All language subtitles for Alien Files Reopened S01E08 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
public setting.

[narrator]
...more insistent...

Biologics came with some of
these recoveries, yeah.

[narrator]
...and ever more dramatic.

In 2017, the Pentagon shocked
the world by confirming that

previously leaked
UFO footage was real.

Committees were launched,
hearings held,

and witnesses interviewed,
but the truth remains elusive.

Whistleblowers claim these
clips are just the tip of

the iceberg, but files
remain classified.

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
reopen the files.

They'll analyze
the intelligence,

investigate the science,

and reveal the truth.

[camera shutter snaps]

[narrator] In 2014, US Navy
fighter pilot Ryan Graves

was stationed at
Naval Air Station, Oceana,

in Virginia Beach on
America's east coast.

Over the course of a two-year
period, his unit witnessed

unexplained aerial phenomena
and heard firsthand accounts of

things he could no
longer ignore.

After much deliberation,
he went public, first in 2019

and then testifying before
Congress in July, 2023.

It became one of the most
provocative whistleblowing acts

in American history.

People have looked to the skies
and seen things

they don't understand,
but modern technology has given

us better tools to
analyze them.

[narrator] And that technology
has captured some

astonishing things.

During Graves' time with the US
Navy Fighter Corps in Oceana,

they upgraded the onboard
software systems on their fleet

of F-18 fighter jets.

Almost immediately,
the pilots start seeing

these new contacts.

They assumed that either
the hardware was faulty,

or the software was glitching.

You get these teething problems
with new systems.

[narrator] But the contacts
kept coming.

And so pilots went in for
a closer look.

They thought that these were
just phantom readings.

But then they head to
their location and the FLIR

picks up something.

[narrator] FLIR is a
forward-looking infrared camera.

Rather than capturing visible
light, it captures the heat

signatures in the area.

What it means is there's
something really there.

It's not a glitch or some kind
of software problem.

It's real.

Pilots trust the infrared.

It can see things
the naked eye can't.

They have to assume that
there's something real

out there, and they have
to treat it with respect.

As professional aviators,
they kept their distance.

[narrator] The pilots remained
cautious, but concerned.

Back at the base, it was
a major topic of conversation.

They were encountering more
and more of these things.

And when you're up there on
a training flight,

you're totally focused.

You're not just on a joyride
hoping to see a UFO.

[indistinct chatter]

[narrator] On practice missions,
pilots agree on

a fixed point in the sky.

In combat, it's called
the cap point.

It's the entry point to
the operational area.

Think of it like an on-ramp.

at this altitude
and this distance.

And then 1,000 feet below,
there's an off ramp.

You've got your pilot and your
weapons system operator

in the back.

There was also a wingman where
they fly out there together

and they fly back
together as well.

[narrator]
It was on one of these training
missions that the first of

their squadron got eyes on
one of the UFOs.

There were two planes flying
around the entry point,

somewhere between 12 and 18,000
feet, and there's nothing

on the radar.

And then all of a sudden,
one of the objects flew

right between them.

[with static] They were going
against the wind.

The wind's 120 miles
to the west.

[narrator] He described it as
a dark gray or black cube inside

a translucent sphere.

They were practicing
close-quarter dogfighting.

So if you nearly collide with
something that you didn't see

on your radar,
that's a big safety issue.

So you're gonna go back
and get that checked out.

[narrator]
The pilots headed back to
the ready room, and one of them

shared his story.

This was no longer
a theoretical issue.

The pilot was telling everyone
how he almost hit something.

It was a safety issue now.

[narrator] At this stage,
the pilots didn't know what to

make of it, except that it
might be a new

secret military project.

Whatever it was, it shouldn't
have been in the training zone.

They filed a hazard report.

They figured that at least with
that on record, whoever was in

charge of these things would
know that they were endangering

their own pilots.

[narrator]
The sightings continued on
an almost daily basis,

with eight to ten reported along
the East Coast alone.

It was described the same way
every time, a gray cube in

a translucent sphere.

[narrator]
Although they were showing
up on their radar screens,

it proved incredibly difficult

to capture
clear images of them.

They got all
the right indicators.

And so they put all
their sensors in exactly

the right orientation to
capture something, then do

a pass and poof,
it's not there.

[narrator]
But their elusiveness didn't
dissuade Graves

or his colleagues from believing
they were absolutely real.

It's just logic.

Either there's something there
or every system on every plane

is malfunctioning in the same
way at the same time.

And that just doesn't
seem likely.

[narrator] The pilots took these
sightings very seriously,

their lives depended on it,
and submitted hazard reports to

indicate in detail what
they had seen.

When you're up there, flying at
1,200 km per hour, you have to

assume that any contact is
a solid, physical object.

The Navy implemented a separate
process for any UAP sighting,

meaning pilots had to report
anything unusual.

[narrator] The reports
flooded in.

It was happening more than
anyone had suspected,

and not just over
Virginia Beach.

[narrator]
In 2014, Ryan Graves and his
colleagues were ready to

complete their final stage of
battle readiness.

They headed to Jacksonville,
Florida and on to

an aircraft carrier.

That was their base for living,
taking off and landing.

[narrator]
It was here that a Navy pilot
would film possibly the most

famous UFO video to date.

[pilot, over static] My gosh,

well, if there's a --
look at that thing,

it's rotating.

The gimbal video is a pretty
compelling piece of

UFO evidence.

The pilots were flying in
what's called a max endurance

profile, which burns less
energy and fuel.

In this case,
it's a straight line.

They suddenly have half a dozen
contacts on their radars,

all the hallmarks of a red air
penetration test.

Red air calls test
the readiness of

the aircraft carrier.

Aviators stop what they're
doing, and move into position to

protect the carrier
from attack.

[narrator]
When the Navy pilots flew
closer to the radar contacts,

they realized these weren't
other naval aviators.

Whatever they were looking at,
it wasn't US fighters.

They were too slow
and making unusual turns.

Something wasn't right.

So they did a stern conversion
to get a better look.

[narrator]
The radar showed multiple
contacts, one craft flying at

lower altitude and five others
above it in a wedge formation.

They would fly in a straight
line and then pull an instant

180 and go in
the opposite direction.

You can't do that in an F-18.

Turning at that speed in
a standard jet fighter

takes a mile.

[narrator]
The radar profiles didn't match
the behavior of ordinary jets,

but was consistent with other
recent UAP sightings.

They decided that the wedge
objects were the same as

whatever they had
encountered in Virginia.

But the main unidentified craft
on the gimbal video was unlike

anything they had ever
encountered before.

The god's eye view appears on
the situational awareness

display of the aviator.

It puts their aircraft in
the center

of a 360-degree view.

When they looked closer at
the video, it showed that this

craft did a vertical J-hook,
probably less than 100 meters

at high speed.

What the UAP did defied any of
our space or jet technology.

Rather than doing sweeping
turns, it would stop moving in

one direction and start moving
in another.

From the god's eye view,
there was barely any

radius of turn.

It would do a 180,
just like that.

We haven't got a jet that can
do anything like that,

not even close.

[narrator]
And thanks to the Heads Up
Display, or HUD, we're able to

evaluate the size of
the UAP and assess any

unusual behavior.

They were sometimes
perfectly still.

Now, this should be near
impossible at high altitudes

and at wind speed over
200 kilometers per hour,

but the evidence was there.

And when they were flying in
a straight line,

they were going
approximately Mach 0.8.

The fast turns,
the hovering, the speed, all of

those things we have aircraft
that can do, but we don't have

aircraft that can do all of
them at the same time.

[narrator]
We only know as much as we do
about these events thanks to

a handful of whistleblowers,
including US Navy fighter pilot

Ryan Graves, who was stationed
at Naval Air Station Oceana.

During 2014 and 2015,
when he claims

he and his colleagues saw UAPs
virtually every day.

In 2019, he decided to break
cover and reveal to

the American media what
he and his colleagues had seen.

Graves claimed that they go out
on exercises, see objects on

the radar, and then see
the same objects in the same

place when they went out on
night exercises 10 hours later.

If that's true, then whatever's
powering these things is

fascinating and unlike anything
I've ever encountered.

[narrator]
The footage of these sightings
was leaked anonymously to

the New York Times in
December 2017.

They released it and another
video at the same time,

claiming that they were
recorded by naval aviators from

the Nimitz
and Theodore Roosevelt.

[narrator]
The Washington Post released
a third video around

the same time.

The general public was
intrigued, but the UFO

community went into overdrive.

[narrator]
Then in September 2019,
after almost 70 years of

no comment and denials of
UFO sightings by military

personnel, the US government
took an unprecedented step.

The Pentagon confirmed that
the three films were

legitimate voluntarily.

They determined there was
nothing on the film that might

threaten national security
or expose

technological capabilities.

[narrator] But the films they
released were still incomplete.

They weren't ready or willing
to provide full disclosure,

even now.

On a fighter jet,
flight systems are recording

all the time.

The full gimbal video will be
significantly longer than

the 35 seconds that
was released.

The full video would be
full of data.

It's all measured in flight to
assess performance.

So they have all of
that somewhere.

[narrator] Without the full
video, we still don't have all

the data available.

But the acknowledgement that
these UAPs exist is

a major development.

When they confirmed the film's
legitimacy, they said it was

quote, "part of a larger issue
of an increased number of

incursions by unidentified aero
phenomena in recent years."

That's an incredible admission
on the part of the Pentagon.

[narrator]
Was this the first official
admission that the US military

believes we are not alone
in the universe?

And if so, what was flying in
our airspace with impunity?

[narrator] In September, 2019,
when the Pentagon confirmed

that footage of UAPs captured
by US Navy pilots was

authentic, it sent shockwaves
around the world.

When the Pentagon confirmed
that three leaked films of UAP

activity had indeed been
captured by naval pilots,

it was a game changer.

The gimbal video was one of two
that originated from pilots

aboard the USS Theodore
Roosevelt on the 21st

of January, 2015.

The other is known as GOFAST.

[airman shouting indistinctly]

[laughing] Oh my gosh, dude.

Wow.

[narrator]
The GOFAST footage was
captured by an F-18 Navy

squadron stationed in
Virginia Beach from a height of

6,000 meters, traveling
at high speed far below.

These pilots know most things
that are in the sky.

So if they're confused by what
it's doing, that's notable.

[narrator] When the Pentagon
officially released the film,

they had already ruled out
drones or jets.

They confessed they didn't know
what the object could be.

One of the most famous
UAP sightings

by US military pilots had been
made over a decade earlier,

on November 10th, 2004.

This film, leaked to
the New York Times in 2017,

became infamous as
the Tic Tac film.

They called it that because of
the shape, oblong,

rounded ends, no obvious
indicator of a front or a rear.

These have been reported on
and off by pilots for decades.

There was the 1962 incident
over Utah and Nevada, where two

different pilots described
seeing a cigar-shaped object

with no obvious means
of propulsion.

[narrator] And in 1987, came the
Vranov incident, named after

a reservoir in what was then
communist-bloc Czechoslovakia.

Around midday on Sunday
the 12th of July, 1987,

the reservoir was crowded
with tourists.

On the Austrian border,
Czech radar picked up something

flying toward them
and scrambled an armored

helicopter to intercept it.

They saw a black cigar-shaped
object fly overhead and were

given orders to shoot it down.

[narrator] Attempting to target
the strange craft, every time

they had it in their sights,
it suddenly changed direction.

The highly maneuverable Tic Tac
could fly as slow as

60 kilometers per hour
and accelerate up to 2,700

kilometers per hour,
seemingly in an instant.

They were monitoring it from
above, and from below, it was

being monitored by
the helicopter crew.

It was doing things that no
known aircraft can do.

They couldn't get a lock on it,
they couldn't shoot it down,

and even if they could, it was
over a reservoir crowded with

thousands of people.

[narrator] After two minutes of
visual observation,

the craft disappeared behind
a cloud, only to reappear at

supersonic speed,
heading straight

for the helicopter.

They had to make some extreme
evasive maneuvers to come out

of that alive.

The encounter had lasted
over two and a half hours.

[narrator]
After that, the craft raced
towards Bratislava and then

back over Austria where Czech
radar lost it.

Like the US military,

the Soviets wanted to
control the flow of

information on UFOs.

They were ordered to destroy
all flight telemetry

and records of
radio correspondence.

Officially,
this never happened.

[narrator]
The similarities between
the Vranov incident in 1987

and the Tic Tac UAP encounter
17 years later are striking.

The Tic Tac incident occurred
off the California coast on

November 14, 2004,
by a US Naval squadron

flying off
the carrier USS Nimitz.

There is a group of ships out
and readying for deployment,

and for a couple of weeks,
they've been tracking UAPs

on their radar.

Then Commander
David Fravor is on a flight

in his Super Hornet, and he
actually gains a visual on one.

Fravor claims that he tried to
approach the object.

The UAP simply mirrored
his moves and then took

the ultimate evasive action.

It plunged into the ocean,
then resurfaced again,

then sped off out of sight.
They say it went hypersonic.

That's Mach 5,
5,500 kilometers per hour.

[narrator] And Fravor wasn't
the only witness.

At least five other pilots
backed him up.

They said they saw the same
thing, either with their own

eyes or on their instruments.

[narrator]
Navy pilot Chad Underwood
was the pilot who captured

the famous footage.

Underwood was heading out on
his exercises

as Fravor came in.

The commander told him what
he'd seen and warned him to

keep an eye out.

[narrator] A short time later,
Underwood caught the Tic Tac on

his radar and managed to track
it with his FLIR camera.

[over static] Oh, my gosh.

They're going against the wind.

The wind's 120 miles to
the west.

Look at that thing, dude.

[narrator] Underwood claimed
that the object's changes

in altitude,
airspeed and orientation were

unlike anything
he'd ever encountered.

He went further than that.

He said it was doing things
that didn't seem possible,

like dropping from 50,000 to
100 feet in just a few seconds.

All this with no visible signs
of propulsion or a heat

signature from an engine.

[narrator]
Underwood's footage went
viral on the Navy's intranet.

The video leaked back in 2007,
but its legitimacy remained

unconfirmed for more than
a decade, until 2020 when

Underwood came forward
and acknowledged that

he was the pilot.

Fravor has talked quite openly
for years,

but Underwood speaking up
was important.

It put a name to the tape.

In the military there's a rigid
command structure with

restrictions on speech
and potential criminal

consequences
for non-compliance.

And this applies to all forms
of data, including video.

[narrator]
Frame-by-frame analysis of
the footage which was finally

released by the Pentagon has
revealed even more remarkable

facts about these objects.

They've been recorded between
Mach 5 and Mach 20, and they do

this without creating
a sonic boom.

They also zig-zag at very
high speeds.

[narrator]
The G-forces would be
unbearable on human physiology.

We're looking at several
hundred times

the force of gravity.

We're talking about bones being
crushed, organs liquefying,

pretty much instant death.

[narrator]
A manned craft would be
incompatible with life as

we know it.

They could be drones,
but even then, once you go

hypersonic, there's a thermal
barrier that human technology

is finding hard to overcome.

Even at the lower end, say
Mach 5, you're looking at 1,800

degrees C for the bits of
the craft that are cutting

through the air.

If the skin of the aircraft
isn't melting,

then it's certainly putting
the internal tech in

serious danger.

[narrator] The US military has
experimented with unmanned

hypersonic aerial drones,
but with limited success.

At high speeds,
they couldn't control them,

they were too unstable.

It is theoretically possible,
and the major powers around

the world are trying to
perfect the technology.

But 15 years ago,
they were nowhere near.

[narrator] Which leaves us with
three possible options

for the sightings.

It's either an illusion that
has fooled some of the greatest

aviators
and aerospace engineers,

it's a secret technology that
has made an incredible leap

and managed to remain almost
totally hidden,

or it's really an alien craft.

[narrator]
And if it were an alien craft,
does that mean it might have

been carrying the first
visitors from another planet?

It doesn't mean it was piloted,
although other beings might

have evolved to withstand
greater G-forces than we can,

or developed technology to
protect them from such forces.

But what do we do
when we're exploring space?

We send unpiloted vehicles.

[narrator]
If this is reverse-engineered
alien technology belonging

to the US military,

then they are keeping
it secret, as Ryan Graves may

have suspected when his phone
rang the night before he was

called to testify before
Congress in July 2023.

They tell him to arrive in
dress whites and report to them

first thing in the morning.

All they wanted to know was
exactly what he was going to

tell Congress.

[narrator] Graves feared
he might end up court-martialed

and in military prison.

Alongside fellow eyewitnesses
David Fravor and David Grusch,

Graves went ahead to testify
before the House Subcommittee

on National Security,
the Border and Foreign Affairs,

in a closed session.

He told them everything
he had seen,

but sensed their skepticism
and lingering mistrust.

So much so, that one of
the congressmen called Graves

that night to check that
he hadn't been intimidated.

Nobody felt that they were
getting the full picture.

[narrator]
Even though he attended
this meeting as a civilian,

Graves was still breaking with
military convention.

Because the Navy only trusts
the Navy, and you keep your

mouth shut except
with people in the Navy.

[narrator]
So what motivated Graves to
break cover and speak

so candidly?

Change in the armed forces can
be very slow, and it's often

only death and disaster that
makes it happen.

He spoke up because he didn't
want to see a pilot crash into

one of those things and die.

[narrator]
And according to Graves, there
are far more of them than

the official reports
would suggest.

These reports happened every
single day for two years.

That's hundreds,

maybe even thousands of
radar contacts.

It's unlikely they're ours.

Why risk it being shot down by
our pilots, or worse still,

crashing into them?

For high-end tech,
you're talking about years of

development, tens of millions
of dollars of hardware,

and some of the best pilots
in the world.

We're not gonna risk
that intentionally.

[narrator] Even today, Navy
pilots patrolling both coasts of

the United States regularly
encounter UAPs with

remarkable capabilities.

So far, there's no explanation
for what or who they might be.

[narrator] Since 2004,
US military

encounters with
airborne UAPs captured on

recently released declassified
film have reframed

our understanding of what these
unidentified crafts might look

like and be capable of.

These objects can zig-zag,
drop 70,000 feet in a second,

go underwater, and move at
speed without creating

a sonic boom.

They have capabilities that far
outstrip at any known

terrestrial craft, and far
exceed anything in

the NATO arsenal.

These are things that are
nothing short of remarkable,

and they're documented frame
by frame on video

that's been captured.

[narrator]
The visual and radar technology
on modern jet fighters has

revealed more about these
objects than we could have

dreamed possible just a few
decades ago.

We've got radar imagery,
we've got IR imagery,

and we feed this data into
computers to figure out what

the accelerations were,
and we conclude that they were

several hundred times
the force of gravity.

Recreational drones are all
over the place, so it's likely

that some of these reports
are drones.

But militaries worldwide are
developing much more advanced

drones, all with
top-secret capabilities.

Turns like the J-hook on
the gimbal require

astonishing accelerations
and decelerations,

which require very heavy fuel
load, very heavy engines

and ability to create
aerodynamic control.

Either that or they have to be
extremely light.

[narrator] However, pilots
report seeing no wings, flaps,

or aero controls on
these vehicles.

On the contrary,
they were smooth-surfaced with

no obvious signs of
conventional mechanization

or fuel load of any kind.

Nor did they report seeing any
evidence of rocket

or jet exhaust.

[narrator]
With no control services and no
obvious propulsion system,

how could it operate?

To me, this suggests that
the objects were very light

and controlled by creations
that are far

beyond our understanding.

There is no tech that I know of
that could be mistaken for

a gray cube in
a translucent sphere.

And besides, there is no way
that we would mess with

the safety of our air crews
in that way.

[narrator]
So that suggests either
extraterrestrial tech or even

something from a foreign nation
penetrating US airspace.

If China or Russia developed
aircraft with Tic Tac

capabilities, it would be
the most significant

technological leap in
military history.

[narrator]
In the AI age, when images are
detected electronically,

the enemy can bypass security,
affect what pilots see on

screen, and make
the unreal real.

The Russians and the Chinese
have focused a lot on hacking

our sensors and radars to
fool our pilots.

They've also developed directed
energy systems, such as free

air plasmas, which could be
used to draw images of fast

moving aircraft in the sky in
order to also fool our pilots.

We don't know
that they've done this.

We have done it.
We have a patent on it.

[narrator]
Whatever these objects are,
our experts agree that

the images taken of them are
real and authentic.

If that's the case, what
might they be?

Strong arguments have been made
both for man-made and naturally

occurring phenomena.

But what if these are
indeed extraterrestrial?

What would that mean for us
and our planet?

The vast knowledge that
we could gain from a potential

encounter with
an extraterrestrial presence

could be immense and will open
up a new exciting frontier in

both science and technology.

The opportunity to reverse
engineer UAP technology

or information for military
and scientific

purposes, it's incredible.

Harnessing negative energy
holds the key to creating

warp drives.

And then you're talking about
intergalactic travel

at light speed.

If we actually did encounter
ETs, the biggest single thing

we could learn is how to
accomplish interstellar travel.

Because interstellar distances
are so staggering,

we simply have no clue how to
do that right now.

[narrator] Our nearest
neighboring solar system is

40 trillion kilometers away.

Even in our fastest craft,
it would take us nearly

50,000 years to reach it.

A quantum drive, also known as
a warp drive, works by

utilizing a theoretical
construct called negative

energy in back of the aircraft
and positive energy in front of

the aircraft to encase
the aircraft in a space-time

bubble, which itself can move
faster than the speed of light

without violating
the laws of physics.

[narrator] Although negative
energy is, at this stage,

purely theoretical, were it
ever to become a practical

reality, it could open up
the possibility of space-time

travel to
traverse the universe.

Negative energy is a valid
concept in physics that could

explain the rapid expansion
of the universe.

When two very flat metal plates
are placed very close together

in a vacuum, they'll actually
move together by a phenomenon

of negative energy, which is
thought to be caused by

the interaction of virtual
particle pairs, one being

matter, one being antimatter.
They exist everywhere.

They're going on inside
your brain right now.

[narrator] In this experiment,
these virtual particles have

both positive
and negative energy.

The positive particles cancel
one another out,

but the negative ones do not.

Some physicists believe that
negative energy causes

space-time itself to expand.

Both wormholes and warp drives
require negative energy.

Wormholes require it to keep
the wormhole open so it

doesn't collapse.

[narrator]
If negative energy is indeed
the answer to space-time travel

and an extraterrestrial race
had mastered it,

then they would be dramatically
more advanced than us.

Humanity is currently estimated
to be a type 0.7 civilization

on the Kardashev scale.

Basically, we're infants.

[narrator]
The Kardashev scale is a method
of measuring a civilization's

level of technological
advancement by the amount of

energy it is able to harness.

It was proposed by Soviet
astronomer Nikolai Kardashev in

1964, and it has
three categories.

[narrator]
Type I, a civilization that can
harness all the energy

resources of its home planet.

This would mean capturing all
the light energy that falls on

the planet from its host star.

[narrator]
Type II, a civilization that can
harness the energy radiated

by its own star.

This would require
the construction of a Dyson

sphere, a megastructure that
would surround the star

and capture all its energy.

[narrator]
And Type III, a civilization
that can harness the energy on

the scale of its own galaxy.

Type III would be
a civilization that has

mastered the use of negative
energy, whereas we are

struggling to effectively
harness the energy provided by

our own planet without
destroying it or at least

severely damaging it.

We are only able to harness
a tiny fraction of

the sun's energy.

It might be possible to reach
Type I status in the next few

hundred years,
but the technologies for

anything above
that are far beyond

our current capabilities.

We are thousands, possibly tens
of thousands of years away from

Type II and III status.

[narrator] Could visitation by
a single alien craft change

that timeline?
-Absolutely.

If you could travel back in
time to the ancient Egyptians

and give them the electric
motor, nuclear fission,

microprocessors,
where would humanity be now?

An interstellar craft here on
Earth that we could understand

would create a technological
leap forward hundreds,

maybe even thousands of years
into the future in a flash.

[narrator] After decades of
denial, obfuscation,

and classifying files,
US military intelligence has,

in recent years,
finally confirmed what people

long suspected.

The Pentagon has evidence of
UAPs that they simply

cannot explain.

Are these revelations
the missing piece that will

alter all human understanding?

Or is it yet more
misinformation from

official sources?

Our experts have investigated
all the angles.

Why are the Pentagon releasing
and confirming these films?

Why are organizations that are
usually shrouded in secrecy

revealing information?

And why is the intelligence
community admitting they don't

know what they are?

Two elements separate this from
the vast majority of other

UAP reports.

First, the reporters are
pilots and experienced.

Secondly, we have a lot of data
from instruments and sensors

that we didn't have before.

The House hearing on
unidentified aerial phenomena

involves witnesses who are
experts in their fields.

And in addition, they've had
direct encounters, which makes

their testimonies
particularly compelling.

[narrator]
Our experts agree that
something incredibly compelling

has been happening.

But after keeping these films
classified for years, why is

the famously secretive Pentagon
suddenly being so open?

The truth is their hand
was forced.

Congress was putting pressure
on the Pentagon because videos

and reports were being leaked.

There's now US legislation that
calls for evidence of

technology of
non-human origin,

and it's not pulling
any punches.

[narrator]
With Congress holding the purse
strings of an $877 billion

budget, the military has no
option but to comply,

to an extent.

These laws are saying someone
in the government knows

what you have.

And they're being increasingly
compelled to tell us.

[narrator]
The congressional hearings of
2023, which was testimony from

US Navy officers Ryan Graves,
David Grusch, and David Fravor,

were a start.

But much of the information
regarding UAPs continues to

remain highly classified.

No, I would not trust
official sources.

They tend to keep
things secret.

If not outright lying,
the official sources have been

proven to be limited.

Trusting any government
narrative fully is

an error in judgment.

[narrator] Indeed, if the recent
testimony is to be believed,

then the released films
represent only a tiny fraction

of all UAP encounters.

As reliable witnesses report
more sightings and more people

have access to cameras
and instant media,

the government has seized
the opportunity to try to

control the UAP narrative.

I think looking at the reasons
why the Pentagon and Congress

have now opened investigations
on UFOs or unexplained aerial

phenomena, is that these type of
sightings are just too reliable

and unexplained to take with
a grain of salt.

When you have engineers
and pilots, people who put

their own and others' lives at
risk, all starting to break

cover, people start to
take note.

[narrator] But as well as
controlling the narrative,

might the US government have
other motivations for conducting

congressional hearings
into the sightings?

The United States government
may be building up the threat

of UFOs to raise awareness
and urgency among the public

and the international community,
to justify more funding for

investigation encountering
this phenomena.

[narrator]
It's also undoubtedly a useful
distraction, diverting away

from its own state-of-the-art
military research.

There's also now so much up
there that spots things,

including the space stations
and satellites that make it

a global phenomenon that's very
difficult to hide,

plus you have a variety of
former defense ministers from

other nations saying there's
something there, including one

former director of
the CIA, Jim Woolsey.

So I think the time has sort of
become ripe for

the population to know more.

[narrator]
Some believe this trickle of
information is just the start

of a coming flood.

The most likely, in my opinion,
is that the government is

preparing us for
major disclosure.

The government may be building
up the threat of UFOs to

prepare us for a scenario where
communication with non-human

entities becomes inevitable.

[narrator] It's a shocking idea,
but one held by most

of our experts.

It's not necessarily
the sightings.

It's the whistleblowers from

the military, aviation,
and intelligence community.

That's what's changing
the narrative more

than anything.

You can't keep a secret
forever, but for me it all adds

up to an increased probability
that these were

extraterrestrial events.

[narrator]
Hollywood has long played with
the idea of what the global

reaction to ET contact
could be,

and it generally
doesn't end well.

By releasing information
piecemeal in this way, is this

an attempt by
the US government

to control
the spread of panic,

which would inevitably
accompany a UAP incursion?

The first issue we would face
is a lot of disbelief.

Recent years have seen
declining trust in government

and a rise in
conspiracy theories.

There would be a significant
percentage of the public

who simply refused to believe
whatever the government

was telling us.

[narrator] Without trust
in the government,

and suddenly questioning
our place in the universe,

what's left?

Humans have a remarkable
ability to adapt,

but uncertainty breeds fear,

and decisions based on fear are
largely selfish and irrational.

Should the government confirm
that aliens are visiting Earth,

it is possible we could expect
panic, hoarding, outbreaks of

violence, economic catastrophes
and political unrest.

It's the professional
repercussions that make

reporting so difficult.

Combine that with the potential
impact on global human society,

and it's not easy to
be a whistleblower.

[narrator]
Navy Pilot Ryan Graves filed
his reports of encounters in

2014 and 2015, only because
the UAPs interfered with

training and he feared for
the safety of his crew.

New whistleblower legislation
offers some protection.

As more witnesses come forward,
attitudes are starting

to change.

There's still a stigma.

It's not like it's gone,
but these new laws

and the increased openness they
bring mean were moving in

the right direction.

UAPs might be a natural
phenomena that have existed for

a long time, but were not
understood until recently.

These things may have been here
for thousands of years,

but if they're 70,000 feet up
or two miles out to sea,

they're more likely to have
been noticed in the last

century or so.

[narrator]
With that sobering thought,
it's time to wrap up

our investigation into what
could be the most significant

images in the history
of mankind.

Taken at face value,
the UAP reports from US Navy

pilots from 2004 onwards are
compelling to say the least.

The witnesses are extremely
credible, and there's hard

evidence from
sensor recordings.

There are alternative
explanations, such as spoofing,

air plasmas, and so forth,
but even those are a reach.

One way or another,
though, we are encountering

something unknown
and very exciting.

When the Wright brothers first
took to the skies, it heralded

a great era of
aeronautical innovation.

Whatever these UAPs turn out to
be, I feel like we're

witnessing the dawn of
astronautical engineering.

To me, the idea that ETs might
have visited means that there's

a whole lot of physics
and nature that we don't

yet understand.

There could be ideas of exotic
physics and biology that

naturally flays.

And as a scientist,
that's really exciting.

It makes me think on
the biggest scale,

the discovery of ET life would
change international

politics, religion.

It would have an existential
impact on all of us,

hopefully bringing humanity
together as one giant race.

I believe that we have been
and are being visited.

The question is really by whom.

Maybe we'll finally find
that out.

I think the quest is going to
be one over the next few

decades to discover more
and more what our neighbors are

and what lies ahead
in the universe.

[narrator]
After investigating these most
recent, most revealing, and most

remarkable alien files,
our experts are left with more

questions than answers.

Perhaps the Pentagon tapes
could be the beginning of

a new, open era of our search
for proof of intelligent

life in space.

And the answers might just be
around the corner.