All language subtitles for Strange.Evidence.S06E05.Train.Track.Terror.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.

MAN: 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, in a subway
said to be haunted,

a stroller is pushed across

a platform and thrown
onto the tracks.

[gasps]

We're watching a nightmare
happening in real time.

We need to get that baby off
the tracks, now.

NARRATOR: In British Columbia,
an inhuman hiker

strides down
a treacherous glacier.

If this is a man, what
the heck is he doing down there?

NARRATOR: And a Thai takeout
that's too hot to handle.

Boom! Whoa!

What the heck
just happened?

NARRATOR:
Bizarre phenomena.

Oh, my God.
[gasps]

NARRATOR:
Mysteries caught on camera.

[woman screams]

NARRATOR: What's the truth
behind this strange evidence?

Goodge Street Underground
Station, Central London.

July 23rd, 2014.

CCTV footage shows
a man carrying

a child in a stroller down
the stairs.

Nothing out of the ordinary.

It looks like they're going up,
getting some more stuff.

NARRATOR:
The man returns to the top

of the stairs to collect
another child.

Then,
the unthinkable happens.

Wait a minute.

This -- this --

Whoa!
The buggy is -- it's mov --

It's like somebody's pushing
the buggy. There's nothing...

NARRATOR:
A mysterious force

propels the child
towards the rails.

No -- no, no, no!

[gasps]

NARRATOR: There are over 250
miles of electric line on

the London underground, and
the middle rail of the tracks

is live.

The track is pumped
with over 3,000 amps,

and if you touch it,
you are toast.

You can see the handles of
the stroller hooked up,

saving the baby from coming
into contact

with the live rails.

We're watching a nightmare
happening in real time.

We need to get that baby off
the tracks, now.

NARRATOR: Even if the baby
avoids a deadly electric shock,

subway trains traveling at
an average of 20 miles an hour

arrive at this platform
every three minutes.

WALLACE:
Here comes the mother.

Okay, she's -- she's got
the baby out

and got it back up,
but Great Scott!

NARRATOR: The mother's instinct
to protect

her child overrides
self-preservation.

She has no idea
how lucky she was,

because she was inches
from death.

This footage just takes
your breath away.

NARRATOR: The cause of
this near fatal event

remains unexplained.

The platform appears
perfectly flat.

There's no slope, no incline
for the stroller to roll down.

The stroller looks
like it was pushed,

but there isn't anyone around.

It's so unnerving,
because it's almost like

there's an unnatural force
acting on that stroller.

NARRATOR: Author Jeff Belanger
uncovers a history

of disturbing incidents
on London's subway system.

The London underground
is over 100 years old.

It's the oldest underground
system in the world, and over

the decades,
this place has just

amassed many strange tales of
the unexplained.

NARRATOR: At Bethnal Green
Underground Station,

right next to the hunting
grounds of Jack the Ripper,

passengers and staff
report the wailing

and screaming of adults
and children.

King's Cross Station, scene of
a terrible fire in 1987,

is said to be haunted
by a desperate woman.

BELANGER: A man heard
screaming and saw

a woman rushing toward him
with outstretched arms.

He ran to help,
and she ran right through him.

Others report seeing
an apparition

and smelling smoke
at the same station.

I can't even imagine that,
how scary that is.

[woman screaming]

NARRATOR: Physicist
Athena Brensenberger

believes the stroller's uncanny
movement could be a result

of a unique and dangerous
atmospheric effect

that can occur
in tunnel systems.

These tunnels haven't been
updated ever since

they were first built
over 100 years ago.

But the trains have been
updated -- they're bigger,

more powerful.

It's like taking a V8
supercharged car and putting

it on a system that's designed
for a horse-drawn carriage.

It's causing larger gusts
of wind to get pushed

through these tunnels at
higher speeds and creating

pressure differentials.

A wind gust could be
what set the stroller running.

NARRATOR: At the exact time
of the incident,

any train leaving or arriving
through the station's

tunnels should not have been
going fast enough to produce

a large wind gust,

but in the depths of
the London subway network,

there are many other tunnels
hidden from sight.

BELANGER: While the London
underground has been expanded,

certain sections have been
closed off,

while others have been
secretly extended.

NARRATOR: One rumor based on
secret accounting figures

suggests government offices in
Whitehall are connected to

the British Secret Services
MI6 headquarters via

a top-secret tunnel
beneath the River Thames.

A classified spy subway
could be in operation.

Goodge Street Station is close

to several key
government offices.

Maybe movement

in one of these secret
tunnels caused some sort

of vacuum that moved
the stroller onto the track.

[beeping noises]

[saw buzzing]

NARRATOR:
Engineer Nick Householder
builds an experiment.

He wants to test the theory

the incident was caused
by a secret spy train

passing through
unseen passages.

Let's construct this tunnel.

NARRATOR: He uses plastic
piping to replicate

the station's layout at Goodge
Street underground.

This represents
the rest of the tube line

that comes up to
the station entrance.

This little T piece is
effectively the station, with

a piece connecting to it
where the stroller was sitting.

Off of this is
the rest of the tunnel.

Now, this section
represents what I think

is happening in
the tunnel.

There's a second line
connected somewhere further

on in the stream,
and there's a train

traveling through it.

NARRATOR: A secret spy train
passing through a tube tunnel

pushes air ahead of it

and creates
a partial vacuum in its wake.

Air rushes in from
elsewhere in

the tunnel system
to fill the vacuum.

This piston effect could
create a powerful

suction force, which pulls
the stroller towards the tracks.

This rag moving inside of

the tube effectively works
like a train.

It's creating a seal and can

slide back and forth
inside the tube.

I'm using this ping pong ball

to represent the baby
in the stroller.

Now, I'm putting it here just
at the entrance of the station.

You'll notice this is actually
pretty far away from

the tracks.

I'm curious to see if a train
moving through a tube is

actually enough suction force

to pull a baby all
the way away from the station

onto the tracks.

NARRATOR: Coming up...

did a secret spy train
suck up the stroller?

Baby on tracks
in three, two, one.

NARRATOR: And in British
Columbia, hikers take

the vacation video of
a lifetime.

Holy cow.

NARRATOR: On a London
subway platform,

a mysterious force pushes
a baby in a stroller

onto the tracks.

Engineer Nick Householder
believes it could have been

caused by a blast of wind

from a secret MI6 spy
train passing close to

the station.

He has created an experiment
to test his theory.

HOUSEHOLDER: This is
the platform and the tracks

that we see in the video.

Here's the little hallway
where the stroller is sitting.

Further along up the track is
a split into a second tube.

I'm gonna see if
I can generate

an effect like what
we saw in the film.

This piston is gonna
move through

and potentially create
a vacuum behind it,

and I want to see if those
forces are strong enough to

pull the baby
from where it's sitting

at the foot of the stairs
and pull it on the tracks.

All right, here we go.

Baby on tracks
in three, two, one.

NARRATOR: The simulated baby
meets a gruesome fate.

It worked! Just the train
moving through this tunnel

produced enough
of a suction force

to pull the baby
onto the tracks.

This experiment proves that
a secret tunnel creates

enough of an airflow

to disturb the other parts
of the track.

With this many secret tunnels
and hidden trains,

you just have to watch out.

NARRATOR: The British government
remains tight-lipped about

its secret network of tunnels
under London,

despite a journalist
claiming he accessed them

through a hidden entrance
in 1980.

But this experiment demonstrates
-One...

that unseen forces can
create strange effects

captured on camera in
London's subway system.

These people really don't
know how lucky they are.

This is every parent's
worst nightmare,

your child spirited away into
the most gravest of dangers,

totally out of your control.

NARRATOR: Now, Panorama Ridge
near Black Tusk mountain

in remote
British Columbia.

August 16th, 2014.

Photographer Shayd Johnson is
out hiking with friends

7,000 feet above sea level
when they spot

something moving on
the glacier across the valley.

Holy cow!

NARRATOR: His phone camera zooms
in as far as it can to focus on

the dark figure.

MAN: Such a big thing for such
a, like...

MAN #2: He's hauling it down
that mountain.

-For sure!
-MAN: He's, like, just going...

He's not on the trail, guys.

This is -- this is not...

-Wh -- why is he so far away?
-What are we looking at?

NARRATOR: What is immediately
clear from the footage

is that this is no
ordinary hiker.

Are we all seeing
the same thing, right?

Yeah.

NARRATOR: There is no hiking
trail on the glacier's

slippery slope, and the striding
figure is surrounded

by deep ravines
and dangerous gullies.

MONTANARI: If this is a man,
what the heck is he doing

down there?
He's all alone --

no backpack
or hiking poles.

It doesn't make any sense.

NARRATOR: The fast-moving figure
appears to move down

the treacherous slope
with astonishing speed

and wide gait.

How is it moving so quickly?

NARRATOR: Until...

MAN: Yo!
[echoing]

It stopped.

NARRATOR: The mysterious
mountain man is nearly

a mile away but seems
to hear them

and stops to stare.

But no human signal like
a hand wave

or shout is returned.

MAN: I don't think
that's a person, guys.

MAN #2: I'm [bleep] zoomed in
as much as I can

on this thing.
-What the [bleep]?

NARRATOR:
This figure is performing

an incredible feat of
power and athleticism.

The unedited video clip
lasts just over 60 seconds.

During that time,

the figure scrambles
approximately 300 feet

down a slippery
glacial slope.

MAN: No way you can
cover that ground

if you were just a person.
-Yeah, you're just

going down the side of
a glacier? No way, man.

NARRATOR: By combining
the distance and time taken,

it's traveling at nearly
double the speed of

an average human hiker
in this kind of terrain.

Biologist Jayde Lovell
attempts to identify what could

be moving at this speed
across the mountainside.

LOVELL: In this type
of wilderness,

it wouldn't be surprising to
see a lone wolf

or a grizzly bear,
but when you look closer

at the footage, you can see it's
not a creature on four legs.

It's definitely walking upright,
like a human, like a man.

-Coming up...
-MAN: Yo!

...was calling out
to the creature a bad idea?

This sighting occurred right
on the edge of an area of

Canadian wilderness

home to a spate of mysterious
disappearances

and brutal killings.

NARRATOR: And in Thailand,
a mysterious motorcycle blast

gives a new meaning to burning
some rubber.

Boom! Whoa!

Whoa, what is happening?

NARRATOR: In British Columbia,
photographer Shayd Johnson

and three friends film
a mysterious two-legged

creature traveling down
a steep glacier at what seems to

be a tremendous speed.

MAN: No way you could cover
that ground

if you were just a person.
-Yeah, you're just going down

the side of a glacier.
No way, man.

NARRATOR: British Columbia is
twice the size of California,

and over 60 percent of it
is covered in deep,

impenetrable forest.

British Columbia --
Bigfoot ground zero.

This is Sasquatch country.

NARRATOR:
Today, the Kitasoo tribe
who live in the region accept

the creatures as being
as real as the bears,

whales, and wolves that make up
the megafauna of the area.

Indigenous tribes believe it
is a hybrid creation

of ancient woodland creatures
that once roamed the region --

a small, well built, dark ape
and a tall, thin gray one.

The Kitasoo call them ba'gwi,

and elders forbid humans
from going into

parts of the forest that are
reserved as wilu'bu'kwis,

which means the places
where there are Sasquatch.

They tell people not to enter
for their own safety.

Many people speculate that in
1924, a woodsman,

Albert Ostman, was dragged into
a Sasquatch lair, where he was

held captive until he escaped.

NARRATOR: And science journalist
Shaena Montanari

discovers this area of
British Columbia has gained

a reputation for people going
missing in the wilderness.

This sighting occurred
right on the edge

of what locals call
the Kamloops Triangle,

an area of Canadian wilderness
home to a spate of

mysterious disappearances
and brutal killings.

NARRATOR: Six men have gone
missing between 2017 and 2020,

and despite a massive search,

Royal Canadian mounted police
say only two bodies have

been recovered.

Some people blame Sasquatch
for these killings,

but the authorities thinks
it's more likely these deaths

are due to this area being

a magnet for criminals with
high-end survival skills.

LOVELL: B.C. has the dubious
honor of being known for being

a haven for people
who are running from the law.

NARRATOR: The small community of
Kitimat, just 400 miles north

of where the footage was shot,

was the site of a savage
mass murder.

Kevin Vermette shot four
campers at a campsite in 1997

before fleeing into the forest,

and he was never seen again.

NARRATOR:
Despite a $20,000 reward,

Vermette, an experienced
outdoorsman, simply vanishes.

He has evaded capture
ever since.

GLOVER: Could a desperate or
dangerous criminal

have made this mountain peak
his home?

NARRATOR: But biologist
Jayde Lovell speculates

this may instead be
a person who has just

suffered a terrible trauma.

They don't seem to have
any survival gear,

any backpack, or any kit
with them.

Are they someone in distress?

Over one weekend in
September 2020, one hiker was

killed and two were critically
injured in accidents.

They all fell from
mountainside roots above

Squamish Valley.

[man shouting]

LOVELL: This is very
dangerous terrain.

23 people die every year
in B.C.

from all sorts of things,
climbing accidents

and injuries,
but also just simply getting

lost and dying from exposure.

Perhaps this man just
emerged traumatized

after being buried
by an avalanche.

NARRATOR: The mountains of
British Columbia produce over

2,000 avalanches every year.

A big one can release
300,000 cubic yards of snow.

If you get buried
for more than an hour,

you have only a one-in-three
chance of survival.

Perhaps he was in a group,
and maybe he's searching

frantically for his friends --

it might explain
the lack of hiking gear.

NARRATOR: But if it was
a desperate person,

why don't they respond when
Shayd's hiking party

call out a greeting?

[echoing] Yo!

NARRATOR: No one was recorded
missing that day.

And the person, if it was
a person, isn't reported to have

arrived at any nearby village
or town.

We don't know what
that creature is.

Is it a person?
We don't know.

LOVELL: One thing we do know
for sure is that

there's something massive
living out there

in those B.C. mountains.

NARRATOR:
Now, Pathum Thani,

in the Bangkok
metropolitan area of Thailand.

September 21, 2020.

A man's dash cam films
as his car

approaches what looks like
an improvised roadblock.

People running across
the road, it looks like.

Two guys on a motorcycle go by
on the left-hand side,

and they're cruising along --
there are two chairs

in the middle of the road
for some rea -- Boom! Whoa!

[indistinct shouting]

What the heck just happened?

NARRATOR:
In the blink of an eye,

the motorbike
and its two riders are

engulfed in a searing
white fireball.

Whoa! What is happening?

Where did that even come from?

[sobbing]

NARRATOR:
Eyewitnesses are terrified.

The motorbike's passenger
slowly sits up.

The driver is yet to move.

-Then suddenly...
-[explosion blasts]

the victims are caught in
another blistering blaze.

So the fire stops,
and then it restarts.

It's like something's going
horribly wrong with this bike.

It was like
a tiny miniature bomb

just went off
underneath them.

Motorcycle accidents are
always dangerous because of how

exposed you are,
but this is something else.

[explosion blasts]

What could have sparked
that fire?

I don't see anything.

Engineer David Wallace
is particularly interested

in this case,
being a lifelong motorcyclist.

When you ride a bike,
you're always inspecting

the area around you,
looking for outside dangers

that could possibly get you.

You never expect it
to be your own bike.

NARRATOR: In the U.S.,
motorcyclists are

28 times more likely
to be killed

on the road than car drivers --
in Thailand,

it's even worse --
every day,

39 people die on
motorbikes here,

making it the world's
deadliest country to ride in.

70 percent of all Thai traffic
deaths are motorbike related.

It looks like my mom is right --
motorcycles are a death trap.

NARRATOR:
Martin Morgan spots

a detail that suggests
this fireball could be

the latest escalation of
a lethal turf war.

The fact that we have two
people on this motorcycle is

a clue,
and that's because in Thailand,

motorcycle taxis are
enormously popular.

All of the taxi drivers
on these motorcycles,

they kind of carve out a turf
where they operate, and they

don't want other people
muscling in on their turf.

They're constantly at odds
with one another about where

the boundaries
of their turf starts

and ends, and it's almost
like it's created

a motorcycle mafia.

NARRATOR: Bangkok has
over 100,000 licensed motorbike

taxis, all vying for business

from just 6,000
official pickup spots.

But then in October 2017,
a new unregulated ride hailing

app is launched,

undercutting the city's
already angry

territorial drivers.

The bloody battles start
to escalate.

These turf wars
are for real.

NARRATOR: In March 2019,
a driver registered with

the rideshare app is brutally
stabbed by a rival.

VITTERT: Later that year,
two men were shot

and killed in a battle
between two groups of drivers.

These fights
happen all the time,

and people get bludgeoned
and beaten.

NARRATOR: This hair-raising
footage could represent

the latest atrocity
in this bitter turf war.

A rival group could
be responsible

for sabotaging this rider's
fuel tank.

So if the driver of this bike
has crossed into some

rival's territory,

this explosion could
be intentional.

It would explain why
the driver's legs

caught on fire first.

ORZEL: Burning gasoline reaches
a temperature of over

1,700 degrees,
and once it's on you,

it's hard to get off.

It tends to stay where it
comes in contact with

human skin,
which is one of the reasons

why napalm is such a brutally
effective weapon.

You get burned by gasoline,
they're gonna have to cut away

the burned skin to expose new

skin cells, and then,
to cover up the scarring,

they're gonna have to use
skin grafting.

NARRATOR: Electrical engineer
David Wallace

doesn't think
this is a fuel explosion.

WALLACE: As we look closely to
this, we notice that this fire

starts rather suddenly -- goes
bright, dims down, gets bright.

Now, this is looking more like
an electrical-type fire.

So is it feasible
that this may be

possibly an electric motorbike
that has malfunctioned?

NARRATOR: Wallace could be
onto something.

Thailand has imposed severe
import duties on foreign goods.

At the time of the blast,

electric cars are subject
to 80 percent import

taxes and e-bikes up to 60.

This means
no one can afford them,

and locals are improvising.

Engineer and mechanic
specialist Rachel de Barros

investigates why two chairs

were sitting in
the middle of the road.

I see something smoldering on
the ground, and then just

above that, a black line.

I think it's a power cable
that's just hanging there.

NARRATOR: David Wallace
wants to find out

if the violent explosions
seen in the footage

come from
a fallen overhead power line.

WALLACE: So here we have our one
million vote generator that's

gonna be feeding power down
through the ring into the line

to my right here.

Now for this experiment,
we're only gonna be using about

34,000 volts,

which would simulate
a distribution line running

along a highway
like you see in the video.

NARRATOR: For safety, Wallace is
bringing the power cable to

the bike --
this experiment

should never
be attempted at home.

What we have here
is our current sensor,

which will be used to detect
the current flowing through

the motorbike's frame whenever
the electricity hits it.

So there's only one way to
find out what's gonna happen.

Let's give it a shot.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
Wallace finds out if

these guys were fried on
their ride.

Look at this.
We've got a good arc going.

NARRATOR: And bizarre bird
behavior in Texas

as a camera seems to capture
a feathered funeral.

More and more you watch,

the more and more
you get creeped out.

NARRATOR: Near Bangkok,
Thailand, a motorbike is

suddenly engulfed in a searing
white-hot fireball.

Electrical engineer
David Wallace is

conducting a highly
dangerous experiment.

So in a moment, we're gonna
use my one million volt

generator in order to
produce the power to my line.

NARRATOR: He wants to find out
if the violent explosion

that consumes the rider

and his passenger is triggered
by a fallen power line.

Just in case something
happens and the bike ignites,

we want to be protected.

NARRATOR: The motorbike is
emptied of all gasoline

and oil for safety and to prove,
if there is an explosion,

it's not caused by fuel in
the vehicle.

Okay, so let's get ready
to light this bike up.

Let's run the voltage up.

NARRATOR: Switches are thrown,
and instantly, 35,000 volts,

approximate to the power
running through the roadside

cables, are coursing through
the conductor rod.

A little more.

NARRATOR: The deadly current
shoots down through the bike,

but we're not seeing
the searing white hot flames

from the footage.

-Then...
-[explosion blasts]

Look at this.
We got a good arc going.

This is what we see in
the video.

You get the flashes.

NARRATOR: These white hot
arc flashes are

just like the footage
from Thailand.

As the powerful electrical
current breaks its circuit

and jumps from the conductor
rod to the bike,

dust and gas in the atmosphere
violently ignite.

This deadly expulsion
of energy

generates heat up to
35,000 degrees Fahrenheit,

hotter than
the surface of the sun.

All right. Kill the power.

This bike took quite a lick
here -- we had over 160 amps

flowing through this bike.

This is more than enough
current to kill you very,

very quickly.

So it definitely appears to me
that this is a broken

power line that these guys ran
over that created the blast.

NARRATOR: Power lines
run alongside roads

for ease of access.

But in a country like Thailand,
with frequent storms and poorly

maintained infrastructure,

low-hanging cables
and highways

can be a lethal combination.

Both of these guys
on the bike recovered,

and they were lucky to get out
of that alive.

So if you ever come across
a power line laying on

the ground,
no matter what,

assume this thing is live --
never go

anywhere near it.
Death awaits you.

Now, Austin, Texas.

September 15th, 2016.

A man films a mysterious
gathering in a parking lot.

MAN: There are more coming.

They're not afraid of me,
and I'm right next to them.

They're all hovering around!

NARRATOR: The birds seem to be
focused on one of their dead.

There are dozens of them,
and more

just keep coming.

MAN:
There's more all around.

NARRATOR: The eerie congregation
ignores everything around them.

MAN: Here's a big one
that just walked up.

Oh, my goodness.
I wonder if that was planned.

This looks like highly
organized behavior,

like a kind of
group intelligence.

NARRATOR:
Their avian attention focuses

on their fallen flock member.

But is it grief or a grudge?

More and more you watch,
the more and more you get

creeped out.

[whistling]

It's so sinister.

It's like
they're planning something.

NARRATOR: Coming up,
are these birds arranging

a funeral or plotting revenge?
-When they're being aggressive,

they'll peck and claw
at a person's head.

It's almost impossible for
the person to fight back.

NARRATOR: And in China,
an unidentified falling

object brings fear to a village.
-[indistinct shouting]

The terror that you can hear
cannot be understated.

They are afraid.

NARRATOR: A man films a bizarre
and threatening congregation

of birds in the middle of
a parking lot in Austin, Texas.

MAN:
There's more all around it.

You can see the reason for
the gathering --

right in the middle
of the circle is a dead bird.

MAN: It's like they want
to move it.

Are they investigating
the cause of its murder?

Avian murder investigation

sounds like something
out of a cartoon.

The bird detective is a wacky
idea, but the more we find out

about birds,
the closer to reality

this idea becomes.

NARRATOR: Recent research
suggests that some species

of bird can remember faces,

learn about threats,
and even hold grudges.

[cawing]

Crows have been found to share
this information

with each other
at a funeral-like events,

where they gather
around corpses of

their dead comrades.

If we have bird funerals, and
that may be what we're seeing on

camera here,

then why not bird
murder investigations?

NARRATOR: Crows' brains contain
1.5 billion neurons,

as many as a monkey,

but because crows' neurons are
packed tighter together,

they are more intelligent,

[engines revving]

some think as much as
a gorilla or a chimpanzee.

Analysis of the footage shows
the jet black species holding

this avian CSI

are actually a type of bird
that's just as brainy

and belligerent as crows,
the grackle.

SZULGIT: A recent study
shows that grackles

actually rank very high in
intelligence close to crows.

We know that crows engage
in this kind of behavior.

I don't think it's a push
to suggest that

grackles maybe are doing
the same kind of thing.

NARRATOR: If a grackle
investigation concludes

that a human is a threat,

that person could be in
trouble -- when threatened,

these mass gatherings can
erupt into

a violent defensive behavior
called mobbing.

Grackles have
a bad reputation

in Texas for
their aggressive behavior.

They'll steal your food and do

all kinds of nasty things --
in Austin.

they've learned to identify
fast food areas

and trucks, and the locals call
them taco raptors.

NARRATOR:
Just a couple of hours away

from where the footage
was shot, nearby Houston

was the site of
a major grackle incident.

In January 2020, thousands of
grackles take

over the parking lot of
a grocery store.

Eyewitnesses say the birds
act aggressively

and displayed
no fear of humans.

The size of these grackle
flocks can be huge.

Eyewitnesses report
rivers of birds in the sky.

In fact, bird attacks have
been on the rise everywhere.

When they're being aggressive,

they can fly at somebody
and vomit and defecate

on them with amazing accuracy.

They'll peck and claw
at a person's head

and then come back in
huge numbers.

It's almost impossible for
the person to fight back.

NARRATOR: This grackle funeral
could indeed be

the start of a feather-brained
hit squad

hell-bent on revenge.

And as birds seem to be
losing their fear of humans,

perhaps humans should start to

develop a healthier fear
of birds.

SANFORD:
It's easy for us humans to get

complacent about our place in
the environment.

We've got weapons,
we've got shelter.

However, some animals
have discovered

that humans are easy pickings.

I would not want to be
the person who killed that bird.

There could be a feathery rain
of pain coming their way.

NARRATOR:
Now, Gaoyao in Shaanxi province,
northern China.

September 7th, 2020.

A normal day, until...

[speaking indistinctly]

Whoa, whoa.

[shouting indistinctly]

I mean, this is crazy --
something falls from the sky.

So you can see the villagers
in the footage.

They can view this cylindrical
object dropping out of the sky

towards them.
-[shouts indistinctly]

Petrifying for them.

NARRATOR: The huge object
continues its rapid descent.

The villagers can be heard
screaming a warning to

those below.

You can see that
the people are terrified.

This is not something that
you would see every day.

They're yelling.
The camera's shaking.

There is panic going on here.

NARRATOR: The man suddenly
stops filming.

Oh, no!

-Still nothing.
-NARRATOR: Then....

Oh! Okay. There it is.
Wow. That's big.

That is a big explosion.

This is not your normal gas.

This looks sort of deadly.

This is nuts.

A giant object falls from
the sky,

and then orange smoke starts
pouring into the air.

This little village looks like
it's suddenly

become a war zone.

NARRATOR: The unidentified
object lands close to a school,

villagers fear for
their children's lives.

[indistinct shouting
and commotion]

The terror that you can
hear in

the voices of the people in this
video cannot be understated.

-They are afraid.
-NARRATOR: Shocked locals rush

to where the object
has made ground fall.

The blast crater looks like
something

from the Predator movies.

What has landed
on this village,

and just how deadly is it?

NARRATOR: Coming up,
is the Chinese government

playing war games above its
own people?

Is it conceivable
that they're even allowing

the North Koreans to test
missiles over

Chinese territory?

NARRATOR: In northern China,
terrified eyewitnesses film

an unidentified object

crash landing right
next to the village's school.

I think it's
a pretty good rule of

thumb that if you see
an orange cloud,

it's probably not going to be
good for you.

NARRATOR: Antonio Paris
looks for answers

about this mysterious object.

One of China's closest
allies is

the Democratic People's
Republic of Korea.

He suspects Kim Jong-un
could be involved.

Geographically, China is
very close to North Korea,

and in the last 10 years,

North Korea has been testing
a whole assortment of rockets

and missiles -- is this
what we're seeing here,

is something that
malfunctioned over

China that came from
North Korea?

McMAHON: The impact site
definitely says missile.

It's a large hole in
the ground.

It's what
every missile does.

NARRATOR: North Korea is
an impoverished country,

but it still has one of
the largest militaries in

the world.

It's estimated 20 percent of
its entire GDP

is spent on defense.

America spends just
3.4 percent.

The North Koreans are nuclear
capable, and they have

an intermediate range strike
capability now, as well,

in the form of ballistic
missiles that can be equipped

with a nuclear payload,
and the delivery system

that they have can stretch
to about 8,000 miles.

NARRATOR: Mainland USA
may be out of reach,

but the Pacific island of Guam
is a sitting duck.

And that is something that
should alarm Americans,

first and foremost,
because Guam has been a part of

the greater United States of
America since 1898.

It's the site of a major
United States Navy base.

NARRATOR: But Guam lies pretty
much in the opposite direction

from where the object in
the footage falls in

northern China.

China could be helping
the North Koreans

to develop
their missile system.

Is it conceivable that
they're even allowing

the North Koreans to test
those missiles over

Chinese territory?

NARRATOR: Space journalist
Amy Shira Teitel

reexamines the footage.

Is this a spent rocket
booster stage

crashing in the middle of
a residential area?

The thing is, spent rocket
stages are usually jettisoned

over water,
not populated areas.

NARRATOR: The Chinese government
space program uses former

top-secret military missile
launchpads to blast off

their spacecraft.

These were all built in
the Cold War, far inland,

away from the eyes of spies

and the possibility of attack
by a foreign navy.

PARIS: So that's an issue.

If you have a spaceport
that's inland,

and the rocket takes off,

and then there's some type of
malfunction, that rocket's

not gonna fall
into the ocean,

it's gonna fall on land
and potentially a city.

NARRATOR: Falling space debris
is now such a common problem

that locals are given
a warning prior to any launch.

The Chinese government puts
out these notices saying that

if you see something
falling from

the sky near these launch
sites, you need to get out

the way, you need to run.

It struck me as
completely insane.

Can you imagine if NASA gave
people warning of a launch

to just run if they found
something falling over

their homes?

NARRATOR:
Further clues from the footage

now confirmed conclusively --

this is a booster stage
from a rocket.

This gigantic orange cloud
that you see

in the video is actually
rocket fuel exploding.

It's a mix of hydrazine
and nitrogen tetroxide.

These two things are
hyperbolic propellants,

which ignite on contact
with each other.

Hydrazine is an incredibly
powerful genotoxic carcinogen,

So even if you survive
the impact in a village,

you will have health effects
that could be deadly

almost immediately.

NARRATOR: And it isn't
just a problem

for the people in China.

The Asian superpower
is now starting to

launch rockets that travel
all over the world.

MORGAN: Recently,
in the Ivory Coast,

a 40-foot-long section of
a Chinese rocket came down

and crashed through this cheese
maker's warehouse.

NARRATOR: And in May 2021,
the Chinese lose control of

a 21-ton rocket during re-entry
to Earth's atmosphere.

Traveling at more than
four miles per second,

experts predict
the Long March 5B's

debris could land anywhere
from New York to New Zealand.

So here's the biggest problem --
China is trying to beat us to

space, and they're trying to

fast track this, and when
you fast track something,

especially a space program,

there's a chance that this can
be done unsafely.

TEITEL: China is on a mission
to establish itself

as a major player in space.

So we're going to be
seeing more

of these rockets
launching in the future.

If problems with launches and
re-entry persist, it could be

a matter of time before one of

these Chinese missions ends
with an international incident.