All language subtitles for Expedition.X.S01E01.Mothman.Phenomenon.720p.WEB.x264-ESPRESSO_ENG_Subtitles01

Josh: On this episode
of "expedition x"...

Jessica: I got something.
Right there, right there.

...My team and I
investigate sightings

of a gigantic winged creature

said to be
terrorizing the midwest.

Everybody sort of described
a large bat-like creature.

Woman: I just thought...

Hang on.

Josh:
According to witnesses...

You're not the only one

who has seen
something strange.

...The mothman...

Whoa, whoa.
That's huge!

Josh: ...Is back.

-Holy...
-What is that?

My name is josh gates.

In my travels, I've experienced
strange things that defy logic

and made me question everything.

Oh, my god.

Now, I've put together a team

to investigate the stranger side
of the unknown.

Let's go!

Phil torres is a scientist who
hunts for rational explanations.

Jessica chobot's
paranormal research

has made her a true believer.

There is a monster
living in this forest.

Phil, phil, phil, I just saw
something run across.

Together we're searching
for answers...

Phil: What is that?

...To the world's
most extraordinary mysteries.

This is "expedition x."

-- captions by vitac --
www.Vitac.Com

captions paid for by
discovery communications

alright, phil and jess,
the case that we're dealing

with today is something
that has actually been

frightening a lot of people.

It's a strange case,

and frankly, it's pretty
unsettling stuff.

Well, you had me
at "frightening."

what are
we dealing with here?

Well, it's not exactly
an unidentified flying object.

This case involves

an unidentified
flying creature.

Now, before you run out
of the room, phil,

I want to show you a video.
Check this out.

-Whoa!
-Huh.

Maybe a bird.

Almost like a bat?

What is that?

Looks like a dragon.

Right?

I mean,
those wings are huge.

Wow.
It's a dragon.

So whatever this is
has not been identified,

but it's one of a number
of reports

that people have come forward
with seeing flying,

often humanoid-looking,
creatures.

And most of the people
who see this stuff

are terrified by it.

Well, that makes sense.

I think there's something
very primal in us

about being afraid of
giant predators in the sky.

And there's also something
just naturally menacing

about a dark, webbed-winged,
humanoid object

flying through the sky.
It's scary.

Well, that brings us
to the case in question.

People in two different parts
of the country

are recently
reporting encounters

with not just
a flying creature,

but the most famous flying
cryptid of all time, mothman.

Yes! I was hoping you were
gonna say that.

You love mothman?
I love mothman.

Phil?
I don't know about this one.

This is next level, phil.
Let's bring you up to speed.

Josh: It's a story that begins
in point pleasant,

west virginia, November 1966.

That's when two young couples
driving home

after a double date reported

seeing a menacing,
winged, humanoid creature

on the edge of town.

They said it had
glowing red eyes,

and it attacked them
from the air,

scratching the roof of their car
as they tried to escape.

Mothman sightings around
point pleasant

continued for the next year,
culminating with the creature

being reported on point
pleasant's silver bridge

shortly before it collapsed
on December 15, 1967.

46 people died
and many blamed mothman.

According to reports,
he was spotted in ohio in 1975,

twice in 1981,
in pennsylvania.

He was reportedly seen
in kentucky in 1986,

then three more times in 1994,
back in west virginia.

After that, things were
relatively quiet until now.

Over the last two years,

there have been 87 sightings of
mothman in and around chicago.

And in the point
pleasant area,

in the last
three months alone,

there have been nearly
a dozen sightings.

So jess, what do you
make of this?

He's back, baby!
Yes!

Mothman is back.

I'm into it,
I'm stoked for this.

Jess, why are you
so into mothman?

Well, I think it stems from
when I was little,

and I'd go to the library,

and I'd sit there and read all
these books on the supernatural.

And for some reason, mothman,
as a cryptid,

really spoke to me.

I found him super-scary,
with the glowing red eyes,

the fact that he was chasing
these teenagers down,

and he was still
being seen today,

and he was kind of
a harbinger of doom, right?

Right.
It affected this entire town,

and everybody said
they saw something.

Okay, so clearly, you're in
the believer column here.

I'm in
the believer column.

Now, phil, I could guess

that you're a little bit
more skeptical here,

and I think you and I
are in the same column.

This is a really
wild story, right?

But what we can't deny

is the sheer number
of sightings.

It is a lot of sightings,
and I can agree

that these people are seeing
something, but seeing what?

I mean, there's more drones
flying around us now

than there are
planes in the sky.

Right.

But planes and drones
don't flap their wings

and have glowing red eyes
and chase you.

That is true.

She's got you there, phil.
She does.

And look, this really is
the heart of this mystery.

Could so many people
that are so adamant

about what
they're seeing be wrong?

Is it a case of
an unidentified creature?

Is it misidentification?
Is it hysteria?

Is it some sort of folklore

just working
on their imaginations?

And that's what I want
the two of you to find out.

Okay.

I think you've got to go
to chicago,

but you've got to start
in point pleasant.

You've got to go to where
the mothman story began

and see if you can find

some correlation
between those sightings

and the ones happening
in chicago.

Sound good?

Sounds good.
Sounds like a plan.

Josh: The team is traveling
540 miles southwest

to point pleasant,
west virginia.

Jessica:
This place, I love it.

It's fantastic,
it is super-crazy,

definitely a weird vibe.

It is steeped
in mothman lore.

Point pleasant is the epicenter
of mothman mythology.

While thousands come
from all over the world

for the annual
mothman festival,

many locals see the creature
as a genuine threat,

and that's why they're
obsessed with mothman,

and I do mean obsessed.

Jeff wamsley is a researcher
who has spent decades

gathering evidence about
the mothman phenomenon.

Wamsley: These are probably
some of the rarest

archives we have
in the museum.

These are the handwritten
police reports

of those original
four witnesses.

After they saw this thing,

they went immediately
to the sheriff's department.

We're trying to wrap our heads
around that first incident

and how it connects
to all the other ones...

Exactly.
...In chicago.

So can you break down the events
of that evening for us?

Sure.
In November 15, 1966,

you had
the two young couples,

and they were
just riding around.

Josh: They were driving
along a road

that bordered the southern edge

of the west virginia
ordnance works,

a former tnt plant
on the outskirts of town.

That's where they encountered
what they thought was a man.

But as they drove closer,

they saw its 10-foot wingspan
and glowing red eyes.

Suddenly it took off,
flying over the top of the car.

Terrified, the driver tried
to outrun the creature,

but even at 75 miles an hour,
he couldn't shake the talons

that were clawing
at the top of the car.

Once they got
to the city limits,

it veered off
into a field.

That was the first official
local sighting here.

Minutes after
they came into town,

they were scared enough
to go to the police department.

They didn't want to,
but they did.

Did they sequester them all
in different rooms

to get these...?

Yes, they did.
Got it.

I have three of those
four people's original reports

right here.

And how long did the activity,
as far as the sightings,

go on for before
the silver bridge collapsed?

13 months to the day that
that original sighting.

It's the worst bridge
disaster in u.S. History...

Phil: Wow.
...And 46 people perished.

I've talked to people who said
they saw a creature,

or a bird,
on top of the bridge.

Josh: It has long been rumored
that mothman was sighted

atop the silver bridge before it
collapsed and killed 46 people.

This event cemented
mothman's sinister reputation.

Where he appears,
tragedy follows.

People claim that mothman
popped up

before the chernobyl
disaster in 1986,

and in mexico during the swine
flu epidemic of 2009.

And many say he's often trailed
by other mysterious figures.

So I've often heard that when
the mothman would show up,

that you would get some men
in black activity, too.

Yeah.

People coming in and knocking
on doors and asking questions.

Did you see
something like that?

Yeah. The men in black
were notorious

for just showing up
unexpectedly.

My own mother,
she saw the men in black.

Point pleasant residents

who claimed to have seen
mothman

reportedly received
a visit from federal agents.

It's unknown what the agents
said, but after those visits,

the witnesses never
spoke of mothman again.

If the reports are true,
what drew

these so-called men in black to
this small west virginia town?

Were they trying to cover up
a top-secret military project,

or were they attempting
to silence

any talk about
a real-life cryptid?

So is it possible for us to go
there to where it all began?

Sure, the area
is still accessible.

Jessica: Hearing about where the
sightings happened is one thing,

but we want to see it
for ourselves.

Ground zero
for mothman phenomena --

the former west virginia
ordnance works.

Phil: This is the area

where there was a huge
cluster of sightings,

and it's like sighting,
sighting, sighting,

sighting all the way
around the perimeter.

So I figured this is
the perfect place for us

to poke around
a little bit.

Josh: Over the years,

there have been dozens
of credible witnesses

who describe seeing
a winged human-like figure

either coming out of,
or disappearing, into this area,

and those sightings
continue to this day.

Retired air force veteran
and military police officer

dave spinks

has investigated
the mothman phenomenon

for more than two decades.

He has a unique theory about
what these people are seeing.

Jessica: So it looks like
an abandoned city.

That's pretty much
what it was.

You are standing in the heart
of the west virginia

ordnance works here in
point pleasant, west virginia.

So when you saw ordnance,
you mean explosives?

Yes, exactly.

Josh: This eerie tract of land
just outside of point pleasant

was an 8,000-acre facility

that manufactured tnt
during world war ii

and stored it in 100
concrete bunkers.

But rumors have swirled
for decades

that there was more
going on here

than the military was admitting.

And they actually manufactured
the explosives

for the atomic bomb here.

Wow.

What's your personal take

on the mothman sightings
in this area?

I believe it
could be some type

of military
clandestine project.

Josh:
Though a military mothman

might sound
like science fiction,

it's a fact that
during the cold war,

the united states funded
a number of highly unusual

top-secret programs,
many with animals.

Project pigeon
deployed bombs with pigeons

acting as guidance mechanisms,
and project acoustic kitty

intended to use cats
to spy on the kremlin.

The bat bomb was a plan
to use bats

to deliver explosive devices
into enemy cities.

Some have suggested mothman is
actually the biological product

of similar top-secret
experiments,

a genetically modified bird,
or perhaps even a human.

It's a wild theory,
but what can't be ignored

is that people have been

seeing something
lurking in these woods.

Check this out.

Phil: Dave has uncovered
a once-classified 1940 site map

for the ordnance works.

So right out here,
what we have...

Jessica: Uh-huh?

...Is 300 acres of
war-department land

other than the tnt area.

My contacts told me
that there was definitely

clandestine activity
going on out here.

So out
of those 8,000 acres,

300 of them are this
war department,

"don't go in.
There are no trespassing"?

Absolutely.

Phil: It does seem possible
that during the time

of the original
mothman sightings,

there could have been top-secret
military activity at this plant.

We're following
dave's map to see

if we can find any evidence
to support this theory.

To get there, we'll have to
navigate a river of toxic sludge

that surrounds
the entire abandoned facility.

Some say it's a man-made barrier
meant to keep people out.

Have you ever brought a boat
down this way before?

No, we haven't.

What do you think
about this water, special stuff?

Yes.
On a scale of 1 to 10,

10 being the worst,

how crazy are we
for doing this?

Probably a 10.

Oh, good.

I always wanted to be
an overachiever.

Jessica: After securing a boat
to navigate the swamp,

we travel down
to the water's edge.

Ready?
Yeah.

Okay. Going in.

♪

I mean, this area out here,
this is next-level habitat.

This is where a lot
of the sightings happened.

This is where
the government was active.

This was his default
go-to spot.

This is where
it all went down.

There we go.

Jessica:
After paddling through the muck,

we eventually come ashore
and set out on foot.

Finally, we make it to the area
on the map where some believe

the government conducted
a secret military project

that can explain
the mothman sightings.

I think I see something.

Jessica: Here we go.

This thing is completely
covered by earth.

Look at this. It is part
of the landscape here.

Totally grown over.

This thing hasn't been opened
in decades.

[ creaking ]

wow.

Okay, ready?

Mm-hmm.

♪

alright, one more.

Ready, set...

Yep.
[ grunts ]

holy...
Oh, what is that?

Josh: Our mothman investigation
has led to the innermost area

of the west virginia
ordnance plant.

Wow.

Phil and jess are tracking
a controversial theory

that top-secret military
experiments with animals

or even people conducted
out of these bunkers

could be responsible
for the mothman sightings.

Either way, people have been
seeing something

hiding amidst these ruins.

The question is what?

Ready, set...

Yeah.
[ grunts ]

holy...

What is that?

♪

what is this?

A barrel of diesel oil?

What is this?

[ grunts ]
and a sprocket.

This place...
Oh, look at this. Look.

Why would you just leave
all this stuff behind?

I don't know.

Why does it look like
something was chained up here?

That does look like --

kind of like a wrist
or something.

That's kind of creepy.

Oh, what's this?

Look, an old
fire extinguisher.

Wow.

Dayton fire extinguisher.

Dayton, ohio.

Is there a date on here?

I don't think so, but, yeah,
that's interesting

this is coming
from dayton.

Yeah.

Phil: Having fully explored
the bunker,

we returned to the boat
and begin paddling back

only to find another
mysterious structure.

Look at that.

What is this?

Let's see
if we can get in.

♪

♪

♪

phil: Oh!

Jessica: Oh, my god.

♪

♪

oh, wow.

This is huge.

Whoa.

♪

I'm almost afraid to put
my paddle in the water.

It is...
Look.

What's down there?
What's down there?

I don't know.

♪

♪

so did you see anything
under the water? What's there?

I don't know.

I mean, if you're gonna be
a mothman,

why wouldn't you live here?

[ creature squeaks ]

oh, did you hear that?

It was somewhere
over there.

♪

that sounded like it was
coming from outside.

Come on,
let's get out there.

♪

[ flapping, thud ]

did you hear that?
Whoa, whoa, whoa.

Something out there.
Something out there.

Do you see it?
No.

I heard it
over here somewhere.

Shine the flashlight up
in that tree.

Wait, I think I see it.

What is that?
It just moved.

To the left, to the left.

It's trying
to avoid the light.

There's something
over there.

I'm gonna paddle us
a little closer.

Okay.

♪

I've got
the thermal camera.

If there's anything
biological giving off heat,

we'll see it on this.

It sounded like it was up
in the treetops here.

Where? Point your light
where you think you saw it.

Right up here.

Alright. I'm looking.

Hey, I think I see
something on the thermal.

Oh, my god.

Whoa. What do you
think that is?

Oh, I think I lost it.

Well, let's keep heading
towards the shore

and see what we can find
once we're on land.

Alright.

♪

♪

jessica: Is that the tree
we saw something in?

Phil: I'm not sure.

It might be
that one over there.

I don't see anything.

♪

phil:
After another hour of searching,

we still haven't made contact
with the source of the noise

and whatever we saw
on the thermal camera.

With the sun on the horizon,
we decide to head back.

The items we found
at the ordnance plant support

dave's theory
that a secret military operation

could have been
conducted here,

but what sort of experiments
could account for the mothman?

We check in with josh to
update him on our investigation.

Hello. How's west virginia
treating you?

We're definitely getting into
some weird stuff out here.

Alright, so bring me
up to speed.

So that area where all of the
original mothman sightings

took place, the west virginia
ordnance works...

The tnt plant.

Yeah, exactly. We got
the plans for the area

and right there in the center
has been just sectioned off

as "war department"
with no explanation given.

War department. Okay.
So what are you thinking?

Maybe something top secret
was going on out there?

Possibly.

We actually went out
to that area last night.

Is there anything
in that area?

There were these
sealed-off bunkers there,

and we went into
one of them

and it was basically
half hidden,

kind of buried in the ground
right there.

What was inside?

For a place that was supposed
to be storing tnt,

there was a lot
of weird stuff in there.

We found chains,
shackles, a diesel drum.

There was a really old
fire extinguisher

from dayton, ohio.

There were tools.
Hold on. Hold on.

The fire extinguisher
was from dayton?

It was labeled dayton?

Yeah.
Yeah.

Dayton, ohio, is home

to wright-patterson
air force base,

one of the most famous
military bases in the country.

Also, a place where a lot
of top-secret military activity

took place.
That's on record.

If, in fact, there was
some sort of

top-secret facility
in point pleasant,

wright-patterson and dayton,
that's 150 miles away.

That's not far at all.

Maybe there is
a relationship there.

But that place
is extremely restricted.

You're talking about
what a lot of people

consider to be the real area 51.

And I just don't know

how we would ever be able
to investigate that.

Well,
I might have a way.

Josh: The team and I are
reviewing the discoveries

they made at the west virginia
ordnance plant

and whether the mothman
sightings might be explained

by a top-secret
military program.

The challenge now
is getting access

to one of the most secretive
military bases in existence --

wright-patterson
air force base.

I have a contact
from wright-patterson

from a military investigation
we did several years ago.

I'll see if I can connect
all of you.

In the meantime,
we've still got

these eyewitness
sightings in chicago.

And I think you've got
to head there next.

Absolutely.

Also,
I've learned back here

that one of
the eyewitnesses there

claims that he actually has
images of his encounter

with mothman though
he's been hesitant to show it.

I want to see that.

Alright,
let's go to chicago.

To chicago.
Good luck.

Josh: While I work on access to
wright-patterson air force base,

the team travels 438 miles
northwest to chicago.

I'll admit it's a strange
place to find mothman,

but don't tell that
to the people

who say they've seen him here.

So I've actually hooked us up
with somebody

that's gonna walk us through
all those recent sightings.

We're gonna have
to go up really high.

Phil: What do mean high?

Like mothman high.
Whoa.

No chicago structure is
more iconic than willis tower.

Once known
as the sears tower,

it is the second tallest
building in the americas

and the place
where eyewitnesses

have reported seeing mothman.

Jessica and phil are here
to meet

author and paranormal
investigator...

Going up.

...Tobias wayland.

Tobias has been gathering data
on the chicago mothman sightings

since he first got wind
of a trio of recent reports.

Hey, tobias.
Hi.

Sorry I'm a little late.
That's a lot of stairs.

Sure is.

So why did you
bring us here?

Well, it wasn't me.
The mothman did.

The mothman,
over a thousand feet up,

chose this location.

Higher actually.

The sighting that supposedly
took place right here

had the creature
at the very top.

Wow.
There's a guy, guillermo,

and he's outside smoking

just after 5:00 p.M.
In July of 2017.

And he sees something
on top of the tower.

As he's standing there,

this winged human jumps
off of the tower.

After that, the sightings
just kept coming

and everybody described
the same thing,

which was a large,
bat-like creature.

We've got probably well over
a hundred different reports

and associated
phenomenon.

All within this area
or just across the board?

Within 200 miles
of lake michigan.

Well, it's really interesting
because mothman always --

at least the reports and stories
that I've heard and read,

is that it's usually
in kind of rural areas.

I've never heard of him
in the middle of chicago.

Let me show you a map.

They're almost always...
Wow.

Yeah, centered
around green spaces.

Oh, okay.
That's a lot of sightings.

I'm actually really surprised

at how many are
in the city, too.

A lot of people probably
don't realize

that they are surrounded
by nature,

that there are owls here,
there are herons here,

there are
a lot of big birds.

And so when it's dark,
and they see something flying

and they know that mothman
has been sighted here,

maybe that's why
they're thinking it's mothman.

There isn't going to be
as much physical evidence.

And so, the criteria I have to
use to judge those sightings

is the credibility
of the witnesses themselves.

There have been a good number
of very frightened,

very otherwise normal people
who have come forward

and recounted
these stories.

When you're dealing
with a normal,

credible person
who's telling you

that they were standing
only several feet away

from something that looked
like a winged humanoid,

I feel like under
those circumstances,

it would be very difficult,
if not impossible,

to misidentify
some sort of large bird.

I'm eager to speak with
a chicago eyewitness

to see if the
mothman sightings here

might also be explained by some
kind of secret military program.

We head southwest from willis
tower to the lower west side.

That's where we're meeting
kelley hanada,

the eyewitness
that has been reluctant

to release his evidence,
at least so far.

♪

what's your experience been?
Walk us through it.

Hanada: When I was on my way
to work riding my bike,

this is the route
that I take pretty much daily.

So as I'm pulling up
to this intersection,

I'm just gazing out,

looking at the flags
above the library.

I see another gentleman
start pointing to the sky,

and that's when I see
a large flying object.

And so, I immediately
think in my head,

"hey, I think
that's the mothman."

so you immediately
went to mothman.

Yeah. Well, certainly
at the time

of when I'm experiencing
this and viewing it,

I'm almost positive

that what I'm capturing
on film is the mothman.

I had the gopro on me, and I
was able to get that captured.

Is there any way we could see
that footage that you have?

Yes, please.

I'm kind of hesitant of even
showing people now

just because it almost seems
like a point of ridicule

just for...

People will either see
one thing or the other.

And then I look
like a crazy person

for coming forward
with a mothman sighting.

I'll tell you what,
what's important here,

is you're not the only one

who has seen
something strange.

And what you saw still
is a mystery,

and we're here to help

and see if we can get
to the bottom of that mystery.

Yeah. Well, I mean,
so I do have it with me,

and I have
a few of the stills.

A little bit of an idea.

Oh, whoa.
That's huge.

♪

josh: My team is in chicago

investigating recent reports
of a giant winged creature.

Kelley hanada
was cycling to work

wearing a camera on his helmet
when he captured images

of something large
flying in the sky.

Oh, yeah, there he is.
Oh, wow.

So here's where it is
right here.

It basically starts
from this area

heading kind of
in a southwest direction

and almost into the wind
the entire time.

So kelley, I got to say,

especially in this frame
right here,

as much as
it would be amazing

if this is a photo
of mothman,

to me,
this just looks like

a really big,
impressive bird.

Well, it would have to be
at least

a 10-foot wingspan
given the size.

Yeah. But a bird is not
gonna attract

that kind of attention
from people on the ground

to actually stop on their way
to work and point up in the sky.

I do that for, like, a great
horned owl or gyrfalcon.

I mean, I think
there's some really cool --

yeah, but you're a unique,
amazing person.

Were you gonna call me
a nerd?

No.

Kelley's footage shows
something human sized

flying above chicago.

Given its size and shape,

many have suggested it might've
been a person in a wingsuit.

Experts have also theorized
that sightings at willis tower

could have been a base jumper
illegally jumping from the roof.

To put these theories
to the test,

we're heading to an indoor
skydiving facility

to meet with
expert wingsuit pilot

and world record holder
joe ridler.

We've actually been
running around chicago

investigating
the mothman sightings.

Interesting.

Yeah. We suspect it could be
any number of things,

but one of the things
we were thinking of

is maybe a base jumper
or a guy wearing a wingsuit.

Basically
somebody like you

because you've done
a lot of jumps. Yeah?

Yeah, absolutely.

I'm just under
1,500 jumps right now.

Wow.
Yeah.

Phil: To be clear,
base jumping is an extreme sport

where people leap and then
parachute from cliffs

and, yes, tall buildings.

On the other hand, a wingsuit
has sections of fabric

that inflate to allow gliding
through the air

before deploying a chute
for landing.

Jessica: What would be
a giveaway sign

that that person
is a base jumper

or wearing a wingsuit versus,
"oh, hey, that's mothman"?

When it comes
to base jumping,

they're all kind of ninjas
of the night.

It's not exactly a legal sport
to participate in.

So jumping in the day
would be one red flag.

Another would be
the height of the object

that you're
jumping off of.

Another is landing area.

Phil: We show joe the schematic
of where eyewitness guillermo

spotted the winged figure.

He said he was looking up
at that ledge

and the guy jumped.

He claims he saw
it just kind of fly away

towards the lake.

Is that doable?

Oh, no.
Absolutely not.

So the height of this ledge

is high enough to do
a wingsuit base jump,

but given all
of the complexities

of the landing areas
around here,

probably not
a plausible solution here.

Jessica:
We also show joe the images

that kelley hanada
took with his gopro,

which joe also dismisses.

They weren't in a wingsuit
or base jumper either.

Phil: If we're going to document

our own encounter
with the mothman,

we need to look for it
in its natural habitat.

A biological creature
of this size

might pass through
the big city on occasion,

but it certainly
won't make its home here.

One of the densest areas
of recent sightings nearby

is only 15 miles northwest
of the city

in a 20-mile stretch
of forest preserve.

No humans, lots of animals,
plenty of water.

If the mothman is real,
this could be his home.

Phil: By the way, wait till you
see what I've got inside.

What'd you get?

Our goal is to try to photograph
whatever it is

that people are seeing out here.

And to do that,
we'll use several

motion-sensitive
wildlife cameras.

So what do you think
about this?

Overkill?
What's the crossbow for?

We're gonna shoot it up
into the tree and at the end

of the fishing line,
we'll put a trail cam.

So if anything flies by,
we'll get a photo of it.

We're dividing the forest
into quadrants

and placing cameras
in each corner.

We attach cameras
to trees along trails

and use the crossbow to hoist
cameras to higher positions

with a better view of the skies.

We finished setting up
the cameras

just as day turns to night.

Any motion, it'll trigger it.
It'll take a photo.

When I think of an area
like this,

this is habitat
at its prime.

There's tons of sightings
around this park.

I'm sure there are all sorts
of things living around here.

What is the weirdest thing
you've ever seen

with those cameras?

In central america,
I've seen jaguars.

Sometimes we actually see
the poachers in the area

and they come by
with their guns

and don't realize --

[ unexplained noise ]

phil: Wait, what was that?

Jessica: I don't know.

It sounded like
it was coming from over there.

I got the thermal camera.

Yeah, we definitely
got movement. I saw it.

Definitely there.

Yeah,
right up in that tree.

[ rustling ]

oh, my god! Come here.

Right there. Right there.
Right there. It just moved.

Jess and phil
are pursuing the idea

that someone from
wright-patterson air force base

may be able to provide
information about a mysterious

flying something
in the skies of west virginia.

Now, it may sound like
the stuff of science fiction,

but consider this --
by the time

of the original
mothman sightings in 1966,

the base had served
as headquarters

for three top-secret programs
tasked with studying ufos --

the most comprehensive
among them project blue book.

This was the program
that investigated

more than 12,000 ufo sightings

to determine whether they posed
threats to national security.

It was also during this time
that joint army, navy,

air force regulation
number 146 was passed,

making it a crime to discuss
classified ufo reports

with unauthorized persons.

But decades later,

project blue book's existence
has been officially acknowledged

and tens of thousands
of documents

have since been declassified.

Those who spent their careers

at wright-patterson
air force base

may now speak about some of
the military's activities

around the time of the
original mothman sightings.

♪

josh: Phil and jessica
are north of chicago

investigating a cluster
of recent mothman sightings.

While setting up

motion-activated
wildlife cameras,

they hear something
in the treeline.

Jessica: It's moving.

Phil: Yeah, we definitely
got movement.

[ rustling ]

oh, my gosh, something.
You got something?

Yeah, yeah. Right there.
Right there. Right there.

I don't see it anymore.
I don't see it either.

[ unexplained noise ]

did you hear something?

Anything, anything?

I don't see anything.

Jessica: We spend hours

searching
for the source of the noise

in the trees to no avail.

With the sun about to come up,
we make sure our trail cameras

are still running to gather
evidence long after we leave.

And that's when
we get word from josh.

Time for a road trip.

He's gotten us access
to a wright-patterson insider,

someone who can speak to whether
there's any military program

that might help explain

the point pleasant
mothman sightings.

So wright-patterson
air force base

and the west virginia
ordnance plant.

The link here,
we don't quite have it down

and I don't know
if we sound crazy right now.

I mean, we probably do
sound crazy,

which is fine with me.

Here's the thing --
military bases,

they still talk
to each other,

so it wouldn't
surprise me at all

if some
out-of-the-way area

had some sort of connection
to nearby bases.

That's true.

Phil: To meet josh's contact,
we're driving 300 miles

southeast from chicago
to dayton, ohio.

Ray szymanski is
a retired engineer

who worked on
classified projects

at wright-patterson
air force base.

He's asked to meet us
at an underground bunker

just a few miles away --

a location that once housed
top-secret research programs.

So, ray, how long
did you work here?

I spent nearly four decades

at wright-patterson
air force base.

And what were you
doing there?

I was an electrical engineer
for the department

of defense's
weapons systems.

So as part of that,

I worked on a number
of secret programs.

And in a place like this,

you can imagine how easy
it was to keep a secret.

Josh: This abandoned facility
once played host

to the most secretive military
research program in history --

the manhattan project.

From the late 1930s
to the mid 1940s,

more than 130,000 people
worked in absolute secrecy

building the world's first
atomic bomb.

♪

so the theory that we're kind of
coming up with

for these mothman sightings

is that perhaps it is
an experiment by the government,

some sort of testing they were
doing or anything like that.

You know, that is possible

because it's
the early '60s.

In fact, the timeframe
is perfect for it.

New laboratories
were being built,

new technologies
were being developed.

A lot of that technology
would have been perfected

at wright-patterson
air force base.

Integrated circuits
and fiber optics

and new materials,
tough, durable materials

for flight suits

or anything that
they would spin off

for a military
application.

So what you're telling us

is that
wright-patterson air force base

might have engineered
flight suits

and then that might explain
the potential

for some mothman sightings.

I'm saying exactly that.

Phil: This was the height
of the cold war.

What was the big motivation
at the time

for developing
new technologies,

something like a flight suit
or a parachute?

The military would be interested
in some type

of a singular soldier
air transportation

because they could do
some sabotage

or they could do
some surveillance

with either a parafoil
or a cruciform-type chute

that was being developed
at the time

or even those jet packs.

And it turns out
that the wind tunnel

at wright-patterson
air force base

was used to
perfect the design.

Wow.
Oh.

So the military was very much
aware of this new technology.

And it's possible that flight
testing was being done,

could have
been done anywhere.

And perhaps when somebody
saw a person

flying for
the very first time,

could easily
have been misidentified

as somebody
that we now call mothman.

Josh: It's possible that mothman
may be related

to an extraordinary
but very real

top-secret government program.

This now declassified footage
from 1961

pulled from
the national archives

shows early testing
of flying soldier technology.

Work on this continued
through the late 1960s.

And by 1978 the delta force,

the u.S. Military's most elite
special forces troops,

was testing
combat flight suits in,

you guessed it, west virginia.

Such a program
could explain the visits

from men in black,
government agents

putting a lid
on our latest secret technology.

And the recent point pleasant
eyewitness accounts,

like many others,
phil and jess did detect animals

living in the ruins
of the abandoned military plant.

Jessica: Point your light
where you think you saw it.

Phil: Right up here.

I think I see something
on thermal.

Oh, my god.

But those who claim
it's a monster

are probably getting caught up
in 50 years of mothman mania.

As for the chicago sightings,

we believe we were able
to rule out

the possibility of a rogue base
jumper or wingsuit in flight.

Phil: Is that doable?

Oh, no, absolutely not.

But photos continue to come in
from our remote wildlife cameras

and the evidence is in.

Sandhill crane, check.

Golden eagle, check.

But no mothman.

Even jess now supports
phil's original suspicion

that the recent chicago
sightings of the mothman

are nothing more than
the misidentification

of large winged birds.

The sandhill crane
and the golden eagle

have enormous wingspans
at nearly 8 feet.

Imagine seeing that soaring
in the windy city.

You, too, might think
it's a monster.