All language subtitles for Ancient.Aliens.S22E10.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[Narrator] Mysterious
orbs of light reported

all over the world.

Unidentifiable flying objects

witnessed by hundreds of people.

And evidence
of extraordinary aircraft

moving at impossible speeds.

♪ ♪

Since the 1940s,

reports of flying,
disk-shaped objects

helped define
the modern UFO era.

But the 21st century has changed

much of what we now know

and witness when it comes to

unidentified
anomalous phenomena.

Today, reports
of strange, glowing orbs

are featured
on the evening news,

cell phone footage
of mysterious craft

can be found on social media,

and even the U.S. Congress
is holding hearings

in search of the truth
about UFO sightings.

[Narrator] On December 16, 2017,

The New York Times
ran an explosive story

entitled "Glowing Auras
and 'Black Money':

The Pentagon's
Mysterious UFO Program."

It was the first time
the American public learned

of a top secret
U.S. government project,

the Advanced Aerospace Threat
Identification Program,

otherwise known as AATIP.

The revelations
concerning the existence

of the Pentagon's AATIP program
are extraordinary.

It is the single biggest
ever news

in the whole history
of the UFO phenomenon.

It's not quite a "spaceship
in a hangar" smoking gun,

but it's the closest
we've ever been.

[Narrator] The article reported
that the program had been run

by a former Pentagon official
named Luis Elizondo,

a senior career
intelligence officer

with top security clearance

and with experience
in everything

from microbiology
and parasitology

to the study
of global terrorism.

It was Elizondo's job
to investigate

reports of unidentified
flying objects

and to measure what threat they
could pose to national security.

AATIP received its cases

from-from various
different channels.

In some cases, reporting would
come up through Navy channels.

In other cases, it would come up
through Air Force channels.

In other cases,
it would come through

the intelligence community.

And all roads
led to-to our office,

uh, regarding the phenomena.

[Narrator] Elizondo
played a key role

in the government's
top secret AATIP program

prior to his leaving
the government in 2017.

Among the reasons given
for his departure

was the bitterness he felt that
the research he was conducting

and the conclusions that he
and his colleagues were reaching

were not being taken seriously
by other agencies

within the government.

Even Congress,
to which AATIP owed its funding,

was hard-pressed to give
Elizondo so much as a hearing

so that his findings could be
made part of the public record.

Interestingly, just two months
after Elizondo's exit

from the government,
The New York Times broke

the major story,
exposing the AATIP program

and many of the facts
surrounding

the government's secret research
into UFO activity.

When I read in The New York
Times this front-page story

that the-the government was
running this semisecret program

to investigate, well,
aerial phenomena,

which is kind of a code word
for UFOs...

...yeah, you know, I thought,
"My God, all these years,

"you know, people who-who think
that we're being visited

"were claiming that
the government was in fact

possessing some
secret knowledge about this."

And, sure enough, they did have
this secret investigation.

[Narrator]
For Luis Elizondo,

the New York Times article
served as a vindication

for the years that his research
went unrecognized

and his warnings unheeded.

For if the UFO activity
being recorded was real,

so, too, was the possibility
that it was being caused

by technologies
that were not only unknown

but of extraterrestrial origin.

[George Noory]
Elizondo, he resigned

because he felt the government
considered this a joke.

I think that the fact
that these folks are out there

trying to get the answers
that we're all seeking--

absolutely fantastic.

And they're getting
to top government officials.

And some-someday,

we're gonna get the answers
from people like that.

Not from government,
but from people like that.

[Narrator]
Luckily for Luis Elizondo,

one of the people who took him
and his research seriously

was musician and UFO researcher
Tom DeLonge.

[John Podesta] Tom DeLonge,
who is most famous

for, uh, his,

uh, being the lead in Blink-182.

I've known Tom for a while,
and he spearheaded

an initiative
that's brought together a number

of scientists and others
to both continue to study

the phenomena on the outside,

in the private sector,
and to raise funds to do that.

[Pope] His enthusiasm,

his passion
has driven things forward.

A lot of people were saying,

"What does a rock star know
about all this?"

Let's not forget that sometimes
even people in government

and military
and the intelligence community

get a little more starstruck
than they should by celebrities.

Tom DeLonge was able
to use this to leverage,

I guess, access where others
had tried and failed.

[Narrator]
In October 2017,

Tom DeLonge announced
the creation

of his To the Stars Academy
of Arts & Science,

an organization devoted
to the study of UFOs

and the possible existence
of extraterrestrial activity

here on Earth.

When Elizondo left the Pentagon,

he was determined to bring
AATIP's years of investigation

out of the shadows

by releasing several
of the videos he had collected.

One of them featured
this incredible encounter

taken by a fighter jet
in Florida in 2015

now known as the Gimbal video.

On December 18, 2017,

DeLonge and Elizondo revealed
a second shocking video,

which was released
through The Washington Post.

This UFO had been tracked
by the USS Princeton

for several days
over the Pacific Ocean,

approximately 100 miles
southwest of San Diego.

On the screen, it also says
the speed of the F-18

is 250 knots--

roughly about, uh,
280 miles per hour.

This F-18 can't seem
to get any closer

to this vehicle, whatever it is.

Now, the F-18's one of the, uh,

highest technology
fighter crafts on the planet.

And it can't catch this thing?

When it darts offscreen
to the left,

it would be going
extremely fast.

The g-forces would-would turn
a person inside it

into, like, tapioca pudding.

I mean, it would-it would
kill them.

[Narrator]
In March 2018,

a third Pentagon video
entitled "Go Fast" was released

and featured yet another
unexplained aerial encounter.

(chuckles)

[Narrator] But perhaps
the most shocking information

to come from Tom DeLonge
and his To The Stars Academy

was Luis Elizondo's claim
that Bigelow Aerospace

had modified its buildings
for the storage

of strange metal alloys
of unknown origin

also known as metamaterials.

Now, hold, stop
the presses right there.

What are these metal alloys?

[Pope]
Luis Elizondo has referred

to these as metamaterials.

The implication is that
they're-they're not special,

magical elements or anything,

but they've been studied.

According to Elizondo,

tests have been run.

The answer has come back.

Whatever these things were,
they came from space.

[Podesta]
There was also indications

that there were certain polymers

that were, uh,

discovered at crash sites

that were unexplained
and were reviewed.

[Dolan]
You know, for years and years,

UFO researchers had talked
about crash retrievals of UFOs

or that elements
of these objects

had been recovered
and were being studied.

And skeptics would laugh
at these claims.

You know,

how ridiculous

such conspiracy
paranoid fantasies were.

Uh, well, guess what,

now we have it confirmed.

[Narrator] Is it possible
that the U.S. military

has recovered crashed
extraterrestrial spacecraft

and that wreckage
from these aircraft

is currently being stored
and studied

by a top secret team
at Bigelow Aerospace?

[Taylor] One of the really
interesting things about AATIP

is how much information
hasn't been released.

We hear things that are coming.

There's this report
that was written

that we're supposed
to get to see at some point.

Haven't seen it yet.

And then are there more videos?

We've seen, I think,
three videos come out

that they've released.

There has to be more.

They were doing this
for, like, five years

or maybe even a lot longer
than that.

I bet you there's a lot more.

When you hear the word "UFO,"

it may bring to mind images
of classic flying saucers.

But many eyewitness descriptions
of aerial phenomena

include a variety
of shapes and sizes,

including cylinders, triangles,

and even orbs of light.

Yet one of the most compelling
sightings of a recent UAP

was so strange,

it was named
the Spaghetti Monster.

[Narrator] Iraq. 2018.

Marine officer Michael Cincoski

is deployed to Al-Taqaddum
Air Base just west of Baghdad.

Upon arriving,
he's shown a sensational video

that was recoded at the base
the previous year.

When I first saw this video,

I was... I was a little shocked.

What made it unique
was the overall shape.

It was this jellyfish.

We called it
the Spaghetti Monster.

It was flying
at a consistent speed,

going from east to west over
our base and over the lake.

[Narrator] The unusual object
was recorded by a large blimp

otherwise known as an aerostat

that was hovering
above the base.

[Cincoski] This object was lower
than our aerostat camera,

which is, I would have to guess,

less than 60 feet.

And the two people
that you see on the video

that were walking on base had no
idea that this thing was there.

It passed, seemingly,
right over them,

and they had no idea.

[Narrator] The soldiers
who were present at the time

the so-called Jellyfish UFO
was recorded

told Cincoski that the object
was only visible

on the infrared camera.

[Cincoski] The security element
was sent out

to try to gain
positive identification

on this thing
flying over the base.

They used line of sight,
uh, just with the naked eye.

And they tried to use
night vision goggles.

And nobody was able
to see anything.

[Narrator]
The strange object was recorded

passing over the base
for more than 30 minutes.

While some have theorized

that the object
was merely a smudge on the lens

or even a soldier
using some kind of jet pack,

both possibilities
have been ruled out.

So, what could explain
this oddly shaped craft

that could not be seen
with the naked eye?

[Cincoski]
I'm trained to identify

different types of drones,

different types of aircraft,
whether they're manned

or unmanned.

And this is nothing
like I've ever seen before.

There are a lot
of different theories

from all the different Marines
that-that saw this footage.

But there's
really no explanation

for this sort of thing.

There's a possibility
that this might be

something out of our world.

[Narrator] Could it be
that the jellyfish-shaped UAP

captured on video
flying over a U.S. military base

was of alien origin?

The footage remained unknown
to the public

for six years
after it was recorded

and only came to light in 2024

thanks to the efforts
of filmmaker

and ufologist Jeremy Corbell.

[Cincoski] The videos were
located on a secret terminal,

a secret system.

And the way the footage
has been released,

I think somebody recorded,
illegally, the screen.

And I don't know how long
they've had this footage

or why they released it now,
years later.

But I imagine
they didn't want to get caught.

[Pope] The video was handed
to investigative journalist

and filmmaker Jeremy Corbell.

And it was released
to the public.

The Department of Defense have
confirmed this is authentic.

This is not some blurry light
in the sky.

This is up close and personal,

and you can see the detail.

[Taylor] The video from Iraq
is the most intriguing one

that I've seen in a while.

The reason why is because

whatever this object is stays
at a steady rate of velocity.

And it stays
at the same altitude

above the surface
the entire time.

So it's being controlled,

and it has some sort of
propulsion device

that we don't see on board.

[Narrator] Is it possible
that the so-called Jellyfish UFO

is footage of a visitor
from another world?

While the military
remains tight-lipped

about what was filmed in Iraq,

a number of compelling videos
have appeared on the website

of the All-domain Anomaly
Resolution Office, or AARO.

Established in 2022,

AARO is a government program
to study UAPs.

[Taylor] We have objects
captured on an infrared sensor.

And we also have objects
detected on radar.

And on the situational
awareness system.

So, multiple instruments
saying there's something there

suggests that there
really is something there.

[Pope] Congress has now
mandated the military

to actually devise
surveillance equipment

specifically geared

to target and capture
UFO images.

[Pope] So, we are gonna see
a lot more of these.

Some in infrared...

[Pope] ...but others, perhaps,
across the spectrum.

And that's interesting because
whether something shows up,

just in infrared
or other parts of the spectrum,

can tell you something
about the object,

perhaps its energy source,
perhaps its propulsion system.

[Narrator]
But while the military

has been more transparent

in confirming
the authenticity of UAP videos,

many believe the public
has only seen a small fraction

of the footage they possess.

This has left ufologists to ask:

what other evidence
might the U.S. military

be withholding from the public?

[Pope]
High-level government insiders

have been saying,
"We have both metamaterials

from craft,
and actually intact craft,

but also entities."

And yeah, absolutely,

a small group of people
in the government

are keeping this
from the people.

[Taji Huang] When you look
into some of these guys

that have long,
illustrious military careers

that are opening up

and talking about things that
we wouldn't have heard about

20 years ago, 30 years ago,

this all is going to add
to more curiosity

and make us really say,
"If this is what

we're hearing about,
what about all the things

that we haven't heard about
that are out there?"

They're still
talking about UAP as

Chinese or Russian,
things like this.

They're not willing to mention
this as actual contact.

But what we do know
is that, off the record,

many government employees,
high-level people

who have really studied this,
they absolutely believe this.

In November of 2024,

hundreds of UFO sightings
were reported

across the eastern
United States.

But these
weren't metallic craft.

Instead, witnesses
described seeing

glowing orbs of light that moved
erratically in the sky.

To many researchers,
these sightings sound exactly

like a strange phenomenon
reported over 80 years ago,

during World War II.

[Narrator] November 1944.

In the closing stages
of World War II,

Allied forces are pushing deeper
into Nazi-occupied France.

On November 27th,
American aviators

with the 415th
Night Fighter Squadron

are conducting a nighttime raid
along the Rhine river

when they report seeing

several strange red lights
in the sky.

The glowing orbs
seem to pursue them

through a series
of high-speed maneuvers

before they suddenly vanish.

In the days that follow,

more pilots experience
similar encounters.

These craft, these objects,
whatever they-they were,

they were often just described
as balls of light,

and they would come in
very close to Allied aircraft.

[Pope]
These strange balls of light

often displayed speeds
and maneuverability

that was way ahead

of-of the cutting edge
of aviation technology.

[Narrator]
As the sightings increased,

Allied pilots began to call
the mysterious orbs

"foo fighters."

[Bill Birnes] The reason
they were called "foo fighters"

was because they were glowing
on the inside.

The word for fire
in French is feu,

and the French called them feu,

and that's how they got the name
foo fighters from the Americans.

[Dolan]
These foo fighters often

just stayed very briefly,

and then maneuvered
with incredible speed

either straight up or far away.

[Narrator]
Most concerning to pilots

was that sightings
were often accompanied

by bizarre malfunctions
to their aircraft.

[Birnes] What the airmen found
was the foo fighters

were sending
an electric signal out

that got in the way
of their radios...

...got in the way of
their navigational instruments.

[Taylor] These orbs
would fly near the airplanes,

even as close
to the airplane wing,

and the pilots claimed
that it interacted

or confused the controls,

or changed how it operated,

and might have actually
made them, uh, nearly crash.

[Pope] It was as if these things
were observing the pilots.

These balls of light would often
keep track with the aircraft.

So, this was a-a real concern
for the authorities.

But no overt hostile action,
which leads to the question,

"What were these things,
and what was going on?"

[Narrator]
Allied airmen speculated

that the foo fighters
were a secret weapon

that had been developed
by the Germans.

But after the war,
it became clear

that the flying orbs
had been encountered

by forces on both sides
of the conflict.

[Dolan] We learned that Germans
and Japanese pilots

apparently were also
reporting these.

Now, these foo fighters
never seemed to be

weapons directed against them,

because they often
just stayed very briefly,

and then maneuvered
with incredible speed

either straight up or far away.

We don't know
what they are, officially.

They strike me
as classic UFO-type activity.

[Tsoukalos] I think
the argument can be made

that some of these orbs

that we see today are those
foo fighters of World War II.

[Narrator] Is it possible
that the foo fighters

of World War II
were extraterrestrial visitors?

And if so,
could they be connected

to the glowing orbs
that military personnel

are witnessing
in the present day?

According to UFO researchers,

America's armed forces
have not only been encountering

strange orbs for decades

but they sometimes appear
in swarms.

In July of 2019,
off the west coast,

ten U.S. Navy warships
were buzzed by unknown craft,

one right after another.

One of those ships
is the USS Omaha.

It was surrounded by more
than a dozen of these things

that would fly toward it,
then fly back.

And they were trying
to get images of it,

and finally,
on a thermal imaging system,

they got one of them.

It followed the ship
for an hour.

It was a perfectly round sphere,

something like
eight feet across.

No wings, no tail, no rotor.

That video showed that there
were a bunch of these things

floating around the ship
for a long period of time.

They'd zip in, zip out,
disappear, appear.

What the hell was that?

[Narrator]
Even more astonishing,

footage recorded
by sailors on the warship

shows the mysterious orbs
performing maneuvers

that defy explanation.

[Tsoukalos] Many of these orbs
dive into the water

and come out and, oftentimes,
you do not see any splashes.

It's as if there's
an artificial bubble

that allows this thing
to move through material

without any loss of velocity.

[Luis Elizondo]
Transmedium travel

is a breakthrough technology
from what we have.

We have no idea, even,
whose technology it is.

The official response
by the Department of Defense

and our government is that
these still remain a mystery.

They remain unsolved,
unattributed.

Is that a concern for the Navy?
Well, absolutely it is.

And it's also a concern
for our national security.

[Narrator] Two months
after the USS Omaha incident,

in September 2019,

another swarm of glowing orbs

was filmed off the coast
of North Carolina.

Cell phone video uploaded
to YouTube by William Guy

shows what appears to be a swarm

of 14 orbs
hovering over the water.

[Narrator] The video was shot
from aboard a ferry

and was witnessed
by other passengers on board.

But perhaps the most
concerning encounter

occurred in December 2023,

when a fleet of orbs appeared

over Langley Air Force Base
in Virginia.

[Elizondo] Langley
Air Force Base is certainly

a sensitive facility,
and the notion of orbs,

certainly,
is a national security concern.

They're coming completely
unattributed, unchallenged

over a controlled U.S. airspace,

and we have no idea
what their intent is.

But it's not just military
and intelligence eyewitnesses.

These orbs now have been seen by

huge swaths
of the civilian population

all around the world.

It's a global phenomenon.

Every nation out there
that has had to deal

with these orbs
has come out and said

that "They're not
our technology."

Meaning it's not Russian,
it's not Chinese, it's not U.S.,

it's not Canadian, German, U.K.

We're dealing with something

that is being
intelligently controlled.

We have, really, no other choice

but to consider the possibility

that some sort of
nonhuman intelligence

is controlling these things.

One of the most extraordinary
UFO sightings in history

occurred at an Air Force base
in eastern England.

Over the course of two nights,

military personnel
reported not only seeing

mysterious craft in the sky,
but one witness claimed

to have touched an alien craft.

[Narrator]
In Suffolk county, England,

there is a remote forest
in the village of Rendlesham

that has become famous
for being the site

of one of the most extraordinary
UFO encounters ever reported.

And some of those
who experienced it

believe this incident
also involved time travel.

The event occurred
on December 26, 1980.

Airman John Burroughs
was performing

a routine security check
at a U.S. Air Force base

when he received orders

to investigate
a possible downed aircraft.

[John Burroughs] My supervisor
called me on the radio

and asked me to meet up with him
so we could check the east gate.

We're driving down the road
leading to the east gate

to check on it when,
all of a sudden,

he saw some strange lights
in the forest.

So, I decided we'll call it in
and let them know

something strange was going on.

They decided to send

one of the security units down,

which was Sergeant Penniston.

He got down there and he saw
the same strange lights

that we were seeing.

[James Penniston]
I could see all these multiple

color lights
and things like that. And

the air felt different.
I don't know how to...

really explain that.

But it did feel like
there was electricity

on our skin and hair and stuff.

But that progressively got worse

the closer we got
to the tree line.

And it got more intense.

[Burroughs]
There seemed to be, like,

an electricity-charged
atmosphere,

and then, also,
there were points where there--

it seemed like everything
was going in slow motion.

[Narrator] As the servicemen
approached the strange lights,

Sergeant Penniston
reportedly saw a large craft

just beyond the tree line.

[Penniston] The craft
was triangular in shape,

measuring about
six to seven feet high,

black in color.

I had come around
to the far side of the craft,

and that's when I noticed
that there was,

you know,
inscription on the side.

You know, it is about
three feet long,

maybe six inches high, um,

and, uh, so I'm expecting
to find, I don't know,

some kind of prototype stuff,
uh, USAF.

I'm-I'm looking
for something very familiar.

Instead of something familiar,

I see these
pictorial-type glyphs.

And got running my hand
over the side of the craft.

I don't know
how to explain this.

It's like someone
was holding a picture up,

okay?

I could see it in my mind's eye.

Zeros and ones.

So, I recorded those,
one after another.

[Heseltine]
When Penniston touched

the craft, he then said

that he felt a strange download
of information,

uh, to his mind.

And he felt compelled,
the next day, to write down

a series of zeros and ones,

which we now regard
as binary code.

[Pope]
Years later,

a computer programmer
took this information,

ran it through
a translation program

and a message emerged.

The message read:
"Exploration of humanity

continuous for
planetary advance,

eyes of your eyes,

origin year 8100."

When one sees

"origin year 8100,"

one is forced to speculate,
might we be looking

not just at extraterrestrials

but time travelers
from the future?

[Narrator] After the incident,
the U.S. military

conducted a brief investigation,

but allegedly tried
to keep the eyewitnesses

away from the press.

But for Airman Burroughs
and Officer Penniston,

the event wasn't easy
to leave behind.

Both men had lasting physical
effects from the encounter

and even reported
strange dreams.

After the incident, I started
having throat and eye problems.

At one point,
my gums turned white.

I also had vision problems,

and when I went
and saw the doctor,

one of his first questions was

had I been ever exposed
to radiation?

I've definitely
had dreams about it,

and I still have feelings
about what happened

and what could happen
in the future.

I got out of the service
in 1993.

Then I was out about
maybe three months,

and then I started
getting these dreams

and, uh, nightmares.

During the dreams,

I could see that
these were time travelers,

40 to 50,000 years
in the future.

I see that their purpose
to come back

was to correct things,
was to fix things.

Something horrible has happened.

Something they have to correct.

But it requires time travel.

It requires going back
into the past.

I never had a feeling of it
being extraterrestrial.

It's always been that they were

simply us in the future.

UFO sightings reported by pilots

are some of the most reliable
accounts to investigate,

because their safety depends

on being able
to correctly identify

various objects
flying through the sky.

And in 1986,

the captain of a jumbo jet
made a shocking discovery

when he spotted
an extraordinary craft

flying alongside his plane

that was larger
than an aircraft carrier.

[Narrator]
Alaska, November 17, 1986.

Japan Air Lines Flight 1628

is carrying cargo
from Paris, France

to Narita International
Airport near Tokyo.

The three-person crew

is led by Captain
Kenju Terauchi,

an ex-fighter pilot with over
10,000 hours of flight time.

As the 747 approaches Anchorage,

Captain Terauchi
notices two strange lights

out of his cockpit window.

It's dark, it's, uh, very
early morning, before sunrise.

These lights
are clearly maneuvering.

They are in relationship
to each other,

one is on top of the other,

and they move directly
in front of his aircraft.

Now, he's flying
at about 500 miles per hour.

These things are pacing him.

[Narrator] Captain Terauchi
realizes the lights

are strange oval-shaped
flying objects,

and they are getting dangerously
close to his aircraft.

As bright lights
fill the cockpit,

Captain Terauchi radios

the Anchorage
Air Traffic Control Center

and asks if they can identify
the objects near his plane.

[Narrator] As Terauchi attempts
a series of evasive maneuvers

to avoid a potential collision,

the two UFOs suddenly disappear.

In their place
is another object.

One so large it dwarfs the 747.

[Dolan] His words
for describing it were,

"gigantic spaceship,

the size of maybe
two aircraft carriers."

Just immense.

Terauchi sees
this massive thing in the sky,

and he's scared.

[Narrator] Concerned
by Captain Terauchi's report,

the air traffic controller
calls NORAD,

the North American
Aerospace Defense Command,

based at Elmendorf
Air Force Base in Anchorage.

Communication specialists
at the airbase

confirm that there is a very
large unidentified object

on their radar screens.

Traffic control told them
that they could actually take

whatever evasive actions
they needed to,

to avoid collision,

and they even dropped down
to 4,000 feet

above sea level,

and the thing continued
to follow them.

[Ryan Sprague] Air traffic
control diverted

another commercial flight
to come look at this UFO.

And by the time they got there,
UFO was completely gone.

[Tsoukalos]
One of the reasons

why the JAL report
is such a big deal is because

the corroborating evidence
is overwhelming.

Not only are there
eyewitness reports,

but there is the records
of the communication systems

that Terauchi was in touch with.

Actual dialogue that happened.

"Hey, we are up here.

We see this. Are you guys
seeing this on your radar?"

All this stuff is recorded.

[Narrator]
Once safely grounded,

Captain Terauchi, his copilot
and flight engineer

were immediately interviewed

by Alaska Federal Aviation
Administration officials

and other special agents.

[Pope]
There's an FAA

investigation into this.

There's lots of documentation.

Uh, there's no real hard
and fast conclusion about this.

And so, the pilot,
perhaps out of frustration,

talks to the media.

[Narrator]
In December 1986,

one month after the encounter,

Captain Terauchi
contacted Kyodo News

and said he believed
the mysterious crafts

were of extraterrestrial origin.

The unauthorized statements

prompted Japan
Air Lines officials

to remove Captain Terauchi
from pilot duty

and assign him to a desk job.

[Pope] I've spoken to pilots
who have seen

amazing things out there,

but never report it

because of the fear
of being disbelieved,

being ridiculed and,

perhaps, being grounded.

You won't be flying anymore.
So,

what do they say?
Most times, nothing.

[Tsoukalos]
You have countless

commercial and private
airline pilots

who spend an exorbitant amount
of time up in the sky.

And in my opinion,
I think they're the best people

to discern what is natural

and what is not.

When investigating
UFO sightings,

one of the most
important things to consider

is the credibility
of the witness.

Which is exactly what makes
a story from Germany

so compelling,
when strange aerial activity

was experienced not just by one

but by hundreds of people.

[Narrator] Nuremberg, Germany.

At dawn on April 14, 1561,

the citizens
of this Bavarian city

at the center of Europe

awake to a commotion
in the sky unlike anything

they have ever
experienced before.

People went outside and they saw

what they described
as a celestial battle.

The witnesses observed
seeing hundreds

of these strange-shaped objects.

What were these strange shapes
that they were describing?

[Narrator]
The aerial scene,

illustrated in this
contemporary woodcut,

is described
in the accompanying text

as "a very frightful spectacle."

Strange objects
seemed to launch projectiles

as onlookers below
watch in amazement.

This was actually witnessed
by thousands of people.

Had it been a meteor shower
or something like this,

then the reports
would have been,

"Okay, this happened
before because

we've seen this before."
But that was new.

[Henry]
The witnesses,

they wouldn't have had
a conception

of some kind of
a mechanical spacecraft,

but that seems to be exactly
what they were describing.

And this has to be one
of the greatest mass sightings

of a UFO phenomenon
in all of recorded history.

[Narrator] Incredibly,
a very similar incident

was reported in Basel,
Switzerland, five years later,

and was illustrated in a woodcut
that still exists to this day.

Is it possible
that these two events,

witnessed by thousands,

represent the first
mass UFO sightings on record?

[Tsoukalos] The UFO phenomenon
is not modern.

It goes back
as far as we can remember,

because we have accounts
of lights and craft,

not only in modern times

but also in ancient times.

[Narrator]
Ancient astronaut theorists

find it remarkable
that the depictions

of these 16th-century sightings
include every shape of craft

that has been reported by
UFO witnesses in modern times.

But it also poses
an important question:

if these are, in fact,

representations
of alien vehicles,

what could explain
all the different shapes?

[Birnes] So it well might be
that different types

of UFOs are tasked
for different purposes.

There are scout ships,

there are ships that only orbit,

there are mother ships.

They're all tasked
for different purposes.

[Noory] If you look
at our planet today,

almost every country
has some kind of flying machine

that is different
from what we have.

I think the same thing is
the case with extraterrestrials.

Let's assume there's
ten different E.T. races

within our Milky Way galaxy.

Each one could have
a different shape to its craft

because that's just
the way they created it.

And I think
that's very conceivable

when we see cigar-shaped UFOs,

triangular-shaped UFOs,

round UFOs, they're coming

from different
planetary systems

throughout the universe.

What did the people
of Nuremberg and Basel

observe in their skies?

Was it simply
a unique celestial event?

Or might they have witnessed
extraterrestrial spacecraft?

Whatever the case may be,

there's no question
that the vast number

of UFO sightings
is certainly compelling.

From the foo fighters
of World War II

to reports filed
by commercial airline pilots,

and even the bizarre craft known

as the Spaghetti Monster--

as more sightings are reported,

it's only a matter of time

before we'll find
undeniable proof

of extraterrestrial visitation.

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