belgium was gripped by

UFO fever.

The government set criteria for
what would constitute

an official corroborated
sighting, which included

a police report
and a radar reading.

And for a while,
everything went quiet...

until the evening of
March 30th, 1990.

On that Friday evening,
an off-duty policeman saw three

unusual lights moving in
the direction of

Thorembais-Gembloux.

He called it in, telling them
that they were definitely not

stars and were clearly attached
to the underside of

a triangular object.

He said they were changing
color -- red, green,

yellow, and that a second set
of lights had arrived.

At the same time,
the reporting center registered

unknown objects on
their radar screens.

[narrator] By 11:30, a patrol
unit had arrived at

the policeman's property.
They confirmed the sighting.

An eyewitness report
independently confirmed by

police officials and supported
by radar contact met

the criteria to scramble
fighter jets.

Belgian Air Force F-16s were
launched and sped towards

the presumed location
of the UFO.

[McDonald]
Within seven minutes,
the pilots achieved radar lock

on nine separate occasions,
and every time the targets took

off at incredible speed.

[narrator]
The radar showed the object
descended from 2,100 meters to

3,000 meters in just
a few seconds.

From there, it dropped to 152
meters in about five seconds.

[Dr. Aderin-Pocock Mbe]
The human body
cannot withstand the g-forces

involved in that descent.

It would almost certainly
kill a pilot.

[narrator] And then it
accelerated even further.

We can see it on the radar,
going from 150 to 1,000 knots

in the click of your fingers.

That's 2,000 kilometers per
hour, or Mach 1.5, with no

sonic boom reported.

[narrator] The figures were
unprecedented.

For the next hour,
the F-16 pilots played a game

of cat and mouse with it.

[Haseltine] They'd get close
enough to get a radar lock.

Then the small lights would
simply disappear, and the big

ones would shoot up at
breakneck speed.

[narrator]
By 1:30 AM on March 31st,
after a two-hour chase,

radar contact ceased,
and the F-16s were running low

on fuel.
They headed back to base.

Months later, Major General
De Brouwer reconstructed

the events of that evening from
radar data.

He still had no explanation.

[McDonald]
All he knew was that whatever
they were pursuing operated

outside the envelope of
any known craft.

[narrator]
He made the startling admission
that whatever was happening in

Belgium's airspace, it was
beyond the control of

the Air Force to stop it.

What they didn't know at
the time was that the sightings

and media scrutiny were about
to step up to a whole new

level, and an iconic piece of
UFO mythology

was soon to arrive.

[narrator] After the high-speed
F-16 pursuit of late March,

sightings of
the triangle-shaped UFOs over

Belgium began again,
and on April 4th, 1990,

the craft were finally
caught on film.

At 10:00 PM,

in the tiny town of
Petit-Rechain,

just 24 kilometers from

Eupen in eastern Belgium,
a woman walking her dog saw

a craft with three spotlights
hovering above her home.

She shouted for her partner,
who rushed out with his new

camera and snapped the last two
pictures on his roll.

[Haseltine]
His first picture had a manual
exposure of over two seconds,

which would allow a lot of
light to be captured,

but would also cause very
blurry images.

On the first picture,
the craft was banking

to the left.

On the next picture,
there was nothing.

[narrator]
But that blurry first photo
appeared to have captured what

everybody had been
talking about.

The next thing you know,
it's being published in

a French magazine.

It didn't look exactly like
the previously reported craft,

but when Professor Marc Acheroy
overexposed it, you could see

the triangular shape that
you couldn't see before.

[narrator]
The final image supported
the eyewitness statements

dating back to the very first
encounter in November.

The negative was scrutinized by
several eminent scientists.

François Louange, specialist in
satellite imagery for

the French National Space
Research Center, CNES.

Richard Haines, a former senior
NASA scientist,

and Professor André Marion,
a doctor in nuclear physics

and professor at
South Paris University.

Apparently, they found no
obvious signs of any tampering

with the image.

[narrator]
And they deduced much more.

[Haseltine] They concluded that
the rotation of the spotlights

was not around a single
central point.

They also concluded that
the middle light was very

different from the outer three
and that all of the lights were

spaced symmetrically.

[narrator]
Around a decade later, in 2002,
Professor Marion retested

the photograph using improved
of technology and techniques

and announced some
astonishing findings.

He said he discovered a halo
around the craft.

When you processed it,
the light made a similar

pattern to that made by iron
filings around the pole

of a magnet.

[narrator] That led to a theory
about the fast-moving ship.

Professor Meessen,
from the Department of Physics

at the University of Louvain,
was proposing magnetic plasma

dynamic propulsion, as this
neatly ties in with

the characteristics of
the witness statement.

On the face of it, things were
really beginning to

fit together.

The picture was very similar to
what people had seen

and experienced before,
and it became known

around the world.

[narrator]
Meanwhile, in Belgium,
the sightings were continuing.

On April 22nd, 1990, there were
no less than seven reports of

flying triangles,
but two factory workers in

Basecles near Brussels made
an even more remarkable claim.

[McDonald] They were out in the
courtyard just before midnight,

and they said that a massive
trapezoid that looked like

an upside-down aircraft carrier
slowly moved overhead.

Again, it was silent.

Again, it was moving
very slowly.

And again, it was shining giant
spotlights down from above.

[narrator]
It seemed this wave of
sightings would never end.

If anything, the reports were
coming in in greater number

and with greater detail than
ever before.

On July 26, 1990,
a couple known only as

Mr. and Mrs. H claimed to have
interacted with one

of the craft.

[Dr. Aderin-Pocock Mbe]
This was in Grace-Hollogne,

about 55 kilometers from Eupen.

It was 10:30 at night.
They actually gave dimensions.

It was about 12 meters deep
with a white light belt going

along two of its sides.

[narrator]
They claimed to have seen
the usual three spotlights,

but more clearly.

They were separated from
the craft, but connected to

each other by some
unknown bracket.

[narrator]
As they continued to drive
towards nearby Seraing,

Mr. H decided to
flash his headlights at it.

He gave two flashes,
and then the craft rotated

and flashed back three times.

[narrator]
If verified, that would make
this unassuming couple in rural

Belgium, some of the first
people ever to communicate with

intelligent
extraterrestrial life.

The craft moved towards the car
and got to about a hundred

meters away on the right-hand
side and just followed them on

the hilly roads.

[narrator]
By now, the couple were
becoming fearful and were

relieved that when they crossed
the bridge into Seraing,

the UFO left them.

More UFO sightings were
reported in the months

and years ahead.

But this incident is considered
to be among the last of

the wave of UFO sightings that
had begun in November, 1989.

Over two years, there were more
than 2,000 reports filed

and 650 cases investigated.

More than 200 of the sightings
lasted for longer than five

minutes and more than 300
involved witnesses seeing

the craft at very close range
and even from

directly underneath.

None of the witnesses have ever
changed their story.

Though some skeptics have
claimed that this was

a textbook case of
mass hysteria,

Major General de Brouwer insists

that whatever
it was was very real.

[narrator]
The wave of UFO sightings over
Belgium in the early 1990s was

unprecedented and unresolved.

Witnesses shared remarkably
similar accounts, and one even

managed to capture
a craft on film.

But then in 2011, a man named
Patrick Marechal invited

reporters to his home to show
them something that would blow

the case wide open.

He showed them how he faked
the only photograph from

the entire wave.

He showed how he had pulled off
the ruse with some of his work

friends, using incredibly
simple methods.

[Dr. Aderin-Pocock Mbe]
They got a big piece of
polystyrene

and cut it to shape.

Then they painted it and added
flashlights to each

of the corners.

They suspended it on
a piece of string

and took the photographs.

[narrator]
To prove he faked it,
he presented dozens of photos

they had taken to get one that
was just right.

Considering the rudimentary
methods they used, a hoax is

all the more embarrassing for
the scientists who declared

the photo authentic.

And it turns out that
the F-16's radar locks from

the mad pursuit of UFOs across
Belgian airspace in March 1990

also weren't what
they appeared to be.

Two scientists from the Belgian
Royal Military Academy

and the Electronic Warfare
Center, Officer Cadet Gilmard

and Major Salmon reviewed
the radar tapes

and concluded that
at least

some of the lock-ons were what
were known as angels.

Angels are officially known as
clear air scattering, which is

a phenomena called Bragg
scattering, which can cause

a radar reflection to see solid
objects where there are none.

[narrator] The evidence
supporting the angels theory is

pretty compelling.

[Haseltine]
With four of the lock-ons,
the objects descended rapidly

with negative altitude in some
cases, which meant

they actually went below
the ground as seen

on the radar.

But that was most likely
a mirror-like reflection of

the radar imagery
from the ground.

[narrator] But the angels theory
doesn't explain everything.

[McDonald]
Meessen insists that there is
one radar trace that can't be

explained away.

And while there may have been
unusual atmospheric conditions,

it doesn't necessarily mean
that the radar wasn't able to

function properly.

[narrator]
And none of this explains
the sightings from the ground

by multiple Belgian police
officers or by senior Belgian

Air Force officer,
Major General de Brouwer,

who never changed his story
and remains convinced that this

wasn't a radar error,
but one of the most reported

and corroborated UFO sightings
of all time.

As with all our alien files,
context is key.

The late '80s and early '90s

were a time of great
social change.

The Cold War was ending,
the Berlin Wall,

and the Iron Curtain
both came down.

[narrator] With half of
Europe in revolution,

the unexpected became expected.

What people claimed to have
seen may have been influenced

by another famous sighting.

[Bader] During the early 1980s,
there had been a series of

sightings by hundreds of people
of triangular and V-shaped dark

objects flying over
the Hudson Valley in New York.

The coverage of this event
cemented the idea in

the public's mind of UFOs being
black triangles.

[narrator]
So how do seemingly credible
witnesses all see the same

black triangular objects
and the same configuration of

lights simultaneously in
different parts of the country

without there being any
official explanation?

It is possible to do optical
projections which could create

these kind of reports.

For example, you can project
lasers off of aerosol particles

in the air, you can cause
particles to glow,

you can create other kinds of
projections that can be made to

move at what appear to be
impossibly fast speeds,

because light has no inertia
or mass and can be moved at any

speed you want.

[narrator] And light projections
don't show up on radar.

[Haseltine]
The radar reports are
inconsistent, sometimes showing

the objects, sometimes not.

Were they angels,
anomalous propagation?

We don't know.

Maybe they were even some kind
of sensor nodes.

But the one thing we do know is
that these objects did not

strongly reflect radar energy.

[narrator]
Contrary to initial findings,
further study of the SOBEPS

UFO investigation group's
reports of nine radar locks

determined that three were
jet-on-jet locks, and the other

six were due to an anomaly
known as Bragg scattering.

[Haseltine]
Bragg scattering occurs when
the structures, such as areas

of warm and cool air close
together, are the same size as

the wavelength of the radar.

This is fairly common,
particularly in older radars.

[narrator] Meessen still
insisted that there was one

radar trace that couldn't be
explained away by either angels

or Bragg scattering,
because there

were eyewitnesses.

We have visual sightings on
the ground, and the object is

now being tracked on
the Belgian Air

Defense Network.

The pilots acquire this object
on their airborne radars,

but the UFO breaks the lock.

So they reacquire it,
and they break the lock again.

And this happens
multiple times.

[narrator]
So it is possible that
the radar data does indeed show

the incredible maneuverability
and mind-blowing speed

of a UFO.

[narrator] Logic dictates that
the most extreme and unlikely
explanation,

extraterrestrial intelligence,

should be at the bottom
of the list.

In fact, however,
there's an equally logical

reason why it rose to the top.

The halo could have come from
many different sources, such as

light scattering of particles
in the air.

More interestingly, it could
have been generated by

the magnetoplasma dynamic
propulsion system.

[narrator] These engines,
almost exclusively used to

power terrestrial spacecraft,
have been in development since

the early '60s.

[Dr. Aderin-Pocock Mbe]
An ionized gas is expelled

by a very high-powered
magnetic field,

creating forward thrust.

A shaft of fluorescent light is
emitted, and the color of that

light is dependent on
the gas being used.

These accelerate much faster
than traditional engines.

[narrator]
SOBEPS' mission statement was
to promote serious research

into UFO phenomena while
striving to maintain

a scientific attitude in all
aspects of investigation.

The SOBEPS group who were
placed in charge of

the investigation were
certainly not neutral

in their reporting.

They were a UFO group and came
with that bias.

[McDonald]
SOBEPS employed a combination
of investigative methods,

including interviews with
witnesses, radar analyses,

and monitoring of
electromagnetic fields.

And they did find consistency
in the reports.

All described a black,
triangular-shaped object with

bright lights.

[narrator]
But what was omitted from those
reports is just as important as

what was included.

[Bader] When reporting
a sighting by police officers,

SOBEPS reported that the object
had been silent, when in fact

the officers reported hearing
a low engine noise and thought

they may have
seen a helicopter.

The scientific method should
follow facts and not attempt to

promote a particular agenda.

Anecdotes are not data,

no matter how many of them
you collect.

[Dr. Aderin-Pocock Mbe]
As a scientist, we develop
theories and methods

to try and understand
the universe around us.

We try and avoid bias,
but of course,

we're only human.

The key to good science is to
remain neutral, to observe what

really happens rather than what
we wish would happen.

[narrator]
In its flawed pursuit of
evidence to support its theory

of UFO incursion, did SOBEPS
undermine the impartiality

and credibility of
their own investigation?

[Bader] Of course.

In a UFO wave,
an organization with a strong

agenda can change the entire
perception of the incident in

the public eye.

[McDonald]
While the report has been
criticized for its biases,

it did help raise awareness
and try to promote a scientific

approach to the investigation
of unexplained

aerial phenomena.

[narrator] On the one hand,
the investigation showed that

the authorities were taking
the idea of UFOs a little

more seriously.

On the other hand,
it demonstrated how

a presumably scientific
investigation can be tainted

by preconceptions.

Most people who believed
the photograph was genuine

wanted to believe that it was.

Critical thinking is important
when verifying the authenticity

of any visual information.
Images trigger emotions.

[narrator]
Those emotions can run so deep
that some people refused to

believe that the triangle of
lights in the sky was a hoax,

even after the perpetrators
admitted it.

To many close
to the investigations of these

kinds of incidents,
this admission some 20 years

later, smells like a cover-up.

I think the claim that
the photo is faked should be

treated in the same way as
somebody who says,

"I've seen a UFO."

In other words, well, let's
see the evidence.

Now there's another school of
thought that says if you want

to diffuse the story somehow,
one way to do that might be to

try and discredit it.

[Bader] It's difficult to prove
that a UFO photograph is

real or fake.

Today there are lots of ways to
determine if a digital image is

faked, but with old school
photography you have to look

for things like inconsistencies
in lighting or more obvious

things like strings.

A blurry image is not itself
proof of a fake.

If you're taking a photo of
a genuine UFO you're going to

be hurried and probably filled
with adrenaline, so you're

likely to be shaky.

But a blurry image certainly
helps you create a fake.

[narrator]
The counter-argument says that
the qualities of the UFO itself

could prevent photographing
it clearly.

[McDonald]
Some ufologists and researchers
have proposed that UFOs emit

electromagnetic fields,
ionizing radiation or other

types of energy that can
disrupt or distort electronic

devices, including cameras.

They argue that this could
explain why some photos show

strange patterns or why some
cameras malfunctioned during

a UFO encounter.

[narrator] On the face of it,
the thousands of people

who described the same UFO over
Belgium within a period of two

years seems like
compelling evidence.

But is it?

Once a community becomes
invested in UFO reports,

there are going to be
more reports.

People become more likely to
misidentify things because

they're excited by what
they're hearing.

If an object was seen on
a telescope or radar,

tracked by police,
and was clearly photographed by

multiple witnesses from
multiple different angles,

and its position can be
triangulated, there would be

very close to being actual
proof that would certainly

convince a lot more people.

[narrator]
With more than two-thirds of
the world carrying a camera,

we still don't have that truly
compelling image of

extraterrestrial life.

The fact is that humans are not
reliable witnesses, even to

things we've
experienced personally.

Former Air Force Office of
Special Investigations agent,

Richard Doty, has interviewed
hundreds of UFO witnesses

during his career.

If the witness is interviewed
shortly after the incident,

they're going to have the best
recollection and the most

detailed
knowledge and information.

But if you wait a week,
a month, or a year,

they're gonna exaggerate
based on what other information

they've heard.

You can throw it out the window
if it's more than a week old.

[narrator]
Most Belgian eyewitness
accounts were recorded more

than a week after the events.

With the photographic evidence
now being questionable,

and doubt cast on eyewitness
accounts, is there any element

of this file that holds up
to scrutiny?

The fact that a lot of
the witnesses were military

or police, to me, is a positive
for this story.

[Doty] Military witnesses are
more reliable than non-military

witnesses, primarily because
of their training,

their professionalism,

and how they are trained to
observe certain things,

especially in combat.

Major General Wilfred De
Brouwer was the senior Belgian

Air Force officer tasked with
investigating these sightings

for the Belgian government.

He interviewed the pilots,
the radar operators,

he amassed all the documents.

At the end of all of this,
the conclusion was the object

was unexplained.
He is an unimpeachable witness.

[narrator]
But Chris Bader doesn't
believe any witness is ever

truly unimpeachable.

Police officers,
pilots, and military personnel

can also be mistaken.

They may, in fact, be more
certain than anyone else that

they've seen something, even if
the evidence is ambiguous.

[narrator]
But while the cause of
the incidents may be debated,

one thing can't be denied,
that there was something in

the skies above Belgium from
November 1989.

If it wasn't
an extraterrestrial craft,

what was it?

When we look at the totality of
the reporting here,

what we seem to consistently
get is a beam of light running

from the craft to the ground.

These might be searchlights
or warning beacons,

but they could also be beams
from iron propulsion systems.

[narrator] That technology
exists right here on Earth.

Some of the triangular UFO
sightings could be explained

easily by the Boeing VC-25
or the B-2 Spirit

stealth bomber.

But the more interesting theory
is the rumored

TR-3 Black Manta.

If the stories about
its existence are true,

then it's a subsonic stealth
spy plane from the one and only

Lockheed Skunk Works.

[narrator]
This new tech could certainly
seem otherworldly, and would be

something the US military at
least would have a vested

interest in covering up.

[McDonald]
The claim is that it uses
highly pressured mercury

accelerated by nuclear energy
that would allow it to fly at

high speeds and to perform
rapid and agile maneuvers along

all three axes.

[narrator] And what about
the radar signals?

[McDonald]
The plasma generated reduces
the radar signature, making it

almost invisible on radar
and undetectable by air traffic

control and other air
defense systems.

[narrator]
The existence of this
experimental craft would cover

all bases in the Belgian wave.

Personally, I think there's
a significant chance that these

could be drones.

Certainly, the extreme
accelerations, which are so

hard on the human body,
suggest that at a very minimum,

they were unmanned.

It's also possible that
it's some kind of experimental

craft which would never
be acknowledged.

[Pope] It's important to bear in
mind that things are gonna be

tested experimentally long
before they will become

public knowledge.

So there'll be things flying
around now that you won't see

for 20 years.

[Doty] If the flight operation
was highly classified,

the Air Force wouldn't
admit it.

The Air Force would deny
they had anything flying

in the area.

[Haseltine] The Air Force
and the Navy hide stuff

all the time,
even from their allies.

But the question is, why would
they test these over highly

populated areas instead of
the remote ranges where

they almost always test these
kinds of technologies?

[narrator] There might be
a very good reason why.

[Pope] You want to test how good
your aircraft is.

Is it stealthy?

Can we fly it in without even
another member of NATO picking

it up on the radar?

And so you do
a sort of blind test.

You don't alert anyone that
something's coming.

[Haseltine] It could also have
been Russia.

We have to remember that
Belgium is the headquarters of

NATO, which is Russia's
main enemy.

[narrator]
Whether it's Russia or the US,
it's a theory that the Belgians

actively investigated
at the time.

[Pope] The Belgians told us at
the Ministry of Defense that of

course they had considered
the possibility that this was

stealth aircraft or some

prototype drone or other
device, and they pressed

the United States very hard on
this, but got complete denials.

Somebody might have had a quiet
word with the Belgians

and said, "Look, we can't tell
you any specifics,

but don't worry about this one."

That conversation never
happened, and that, of course,

makes one wonder.

[narrator] We can now
be certain that

the Belgians suspected
at least

the possibility of
US involvement

in the series of
sightings of unidentified

aircraft in Belgian airspace in
late 1989 to early 1990.

One particular phrase from
the official report into

the unexplained incidents
struck a chord with Nick Pope.

[Pope] They said,

"Whatever this was,
thank goodness it was friendly.

"Because if it hadn't been,

there was nothing
we could have done."

And that was kind of just left
hanging there, and it was

slightly chilling.

Because that phrase,
you know, "Thank goodness

they were friendly,"
almost implied that

corporately, the Belgian
Air Force was embracing

the possibility that this
was extraterrestrial.

[narrator]
If this were a military test,
then it wasn't the first,

and it wouldn't be the last.

The Belgian wave fits a pattern
of several very similar

large-scale UFO sightings.

In the early 1980s, there were
hundreds of sightings of black

triangle-shaped objects,
similar to what was reported in

both Hudson Valley and Belgium.

And in March 1997, thousands of
people from Nevada to Arizona

saw large V-shaped objects in
the sky traveling slowly in

a southeasterly direction in
what came to be known as

the Phoenix Lights.

[narrator]
There was another, less widely
reported event in the UK a year

or so later, eerily similar to
the sightings in Belgium.

The 1993 triangle sightings
over the UK were centered on

two military bases,
Cosford and Shawbury.

At Cosford, a large triangular
craft was seen by a patrol of

Air Force police officers.

And then at Shawbury,
again, a huge triangular-shaped

object was seen by
the meteorological officer.

He said it was midway in size
between a C-130 transport

aircraft and a Boeing 747.

And he said a narrow beam of
light at one point fired down

from this craft and was
tracking backwards and forwards

as if it was looking
for something.

[narrator]
There's a consistent pattern to
the reports of these sightings,

which is impossible to ignore.

And Richard Doty believes
there's even more evidence

pointing to the US Air Force.

[Doty] During the Hudson Valley
case of 1982, during that time

period, there were a number of
US Air Force bases

in New York state.

Griffiss Air Force Base,
Plattsburgh Air Force Base,

they're both strategic air
command bases, housing nuclear

weapons and nuclear
alert bombers.

They also were a good hiding
place for experimental crafts

that were being flown by
the Air Force.

These TR-3Bs or A's that people
saw during the Hudson Valley

case were probably coming from
these bases in New York State.

[narrator]
Doty believes that that could
help to explain the infamous

1997 Phoenix Lights event.

The first part of that sighting
occurring over Phoenix,

or actually Southwest Phoenix,

involved an A-10
US Air Force aircraft.

It was dropping flares,
airborne flares,

during an exercise.

The second part of the sighting
that was occurring over North

Phoenix and also all through
Arizona was probably a TR-3B

experimental craft flying out
of either Creech Air Force Base

in Nevada or Area 51.

And I say that because that
craft had lights,

had a lighting system that
could be configured as

an FAA-required lighting system.

The lighting on the craft
observed over Belgium,

Hudson Valley, and Phoenix

are consistent with that of
a conventional aircraft.

Alien aircrafts do not conform
to FAA standards.

[narrator]
As our investigation into
the wave of unexplained UFO

sightings over Belgium in
the early 1990s draws to

a close, much of the evidence
points towards military craft.

As sworn testimony before
Congress reveals that incidents

like these are more common than
previously reported,

have we solved what occurred in
the skies over Belgium in 1990?

Even if some aspects of
the Belgian wave have

conventional explanations,
I can't entirely rule out

an extraterrestrial
possibility here.

[Doty] I don't believe that
the craft that was observed

over Belgium...was a UFO.

I believe it was a US Air Force
experimental craft because of

the lighting system and some
other information that

we obtained from
classified sources.

[Bader]
We can't be certain what really
happened in Belgium, but we can

be sure that
non-extraterrestrial factors

certainly played an important
part in the Belgium wave.

All of the non-extraterrestrial
explanations are technically

plausible, but they're not very
likely because presumably this

kind of advanced aircraft would
be some kind of government,

and they just don't test things
like that out in the open.

They do them on secret ranges.

And then another factor is,
this was so long ago, is it

really credible that
we wouldn't have heard or seen

anything like this in
all that time?

I really don't think so.

[narrator]
Even today, we are hearing
similar claims being made

by US Navy pilots

about the Gimbal
video and the Tic Tac craft

sighted off the coast of
Southern California.

Whatever was witnessed over
Belgium may not be new

and doesn't seem to be
going away.

This was thoroughly
investigated and while mistakes

were made, they did a good job
and they still couldn't

find an answer.

It's what we don't know
and perhaps will never know

that holds the answers.

In my opinion, the Belgium UFO
case is another case of psyops.

I believe that this is
a psychological operation

to gauge how the humans
and police officers would react

to an unidentified
flying object.

I believe that what people saw
are more than explainable.

[narrator]
We now know that the US
military alone have hundreds of

unexplained UAP encounters
on their books.

The fact that these reports are
finally being made available is

key to Eric Haseltine,
who believes that this

investigation shines
an important light on one

particular element of human
scientific thought.

As credible sightings like this
accumulate, we're forced to

admit the limitations of
our knowledge

and our understanding.

Is that
something extraterrestrials?

Is it atmospheric science?

Is it some other kind of
natural phenomena

we don't understand?

Is there an adversary that has
advanced technology?

We have to be smart enough to
acknowledge how little we know,

because I know a thing or two,
and I have no idea

what happened here.

[narrator] The Belgian UFO wave
is one of the most confounding

and compelling events in recent
UFO history.

But until further details
emerge, it is another alien

file that must, for now at
least, remain open.