All language subtitles for Alien.Files.Reopened.S01E07.1080p.WEB.h264-FREQUENCY_track3_[eng]

[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.