Original subtitles

[narrator] Ever since humankind first looked to the heavens,

we have asked the question,

"Are we alone?"

Tales of otherworldly beings,

ancient prophecies and predictions,

and sightings here on Earth,

have heightened our sense of anticipation.

But in recent years, these claims have become

more frequent...

Do you believe our government has made contact

with intelligent extraterrestrials?

Something I can't discuss in a public setting.

[narrator] ...more insistent...

Biologics came with some of these recoveries, yeah.

[narrator] ...and as we approached a new millennium,

the evidence mounted.

His face was like this and his eyes were down here.

[narrator] In 1994, West Africa was gripped

by UFO fever after Zimbabwean

schoolchildren claimed to have directly interacted with extraterrestrials.

This is true close-encounter stuff.

[narrator] Top-secret investigations were launched, reasons given,

but answers were hard to find.

We suddenly looked up and we saw this thing coming over

the top of the hill.

[narrator] And whatever it was, it keeps coming back.

Do you believe UAPs pose a potential threat to

our national security? -Yes.

-Yes. -Yes.

[narrator] How much are we not being told?

Our team of experts reopen the files,

analyze the intelligence,

investigate the science,

and reveal the truth.

[camera shutter snaps]

[percussive music playing]

[narrator] 16th September, 1994 was an ordinary day at

Ariel School, just outside Harare, capital of Zimbabwe.

But the events that unfolded during the pupils' 15-minute

mid-morning break would impact the lives of hundreds

to this day,

and have never been explained.

1994 was a particularly tumultuous time in

Southern Africa.

Tribal conflict in Rwanda had led to a genocide of

minority ethnic Tutsis.

800,000 people died in just 100 days.

In South Africa, Nelson Mandela's ANC swept to

power in the country's first fully free election,

ending nearly 50 years of apartheid.

[narrator] And in Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe's dictatorial

grip on power had never been more firm.

He had complete control across all areas of government

and the military, and Mugabe's land reforms were beginning to

change the shape of the country, and not always

for the better.

[narrator] In the midst of this upheaval was a tranquil primary school

in the small town of Ruwa.

Back in 1994, it was little more than a rural crossroads,

14 miles from Harare.

On the morning of Friday, the 16th of September,

the kids were outside for their morning break while

their teachers were inside having a meeting.

That's when it all happened.

[narrator] What "it" was depends on which of the 62 young witnesses you ask,

but the accounts had a lot in common.

[students speaking]

-[man] Are you sure it wasn't a Harrier jump jet, -No.

or something that the Zimbabwe Air Force had got?

It was like in a disc.

[narrator] According to the children, an extraterrestrial craft had

landed in a field just a hundred yards from

the school, and many pupils saw multiple non-human life forms

emerge from it.

[student speaking]

They had big black eyes, that's all I saw,

I saw a glimpse, they kind of turned around

and stared, and then went back into a kind of, like, ship.

One thing sitting on the side, and another thing

sort of like, running up and down the top.

[narrator] The encounter lasted almost the entire 15-minute break.

And as soon as it was over, students flocked inside to tell

their teachers what they had seen.

Of course they didn't believe them.

Why on earth would you? Kids make up stories, right?

[narrator] But this was different.

Many of the children felt deeply hurt at not being

believed and told the exact same story

to their parents at home.

When children aren't believed, it's extraordinarily

disempowering, especially if they're telling the truth.

[narrator] One mother was at the school while the events unfolded.

Alyson Kirkman, a physiotherapist whose

10-year-old daughter, Fifi, attended the school,

was on duty at the schoolyard refreshment kiosk.

She had 12-year-olds running up to her, telling her that

something had landed and that little men had got out, and were

walking around the playground.

[narrator] She was unmoved.

Even when children approached in hysterics, she stayed

at the kiosk.

She simply didn't believe them.

[narrator] She assumed they were trying to lure her away from the shop so

they could pilfer snacks as they had so often tried before.

But when she spoke to her daughter, Fifi, later that

day, she confirmed everything she had been told.

She said she had seen a silver white light land behind

the trees near the school, and she heard a sort of buzzing

in the air.

[narrator] And although she hadn't seen any life forms herself,

her friends had told her all about them.

Little men in black suits with strange eyes.

[narrator] Across scores of homes in the suburbs of Harare,

an eerily similar story was being told.

One or more silver objects, usually described as

disc-shaped, appeared in the sky, floated down to

a field, and then landed near some small trees.

Then creatures, anything between one and four

of them, all dressed in black and with big eyes,

exited the spacecraft and approached the children,

all very outlandish, but quite consistent.

[narrator] The stories must have been vividly relayed, because

the school was soon inundated with calls from

concerned parents.

[McDonald] They were concerned about what had happened,

and who and what their children had seen.

[narrator] The school, understandably, had no answers.

But somehow, the story had already broken on local radio,

Radio Zimbabwe's ZBC.

From there, it was picked up by the BBC.

And by the following Monday, BBC's Tim Leach was at

the school interviewing the children.

[Leach] Ruwa, Ariel School, 19th September, '94,

12:12 local time.

Could you tell me what you saw on Friday?

[narrator] Leach, an experienced and respected journalist,

had been the BBC Bureau Chief for South Africa and head of

the Foreign Correspondence Association in Zimbabwe.

He arrived at the school, listened to the children,

and faithfully recorded their stories.

He was immediately struck by their conviction and confusion.

Here you have an experienced journalist, who a few months

earlier was reporting on the atrocities in Rwanda.

And this story of little kids seeing ETs

was too much for him.

Whatever the kids said to him, both on and off camera,

he clearly believed it.

[narrator] And there was a growing sense within the school and local

community that there was truth in this story.

One believer was head teacher Colin Mackie.

He was adamant these children don't lie,

and they wouldn't lie to him.

[Leach] Mr. Mackie, you're headmaster of Ariel School.

Tell me, what do you think of all this?

I feel sure that the children feel that they did

see something.

We asked them to draw pictures of what they saw on Friday.

And after looking at those, I definitely feel that they did

see something. -[Leach] And what do you think that was?

I agree that it could be something

that we are not common with.

[narrator] Several people were eager to hear the children's accounts in

more detail, not least local UFO enthusiast Cynthia Hind.

They did tell me from London this would be the biggest story

of the 20th century.

[narrator] Her first book, "UFOs, African Encounters,"

was published in 1982, and was the first to draw Western

attention to the idea that UFOs might target Africa.

Cynthia believed that Africa's vast open spaces, and the fact

that it was the cradle of human civilization, would make it

attractive to extraterrestrials.

But Cynthia was laser-focused on the topic.

As soon as she heard the news, she was on the phone to hear

the stories of Fifi and Alyson Kirkman.

[McDonald] The more she hears, the more intriguing it becomes.

She calls student Barry Downing, who's 11.

He tells her that this object was lit up brightly,

disappeared, only to instantly reappear somewhere else.

[narrator] Barry's accounts of the beings were secondhand.

But the next child on Cynthia's call list, Fungai Mavengare,

had seen them with his own eyes.

He said he saw two little men walk off the object and walk

around as if they were puzzled.

He also said it looked like they were walking in

slow motion.

[Bader] On Tuesday, the 20th of September, Cynthia arrived at

the school with Tim Leach,

and her advisor and photographer, Gunter Hofer.

[narrator] Hofer, a graphic designer and photographer with

an interest in science, had worked with Cynthia since

the early '90s, largely as a technical advisor.

Gunter is a highly technical chap, and he's made his own

Geiger counter, his own metal detector.

[narrator] One child, 12-year-old Guy Gibbons, tells them that

he went to the landing site with his teacher within hours

of the event.

He takes them straight to the spot, and there on

the ground are six clearly visible burn marks.

[narrator] Gibbons also told the group that on that particular Friday,

the area was littered with hundreds of dead ants,

although at that moment, none were present.

Hofer tested the area with his Geiger counter,

but found nothing unusual, apart from the burn marks

and the lack of ants.

[narrator] That didn't dissuade Hind.

[Leach] Cindy, what are your impressions after this

morning's little expedition?

Well, I certainly believe the children.

I've come across a similar type of thing in Broadhaven

in Wales, in 1979,

and the British didn't believe it.

[narrator] Guy Gibbons also provided the most detailed description

of the beings to date.

He said the creature was about the size of

an average 11-year-old.

It had long, straight black hair and very large,

slanting eyes.

[narrator] It was a familiar description.

[Leach] What did he look like?

His face was like this and his eyes were down here.

He talked about the mouth being basically a slit and that there

was no nose.

He painted a really clear picture.

[narrator] He also described in detail how some of the younger children

were terrified, believing they were

seeing a Tokoloshe.

[Bader] A Tokoloshe is the African version of a goblin,

the classic little man that eats badly behaved children.

[narrator] For Cynthia, these details were invaluable.

And for Guy Gibbons, just being believed was a huge relief.

His parents hadn't believed him.

They knew he wasn't the sort to make things up, but how do

you believe a story like this?

I think that all children experience a degree of that.

[narrator] And so they couldn't wait to tell Cynthia their stories.

The more kids she spoke to, the clearer the events of that

morning became, though some inconsistencies cast serious

doubt on whether all the children were

telling the truth.

But any two people observing the same thing could easily

have a different take on it, have different eyesight,

you're a different distance.

All of these things are gonna significantly impact

what you report.

[narrator] Despite discrepancies, including the number of craft,

the amount and even the presence of beings,

and the order of events, it was widely agreed that there were

too many common factors to be a coincidence.

If you listen to anyone who met the children directly,

they're all in no doubt that these kids were

telling the truth.

[narrator] And it wouldn't be too long before the wider world started

to believe as well.

[narrator] When, in September 1994, dozens of schoolchildren in

rural Zimbabwe told teachers a fantastical tale of alien

spacecraft landing near the school, it was dismissed as

the overactive imaginations of mischievous children.

But after the BBC came calling and interviewed the children

directly, local opinions began to change.

And it wouldn't be long before the world's press caught on.

For the majority of the foreign press, it was a quirky

story, a curiosity.

But for UFO enthusiasts, it was a fascinating case, not least

because for once, there appeared to be no obvious

motivation to lie.

These children had nothing to gain and stuck to their story

even when they were doubted.

[narrator] One other notable UFO enthusiast was particularly

gripped by the case, John E. Mack,

a tenured professor at Harvard University specializing

in children's psychiatry.

In December 1994, three months after the events, Mack visited

Ruwa and met the witnesses.

He was immediately convinced of their honesty.

[McDonald] Mack's accounts talk about the deep psychological scars

this event has left on many of the children.

It's easy to brush something like this off as childish

fantasy, but when kids experience things that

they can't understand, it can be very traumatic.

[narrator] According to Mack, several of the children he met were still

experiencing nightmares about the event.

Some had begun wetting the bed.

In Mack's opinion, this was deeply formative experience for

many of these children. That means life-changing.

That means that these children were never the same after that.

[narrator] Mack was allowed two days to talk to the children about

what they saw.

Most of the interviews confirm what they told Cynthia Hind

and Tim Leach.

The fact that three months later their stories hadn't

changed does add some credibility.

[narrator] John Mack also interviewed three children whose stories

had not been heard before.

[Dr. Aderin-Pocock Mbe] This group claimed they had left the playground,

walked into the thicket, and got within a few meters

of the craft.

When John Mack talked to the children that

approached the craft, they described the same objects

and beings with the same characteristics as those

children that stayed in the playground.

[narrator] When the children engaged with the beings directly,

the encounter took an unexpected turn.

Understandably, a lot of the kids experiencing this were

upset and scared, but one student approached

the craft, turned around, and tells them,

"There's nothing to worry about."

[narrator] He said that he didn't know why he had told them that,

but felt compelled to reassure his friends, almost as if it

was a message from the extraterrestrials

themselves, conveyed via the child.

Each of them has a different account, but each of them

describes the feeling of strong thoughts being projected

into their minds.

None of them talk about hearing voices.

They just had feelings they didn't believe

were their own.

[narrator] One girl described the creature staring at her.

[McDonald] She was so afraid, she wouldn't even look into its eyes.

She said she felt like it wanted her to go with it.

She also said part of her wanted to go.

[narrator] Another girl described the eyes of the creature as evil,

saying they made her feel like the creature wanted

to take them.

None of the witnesses wanted to look in the creature's eyes.

Not all of the thought messages were frightening.

One girl believed the creatures were on a mission to

help mankind.

She said that they wanted us to know that we are harming

our planet and that we shouldn't be too focused

on technology.

[narrator] Today, concerns about the climate emergency,

and the dangers of digital technology are widely discussed.

But in 1994, this wasn't nearly as common a topic of

discussion, and most homes didn't even have a computer,

let alone the internet.

And yet another girl felt the same message being pushed

into her mind.

11-year-old Lissel Pillay had this overwhelming feeling that

the world was going to end, because we don't look after

the planet properly, and we destroy the air.

It's a very deep thought for an 11-year-old in 1994.

[narrator] Pillay also recalled feeling sympathy for the creature.

[McDonald] She said he just looked so sad and that she felt sorry for him

because she believed he couldn't feel any love,

and that he needed love. Again, that's really deep.

[narrator] In total, Leach, Hind, and Mack interviewed

62 children, all of whom claimed to have witnessed the UFO.

There were common elements, but differences too.

There were also dozens of kids in the same time and the same

place who didn't report seeing anything.

[narrator] With the interviews completed, even more media covered

the event, and the inevitable backlash began.

Lots of people looked at the pictures the kids had drawn

and pointed out that they seemed very similar to

images you'd find in TV shows and films.

[narrator] Hind's defense, however, was that these were

the children of farmers living in rural Zimbabwe.

Many of them didn't go to the movies.

But dig a little deeper and it becomes one of the elements

that raises serious questions about the event

and the investigation.

[Bader] Ariel school was an elite and expensive private school

with mostly white middle class pupils.

These were not the poor children of farm workers.

These were the privileged children of farm owners.

Therefore, these children had access to TV and film,

more access than any other children in Zimbabwe.

[narrator] And that access could be a key to understanding this event.

Talk of UFOs had saturated Zimbabwean news and current

affairs shows, thanks to an unexplained event

just two days earlier.

[broadcaster] There's been a UFO alert across southern Africa.

A large, brightly colored object was seen traveling very

fast above Zimbabwe, Zambia, and South Africa.

Several planes saw it. The experts are baffled.

[narrator] Many presumed it was a comet or meteor, and thought no more

about it, until ZBC radio invited listeners to share what

they had seen.

Before long, there was talk of spaceships, and a full-blown

wave of UFO mania swept across Zimbabwe.

[narrator] It wasn't limited to UFO enthusiasts.

the general public were equally perplexed.

[man speaking]

[man speaking]

[narrator] Reports like these sowed the seeds of UFO mania in

the region, priming the public to perceive unusual events as

extraterrestrial activity.

[Bader] There was a definite spike in sightings at this time.

It would all fit in with priming.

You're hearing about UFOs, so you interpret what you see

as a UFO.

[narrator] But would children be influenced by these

news stories?

With UFO mania sweeping across Zimbabwe, the subject of UFOs

would be pretty much unavoidable at home.

And you'd expect children to be talking about it on

the playground, because it's an exciting subject.

[narrator] In all probability, the explanation for the UFO

seen on 14 September, 1994, was likely far more mundane.

It could have been a meteor shower, and there was one

skeptic who claimed that it had to be a Russian rocket breaking

up on reentry.

These things take on a life of their own.

[narrator] Perhaps the triggering incident for the UFO sighting by

the children on 16th September was the coverage

and speculation about the fireball on 14th September,

with many callers to ZBC suggesting

it could have been a UFO.

Cynthia Hind was making a record of it all.

And astronomers across the region soon reported that

the pyrotechnic display seen as far afield as Zambia

and Botswana had been a meteor shower.

Hind also recorded receiving dozens of reports of

a capsule-like fireball trailing fire and flanked by

two smaller capsules.

The most likely cause of the fireball is agreed by all

to have been a particularly large meteor.

But what of the claim that it could have been a rocket?

Rockets that go higher into low orbits, when the orbit

degenerates, they can burn up on reentry in the atmosphere

and look like a fireball or meteor or shooting star.

There's a lot of variety in rockets that enter and burn up

and also a lot of variety in meteors.

[narrator] Meteor showers and rocket reentries all added fuel to

the media's fire.

A full-blown UFO flap became inevitable.

Given this context, the Ariel School sightings

occurred when imaginations would have been

highly stimulated.

How the investigation that followed was conducted didn't help.

Cynthia Hind is a believer and therefore biased.

So we have to take everything that she reports with a big

grain of salt.

She interviewed these kids in groups from two to six,

and never took them apart individually, and started with

a clean sheet of paper to get their testimony.

So under these conditions, you can be so heavily

influenced by what other people say, I don't know that we can

take anything useful away from those interviews.

[narrator] Hind's approach may have influenced

the accounts she recorded.

But her findings were corroborated by noted

academic Dr. John Mack from Harvard.

[Bader] He arrived months after the event.

That's months where the kids

can talk to each other about it,

and intentionally or subconsciously,

their record of events changes.

It doesn't mean that the interviews have no value,

but you have to approach them with a healthy level

of skepticism.

But to this day, the witnesses of the Ariel School

UFO sightings have remained steadfast about what

they saw that day.

In the 30 years since, none has broken ranks.

No one has withdrawn their statement or suggested it

might've been a joke that got out of hand.

At the time, the question was, why would 62 kids lie about

something like this?

Now, you've got to ask the same thing about 62 adults.

How does it benefit them to keep a lie going?

[narrator] And if it wasn't extraterrestrials emerging from

a UFO that day, what could they have seen?

Did any truths emerge from the interviews?

And why were the initial reports so easily dismissed?

It's time for our team to reopen this alien file.

[narrator] In September 1994, dozens of schoolchildren at the Ariel

School just outside Zimbabwe's capital of Harare reported

seeing a UFO land outside the school grounds.

In the trees, over there.

[narrator] Some claimed to have seen lifeforms emerge.

Others believed they had been subject to

telepathic communication.

Their stories differed, but over the last three

decades, none of them have changed.

The confirmed meteor shower and unconfirmed reports of

a Soviet rocket re-entering the Earth's atmosphere don't

account for the physical object so many children claim to have

seen that day.

A manned balloon comes closest, it wouldn't have any noise

and it would look roughly shiny, but that doesn't account

for the burn marks.

[narrator] Could those be explained by a jump jet?

Jump jets are loud and blow lots of dust, and it's not

the right shape.

So that's not consistent either.

[narrator] That also rules out helicopters.

Reports from the children on this point were unanimous.

There was no noise, no dust cloud.

Unmanned military drones were in full operation by 1994.

So could this have been a downed drone and crew

retrieving it?

That's not consistent with the reports of the children.

[narrator] With the physical sighting still unexplained, what other

external factors might have influenced the children on 16th

September, 1994?

Zimbabwe in the 1990s was a rapidly evolving place.

The country had only become entirely independent from

the UK in 1980, and therefore it was a mixture

of many influences.

The cultural, social, and religious influences of

colonization mixed with traditional

beliefs and practices.

Wealth butted up against poverty, and modern technology

in some places contrasted with traditional agriculture

in others.

Zimbabwe was a diverse and rich culture that was influenced by

various ethnic groups, such as the Shona, the Tonga,

and other tribes.

It had a strong tradition of storytelling, music,

dance, art, and spirituality.

Clearly, the pupils at the Ariel School were living

in a privileged and somewhat isolated bubble compared to

the average Zimbabwean.

They had access to quality education, health care,

security that most of their fellow citizens just

did not have.

However, they were also detached from the realities

and struggles of their country and continent.

[narrator] Even so, these children could not have been entirely blind to

the situation in Zimbabwe.

[McDonald] The country faced hyperinflation, food shortages,

unemployment, poverty, human rights violations,

and civil unrest.

[narrator] Despite their privilege, these children would have

likely seen and experienced incredibly unsettling events.

Their genuine fear over the suggested alien encounter

is significant.

Some believe these children had experienced mass hysteria.

A key to mass hysteria is the contagion effect.

This is when one or a few people experience something

and tell others about it.

it leads those same people to believe they are experiencing

the same thing.

[McDonald] The children and adults who reported seeing a UFO

or aliens were not suffering from any physical

or psychological illness or disorder that could

explain their symptoms.

They were healthy and normal individuals who had no history

of mental problems or drug abuse.

They were also not under any unusual stress or pressure that

could trigger a mass hysteria episode.

They were children outside playing during break time.

[narrator] Chuck Brooks also doesn't buy the mass hysteria theory.

With the children being six to 12 years in age at the time,

inventing a mass hysteria UFO incident with correlating

drawings and common experiences of telepathy and communication

with the beings would be a hard thing to invent

and keep consistent.

[narrator] It wouldn't be the first time that children were the primary

witnesses of paranormal events.

The most famous such incident occurred in Fatima, Portugal

in 1917.

When the Virgin Mary reportedly appeared in Fatima, Portugal in

1917, it was to three shepherd children, Lucia dos Santos

and a brother and sister, Francisco and Jacinto Marto.

The three reported six visions of the Virgin Mary together,

and Lucia later had one of her own.

In 1930, the Catholic Church officially recognized

the sightings as authentic, or in their terms,

worthy of belief.

[narrator] The Fatima story raises an important point

in this file.

The children in Fatima grew up in a devoutly Catholic country,

where they would have heard tales of visions of the Blessed

Virgin Mary.

The Zimbabwean children at Ariel School would have been

similarly immersed in African folklore and tribal beliefs.

The children interpreted what they were seeing in different

ways based on their backgrounds.

Some saw classic extraterrestrials.

Some saw goblins of regional folklore known as Tokoloshe,

and others saw spirits or ghosts.

[McDonald] The Tokoloshe might have influenced what the children at

the Ariel School expected to see and their responses to it.

It is true that children are quite impressionable and they

can be convinced that something is true.

They can be convinced through peer pressure, which is common.

They can be convinced through authority figures,

that's based on fear.

They can also be convinced through some type of folklore,

through their own spiritual or superstitious upbringing,

whatever may have been imbued upon the child's psyche.

[narrator] But this hasn't changed their overall impression of

the sincerity of the children's accounts.

I do believe that the children exhibit real symptoms of

fear and trauma.

And I do believe that the children are telling

the truth in that they did experience something that was

outside of the known.

The bottom line is that almost for certain, the children saw

something that was far, far outside their normal range

of experience.

[narrator] But what it could have been remains shrouded in mystery.

And these certainties would be undermined by a rather more

academic crisis surrounding Dr. John Mack

and his methods back in Harvard, Massachusetts.

[narrator] Reports of an alien visitation in Zimbabwe in September 1994

attracted worldwide attention, with leading academics rushing

to rural Ruwa near Harare to interview the 62 children

who were part of this mass sighting.

Esteemed Harvard academic and psychiatrist

Dr. John Mack brought credibility to the case,

but events surrounding his methods threatened to

undermine the event.

John Mack was under investigation by a specially

convened board at Harvard because of a previous book

he had written about alien abductions.

[narrator] Some colleagues had suggested that his book, "Abduction,

Human Encounters with Aliens," failed to meet Harvard's

rigorous scientific research protocols.

The investigation divided the academic world.

Some saw it as an assault on academic freedom,

but others believed scientific standards were at stake.

John Mack's peers questioned whether he behaved more as

a scientist or more as a believer.

[narrator] The controversy did raise questions about his methodology

and the veracity of the children's statements

to him in Ruwa.

Also, Mack's beliefs weren't limited to the existence

of extraterrestrials.

[Bader] He was an environmental activist and an anti-nuclear

campaigner, which is strongly aligned with the telepathic

messages the creatures are supposed to have sent

to the children.

[narrator] Skeptics suggested that Mack may have prompted

the children's claims of telepathy, and the children of

Ariel School were again doubted.

After an inquiry lasting more than a year,

the investigators ruled out that Mack was free to follow

his academic instinct.

Ultimately, the case was dropped with the proviso that

he only talk about his own work outside of Harvard,

not painting it with the official brush of

Harvard University.

The methodology of the investigations by

Cynthia Hind and John Mack, our primary sources of

information for the Zimbabwe incident, has been widely

criticized for undermining the entire case.

The agenda of the two interviewers and the way

the interviews were conducted means that nothing really

useful can be taken from the accounts of those kids.

Something highly extraordinary may indeed have happened,

But nothing in the way the interviews were done would

give us any indication of what that really was.

[narrator] Eric believes the pair's flawed approach significantly

influenced the testimony they received.

Starting with the fact that the kids were interviewed not

individually, but in groups, that they were interviewed with

people in attendance as an audience, that they were

interviewed in some cases so long after the events.

And also, there's some evidence that the interviewers in this

case prompted the children, in fact,

asking leading questions.

[narrator] The accusations amounted to confirmation bias that Mack was

a believer and he influenced his subjects to

support his views.

And his influence as a world-renowned researcher

would be especially effective on children.

Children in particular are more obedient to adults

and certainly more wanting to please them

and more impressionable.

Kids are also very intuitive, and they can pick up what

an adult wants and so give it to them in an effort to

please them.

[narrator] Through no fault of their own, the children of Ruwa are once

again relying on people simply believing them.

But for many, their testimony and Dr. Mack's assessments,

built on his long experience in

the field of psychology, still held value.

[McDonald] I will say, as a Pulitzer Prize winner and the head of

psychiatry at Harvard, nobody was more skilled to

interview children in groups than Dr. John Mack.

Dr. John Mack

absolutely went into the ufology phenomena with

a critical, skeptical mind.

He didn't try to impose a belief one way or the other.

Dr. John Mack was only given two days to interview 62 children,

and that's virtually impossible.

So he was left to do what he could do, interviewing them

in small groups.

[narrator] Laurie, who knew

Dr. Mack personally and professionally, is adamant

that no one was better qualified to interview

the children and that his primary concern was for

the welfare of his patients.

[McDonald] It's ludicrous and laughable for anyone to believe that

he could implant the memory to support a belief that he had.

He was not that invested in whether or not the phenomena

was real or not real, whether it was true or false.

His concern is with the effects that it had on

the consciousness of the people involved.

He had enough integrity as a person and as a doctor to

make sure that he wasn't influencing those

kids' interviews.

[narrator] Chuck Brooks believes it's obvious why the children

gave Mack the answers they did.

If you watch his interviews, he's the only one that asks

the children, "What did you feel?"

instead of "What did you see?"

That could also be a factor to the fact that those kids didn't

mention the same details to Cynthia Hind.

They were simply asking different questions.

To discount John Mack based on other people's opinions,

especially those who had something to lose by backing

him up, would just be unfair.

[narrator] With no agreement as to whether the investigation was fatally

flawed due to Hind and Mack's unconventional methodology,

Chris Bader observes that mass sightings are almost

always problematic.

There are positives and negatives to

mass sightings.

Normally, having multiple witnesses to something is

a good thing, but psychologists have long

known that witness testimony becomes less accurate the more

those witnesses share details with one another.

The best case scenario in a mass sighting would be if

the witnesses were immediately separated and asked to write

down and illustrate their experience with

absolutely minimum contact with one another.

The less witnesses have talked to each other and the more

similar these accounts turn out to be, the more confident

we can feel about the story.

[narrator] By this measure, the Ariel School incident may

amount to a worst case scenario.

Bearing in mind the children spoke extensively among

themselves about what they had just seen.

However, even a more recent mass sighting by Naval

personnel in 2004, leaked a decade later,

reported by reliable witnesses and supported by evidence

recorded by government-owned technology has still been

subject to doubt and skepticism.

So with that in mind, why shouldn't we believe

the children of Harare?

The consistency of the testimonies of 62 children

has not wavered even years after the fact.

You can tell that some of these children were seriously

affected by this event.

What incentive would they have to keep a hoax going

for decades?

[narrator] Even though we don't have infrared footage from fighter

jets, the children's sketches still provide

compelling evidence.

[Brooks] The original drawings were remarkably similar,

and they bring back memories for those

who experienced the incident.

[narrator] Perhaps in cases where there is no physical evidence, it comes

down to the most human of traits,

belief and faith.

[McDonald] Every religion, every source of spirituality that has ever

existed on the earth to our known history has started

with something coming down from the sky and speaking

telepathically to the humans.

I don't understand why, in the 21st century, when we're

supposed to have forward thinking, that we can't be so

open-minded to understand that we are not the only

intelligent life.

What we have here is children who undoubtedly saw something

highly unusual in their experience.

The brain is a storytelling organ, and so it will take what

it thinks it knows, and it'll fill in

all the blanks.

There might be some prosaic explanations.

We really don't know.

[narrator] If there's one thing that unites skeptics and believers

alike, it's the fact that we don't know how much

we don't know.

And in cases like Ariel School, there is simply no way

of knowing what occurred.

The fact is, despite numerous investigations,

the Ariel School UFO sighting was never determined to

be a hoax.

[narrator] And Laurie believes Dr. John Mack

was onto something.

He believed that something was happening, and in fact,

something is happening and has been

from the beginning of time.

[narrator] If current investigations continue,

along with the collective political will for the truth of

such events to be established, then we may one day understand

what really landed in that Zimbabwean playground

back in 1994.

But for now, the Ariel School sighting file must remain open

pending further investigation.