Original subtitles

Take a flying disc out by C-17.

Among the quiet towns and bustling epicenters around the world,

reports pour in of unusual aerial phenomena.

It shoots high into the air.

It's moving in an erratic way.

This is not a terrestrial craft.

Flying discs, hovering orbs,

strange biological substances falling from the sky.

To determine what it might have been,

you'd have to eliminate all the other possibilities.

The sensational becomes credible once it's crowdsourced.

Thousands of people claim to see these orbs.

UFO hotspots light up on the map.

What's made these places the target of otherworldly attention?

This might be the location of the vortex.

As vessels reappear in the same locations,

can we use the earthly to guess at otherworldly motives?

Are these mysterious visitors friends or foe?

And should we fear their return?

All over the world, repeat sightings of UFOs baffle researchers.

UAD are in our airspace, but they are grossly underreported.

A pattern begins to emerge.

These sightings are not rare or isolated.

They are routine.

What is the meaning behind these hotspots?

I can't go beyond what I've already stated publicly.

The government is not prepared.

Are we being mapped?

July 4th, 2002.

A retired police officer near Chicago, Illinois,

and his wife celebrate Independence Day.

Their eyes are fixed on the sky,

where fireworks light up the night.

Amid the exploding colors,

something strange catches their attention.

Three bright orbs glow red.

Unlike the surrounding fireworks,

they maintain a V formation as they glide across the night sky.

They wait for the familiar boom of a firework and shower of sparks,

but instead, the flying V moves towards them in silence.

As it passes overhead,

lights disappear to reveal what witnesses describe

as a triangle with rounded edges.

It's unlike any aircraft they've ever seen.

While their experience is undoubtedly unsettling,

for residents of the surrounding Tinley Park,

the unnerved feeling of watching something unexplained hovering overhead

is all too familiar.

Home to around 50,000 people,

Tinley Park is located 48 kilometers south of Chicago,

in Cook County, Illinois.

A little over a month later,

at approximately 10 p.m.,

a neighbor yells for Bill Dooley to look up to the sky.

He witnesses three bright lights cruising toward him

that appear to be stacked on top of each other.

Suddenly, they maneuver into the shape of a triangle

and hover in place.

The mesmerizing event lasts for roughly 30 minutes

before the UFO disappears into the night.

This is no ordinary aircraft.

Around the same time,

Tinley Park resident TJ Japkin

is at a party with his family a few blocks away

when he sees something that stops him in his tracks.

Three lights moving northwest in a triangle formation.

They stop and hover right above him.

T.J. Japkin has a camcorder,

so he hurtles back indoors,

grabs the camcorder,

and starts to film.

And what he films is unbelievable.

What he sees in the sky are these three very disturbing orb-like shapes,

and they're not moving across the sky.

These objects are just still,

almost as if they're observing.

What could these orbs have been?

Was it a plane?

Was it a helicopter?

Or was it something else?

Beyond Tinley Park,

police stations are flooded with reports

from Oak Forest,

Orland Park,

Mokenna,

Madison,

and Frankfurt,

all claiming to have seen the exact same thing.

It is very surprising to learn how many sightings there are

of UFOs in the Illinois area,

that it is indeed a UFO hotspot.

At the center of the American heartland,

Illinois has become a focal point of inexplicable phenomenon

and a beacon of UFO activity.

With upwards of 4,000 sightings reported from 2000 to 2015 alone,

the question isn't if some unidentified object

is flying through their airspace,

but rather,

where did it come from,

and when will it return?

Something is going on in Illinois.

Something is attracting our extraterrestrial friends.

Could these sightings be explained by science or the supernatural?

Thousands of people claim to see these orbs hanging in the sky.

Now, there's two explanations.

If you're a skeptic,

you might say,

well, this is some kind of crowd psychology.

Everybody wants a piece of the action.

But alternatively,

there's something there,

and there's something there that a lot of people saw.

To determine what it might have been in the air,

you'd have to eliminate all the other possibilities

and hopefully come up with a conclusion.

If you remove everything else from the equation,

then what's left is either unexplainable or perhaps a UFO.

For UFOlogists,

mass sightings are incredibly valuable,

as they can be used to find consistencies.

When researching the unknown,

identifying consistencies in sightings and reports is key.

The repeated observation of the phenomena

adds some credibility to the witness's initial accounts.

The typical UFO sighting is just a light in the sky,

and it lasts for a few seconds,

usually very, very quick,

very unidentifiable,

to say the least.

And when you get that kind of sighting that's really interesting,

but you just can't really do very much with it.

But these Tinley Park sightings lasted for around 30 minutes in the sky,

which is a very, very long time for a UFO sighting.

There's immediately something more there.

In the days and weeks that follow the events of August 21st,

the region is abuzz with talk about the mysterious lights.

No one claims responsibility,

and no one can say for certain what caused the aerial anomaly.

That same day,

Chicago hosted its annual air and water show.

With so many planes and different varieties en route to different airports,

could locals have mistaken the glowing lights for a specialty plane?

Probably the most typical way that people try to debunk UFO sightings

is to just say it was a plane.

And I am very sympathetic to that,

and I think many UFO sightings actually are, in fact, just planes.

But again, a plane has a particular characteristic to it.

It moves, first of all.

You can generally see it moving across the sky.

And this isn't really what happened with the Tinley Park sighting.

These orbs were stationary for the most part.

That I think would generally throw the plane theory out the window.

Other explanations for the Tinley Park sightings include weather balloons,

flares,

and stray lanterns.

The explanation that I find the least convincing to debunk the Tinley Park sighting

is the flare theory.

Just because flares are very predictable.

They have a certain motion in the sky.

They go up,

they fall down,

and then, of course,

they flare out.

And this is simply not what happened with the Tinley Park sighting.

There's flares that are shot from flare pistols

that are used for identification.

Very rare these days.

And only in an emergency if the aircraft they're dealing with has no radio at all.

You'd have to say,

why would this be being done over a populated area?

Another debunking theory that goes back a long time

is that UFO sightings are balloons.

And some of them definitely are,

or have been.

Balloons move throughout the air,

not as fast as a plane.

They don't necessarily fall like a flare,

but they generally move.

They don't necessarily stay stationary for quite as long.

Less than two months later,

on October 31st, 2004,

77 people reported sightings eerily similar to those made on August 21st.

It was a sign the lights have returned.

What are the chances that so many people

are seeing the same phenomenon as TJ Japkin

and that they are making some kind of mistake

when in fact their stories all appear to corroborate each other?

They return again on October 1st, 2005

and make a further appearance on October 31st, 2006.

Despite hundreds of eyewitness accounts,

these events remain unexplained.

Why would someone or something

make a return visit to this part of the state?

Are they just passing through?

Or is there something drawing these UFOs to Tinley Park?

To have any intelligent life come back to a location

over and over again,

there must be some reason.

Illinois sits on the shores of Lake Michigan,

a body of water with a long history of unusual weather events,

unexplained disappearances,

and unprecedented sightings of UFOs.

Stretching across four U.S. states,

Lake Michigan is the largest source of freshwater in North America.

It spans approximately 50,000 kilometers square

and reaches depths of about 280 meters,

making it the second largest Great Lake by volume.

The Great Lakes themselves are inland oceans,

which tend to heat up at a different rate as the land,

so they have a massive influence

on the kind of weather that we get.

I mean, if you think about the wintertime, snow squalls,

but if you sort of jump over to the summertime,

the thunderstorms we get in and around the Great Lakes

are as violent as the ones we get in areas like Tornado Alley.

That's two seasons.

There's another season.

In the fall, we can get squall lines,

which are just these lines of violent storms

that will come sweeping across the Great Lakes,

and they can be moving as fast as 100 to 120 kilometers an hour.

Those are the kind of systems that can surprise people,

and I have been through more than a few.

Those who live around the lake

claim to see bright bursts of light over the water.

Some attribute it to shooting stars

made clear by the lack of light pollution over the lake.

Meanwhile, others attribute the phenomena

to paranormal activity,

or even proof that visitors from another planet

are drawn to the water.

The Great Lakes is in general a magnet

for some high strangeness.

It's known for lots of UFO sightings.

It's known for some cryptozoology even.

And there's been a lot of talk of

strange otherworldly vortexes

in the Great Lakes that bring down ships.

Lots of strange incidents out on the water

that can't necessarily be accounted for

by conventional means.

There's a lot of mystery.

I think people would be surprised

at how violent the weather is

in and around the Great Lakes,

especially over areas like Lake Michigan.

March 8, 1994.

Around 9 p.m., 911 dispatchers

are bombarded with over 300 calls

from concerned citizens,

describing strange objects

hovering over the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.

Any time you see strange lights

over, especially a lake,

over a body of water,

it poses a certain number of questions.

The basic one being,

what could this possibly be?

Why might they be moving

in that particular way?

Why that color?

Why that shape?

Where are they headed?

What is unique about

that particular body of water

or general region

that might be attracting them?

By most accounts,

the event lasts for 15 minutes.

The objects are tracked

moving towards Chicago.

This would become

one of the most widespread UFO sightings

in history.

In response,

the 911 service alerts

police forces in the area

to take a look,

to investigate what is going on.

Eventually,

the National Weather Service

is contacted

and they're put on the case

to see if they can find

something going on

in the skies

over this great lake.

Around 10 p.m.,

Jack Bishong,

a meteorologist

working at the

National Weather Service,

receives a call

from the Ottawa County

911 dispatch.

They ask if his radar systems

have picked up

anything unusual.

He was looking

at his radar screen

and seeing something

tracking at 100 miles an hour

and he wasn't sure

what he was looking at.

Bishong decides

to take matters

into his own hands.

He takes manual control

of the radar system

and begins to scan

the coastline.

Something catches his eye.

What the meteorologist

sees next

is absolutely incredible.

It defies reason.

The object splits into three

and it moves

at incredible speed.

It shoots high into the air.

It's moving in an erratic way.

This is not

a terrestrial craft.

This is something

from out of this world.

If it was a physical object

of any size,

any dimensions,

and it was traveling

low in the atmosphere,

it would,

A, probably burn up

and, B,

it would create

a sonic boom

that the whole shore

of Lake Michigan

would have heard.

I think he saw

something else.

It's at this moment

Bishang realizes

he is tracking

something unprecedented.

To give you an idea

of just how bizarre this is,

this craft,

which is split into three,

ascends to 60,000 feet

in no time at all.

I mean,

this is something

that an earthbound

terrestrial vessel

cannot do.

I'm not afraid

to say that

there was probably

something there.

What it is,

we don't really know.

The more that we get

sightings like this,

the more physical evidence

we get,

possibly the closer

we get to some

kind of answer.

So even if we are left

not knowing

what this is,

it's still compelling,

it still adds

to what is a pretty

large mountain

of data

about UFOs

by this point.

The three objects

appear to jump forward,

rearranging themselves

in a triangular formation,

and then hover in place

for some time.

Bishang can't take

his eyes off his monitors.

He tracks the strange objects

for over two hours.

At one point,

dozens more objects

appear on screen.

He checks for any

technical issues

with his systems

or unusual weather phenomena,

but nothing makes sense

of what he is seeing.

If I was given a sighting,

by a meteorologist

or someone

in that kind of position,

especially if this

were operated

by a radar reading,

I'm more inclined

to think that this

is something

to be investigated.

The National Weather Service

would subsequently

confirm the presence

of large objects

above the lake

that night.

But officially,

they do not say

what those objects were.

What kind of phenomena

are we dealing with

over here?

Is this something natural

or is this

something which has

intelligence behind it?

Many have seen

Lake Michigan

as a source

of inexplicable,

even paranormal activity.

Its history is long

and sinister,

prompting some

to compare it

to the Bermuda Triangle.

An invisible border

from Ludington

to Benton Harbor, Michigan

to Manitowoc, Wisconsin

creates what some refer to

as the Lake Michigan Triangle.

It is an area

that has become known

for a number of shipwrecks

and plane crashes

that have all occurred

under unexplained circumstances.

Coupled with sightings

of UFOs,

it is one of the most

mysterious bodies

of water on Earth.

This might be the location

of what some have

called a vortex.

And we are familiar

with the word vortex

in some cases

in bodies of water

as well,

that it's, you know,

a swirling area

of the water

caused by natural phenomena.

But the vortexes

that people typically invoke

to explain something

like the Bermuda Triangle

or the Lake Michigan Triangle

are often of a more

supernatural,

paranormal nature,

that these are caused

by very unnatural phenomena,

possibly extraterrestrials,

possibly something

deep underwater.

Within this Lake Michigan Triangle,

for centuries,

ships have gone missing.

In more recent times,

aircraft as well.

And it's reached such a scale

that there have been

official investigations

to find out

what has happened

to these ships,

to these planes,

and the poor souls

never seen again.

The idea of triangles,

these devil's triangles,

or these mysterious triangles,

comes from the work

of Ivan Sanderson,

who postulated

that there are

these vile vortices,

which means areas

of the Earth

where the geomagnetism,

the energy,

is all messed up

in a way

which it will affect

weather patterns,

navigation instruments,

and so forth.

So this is especially

treacherous territory

for navigation.

One of the most

fascinating tales

attached to the Lake Michigan Triangle

is the disappearance

of the two-masted schooner,

the Rosabelle.

On October 30th, 1921,

a crew of 11

board the Rosabelle

on High Island

and set sail

for Benton Harbor.

The vessel is found

awash,

68 kilometers

from Milwaukee.

A thorough search

turns up no sign

of the 11-strong crew.

The people

that simply went missing

who almost vaporized,

just disappeared.

Now,

it could have been

that the ship

crashed into another vessel,

but we have no record

of that other vessel,

which really begs

the question,

did something very unusual

happen here

within the Lake Michigan Triangle?

Could these people

and this vessel

have encountered

something from out

of this world?

While some see

the vanishing vessels

and crew

as casualties

of the unpredictable nature

of wide-open waters,

stranger cases

of missing people,

missing planes,

make the idea

of some sort of portal

to another dimension

all the more intriguing.

One story

that I think

particularly highlights

the strangeness

of Lake Michigan

and the Triangle

that some people believe

is there

is an old story.

It's quite a spooky story

from 1937

of the ship

Owen McFarland

that was on its mission

and Captain Donner

goes below decks

to his quarters

and the crew

later finds

that he has completely

disappeared wholesale

from his quarters

and there's no explanation

for this.

It's extremely odd.

No trace of Captain Donner

ever shows up again

and nobody really understands

what has happened.

Was there a mutiny

on board?

Was he forced

to walk the plank

with the crew

just covering

what they'd done?

Had he slipped off deck?

I mean,

entirely feasible?

These things happen.

Well, the crew were adamant

that that was not the case,

that he'd been seen

going into his cabin

and then when they went in,

almost like a magic trick,

he'd gone.

Now, this poses

the question,

had somebody

or something

taken the captain away?

Another similarly mysterious

disappearance

occurs 13 years later

in 1950.

Northwest Airline

Flight 2501

is on its way

from New York

to Minneapolis

when the plane

enters a section

of extreme

and unexpected turbulence

caused by

an electrical storm.

Just before 10 p.m.,

Captain Robert Lind

makes his second request

to descend

to the cruising altitude

of 2,500 feet,

but he is denied.

Lind decides

to steer south

to dodge

the worst of the storm.

What he and his crew

don't realize

is that they're headed

straight for the

Lake Michigan Triangle.

Shortly after 11.37,

the time of their

last communication,

the plane disappears.

The plane

is never really found.

There are

little bits

and pieces

of the plane

that are found

by rescue teams,

but nothing substantial,

nothing that you

would expect

from what people

assume is

the fact that

the plane crashed,

that it went down.

There's no engine found.

There's no large pieces

of the plane found.

It's just the smallest

little bits

here and there,

which is unusual.

In the 1950s,

we don't have

the same modern

technology we have today.

So we're not going

to have a lot

of warning

about large

and intense storms.

We may not be aware

of how fast

those storms

can develop.

And we're still

relying primarily

on our compasses

and on our

analog gauges

to tell us

where we are.

The pilots

and navigators

still have to make

a lot of decisions

about where we're going.

But when you fly

into an electrical storm,

specifically a large

thunderstorm or supercell,

it's really difficult

to know where you're going.

The electromagnetism

that's generated

in the storm

by the generation

of charges

as a result

of a thunderstorm

can play havoc

with compasses

and with direction.

The wind field

in a storm,

whether you're having

downbursts

or rising air masses

or sudden wind gusts,

can change a lot

of what the pilots

are seeing

on the speed gauges

and can lead

to very confusing

information

to the pilots.

If the pilots

are relying

on how they feel,

it very quickly

can lead

to a plane crash.

Two hours

after the plane's

last communication,

two police officers

report seeing

a strange red light

hovering over

Lake Michigan.

Despite ongoing efforts,

the flight of 2501

remains a mystery.

Lake Michigan

is hundreds

of miles long.

It's tens of miles wide.

There's thousands

of square miles

of surface area

on this lake.

It's a very difficult

search and rescue operation.

For many of these

disappearances,

no concrete answers

are ever found.

However,

some scientific explanations

have been proposed

to make sense

of why so many crashes

are occurring here.

The Earth has

a magnetic field

and there's lines

of force

that literally run

from the North Pole

to the South Pole.

And when you put

a compass

in those lines

of magnetic force,

it will point

in a certain direction.

And when you get

a little bit of deviation

from those lines,

the compass needle

will change a little bit.

For UFOlogists

and those who study

paranormal energies,

the explanation

for these anomalies

lies deep within our Earth

in what have become

known as ley lines.

One interesting theory

that has been proposed

to explain some of the weirdnesses

around the world,

like triangles,

like vortexes,

is the theory of ley lines.

And this was developed

in the 1920s

by Alfred Watkins,

an Englishman,

who was fiddling around

with the map one day

and realized

that if you draw

certain lines,

straight lines

across the map,

that they will intersect

most,

if not all,

of the ancient sites

that he was interested in.

And these are ancient sites

that typically people

in this community

have associated

with supernatural activity

or just unnatural phenomena

of one kind or another.

These energy vortexes

have been associated

with such ancient wonders

as the pyramids of Giza,

Chichen Itza,

and Stonehenge.

All are situated

along ley lines.

It's believed

the presence

of these powerful sources

provided the inspiration

and energy

required to create structures

that were far ahead

of their time.

Monuments that once

defied the laws

of architecture

and continue

to mystify us today.

Ley lines have also

been associated

with both physical

and psychological ailments

like insomnia,

nausea,

headaches,

and other issues

that could cause

disorientation.

Could this be

why those who enter

the Lake Michigan

and Bermuda Triangle

feel as if time and space

have been warped

around them?

By connecting

these sacred sites,

they channel

a kind of sacral energy

and to be

at the kind of

interconnections

or along these ley lines,

you experience

something yourself

as a human being.

Then researchers

took this idea further

and then saw

that possibly

the nodes,

which means

the place

where the ley lines

connect,

that there's supposed

to be very powerful places

which can make you

change your way

of thinking.

They can bring about

physical changes

as well as people

have postulated ideas

like that there are

portals to other dimensions.

things outside

of ordinary experience

can take place here.

UFOlogists theorized

that these ley lines

could act as a guide

to possible landing sites

for UFOs.

One of these lines

runs almost directly

down the middle

of Lake Michigan.

that if these ley lines

truly are

channeling

immense energy,

if you're

an extraterrestrial

traveling across space

looking for

potential energy

sources

in your long

odyssey,

they're almost like

gas stations.

They're somewhere

to stop

and recharge

and maybe

this is why

they interest

extraterrestrials

so much.

One theory

connected with

the ley lines

suggests that

strange events

and numerous sightings

around Lake Michigan

point to some kind

of alien base

hidden there.

There is

potentially

some more

credibility

in the idea

that UFOs

would have

bases underwater

rather than

in space

given that we have

satellites

and telescopes

in space

that could probably

pick that up.

We actually,

interestingly,

know more

about outer space

than we know

about deep water

on Earth.

The ocean

is vastly

unexplored.

It would frankly

be probably

easier to hide

a UFO underwater

than anywhere else.

If this is true,

we have to wonder

what are they

doing here?

I like the question

why would

aliens want

a base

on Earth?

We do that

ourselves.

We have bases

all over the place.

There is a race

to colonize space

that's been ongoing

for some time.

So if we're thinking

of aliens having

at least some

similar interest

to us,

then it just

simply makes sense.

It's the next

logical step

that if they're

going to study

Earth for

its resources

like we do,

then having

some kind of base

is going to be

helpful for that.

and the more

worrying part

about it

is that

do these bases

have a purely

research goal

in mind

or is there

something more

nefarious?

Some believe

evidence of alien

intent

can be found

in mysterious

monoliths

deep below

the surface

of our lakes

and oceans.

In 2007,

a team of divers

sets out

to examine

old boat wrecks

in Grand Traverse

Bay,

Lake Michigan.

What they discover

has been billed

as the Lake

Michigan Stonehenge.

These are

vertical,

pillar-like stones

arranged in a

specific way

and one of them

even has

the petroglyph

of a mastodon

on it.

How did they

end up there?

That's

really intriguing.

It's believed

that these stones

have been in place

for something

like 10,000 years.

Now,

if we take

into consideration

the whole theory

of ley lines,

these lines

across the planet

linking sacred sites,

could it be

that this ring

of stones

at the bottom

of Lake Michigan,

it's a marker

for where

ley lines

intersect?

It was put there

deliberately

for that purpose.

We have

magnetic anomalies

we have

strange

underwater

monoliths.

Is there

some UFO-type

phenomena

underneath

Lake Michigan

which is

the root cause

behind all

of these

anomalous

and strange

occurrences?

Roughly six

hours south

in Hardin County,

southeastern Illinois,

is a geological

feature that could

hold the answer.

Spanning 12

kilometers in

diameter,

the state's

one and only

dormant volcano,

Hick's Dome.

Hick's Dome

is a really

interesting structure.

It's basically

a volcano

that didn't come

fully to fruition.

Basically,

magma rose up

and forced

the rocks

upward,

creating

Hick's Dome.

The limestone

at the surface

where Hick's Dome

is located

fractured

and the magma

infiltrated

those fractures

creating

igneous rocks.

So we see

a really

unusual structure

in that we have

both sedimentary

rocks and

igneous rocks

within Hick's Dome.

This structure

formed about

270 million

years ago.

Despite its

long history,

geologists

have only

known about

Hick's Dome

since the

late 80s.

Since then,

a handful of

projects have

been carried

out to collect

drill core

samples and

study the

minerals in

and around

the dome.

Igneous rocks

often contain

high levels

of iron-bearing

minerals like

magnetite.

Magnetite is

highly magnetic

and it

intensifies

the Earth's

magnetic field.

So when we

fly aircraft

with magnetometers

over Hick's Dome,

we see that

there's a

magnetic anomaly

here and it's

likely associated

with that

incipient volcano

that was forming

below Hick's Dome.

Aside from an

unusually forceful

magnetic aura,

the subterranean

explosions that

created this

geological marvel

were also

responsible for

creating a

hotbed of

valuable mineral

deposits.

The most

important find

is a surprising

amount of

REEs or

rare earth

elements.

These elements

were discovered

in 1952 by

companies drilling

for oil.

Rare earth elements

can have a lot

of different

properties and

they actually are

becoming more

and more common

in our everyday

life.

There's rare earth

elements in your

telephone to help

with the antenna.

There's actually

rare earth elements

in the magnets

in your cell phone

that allow it to

have that intense

vibration when you

do get a phone

call.

Now, could it

be that beings

from another

planet or another

solar system could

be using or

could want to

mine these elements

for their own

technology, that

they have seen

where these rare

earth elements are

and they want

them, they need

them in order to

continue their

mission?

O'Hare International

Airport, located in

Chicago, Illinois, is

a bustling aviation

hub known for its

strategic position in

the heart of the

United States and its

role as one of the

world's busiest and

best connected

airports.

I call it an

aerial zoo.

There are so many

airplanes in the area

that absolute control

over every one of

them is vital for the

functioning of the

airport and for the

safety of not only

the people in the

air, the pilots and

the crew and the

passengers, but

people on the

ground.

On November 7, 2006,

at approximately 4.15

p.m., passengers and

crew for flight 466

are stunned by what

appears to be a

flying saucer hovering

above them.

We have 12 employees

at O'Hare Airport

airport, who look up

into the sky.

It's about 4.15 in the

afternoon.

It's November.

So it's starting to get

dark.

In the sky, they claim to

see a circle of lights.

It's the kind of classic

flying saucer.

And this thing moves at

incredible speed.

It ascends at incredible

speed.

And they are unable to

account for what they've

seen.

It's silent.

That's a hallmark of

UFO sightings because

they're often posited to

be powered by energy

unknown to us.

And then especially for

it to shoot up into the

sky and disappear is a

very classic UFO sighting,

but nevertheless remains

compelling because we

just don't have any

technology like that.

UFOlogists, including

those from the Illinois

Mutual UFO Network, or

MUFON, consider this an

especially unusual case

because so many of the

witnesses are trained

aviation observers.

Airports are highly

controlled airspace.

You have multiple planes

taking off, coming in.

And so air traffic control

typically knows exactly

what's in the air, what

should be in the air, and

what should not be in the

air.

So to have a craft of this

kind right at the airport

and making these kinds of

motions without anybody

really even noticing it

until it was there, not

noticing it coming in, and

then to have a shoot-off

like that, it's very, very

strange, very unusual.

Initially, United Airlines

and the Federal Aviation

Authority denied any

official information on the

alleged sighting.

Unsatisfied with their

response, the Chicago

Tribune files a Freedom of

Information Act request

forcing details of the event

to be publicly disclosed.

Phone calls from the United

Airlines supervisor to a

manager at the FAA come to

light.

You've got a United Airlines

supervisor contacting the

FAA and asking, have they

seen this unusual circular

disk-like object with all

these lights in the sky?

Now, it seems unlikely that in

the kind of environment of an

airport, somebody is going to

waste the time of the FAA by

making this kind of report.

Why are they trying to withhold

this information?

Why did it take a Freedom of

Information request to get this?

Despite multiple witnesses

claiming to see a solid silver

disk floating in the sky, the

FAA's official stance is that

the incident is a weather

phenomenon.

No further investigations are

made.

Located in southwestern Illinois,

Scott Air Force Base's strategic

location places it at a crossroads

of major transportation routes,

making it a pivotal center for

coordinating and facilitating

military operations and logistics

on a global scale.

A very common theory to explain

UFO sightings is that it must be

some kind of advanced top secret

military technology that's in

development.

And this is certainly a good

theory, I think, as far as it

goes, because that's been the

case in the past.

There have been projects in

development that then later become

public knowledge.

And so I totally understand the

impulse to explain UFO sightings

away as top secret military

technology, especially because UFO

sightings often are close by

military bases.

Scott Air Force Base is located

in the county of St. Clair,

Illinois, home to one of the most

famous mass UFO sightings in the

state's history.

At 4 a.m. on January 5, 2000,

Melvin Noel stops by his miniature

golf course in Highland, Illinois

to check everything is secure.

As he walks back to his truck, he

looks up to see what he thinks is a

star heading towards him.

He was wrong.

What Melvin Noel is now confronted

by is this vast object up there in

the sky.

It's the size of a football field.

It's kind of darkish gray with red

lights underneath it.

And he is transfixed.

He has no idea what the hell he's

looking at.

Knoll is just one of many St. Clair

residents to report a strange sighting

that night.

By morning, units from eight police

departments are inundated with calls.

Officer Ed Barton is one of the first to respond.

Officer Barton essentially backs up what

Knoll has claimed.

And this thing to Barton is absolutely real.

There is no doubt about it.

It's there, it's happening, and it's from out of this world.

Barton continues to watch as the massive triangular craft

pivots in place before darting towards the town of Shiloh.

Shiloh officer David Martin radios moments later,

describing his own experience, which is virtually identical to Officer Barton's.

Again, the slow-moving object stops, suddenly accelerates, and vanishes in another direction.

By now, the unusual radio transmissions had piqued the interest of officers on early

morning duty in nearby small towns, each sharing similar stories of their encounters.

Skeptics trying to make sense of the sighting suggest witnesses may have been misidentifying

an advertising blimp.

Blimps are actually really highly maneuverable aircraft.

They basically have thrusters, and these are kind of like fans that we can change the angle

and pitch on so that we can actually control the aircraft to cause it to move forward, to

cause it to almost spin on a single point.

So while these aircraft are huge and slow, they're actually quite maneuverable.

So we can actually hover, we can actually stay in place, we can back up, we can almost turn

in the same space that we're occupying.

So very, very maneuverable aircraft.

What the UFO was may be less important than what it was doing.

The frequent stops and hovering behavior suggest whoever was piloting it was performing some sort of surveillance.

Could someone have been trying to get a lay of the land near Scott Air Force Base?

I think it raises some inevitable questions.

Are they actually surveilling the military base?

Is that possible?

And I think absolutely, given again that humans do that.

We did that all through the Cold War, for instance.

We are intensely interested in the military bases of other nations.

Is this a case of espionage where some other than earthly power is keeping tabs on what's

going on in terms of armament and military equipment?

If this is true, might these sightings be connected to the Tinley Park lights or the mysterious

aircraft that appeared at the O'Hare Airport?

Researchers studying the Black Triangle sightings reach out to the Scott Air Force Base in hopes

of making sense of the situation.

Scott Air Force Base has the radar tower in the area that could have confirmed that this

thing was in the sky.

But they're shocked when they're told that the radar tower was not working that night,

that it was closed for maintenance.

Now, that seems mightily convenient.

I mean, that's going to arouse anybody's suspicion.

Just when the police need confirmation about this incredibly unusual phenomenon in the sky

seen by multiple people, including police officers, the one place that can confirm it, this air

base, says our radar wasn't working that night.

Radar systems are mechanical things and electronic things, and they do break.

Sometimes they're down for routine maintenance.

If we assume that these were some kind of extraterrestrial craft, then it's very likely that any intruder

would like to mask his presence.

So it's possible that they generated some sort of electromagnetic disturbance, which broke down the radar or other surveillance abilities off this installation.

The base insists they know nothing about the UFO, leading some to believe their denials are all the more suspicious.

Given the amount of reports of unexplained aerial phenomena over Illinois, it's no surprise that commonalities have emerged.

These consistencies lead us to wonder, are we seeing the same UFOs conducting some sort of long-term observation over the state,

returning periodically to check on human activity or military buildup here?

If there was some perceived conflict in the future with some kind of space-faring race, they would be equally interested in our bases and our capabilities,

and that's certainly one way to find out about them is to surveil them from the air.

You have the Lake Michigan Triangle, which could be exuding some kind of energy from that area.

You have the Hex Dome, which could be a source of badly needed minerals for these UFOs.

And you also have the presence of military bases.

And we know from other UFO hotspots that military bases are of particular interest to beings from outer space.

I would say that Illinois is not typically on the UFO enthusiast's radar,

but it probably should be, because it has a number of unique aspects to it that draw in a lot of strangeness, a lot of strange sightings.

Despite years of eyewitness accounts, both from locals and credible professionals,

the answers to many of Illinois' greatest mysteries continue to elude us.

I got it! I got it on tape!

I got it on tape!

Transcription by CastingWords