All language subtitles for Strange.Evidence.S06E03.Curse.of.Zombie.Island.1080p.MAX.WEB-DL.DDP2.0.H.264-BETHELL_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR: Worldwide,
36 billion cameras

are watching us --
on our streets, at work,

and in our homes,

they capture things
that seem impossible.

Science says
this shouldn't happen.

Do you see that?

NARRATOR: Experts carry out
forensic analysis

of these unusual events.

Wow, what a blast!

[screaming]

This doesn't make sense.

There has to be
some sort of explanation.

What else is going on here?

NARRATOR: Coming up,
on Zombie Island,

is this funeral the end
or just a new beginning?

Did I just --
is that a hand?

Local legend suggests
that these bodies can

make their own way
back to the village.

NARRATOR: Three friends
encounter a series of

mysterious explosions.

That energy went off
sequentially --

[makes rapid noise]
just like that,

like a huge
run of explosives.

To me, it suggests that
something is supercharging

this explosion.

NARRATOR: And the rise
of Sky Walker

at an African ceremony.

This is really wild.

This man appears to be defying
the laws of physics.

There certainly seems to be
some sort of force

lifting this man into the air,

but the question is,
what is it?

-NARRATOR: Bizarre phenomena.
-Oh, my God. [gasps]

NARRATOR: Mysteries caught
on camera.

[screaming]

What's the truth behind
this strange evidence?

Now,
Manado, Indonesia.

May 5th, 2020.

In a graveyard,
a mourner at a funeral films

as a man is laid to rest in
a coffin with a glass window.

LOVELL: Oh, my gosh.
What was that?

What was that?

Did I just --
is that a hand?

NARRATOR: The dead man's hand
seems to be moving inside

the coffin, waving like
a desperate cry for help.

It makes you wonder
if rather than a funeral,

we're actually watching a huge
and horrifying mistake.

NARRATOR: The grieving family
doesn't seem to notice

that their dead relative
appears to be

moving inside their coffin,

or perhaps they expect it.

On this particular island,

some locals believe their
relatives bodies can be very

active indeed,
after their death.

Years after a person's
funeral, relatives

dig up their decaying bodies
and throw a party for the dead.

Some people refer
to their dead as

the "Rolang," or the corpses
that stand up.

I think we would more likely
refer to them

as "the walking dead."

NARRATOR: Shocking images show
the living as they bring

the dead back to
their villages for rituals

and ceremonies.

They'll take their dead aunt
or their dead grandmother

for a walk from
the burial cave

back to the village,
dress them up a bit,

give them something to eat,
take them back.

So they never seem to part
company with their own dead.

NARRATOR: Indeed, some corpses
are said to not even need

their relatives' help.

Local legends suggest that
these bodies can make their own

way back to the village with
the assistance of shaman.

NARRATOR: Shaman,
powerful local priests,

are said to be
able to use zombifying

black magic
to reanimate the corpses

so they can stagger by
themselves back to

their former homes.

From an Indonesian point of
view, where they have

the belief that
the dead can potentially,

with the help of a shaman,
rise and walk,

then perhaps it wouldn't be
as alarming to them that

somebody was moving
within their coffin,

even though they were
absolutely, empirically dead.

NARRATOR: Physician Siobhan
Deshauer looks at the video

and wonders if
this may not be a corpse

but a living person
trapped in a nightmare.

While it's very rare,

there's some medical
conditions where a person will

appear to be dead,
but they're really not.

The Victorians were horrified
and almost obsessed with

the thought of being buried
alive, so much so that they even

had arrangements to have
a small bell in the coffin,

just in case they needed to
warn the outside world that

they weren't actually dead.

We may mock the Victorians,
but here we are

with the possibility that
it's actually happening today.

NARRATOR: The horrific
possibility of being

accidentally buried alive

may seem like something
that modern medical science

conquered decades ago,
-[man shouting]

but terrifying recent accounts
come from all over the world.

Even doctors will diagnose them
as having deceased.

And sometimes, these people
can wake up just before

an autopsy or just before
or during a burial.

NARRATOR: In 2018,
an inmate at a prison

in Spain is certified
as dead

by three doctors after
being found motionless in

his cell.
-SAMUEL: Subsequently,

he was sent to autopsy, and he
awoke before they cut him open.

NARRATOR: But the horror
can be much worse.

In the same year,
a 37-year-old woman

from Brazil is buried

after being pronounced dead
by septic shock.

11 days later, locals living
near the cemetery hear

screaming from her grave.

[distant screaming]

Soon after,
desperate family members are

said to have exhumed
her corpse.

What they find is as tragic
as it is shocking.

The lid of her coffin is loose,
and the woman

is covered in injuries
that weren't there

when she was buried.

It's as if she had been
trying to escape,

but ended up dying
a terrifying death,

trapped in her own coffin.
-[distant shouting]

Being buried alive,
that is my worst nightmare.

NARRATOR: Biologist Leslie
Samuel discovers a medical

condition that can make it seem
like a patient has died,

one that baffles
even modern medicine.

Catalepsy turns the living
into the dead

by dropping the heart rate
and breathing down to levels

below the norm for humans.

NARRATOR: A person suffering
from catalepsy can also

become stiff as though
going through rigor mortis

and will be less
sensitive to pain.

Doctors around the world have
been fooled by conditions like

catalepsy, so we can't
rule it out at this point.

SAMUEL: The way that hand
kind of raises up as

if this person is coming out
of a deep sleep,

it kind of leads me to believe

that this person
was alive the whole time.

Could it be that

Indonesian doctors
have just made a mistake,

and they're about to bury
this guy alive?

NARRATOR: Coming up, does
the corpse have a companion

inside its coffin?

If nothing else,

this is a great advert
for being cremated.

NARRATOR:
And Matt Kutcher investigates

as a city mysteriously
erupts from below.

That energy went off
sequentially [makes rapid noise]

just like that,
like a huge run of explosives.

NARRATOR: On an island
famous for its zombies,

a mourner films as bizarre
movements appear

to take place
inside a coffin.

Biologist Greg Szulgit
suspects

the shocking clip
is horrific evidence that

the corpse is not alone
in its casket.

Another possibility
is that a rat or some

other animal has got
inside of the coffin,

and it's feasting on
the corpse,

which, of course, means that it
could be moving the arm around

as it chews on the body.

Could a rat-infestation
have caused his hand to move?

[rat squeaking]

NARRATOR: Rats in morgues are
a problem all over the world.

In 2017 in India,

the body of
a 21-year-old woman

was found chewed by rats
as it lay in a hospital.

In 2007 in Washington,
D.C., rodents get into

a hospital and find their way
to the building's morgue.

Rats were chewing on bodies.

And if rats can do that in
well-maintained hospitals

in America, certainly in
a rural part of Indonesia,

we would expect that rats should
be able to access a body.

And that's pretty repulsive to
think of a coffin

overrun by rodents.

NARRATOR: Whatever was moving
inside the coffin,

the truth is now buried under
six feet of earth, and so far,

no one has been brave enough
to dig up the body to find out.

The sad thing
about this case is

that will actually never
know the truth.

So if he did
come back to life,

I hope that his second ending
was a swift one.

If nothing else,

this is a great advert
for being cremated.

NARRATOR: Now,

Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.

July 31st, 2014,

12:16 a.m.

Three friends driving home
from a night out

wait at a junction in
the center of town.

Looks like a very quiet night
that you would see

in any city.
-NARRATOR: Then...

NARRATOR: A mysterious explosion
rips through the road.

[inhales sharply]
Oh, my God.

NARRATOR:
A moped rider narrowly

misses the blast,
then swerves to avoid

a huge fireball rising
into the air.

Wow, this is really bad.

NARRATOR: The panicked men
tried to escape,

but a thick cloud of smoke
blocks their path...

[speaking in foreign language]

...followed by a raging
column of fire.

It looks like someone just
opened the gates of Hell.

NARRATOR: Something cuts
the power along the street.

[speaking in foreign language]

NARRATOR: And the car is rocked
by another blast of flames.

WOLSHON: It almost looks
like a war zone.

I've never seen anything
like this before, ever.

NARRATOR: Military historian
Martin Morgan believes

these explosions could be

a terrible legacy
from World War II,

when Japan brutally took over
the islands in the Pacific.

As the Japanese strengthened
their island outposts,

they tended to fortify them,
and these islands are often

lava rock,

and lava rock can be quite
easy for tunneling.

So the Japanese made use of

the terrain that was available
to them,

and these islands
are extensively tunneled.

NARRATOR: Japanese troops hid
in these tunnels to mount

surprise attacks on invading
American forces.

U.S. casualties were twice
as high on some islands,

where troops had to wage
so-called cave warfare,

than on islands
with standard beach defenses.

On Iwo Jima alone,

almost 7,000 U.S. troops
were killed.

There are tunnels today
at almost every other

Japanese island outpost
--Taiwan's no exception.

The bedrock
below the surface is

honeycombed with an extensive
Japanese cave network.

NARRATOR:
In Keelung, Northern Taiwan,

a 164-foot-long tunnel served
as a bomb shelter and for

ammunition storage throughout
World War II.

And in Kaohsiung,
an 850-foot-long tunnel

was carved deep underground
and used by Japanese forces

as a command center.

Historians believe

there could be scores of
munitions tunnels throughout

Taiwan, abandoned

by the Japanese at the end of
World War II.

Who knows how many
weapons were left behind by

the Japanese in Taiwan?

Maybe some of them were hidden
inside these tunnels.

NARRATOR:
But Morgan suspects

the blast could be the result
of a deliberate

and devastating tactic used by
the Japanese

in their fortified tunnels.

MORGAN: American fighting forces
learned a dark lesson,

and that is

that when you approached
a Japanese tunnel,

you had to be very careful
with it, because they were

often booby trapped.

They might set off
a landmine or a hand grenade.

NARRATOR: Morgan believes one of
these tunnels could have been

disturbed by modern
construction workers,

causing the terrifying blasts
seen in the footage.

There's a possibility that there
may be unexploded booby traps

on that island to this day,

and we might be seeing
one finally going off,

decades later.

NARRATOR:
But engineer Brian Wolshon

finds that the city
has gone through

huge regeneration
since World War II,

both above and below ground.

So any unexploded ordnance
or booby traps,

they would have been
discovered long ago in prior

building construction.

Clearly, this must have been
caused by something else.

[speaking indistinctly]

♪♪

NARRATOR: Matt Kutcher has over
20 years experience

as a top Hollywood
pyrotechnics expert.

Go!

He discovers
new camera footage of

the explosions
that rock Kaohsiung

that could provide a clue.

-What do you got here?
-Watch this, watch this,

watch this.
-[explosion blasts]

-Wow.
-KUTCHER: I know, right?

That energy went off
sequentially [makes rapid noise]

just like that,
like a huge run of explosives.

Chased it
all the way down the road.

It did, all the way down
the road.

It's one linear line.

NARRATOR:
In a fraction of a second,

the linear blast turns
everything to dust.

Kutcher wants to figure out

what sort of flaming explosion
can progress in

a straight line.

We're gonna need some fuel
and some dirt,

mix it up with some explosives

and see if we can't create
a linear line

that resembles that video.

-Yeah, we could do that.
-Let's go to work.

NARRATOR: Kutcher suspects
the flames come from

some kind of fuel
that must have been

contained in a long line
to create such a powerful blast.

Gentlemen, gentlemen.

So here's --
here's my trip.

We're gonna take explosive
material and wrap it as

if it was a pipe --
with the fuel inside of it,

we'll atomize it at a very
great rate of speed,

and if we add
an ignition source,

it'll go apocalyptic.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
can Matt Kutcher figure out

why this city exploded?

Okay, in three, two, one, go!

NARRATOR: And, in the land
that produced

the biggest dinosaurs...

What is that...?

...the most massive lake monster
ever caught on camera.

This thing looks like the Loch
Ness Monster on steroids.

NARRATOR: In Kaohsiung, Taiwan,
an extraordinary blast shoots

through the city.

Matt Kutcher suspects

it's caused by some kind of
fuel contained in a long pipe.

He and his team prepare
a line of canisters

filled with fuel and rigged to
blow in sequence.

It'll be 1 through 9 --
we'll number them,

and once I fill them with fuel

and step away, we'll go to
the board -- 1 through 9.

We'll try to create that
same linear

charge that we see in
the video.

NARRATOR: This is an extremely
dangerous experiment

that should be only conducted
by experts like Kutcher

and his team,
so don't try it at home.

[indistinct exclamation]

Okay, in three, two,
one, go!

[explosion blasts]

[explosion blasts]

That explosion traveled
right down the line.

That was beautiful.

[explosion blasts]

I mean, you can see
if we scaled this up, well,

it would create a channel
bigger than what we created.

But I think it matches
the explosive pattern

we saw in the video
quite well.

[explosion blasts]

Right? Like
[makes rapid noise] ka-boom!

NARRATOR:
The result gives Kutcher

an idea about where
the explosion originated.

This was actually probably
a sewer line that was, uh...

restricting the explosive
charge, which then

made it worse --
they have this massive amount

of flammable, combustible
material in them.

Maybe that's what it is
that exploded.

NARRATOR: But what kind of gas
could have caused

such a powerful series of
explosions inside a sewer?

After the blasts in Kaohsiung,
eyewitnesses report

seeing flames reaching as high
as a hundred and fifty feet.

Over two and a half miles of
street are blown open,

leaving a six-foot-deep
trench in the road.

VITTERT: The effects of
this explosion are devastating.

It overturns trucks and causes

a complete blackout of
the electrical grid.

NARRATOR: 32 people are killed
and more than 300 are injured

as a result of the blasts.

In some cases,

there were victims that were
actually thrown four

stories up and found on
the roofs of buildings.

NARRATOR: And this was
no regular gas leak.

A standard gas leak would not

cause nearly this level
of destruction.

To me,
it suggests that

something is supercharging
this explosion.

Brian Wolshon finds that

at 8:45 that evening,
a local petrol

chemical firm logs
a pressure drop in one

of their pipelines running
through the sewer system.

Over 10 tons of gas leaks
into the sewer

for more than three hours
before the first explosion.

That's a heck of a lot of gas.

[hissing noises]

NARRATOR: The pipe is leaking

a highly volatile gas
called propene.

It's a substance widely used
in the plastics industry.

It burns hotter than propane
and is heavier than air.

What we have here is almost

a three-mile-long pipe bomb
ready to explode.

NARRATOR: It takes five months
and over 60 million dollars

to repair the damage,
but the threat of

an apocalyptic blast
still lingers to this day.

WALDER:
Everything's fine one second,

and then completely destroyed
the next.

It must have been absolutely
terrifying for anyone there.

NARRATOR: Now Nahuel Huapi Lake,
Bariloche, Argentina.

♪♪

January 21st, 2020.

A man filming the water

notices a strange
movement in the distance.

Is that --
what is that...?

HYDE:
This is strange.

There is something that's
happening in the middle.

Something is coming up
and going down again.

Wow, that's big.

NARRATOR:
This is no wave.

In fact, it's moving in
the opposite direction

to the waves.

BLACKBURN: This is some really
extraordinary video,

because it appears to show

an incredibly long
creature swimming through

the calm waters.

This thing looks like
the Loch Ness Monster

on steroids.

NARRATOR: Nahuel Huapi is
a massive 200-square-mile lake

that plunges to nearly
1,500 feet, deeper

than the Empire State Building
is tall.

It's big enough
to house a monster.

Stories of this strange

water beast have been told for
hundreds of years.

Sightings have been documented
in Argentina and Chile,

and they describe
this leathery water serpent.

NARRATOR:
Locals call it Nahuelito.

In 1922, an American gold
prospector and former sheriff

named Martin Sheffield reports

seeing a huge water creature
in the same area where

the footage was shot.

Sheffield described
a long creature

with fins
and a swan-like neck.

NARRATOR: Surveys find half of
the people living in this region

believe the water beast
is real.

Descriptions of its size

seem incredible,
even for a lake monster,

but this film suggests

Nahuelito is a seriously
big beast.

Many of the locals

think this footage
is more proof

that the creature
really does exist.

NARRATOR:
Image analyst Ben Radford
tries to size up the object

moving through the lake.

There seems to be something
out in the water at

this line, and it continues
to move across the line

to different places.

It appears to be
either one creature

that's moving across or one
fantastically large creature

that's literally
a quarter-mile long.

It's not clear what it is,

but there does seem to be
something dark in the distance

that's moving
from right to left.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
is this a super-sized

survivor from
a time of giants?

Once swish of their tail
could cut you right in half.

NARRATOR:
And in Africa,

a mysterious man seems to
float in midair.

People claim they're able to
draw on some miraculous energy

from the spiritual realm
in order to do this.

NARRATOR: In Argentina,
a man films

what looks like the biggest
lake monster ever captured

on camera lurking in
the waters of Lake Nahuel Huapi.

Dustin Growick finds this part
of the world was once

a land of giants.

This area of Argentina known as
Patagonia was home to some of

the largest creatures who have
ever walked the face of

the Earth.

NARRATOR:
If it is an enormous creature,

it would fit a pattern of
super-sized dinosaurs that

evolved in this part of
the world in the ancient past.

It's obvious from the footage

this is a very long
creature, which

immediately makes me think of
something prehistoric.

NARRATOR: In 2013,
a farmer in Patagonia comes

across a gigantic bone
buried in the dirt.

Paleontologists find
that it's an eight-foot-long

dinosaur thigh bone,
the largest ever to be

discovered --
experts believe

it belonged to
the mighty Titanosaurus.

At over a hundred
and twenty feet in length,

it's longer than ten elephants
standing end to end

and may have been
the largest creature

to ever walk on land
over 65 million years ago.

GROWICK: One swish of their tail
could cut you right in half.

They were eating thousands
of pounds of food a day.

In fact, when they went
to the bathroom,

we're talking about
three gallons

every time they went
number two.

NARRATOR: Dinosaurs are known
for being big,

but here in current-day
South America,

they were incredibly big, and
scientists can't explain why.

Paleontologists have
discovered giant creatures

of this region were not
just limited to the land.

Enormous marine reptiles
once hunted

Patagonia's
ancient waterways.

Things like Mosasaur,
Ichthyosaur,

and Plesiosaur,
a long-neck, carnivorous

aquatic animal.

NARRATOR: In 2019
paleontologists Excavating near

a Patagonian lake

discover the fossil
of a giant

xiphactinus fish measuring
20 feet long,

the size of
a small school bus.

GROWICK: These guys were
incredibly scary,

swimming at upwards of 40 miles
an hour, giant teeth, and would

eat pretty much anything

they came across -- one
xiphactinus specimen was found

with an entire undigested
six-foot-long fish in

its stomach.

That's a size of me,
a fully

grown human being,
swallowed in one bite.

BLACKBURN:
Today, the great white shark is

the apex predator of the ocean.

But this thing could have
literally eaten it

for breakfast.

It's possible these fish
cruise along the top of

the water, something
I definitely would not

want to be kayaking
anywhere near.

NARRATOR: It's possible certain
types of this creature

grew even bigger as
they have evolved over

the millennia.

MORGAN: Because of
the remoteness of the area,

this particular lake is
a good candidate for being

the natural habitat of
an ancient dinosaur-like

swimming creature
that's still alive.

Maybe not the original
creature, but the descendants of

this creature,

and it may be that we're
looking at footage of it.

NARRATOR: Whatever is
lurking in the lake,

the authorities are taking
no chances.

The authorities have banned
people going onto it

after dark.

So what do they know that
we don't?

BELLINGER: This lake is
absolutely massive.

There are plenty of corners
for this creature to hide,

as long as it might desire.

So until this creature
chooses to surface again,

it's gonna remain
a mystery.

♪♪

NARRATOR: Now,
Northwestern Zambia, Africa.

August 2018.

In a rural Village,
a camera

films an object hanging
in midair.

-Oh, my God. Wow.
-This is really bizarre.

NARRATOR: It's a man,

and he seems to be levitating
10 feet above the ground.

This is really wild --
this man appears to be

defying
the laws of physics.

The strangest part is when
these officials with

the sashes come on,
and it's almost like

they're telling people,
"Put your cameras down.

You can't film this."

There certainly seems to be
some sort of force

lifting this man into the air,

but the question is,
what is it?

NARRATOR: The average human
weighs 136 pounds.

Lifting that kind of
weight requires

some kind of known
physical force.

But author
Jeff Belanger finds

reports that seem
to defy explanation.

Legend and lore the world over
has talked about some people

having the ability to levitate.

These people claim.

they're able to draw on
some miraculous energy

from the spiritual realm in
order to do this.

NARRATOR:
Many Catholic saints

are believed to have
this bizarre ability.

St. Francis of Assisi
is said to have hovered

high in the air during prayer
in the 13th century.

In the 17th century,

St. Joseph of Cupertino
was said to levitate while

saying mass.

During that time,
anywhere in the world,

really, talk of levitation
would be witchcraft.

St. Joseph was confined
to a cell for this

very practice.

NARRATOR: Levitation is also
associated with sinister

poltergeist phenomena.

In 1977 in London, England,
11-year-old

Janet Hodgson was said by
eyewitnesses to have levitated.

She claimed that she was
possessed by

a man who lived in the house
years before.

Many people say that they
actually saw her levitating.

Even passerbys and say that
they can see her through her

bedroom window,
levitating above the ground.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
is this man

being lifted by a higher power
or dark forces?

There's a ritual where
a shaman will perform,

and during the ceremony,
will actually rise up above

the ground.

NARRATOR: And cabin fever --
as an airplane fills with

a strange smog.

So you're strapped into
a plane seat.

There's nowhere to run,
and it looks like

the plane is on fire.

NARRATOR: In Zambia,
multiple cameras,

capture a mysterious man who
appears to be levitating in

front of an astonished crowd.

Jeff Belanger wonders

if the clip shows
a man who claims to have

supernatural powers.

Judging from the costumes
being worn and the chanting

and the music playing behind
this whole event,

it looks like he's some kind
of shaman.

In many African cultures,

it's believed that Shaman
are able to travel between

our world
and the spiritual realm

and even have the ability
to heal people.

So this gives them
an elevated social status.

NARRATOR: Shamans in some
regions of Africa

are still thought to possess
supernatural powers.

A West African shaman

is filmed in
astonishing footage shot

in 2016,

appearing to kill a man and
then miraculously bring him

back to life.

Scientists believe it's nothing
but a gruesome magic trick,

but the crowd are transfixed
by the shaman's apparent

command of both
life and death.

They believe what
they witnessed was real.

NARRATOR: Other shamans
are said to be able to

enter a deep trance state
and somehow defy gravity,

like the man in the footage.

There's a ritual where
a shaman will perform at night

in a ring of fire,

and during the ceremony,
will actually rise up above

the ground.

NARRATOR: When historian
Karen Bellinger

discovers the month in which
the footage was shot,

she finds it coincides
with an ancient ritual.

This region
is known for a very specific,

very special ritual called
the Makishi Masquerade,

and it happens every August --
this celebration marks

the end of an initiation
period for young boys in

this society
known as the mukanda.

The event involves boys ages

8 to 12, where they'll spend
three months in

the bush, and it symbolizes
the death of their childhood.

For the mukanda, this has
an educational function.

You're learning
survival skills.

You're learning
about sexuality,

about religious beliefs,
social structure,

and everything else
they need to be adults.

NARRATOR: Throughout history all
over the world, young boys

participate in extreme rites
of passage to signify

the end of their childhood.

The Mandan tribe of
North America

had a really extreme ritual in
which young boys would have

a strip kind of cut open in
their skin, in their chest

and shoulders, and a thick rod
of would thrust through.

They would then be hung
by that

until they passed out
from the pain.

NARRATOR: The young boys
would then have their

little fingers hacked off by
a tribesman.

The pain was not pointless --
it was meant to secure

the approval of the spirits

and attune them
to the spiritual world.

The Satere-Mawe people of
Brazil have a particularly

shocking coming of age ceremony

where the young people put
gloves on their hands,

but the gloves are lined
with bullet ants.

NARRATOR: Bullet ants, known as
the world's most painful

insects, are named for
the extreme agony

just one sting can cause.

These are intensely

painful stings that they
received dozens of in each hand,

and they have to leave
the gloves on for

several minutes.

The pain causes them to go
into a trance-like

state before they're able
to take the gloves off.

NARRATOR: Athena Brensberger
studies the clip

closely and spots
a wooden pole,

erected at the height of
the apparently floating man.

The way this man is positioned

would indicate
there's a thin wire that

he's holding onto
and possibly balancing on.

You could see a pole,
which would make me think if

there's a wire, it may be tied
between the trees and the pole.

David Blaine's
got nothing on this guy.

He's doing this
in the middle of a crowd.

They've all got camera phones.

It's definitely daring --
if it's a wire,

it's got to be like razor-thin,
and I mean, razor.

It's got to be painful.

NEMZER: If you watch the person
who's in the video,

this is a particularly
good example

of a levitation or a suspension,
if you will, because

not only is there absolutely
nothing above them,

but it's done outdoors.

So you know
it's not relying on any of

the technical aid of what
you would get in

a fully-equipped theater.

Normally, when you observe
a tightrope walker,

you can see a big, sturdy wire
that they're balancing on.

This man must be using
an incredibly thin wire

to present the illusion that
he's floating in mid-air.

SZULGIT: He's not just
walking from one

side to the other,
he's dancing --

the strength and balance
that this must take are

incredible -- a performance like
this must take years to master.

NARRATOR: Reports
of the ceremony confirm

this man isn't trying
to fool the crowd.

He is trying to
entertain them.

The adult man is taking part
in the celebrations

after the initiation ritual.

The officials are keeping
the crowd under control

so the man doesn't lose

concentration and suffer
a terrible injury if he falls.

When young kids in Western
society finish school,

they'll go to the prom.

They'll go out
for a nice dinner.

But this Makishi performer,

he's pulling out all the stops
for these boys who have passed

their initiation ritual
with flying colors.

NARRATOR: Now, Jacksonville
Airport, Florida.

♪♪

August 11th, 2019.

A plane prepares for takeoff
when suddenly...

That is insane.

The cabin fills
with a bizarre mist.

Panic rises
as visibility drops.

This whole flight looks like
it's going up in smoke.

So you're strapped into
a plane seat,

there's nowhere to run,
and it looks like

the plane is on fire.

[sounds of commotion]

NARRATOR: This seems to be the
start of a horrific tragedy.

Over 45,000 people have been
killed in plane disasters

since 1970.

Mechanical failures,
including engine fires, are

the cause of over
twenty percent of all

fatal plane crashes.

But when former CIA agent
Tracy Walder checks reports,

she finds no record of
an engine fire

on the plane that day.

So I think that there's
something else going on here.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
has a passenger

brought a carry-on catastrophe
aboard this jet?

They are attacking huge
amounts of energy into

tiny spaces,

making them highly unstable
and leading to a big risk of

fire and explosions.

NARRATOR:
In Jacksonville, Florida,

passengers on a plane

waiting to take off are
shocked when

a strange, thick fog begins
to fill the cabin.

Liberty Vittert wonders

if something in someone's
luggage has exploded --

not a bomb,

but an everyday piece
of technology --

a phone, a laptop,
or a tablet.

Lithium ion batteries are
packing huge amounts of energy

into tiny spaces,

potentially making them highly
unstable and leading to a big

risk of fire and explosions.

NARRATOR:
Billions of modern devices run

on lithium ion batteries.

Some of the chemicals
that transmit

an electrical charge within
these batteries are flammable.

In 2010, lithium batteries
being carried from Dubai to

Cologne on a cargo flight

overheat and ignite, causing
a lethal fire to break out,

killing everyone on board.

It's only recently that

are travel organizations
have recognized

how dangerous these batteries
can be -- in some cases, lithium

ion batteries are no longer
allowed in checked luggage,

where a fire could start
and go undetected

in the cargo compartment.

But now this danger has just
moved to the overhead bins,

where carry-on bags filled
with batteries are placed right

next to the passengers,

and you never know when one
might spark up

and start a fire.

NARRATOR:
But Ashanti Davis spots

the mystery fog is pouring
from the overhead vents

and suspects this could be
a substance even more

toxic than smoke from
an overheated battery.

Could chemicals from
the complex mechanics of

the aviation system be leaking

into the air
conditioning system?

Exhaust systems should filter
out these poisonous gases,

but there's always a risk that
some could seep in, and the more

that seeps in,
the more the effects.

It may seep in through cracks
and doors,

or through the heating
baffles inside the plane.

A hundred and thirty seven
Japanese passengers faced

this horror during
a flight in 2018.

A damaged power unit caused
a lubricant to leak into

the air conditioning system,
causing some kind of mist to

fill the cabin.

This video looks almost
similar to that scenario.

ORZEL: The passengers on
the Japanese flight

forced to evacuate onto
the runway,

having just inhaled
lubrication oil.

Many of them were very
sick afterwards.

NARRATOR:
But Liberty Vittert thinks

the behavior of the passengers

in the footage rules out
a deadly chemical leak.

If this was some type of
poisonous chemical,

the crew should be evacuating
the plane, since they're still

on the ground, and people should
be getting very dizzy.

So there must be something
else going on here.

NARRATOR: Physicist Chad Orzel
finds the temperatures

outside the plane could have
triggered a terrifying

smog inside.

ORZEL: This plane is in Florida,
which is a very humid region.

This looks like actual fog.

So could this be related to
some strange weather phenomena?

NARRATOR: The temperature
recorded at the airport that

day was a scorching 97 degrees.

A plane's air conditioning
system works by rerouting

excess hot air from
the plane's engine.

This air is cooled by passing
through a series

of mechanical chambers
and turbines before entering

the cabin.

This complex cooling process

generates condensation as
the air reaches the passengers.

So when that are changes from
hot and humid to cold,

some of that condensation will
actually show up as a mist.

NARRATOR: The mist is confirmed
by the airline

to be an unusually
high amount of water vapor,

but the fear and
panic of the passengers is real

and poses
a significant danger.

They're lucky
that people didn't

go stampeding
towards the exits.

While the mist itself may be
harmless, any unexpected event

on a plane risks setting off
a panic among the passengers,

which itself can be deadly.

NARRATOR: In 2010, a stampede
on a Congolese airplane

in flight unbalances

the plane and causes it to
crash with the loss of

20 lives.

The cause of the panic is
rumored to

be a smuggled crocodile
escaped from a passenger's bag.

Airplanes are such
sophisticated machines.

Despite the best engineering
and design,

there's things
that can go wrong.

Even if this mist
is not poisonous,

a flight where you can't see

your fellow passenger is
a recipe for disaster.

[people shouting]