All language subtitles for Unidentified.Inside.Americas.UFO.Investigation.S02E06.Sightings.Surge.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.DDP5.1.H.264-BurCyg_track3_[eng]

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ANNOUNCER: This program is
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- [Narrator] Tonight
on Unidentified.

- [Woman] What is that?

- That thing took off as
fast as a tracer round.

- [Narrator] In 2019,
the skies over the US

were teeming with
unknown objects.

- [Cooper] No way,
what the (beep)?

- [Narrator] More than twice
the number of UFO sightings

than the year before.

- Just out of nowhere

an orange light just kind
of appears in the sky.

- [Narrator] Were
they extraterrestrial?

- [Older Camper] Wow.
- [Narrator] Or a hoax?

- [Woman] What are those?

- [Woman's Companion]
I have no idea.

- [Narrator] Now, as millions
point smartphones at the sky.

- [Cooper] Just started
filming it right up there.

- [Narrator] Can the
team get to the bottom

of this historic
surge in sightings?

- [Cooper] What is that?

(tense suspenseful music)

- [Narrator] Everything we
know about UFOs is changing

thanks to a team led by former

Pentagon UFO investigator,
Lue Elizando.

- That is real,
whatever that is.

- [Narrator] And former top

intelligence official,
Chris Mellon.

- This is a current and
continuing phenomenon.

It's happening, it
continues to happen.

- [Narrator] They discovered
five unique characteristics

that UFOs have in common
called the five observables.

They also released
groundbreaking videos.

- [Narrator] That forced
the Navy to admit its pilots

were coming face-to-face
with unidentified objects.

- [Male Reporter] The US Navy

made a shocking admission today.

- [Female Reporter] Strange
flying objects caught on tape

by their own fighter
pilots are in fact UFOs.

- [Narrator] Now a new
wave of military witnesses

is coming out of the shadows.

- [Obscured Man] I've never
seen anything move like that.

Shape, size, speeds,
clearly unidentified.

- [Narrator] The team is
united on a new mission:

connect the dots to reveal
the truth about UFOs.

- [Steve] This thing
had no capability

like anything on Earth.

- [Narrator] And warn the world

about the dangers
they might represent.

- [Hal] Carl Sagan
once famously said,

"Extraordinary claims
require extraordinary proof."

He was absolutely right.

But now we have the proof.

(tense music)

- [Female Reporter]
Authorities say they don't know

what they are, but there
appears to be a growing problem

of unidentified objects
flying through the sky.

- [Narrator] All
across America in 2019,

civilians and military personnel

were witnessing bizarre craft.

In Texas, 13 reported
sightings of flying disks.

In Florida, 27 fireballs.

40 sightings of floating
triangles over California.

(shouting)

- [Man] What the
(beep) is that, homey?

- [Narrator] But
in North Carolina,

there were over 50 sightings

of something else: glowing orbs.

- [Lue] Well,
howdy there, Shaun.

Good to see you.
- Oh, yeah, you too, man.

What a gorgeous day.

- [Lue] Yes, it's
beautiful, man.

- [Narrator] Lue Elizando is
meeting with a former Marine,

who wants to be known
simply as Shawn.

In his over 10 years
of military service,

he never saw anything like
what he witnessed one night

off the Carolina coast.

- So Shawn, I know a little
bit about your background,

but do you mind giving
me just a brief picture

of your life in the military?

- Yeah, joined the
Marines in '91.

Became a reconnaissance
Marine in '96.

It's a Marine that's, or an
observer behind enemy lines,

surveillance,
information collection.

- [Narrator] In September 2019,

Shawn was heading home
after a fishing trip.

- Coming in, and instead
of going to the boat ramp,

I just went on in
the Carolina beach,

kind of tooling around.

It was a beautiful evening.

I noticed an orb over my head,

like not directly over, but
maybe 150 feet in the air,

kind of following me.

I was traveling
about five knots.

I go, "Okay, somebody's
got a drone."

The first thought.

I was like, I couldn't hear it

and obviously my
motor's super quiet,

so if a drone was
buzzing 150 feet,

I would be able to hear it.

It was round, circular
orb, reddish-orange

and it had a haze
glow around it.

Wasn't sharp edges at all.

Man, maybe five
feet in diameter.

- [Lue] So it had a color to it?

- [Shawn] Yeah, oh, yeah.
- Orange-ish, red.

- So I took note of it.

I'm a reconnaissance
Marine as well,

so I stopped, looked,
listened, smelled.

The basic instincts
will follow me forever.

I felt it was following me.

I was traveling
about five knots.

20, 30 seconds.

- Yeah, that's deliberate.

- Yeah.

- And usually, if it's
starting to go

in front of you or
behind you,

but you said it
matched your speed?

- Yeah, that thing
took off faster

than anything I've ever seen.

Like it traveled as
fast as a tracer round.

- [Lue] That fast?
- [Shawn] Yeah.

- [Lue] Thousands
of feet per second?

- [Shawn] Yeah.
- Even bullets,

when they break
the sound barrier,

they have that crack.

That miniature sonic boom.

That's what I wanted to ask you.

- Absolutely, no sound
at all or thrust.

- [Lue] Right?

- Like power thrust
or something.

- [Lue] Shawn is a
trained observer.

He's just wired differently.

He sees this really
weird, strange light.

The way he described this
object really fell neatly

within several of
those observables.

- [Narrator] Elizando
immediately recognizes two

of the five observables.

Instantaneous acceleration
and hypersonic velocity.

- [Lue] Instantaneous
acceleration, because you said

within the blink of an eye.

It went from a hover
directly over his boat

to disappearing
over the horizon.

And of course,
hypersonic velocity.

He actually used the
term, "A tracer bullet."

Just taking off, but
without any type of trail.

- I didn't think anything
of it until it left.

The whole question
is what did I see?

- Is it possible
that these things

have a very rational
explanation: IE flares?

- [Shawn] Every flare
I've launched has a trail.

And it left.

Flares come, they don't go.

- You don't expect a
flare to simply hover.

It falls with gravity
because it abides

by the laws of physics and
flares don't just take off

at breakneck speeds in one
direction and disappear.

- [Narrator] To Elizando,

Shawn's sighting
is eerily familiar.

- [Pilot] Hey, got it.

(laughs)

- [Narrator] Previously, US
Navy Lieutenant Ryan Graves

told Elizando he and other
fighter pilots repeatedly

witnessed orb-like UFOs
off the East Coast in 2015.

- This is more like I was
looking at a flashlight,

so just a singular
point of raw energy.

I'm literally just
seeing a flash,

a constant flash or
flashlight shine out there.

- [Narrator] The
biggest connection:

the orb-like objects were
spotted near the same waters

where Shawn was fishing.

- Here we are right off
the coast of the Atlantic

and in 2015, the US aircraft
carrier Theodore Roosevelt,

there were several pilots

who encounter something
very interesting.

They describe these orbs.

These little round things
that they couldn't explain.

- [Narrator] This area
is also home to some

of the largest military
installations in the US.

Could these mysterious orbs

be targeting nearby
military assets?

- I did think it could be maybe

some type of foreign
government surveillance.

- [Narrator] One troubling
theory is that these objects

could be advanced
Russian drones.

- If it's a red threat,
that would be enormous.

If it was someone
operating drones out there,

that would be enormous, too.

- [Narrator] A Russian spy
ship known as the Viktor Leonov

was patrolling
international waters

off the east coast of the US,

both in 2015 and near the
time of Shawn's sighting.

Could the Leonov have
launched such drones

or be coordinating with
them to spy on the US?

- Is that something we
need to be cognizant of?

If the Russians, let's say,

develop this new
secret technology,

that they could launch a
probe over our US cities

and at the drop of a hat,

take off at supersonic
speeds without any signature,

would that be something
you would want to know

that this technology exists?

- Oh, yeah, for sure.

Everybody should understand
what possible threats

are out there from
foreign governments.

- [Narrator] Elizondo's
teammate, Chris Mellon,

is concerned with the
ability of a foreign power

to penetrate American airspace.

- We're already on thin
ice in terms of having

any clear idea of
what these things are,

where they're from, who's
operating, what their intent is.

Have we been
technologically leapfrogged?

Could it be the Russians
or someone else?

In either case, they
don't seem to be ours

and that's the alarming,
concerning issue.

- [Narrator] But can
Russian spy drones

be the source of the
dozens of mysterious orbs

reported last year
over the Carolinas?

Can they account for the
strange videos of objects

that seem to travel in groups
of two or four or even 14?

Coming up on Unidentified.

- At first I thought
maybe it was a helicopter

because it wasn't moving.

And then realizing
there was no sound,

that made it kind of strange.

Okay, now there are four.

How that happened?

I don't know.

- [Lue] Are these technologies
from a foreign adversary?

It's certainly possible.

Are these technologies from
somewhere or someone else?

Yeah, it's possible.

(dramatic music)

sic)

(digital chirping)

- [Narrator] Lue Elizando has
just met with a former Marine,

whose sighting of a reddish orb

could be a Russian spy drone,

but his sighting was only
one of over 50 in the state.

- There's been video and
photographs of these things.

They seem to be fairly pervasive
here in the local area.

There's enough
eyewitnesses here,

both on the civilian side
and the military side,

that there may be a pattern.

Now what that pattern is?

I don't know yet.

- [Narrator] Now, Elizando's

on his way to meet Cooper Booth,

a restaurant worker who also
saw strange reddish orbs

near Wilmington, North Carolina.

His were captured on video.

- [Lue] Nice to see you.

Thanks for taking the
time to talk with me.

Appreciate it very much.

- [Cooper] Yes, sir, absolutely.

- I came here a few days ago
to see if I can determine

if there's really something
weird going on here.

Here I am at this marina and
as serendipity would have it,

lo and behold someone
says, "Hey, listen.

"You gotta talk to this guy

"because you're not
gonna believe this.

"Literally like just the last
few days he saw something."

- 10:00, 10:30 on
Saturday night,

I saw a group of red
orb-looking things in the sky

and they were in
somewhat a formation.

An octagon kind of shape.
- Okay.

It was just solid red orbs

and I was just like
in awe of what I saw.

I was like, "Oh,
that was crazy."

like they were right above
me and that's when I--

- Really?
- Yeah, it freaked me out.

It freaked me out completely.

I had to get something to
show that I did see something.

- Do you mind if you
share that video?

May I see it?

- [Cooper] No, it's on.

- [Lue] Whoa, yeah, okay.

(tense music)

- [Cooper] It shows
red orbs in the sky.

They're kind of
flickering a little bit

and it didn't look
like they faded out.

They just closed in, gone.

- [Narrator] The objects
appear to be moving

without any signs of
propulsion or lift.

It's one of the five observables
Elizando calls antigravity.

- Would you be okay with
showing me specifically

where you saw them?

(tense music)

- [Cooper] I started seeing
the lights right around,

once I got past this
little treeline up here.

I'm just staring at it.

I wanna drive back and forth.

Poke my head back
under the things.

"What is going on?

"What is that?"

- This is a young man
who's been working all day

and just wants to get home.

These lights in the
sky are so unusual

that he actually tries
to chase these things

so he can take a picture so
people would believe him.

- And I pulled up
right up right here,

past that mailbox,
hopped out of my car

and just started filming and
they were right up there.

No way, what the (beep)?

So I was sitting right there

and they were right
up there in the sky.

(tense music)

- And we're facing
right now southeast.

- [Narrator] For Elizando,

the fact the orbs were seen
near a US Navy exercise zone

raises the possibility they
could be military in origin.

- They don't appear to be
aircraft or helicopters.

No sound and these are
these little glowing orbs.

The same orange-ish, yellowish,

reddish glow that
Shawn had described.

What he witnessed is consistent

with what other people
are reporting as well.

- [Narrator] One of those
people is Chris Larkin,

who also captured a video
of reddish-orange orbs

while fishing off
the Carolina coast.

- Wife and kids went to bed.

It was like 9 o'clock.

I just had a couple lines then.

I'm just sitting in a
chair, had some music on

and just out of nowhere,

an orange light just kind
of appears in the sky.

No noise, no movement.

It was just very
stationary, very silent

and it was very unexpected
to say the least.

At first I thought maybe
it was a helicopter

because it wasn't moving.

Because there are a lot of

military installations
out there,

you do see helicopters
out there all the time

and you hear 'em.

I mean, it's clear.

And then realizing
there was no sound,

that made it kind of strange.

Okay, now there are four.

How that happened?

I don't know.

- Describe for me if you can

at the time the
atmospheric conditions.

- Sure, it was very clear.

I don't think there
were really any clouds

and I could see the
reflection of it on the ocean,

so that's how I knew
it wasn't that far out.

- When I met Chris, I was
struck by his sincerity.

He didn't seem to have
any type of agenda at all.

Frankly, when I asked him
what he thought it was,

he didn't know.

He just wants some answers.

Now, whether these things
are anything from balloons,

military flares, drones and the
whole everything in between,

we simply don't know.

Are these advanced
technologies from the US?

Is it possible?

Sure, very doubtful.

Are these technologies
from a foreign adversary?

It's certainly possible.

Are these technologies from
somewhere or someone else?

Yeah, it's possible.

- [Narrator] The objects
described by Shawn

and captured on video
share some similarities,

but Elizando wants to
know are they the same?

And what are they?

He contacts retired Marine
Lieutenant Colonel Chris Cooke,

an aviation consultant
and former top gun pilot,

to analyze these sightings.

- Hey, Lue, how are you?

- Mr. Cooke, I'm doing
better than I deserve.

I appreciate it.

Mr. Cooke, what I'm gonna
do is if it's okay with you,

I'd like to send you some
videos to take a look at.

I'm not gonna give you
too much information

and see what you
think you're seeing.

- Okay.
- [Lue] All right,

let's go ahead and watch that.

- [Narrator] They begin with
the one shot by Chris Larkin.

- [Chris Larkin] Okay,
now there are four again.

- So I don't know
the orientation

of where this video was shot,

but you can see them flickering,

dropping down towards
a possible undercast

or it could be smoke.

It looks to me like
illumination flares.

Two of 'em are descending.

- There's no instantaneous
acceleration

or crazy velocities.

They are following relative
to what you would expect

some sort of illumination
round or flare.

- [Narrator] Both Elizando and
Cooke believe these objects

could be explained
by military flares,

but what about those in
Cooker Booth's video?

- [Cooper] These
things are moving

through the sky
and disappearing.

There's a third one right there.

- I don't if they
could be planets.

I don't know if they could
be part of the space station,

you know, moving across the sky.

- I had the opportunity
to speak in person

with the person who
actually shot the video.

He saw these red light,
orbs, off in the distance.

No other stars in the sky.

No aircraft, no blinking.

And they were moving.

I'm pretty convinced what
he filmed is the same thing

that continues to be
reported over and over again.

- [Chris Cooke] Did he have
any perception of distance,

of how far these
things were away?

- I asked over and over again,

"How far away ..."

The problem, it's so hard
to tell when you're looking

at a point of light on
a black screen, right?

If it was just him reporting
this, I would say, "Eh,"

but there were a lot of
people I personally spoke with

who swear up and
down they saw it.

- I honestly can't
tell what it is.

- [Narrator] Elizando also
wants Cooke's thoughts

on whether the
objects seen by Shawn

could be a Russian sky drone.

- He felt this thing was
intelligently controlled.

That it was actually
following him.

And then after a short while,

took off like a bat out of hell.

Now that is unusual.

- That is unusual.

- Curious if you've ever heard
of anything at all like that.

- I certainly have not.

- [Narrator] Lue
Elizando and Chris Cooke

are unable to determine
whether the objects seen

by Shawn and Cooper Booth
are advanced drones,

and if they are, could
that explain another rash

of sightings 1500 miles away?

Coming up on Unidentified.

- [Colt] Some would
be really close

to the ground and hovering.

- [Joel] We're right here.

- You'd get close and
they'd go up and take off.

- The most I ever saw
together was about 10.

- You have this
huge amalgamation,

this alphabet soup of
federal, state, local agencies

all trying to figure
out what this is,

and at the end of the day,
we came up empty-handed.

(tense music)

- [Male Reporter]
Local authorities

are investigating
the growing mystery

of unidentified objects
flying at night over Colorado.

- The media has
recently reported a lot

of interesting sightings
in the Colorado skies.

What has been described
by local law enforcement

and other eyewitnesses as being

some strange lights
flying in formation.

- [Narrator] After traveling
to the Carolina coast

to investigate a rash of
sightings of reddish orbs,

Lue Elizando is
turning his attention

to a new hotspot
1500 miles away.

In late 2019, hundreds of
witnesses reported seeing

unknown objects in the
skies over Colorado.

- [Female Reporter] The drones
were seen as far as Nebraska.

- [Male Reporter] Federal
Aviation Administration

says they don't
know what they are.

- [Narrator] Dozens of these
UFOs were captured on video.

- One of the things I
wanna do is determine

are these things
really man-made objects

or is there something
else to this?

- [Narrator] Colt
Baker and Joel Wagner

are farmers in
Northeastern Colorado.

- We first started
hearing about people

in the northeast part of the
state that had seen drones

and then one night,
my neighbor said,

"Well, there's drones
up in the sky."

So I went out and looked.

- I'd go out every night and
look through my binoculars

to try and find them.

- [Colt] We started seeing
them about 7 o'clock.

They'd come about an hour
after the sun went down.

They started flying and
we'd see them from there

for about two hours.

- The most I ever saw
together was about 10,

but anytime I'd see
two or three or four,

up to five or six.

- [Narrator] Night after night,

residents and local law
enforcement reported seeing up

to 30 lights at once.

- A lot of people
started saying,

"Oh, everybody just got
a drone for Christmas

"and they're flying 'em,"
and we just kind of laugh.

We said, "No, there's no way."

We could tell they were
much larger than a drone.

- You could tell they
were pretty massive

just by the space
between the lights.

- We know what we saw in
the sky was not normal

and I can't say with
certainty what it was,

but we know that there
was something up there

that we hadn't ever seen before.

- [Narrator] Baker and Wagner
use drones daily in their work

and are very familiar
with their capabilities.

These objects did not
act like normal drones.

- Some were going east and west,

some would go north and south,

and some would be really close
to the ground and hovering.

And then you would get close
and they'd go up and take off.

A few people reported that
they turned their lights off

whenever they got close.

- Some nights it'd seem
like they were on a grid,

just going straight
some direction

and then some nights you'd
see 'em bounce around.

- We thought it sounded
like a small jet engine,

but the way they move, they
would've had to have had

some sort of propellor
also to change directions.

- Are these private drones

that are being
flown by hobbyists?

Are they commercial drones
being flown by professionals?

Are we talking about some sort
of secret military operation

or are we talking
about no-kidding UFOs?

I'm not sure right now there's
really any way to know.

(tense music)

- Nobody had any
real hard evidence.

A lot of people's videos
were just a white dot.

Super zoomed in and all grainy

and it could've been anything.

- It's hard to determine
what a ball of light is

when you're looking
at the night sky.

It's very hard to
get perspective.

It's very hard to get
altitude and speed

because there's no way to
relate what you're looking at

to anything else that's static.

- I have a night vision
scope on my rifle

and I actually used that to
film the drone in the sky

and then took a picture of
the screen with my phone

and that's how I got
the best look at it.

(tense music)

- [Narrator] As the number of
credible sightings increased,

concerned authorities opened
an official investigation

in early January, 2020.

It included over 70 different
government entities.

- The FAA convenes a meeting
and they bring together

a lot of the local counties,
some federal agencies.

They brought some
people from the state.

The feds were involved.

- [Narrator] Sam
Tabachnik is a reporter

who covered the mysterious
sightings for the Denver Post.

He says investigators
used a sophisticated

surveillance plane outfitted
with thermal cameras

capable of detecting a heat
signature from 28000 feet.

- [Sam] Sending a plane
up there certainly showed

that the state was
taking it very seriously.

That the federal agencies
were taking it very seriously.

- [Narrator] Despite the
exhaustive investigation,

the objects were
never identified.

- The Colorado Department
of Public Safety plane

saw a lot of things and
none of them were drones.

- [Narrator] With no
official explanation,

locals were forced to speculate.

- Residents had a whole
bunch of different theories

about what was going on.

Some people who thought

it was a Big Brother
sort of situation,

where they were spying or
they were mapping their houses

for some sort of
nefarious reason.

People thought it was aliens.

- [Narrator] Could
the objects be doing

some kind of reconnaissance?

But for whom?

And what purpose?

- We were talking to the FBI.

We were talking to
Homeland Security.

We called the Air Force.

We called DOD.

We called Air Force bases.

We called Google.

We called Amazon.

We called drone companies.

We called the oil
and gas companies.

- They said, "It wasn't us."

(tense music)

- You had this
huge amalgamation,

this alphabet soup of
federal, state, local agencies

all trying to figure
out what this is,

and at the end of the day,
we came up empty-handed.

Whatever is flying over the
continental United States,

we better know
what that thing is.

The fact that we
still don't know

what these were,
that's problematic.

- [Narrator] Lue
Elizando and Chris Mellon

are also concerned that some
sightings show the objects

flying less than 50 miles

from the F.E. Warren
Air Force Base,

home to an arsenal
of nuclear missiles.

- That area, it's
very interesting

because that occurred in
close proximity to some

of our strategic
ballistic missile forces.

It's a very curious area

for these sightings
to be occurring.

- There are sensitive
facilities in Colorado.

You have Norad and Cheyenne
Mountain, STRATCOM,

and all these organizations

that have been involved
in national security.

So anytime you have a report of

some sort of activity
that's not ours

involving some sort of
sensitive military installation,

that always piques my interest.

- [Narrator] One theory
is that the objects

were a classified test
of military drones.

- Across the field of conflict,

there is increasing
reliance on drones

to fill gaps and to do things
that couldn't be done before.

Either to help you
understand the enemy

or to destroy him.

- [Narrator] Tom
Rogan is a journalist

who covers foreign policy
for the Washington Examiner.

- [Tom] The ability of drones
to move against an enemy force

to overwhelm it, to create
mass destruction upon it

and to do so without any
human cost on your side,

is highly significant.

- [Narrator] But Chris Mellon
doesn't believe these objects

were being tested
by the military.

- There's no clear reason
why you would test it

over farms and ranches when
we have very large test ranges

throughout the west provided
exactly for that reason,

and if it had been
a military test,

they should've promptly
informed the FBI

and others who
were investigating.

Something went awry if it
was a military program.

- [Narrator] But the
team still has questions.

If these objects don't
have a commercial

or military explanation,
then what are they?

And where did they come from?

Coming up on Unidentified.

- [Tony] I couldn't imagine
not knowing

that this technology exists

and then just seeing something
like this in the distance.

What is that?

- [Lue] Wow,
can you imagine waking up

in a tent in the middle

of the forest and having
this over your head?

- [Camper] It looks like
a physical flying object.

- When you hear people say
they reported seeing a UFO,

it was doing all the
characteristics of that.

(tense music)

(digital chirping)

- [Narrator] Lue Elizando
has come to New Jersey,

looking for an explanation

for the increase
in strange objects

seen over the US from
North Carolina to Colorado.

One theory is that these objects

could be highly advanced drones,

but can drones move
in the ways reported?

- We are heading to the
engineering department

of Rowan University to
talk to some of the experts

who are on the cutting
edge of drone technology.

From a military perspective,

we call it swarm technology

and they can coordinate with
each other in real time.

- [Narrator] Elizando
has been invited

by the founders of Verge Aero,

a startup company
at the forefront

of drone swarm technology

to check out one of
their test flights.

- [Lue] Howdy, sir.
How are you?

- Doing all right.
How you doing?

- That's pretty impressive.

I'll tell you from the road,
looking at those lights,

I thought it was a runway.

- Did you really?

- And it turns out
those are all drones.

- Yeah.

- That's unbelievable.

Let's do it.

- [Tony] Alright. Executing
in five seconds.

(drones buzz)

- And just so you're looking
at 130 individually lit drones.

Each one performs their
own flight operation,

but they actually work together
as a fleet, as a swarm.

(drones buzz)

They create objects
and shapes in the sky.

- Wow.

Can you imagine
waking up in a tent

in the middle of the forest

and having this over your head?

Wow.

And they go right back to their
prearranged location, huh?

- Yup.

- [Narrator] Drone
swarm technology

was first introduced by
the US military in 2015.

It allows for hundreds of drones
to work in coordinated ways

and conduct precise maneuvers.

- For the record,
this technology,

at least from a
commercial perspective

has only really been
around now for how long?

- Probably the past
two and a half years.

- It's possible
but quite plausible

that people have seen
drones like these

and confused them for
unidentified flying objects.

And unless you are
up close and personal

and see it's a drone,

it's really hard to tell
what the hell it is.

- 100%.

I couldn't imagine not knowing
that this technology exists

(drones buzz)

and then just seeing something
like this in the distance,

of course, what is that?

It's an unidentified
flying object.

But like with that mothership
the negative space,

it looks like a
physical flying object.

- That negative space,

it appears that there's
a solid object behind it.

- Yeah.

(drones buzz)

This is pretty crazy to
watch this final maneuver.

- [Lue] Wow.

You know, in recent headlines,

Colorado has been experiencing
a rash, if you will,

of drone sightings.

Now, they call them drones.

We don't know what
they really are,

- Yeah, right.

- But FAA has looked into it,

the military's looked into
it, local law enforcement.

They can't find the people

who are driving or
flying these things.

- Right.
- It's they seem to be flying

in a very regimented
flight path and pattern

doing either survey
or reconnaissance.

- Right.

- What are your thoughts on
what's going on in Colorado?

- It could be a
system like this,

maybe some prototype system

that some tinkerers
are working with

and they're getting
pretty good at.

- So it would not be out of
the realm of possibility that,

really, these are
drones being tested

by either some large corporation

or unique military activity
that people don't ...

They wanna remain

either anonymous or secretive.
- Right

Exactly, yeah.

(door shuts)

- [Narrator] Elizando
notices a line of spectators,

which could provide
real time data

on how these objects
are perceived.

- We're just driving
down the street.

We had no idea what's happening

and we definitely ...

Kids are playing on
their little iPads,

I'm listening to music, talking

and I'm like, "What is it?"

- "What the heck is that?"
- Yeah.

I mean, I was like,

"That's not supposed
to be there."

- [Woman] It looked a lot ...

We couldn't figure out exactly
where it was coming from.

- [Man] When it disappeared,

I said "now, that's weird".

That's when I really thought.

We gotta be seen something
that's not normal.

And it had me going.

- 'Cause it was spinning

- And it was spinning.

- Yeah.

- It was changing shape,
doing everything that,

when you hear people say
they reported seeing a UFO,

it was doing all the
characteristics of that.

- If you didn't know better,
it looked like a solid object.

Obviously got your
attention, right?

- You see all the cars
that pulled in here?

- I know.

- There's a parade of
cars coming in here.

- These things are maneuvering
so precise in the air

that the eye actually believes

there's a solid object

that is holding these
points of light together.

And as we saw with just
average American citizens

on the road,

they actually pulled
their vehicles over

and looked at it

and the first thing they
thought was, "My God,

"that's a UFO."

- [Narrator] Advanced
drone swarm technology

could account for
some of the thousands

of new UFO sightings in 2019,

but can it explain them all

and can artificial intelligence

help identify the ones that can?

(tense music)

Coming up on Unidentified.

- I would say that out of all
the videos I've seen so far,

that's one you might wanna
investigate a little further.

- Something's up there, dude.

What the (beep) is that?

- Now more than ever,
it's really important

that we have the
ability to differentiate

between those videos
that are clearly fake

and then those
that are authentic.

- Absolutely.

(dramatic music)

- [Narrator] Lue Elizando
has just witnessed

drone swarm technology
fool onlookers

into believing they saw a UFO,

but can this technology
explain all of the strange orbs

and lights scene in 2019?

And what about those
captured on video

by some of the 250
million Americans

with smartphones
pointed at the skies,

those shaped like triangles
or Tic Tacs or fireballs.

- This year we had
a lot of people

providing us hard video data

and pictures of what they
believe to be UFO/UAPs

and a lot of these were
actually very compelling to me.

However, equally
frustrating is the fact that

cell phones are very specific.

They are designed
to, in essence,

take a picture of myself,
what we call selfies.

They're not designed to
have a telephoto lens

to take pictures of aircraft
that may be miles away.

Some point when you are
zooming into an object,

it's gonna get blurry.

Plus you have auto focus issues.

They were good for what
they're designed to do,

but not necessarily

for what we need them
to do involving UAPs.

- [Narrator] Elizando
is hoping new technology

can help separate the
mysterious from the mundane.

- Hey Joe.
- Hey man.

- [Narrator] Today, he's
meeting with Joe Shurman

whose artificial
intelligence program

is a potential breakthrough

in examining videos of
unexplained sightings.

He calls it the Vault.

- So one of the things that's
very, very interesting for me

is that up to this point,

we've been really focusing
on the military individuals,

but there's a lot of average,
Joe Americans

capturing images on
their cell phones

and their personal devices.

And I think now more than ever,

it's really important

that we have the ability

to differentiate between those
videos that are clearly fake

and then those
that are authentic.

- Absolutely.

- [Narrator] The Volt uses
artificial intelligence

to look for layering issues
and pixel irregularities

in UFO videos

to see if they have
been altered or faked.

It can also determine if the
UFO has matched known objects.

- We can create libraries
of known object types.

So that will discount
some scenarios

where you had misreportings

of drones or low-hanging flights

and bad weather
pattern type scenarios.

We would be looking for
a frame irregularity

and color pixelation issues

at the same time.
- Right.

- Oh wow.

- [Narrator] They begin
with a video taken

in Salt Lake City

that shows three lights hovering
and moving in bizarre ways.

- Basically, you can
see in this video,

they're clearly behind
those power lines, right?

And you'll see here that
the object below here

appears ahead of the actual ...

It blocks right there.

It actually blocks out
- Interesting.

- The power line itself.

What the system did detect
was an appearance issue.

It shows a positive
trend towards layering.

So what that means is this video

could have been taken separately

and then superimposed on
top of a separate video.

- [Narrator] Another video
shows a triangular UFO.

- What the (beep) is that?

Look straight up, dude.

Watch the spotlights.

I'll tell you when to look.

- Yeah, actually this
one did not pass.

The pixelation is different
between the surrounding lights

versus the light
that is pulsating,

the bright light...

- [Narrator] The Vault
flags issues with the focus

on the outermost lights

and pixelation differences
on the pulsating light

in the middle.

That could mean the
video was doctored.

- If you notice on the screen,
there is a clear difference

between the surrounding pattern,

the pixelation of that object

and the pixelation of the
background in the environment.

- [Narrator] These issues
could also be caused

by low quality video.

- Not having access
to the raw data

and spending more time

matching this up
against another marker,

I'd say it might have a 20 to
30% likelihood of being real.

(plane engine zooms)

- [Narrator] Elizando
and Joe Shurman

evaluate several more
videos using the Vault.

Like this one showing
a Tic Tac-like object.

- So labeling it picked
up as a aircraft.

There were no issues
related to pixelation,

no issues related to
file manipulation.

It passed the gate checks.

I don't know what it is,
to be honest with you.

- Fascinating.

- Fascinating.

- [Narrator] This one appears

to show several
fireballs over Milwaukee.

(crowd talks)

- [Woman] I can't see

- [Man] It's the
end of the world

- Vault has come back from
a AI analysis perspective

and stated aircraft debris,
weather comet, night sky stars.

The video is not altered at all.

There is no audio issues,
no frame, no layering.

I would say that out of all
the videos I've seen so far,

that's one you might wanna
investigate a little further.

(calm music)

- At the end of the day,
we're trying to solve a puzzle

and get to the truth.

Even if you can get five
really interesting videos

from 1000, then you know,
that's great

because now those five

are the ones you're going
to pay attention to a lot.

For us to have the ability
technologically speaking,

to determine whether or not
something is legitimate,

is it real,

is it truly an unidentified
aerial phenomena,

I think is tremendous,

- [Narrator] But
journalist Tom Rogan

believes it may be impossible

to capture UFOs on video

because they don't
wanna to be seen.

- Why in the era of a cheap,
portable recording devices,

do we not see more evidence?

Is that in a lot of the
most compelling cases,

whatever these things are
either willing to be seen

at certain times or unwilling.

So, the expectation
there would be

you know, some effort
at a concealment.

- [Narrator] Coming
up on Unidentified.

If technology can't answer
all of Elizando's questions,

maybe his team of experts can.

- You have a lot
of people reporting

some strange lights
in the skies.

A lot of folks are saying
no, they're just drones.

- [Chris] When we see Tic
Tac shape objects

and then they're shooting
up to 80,000 feet,

I think things that
fall into that category,

we can pretty safely assume
was not made by our government.

(tense music)

- [Narrator] Lue Elizando
has been gathering new data

about the thousands of
unidentified objects

that were witnessed
across the US in 2019.

- There was almost a doubling
of reporting of UFO sightings

and I think that's significant.

- [Narrator] Some
of these objects

appear to be flares,
others drones

and some seem to defy
the laws of nature.

(crowd shout)

(digital chirping)

Now, Elizando and Chris Mellon

are meeting with
the rest of the team

to help understand what's
behind this surge in sightings.

- [Lue] Alrighty gents.
Appreciate everybody's time.

(tense music)

- [Narrator] Hal Puthoff
was a research scientist

for the CIA

and advises the
Department of Defense

on cutting edge technology.

Steve justice helped run to
Lockheed Martin Skunkworks

which builds some of America's
most advanced war planes.

- You gentlemen will
definitely know more than me

when it comes to whether or
not some of these technologies

are being fielded right now

and if they are being fielded,

who's fielding them.

And could this be causing
some of the confusion

and at least some
of the sighting

that people are reporting to us?

- [Narrator] One possibility
for the confusion

is conventional technology
like satellites.

In 2019, a Space X launch
of 60 Starlink satellites

created a line of
mysterious lights

that spread across the sky.

- It's always been the case

that the great
majority of sightings

have had conventional
explanations.

It is true that some UFO reports

are the result of increased
satellite activity,

either a launch or deployment.

- So now we have all
these things in the sky

that weren't there before

and they're strange shapes

and at a distance,

they can trigger all
kinds of reports.

- I wanted to get your
thoughts on whether

what some of these people
are reporting really

are nothing more
than new technology

that's either being secretly
developed by the US Government

or some private
industries out there

and people are confusing
those capabilities with UFOs.

- We now know that many of the
UFO reports of decades past

were in fact,
classified US platforms

being flown out of
desert test ranges,

F-117s, B-2 Bombers
and the like.

- U-2s.

- You can expect
that to continue.

However, there are a
residual number of cases

that are not explained by
any of this technology.

And so we're still in a quandary

and we still have work to do.

- [Narrator] To the
team, certain objects,

like the one witnessed by
Shaun over North Carolina,

exhibiting some of the five
observables remain unidentified.

- In given cases, you could
take each one of these and say,

"Okay.

I can see a case there where

someone would mistake something
that was one or the other."

But at the level that our
pilots have been seeing,

I don't think there's
a way to match that

into a series of false alarms.

- So when we see
saucer-shape things

that are flying at hyper speeds

or Tic Tac-shape objects

and then they're making
radical maneuvers

and shooting up to 80,000 feet,

I think things that
fall into that category,

we can pretty safely assume
or not something that's --

- Not one of ours.

- Was not made by
our government.

- [Narrator] The
team also cautions

against assuming
unknown objects.

Like those seen over
Colorado are drones.

- You have a lot
of people reporting

some strange lights in the
sky, strange activities.

A lot of folks are saying
no, they're just drones.

- And then people assign
drones to this phenomenon

because you have these
giant stage shows

where drones flew in formation

and made patterns in the sky.

And so when people would see
a bunch of lights in the sky

in a pattern becomes drones,

I always hesitate
to label something

because instantly you
stop looking elsewhere

for what the answer is.

- [Narrator] Whether the
objects are drones or not,

the team agrees that if they
are adversarial technology,

terrestrial or otherwise,

it represents a
significant threat.

- I would say right
now we are defenseless

in terms of our border areas.

The attacks that the Iranians
undertook against Saudi Arabia

using a drone is an attack

that could be undertaken against

the continental
United States today

if they had sufficient range.

So this trend is certainly

greatly exacerbating
the security challenge,

particularly when it's combined

with other trends in
technology that we're seeing.

- Whether you want
to ascribe this

as being some drone technology

or super secret US
technology or Russian

or advanced Chinese
technology, great.

Maybe you're right.

Maybe you're wrong.

I would be very wary
of anybody telling you,

"We know exactly
what these are."

because we studied
these in the government,

at least, in my
group for 10 years

and we don't know
exactly what they are.

(tense music)