All language subtitles for m.f.a.s02e01.1080p.web.h264-cbfm_track3_[eng]

NARRATOR: Drone footage
uncovers unexpected creatures

in turbid waters.

- What are these animals,
and what are they doing here?

NARRATOR:
Desert sands hide eerie ruins.

- This isn't part of the landscape.

This is something
that shouldn't be there.

NARRATOR: An unnerving image
emerges from a quiet forest.

- It certainly makes sense to be
suspicious of something so unusual.

NARRATOR: Satellites detect
a mysterious pattern

in a seemingly empty plain.

- It looks like a kind of
weird cipher or code.

NARRATOR: Everywhere
we look on our planet,

there's evidence of the past.

In nature... in buildings...
in relics.

Each holds a mystery
that technology now allows us

to see from above.

What new secrets are revealed?

- (monitor bleeps)

NARRATOR: For thousands of years,
humanity has explored and mapped

the farthest reaches of our planet.

From remote mountain peaks
to the deepest jungles,

discovering where
everything belongs.

But the world still hides
shocking secrets,

and the view from above
can reveal things

that seem completely out of place.

Deep in the heart of Colombia,
through miles of remote wilderness,

a winding river rises
from the jungle.

An oasis for hundreds
of different aquatic species.

- Rivers are the lifeblood
of these tropical environments.

And these rivers shape
the landscape.

They even create thousands of lakes,
a lot of which are formed

when the paths of the rivers change.

- These tropical rivers and lakes
are home not just to fish,

but also birds, snakes, reptiles,
amphibians, even mammals.

NARRATOR: In these waters, you can
expect to see pink river dolphins,

black caimans, and capybaras.

But in one lake, the view from
above reveals a baffling mystery.

Strange shapes emerge
from the water's surface.

DAN: You can see these rounded,
grey shapes

bobbing up and down in the water.

CYLITA: The way they move,
you can tell right away

that this is some type of animal.

What are these animals swimming
around in the river? Do they belong?

GEORGE: You can see what look like
bubbles rising to the surface.

To me, they look like manatees.

NARRATOR: But are there manatees
in this part of the world?

CYLITA: Colombia is home
to the Amazonian manatee,

also known as
the South American manatee,

and they live in freshwater
just like this lake.

So, it makes sense that that could
be what we're seeing here.

DAN: But there's a problem.

Amazonian manatees are
the smallest kind of manatee.

They're like two metres long.
They weigh maybe 300kg.

That's way smaller
than what we're seeing here.

- And these creatures
are really big.

GEORGE: These animals look
to be ten times heavier

than your average manatee
and easily two metres longer.

NARRATOR: So, what are
these enormous creatures?

- They could be, maybe, hippos?

DAN: Everybody knows
what a hippo is.

I mean, they're these big,
semi-aquatic creatures.

But what a lot of people don't know
is that the word "hippo"

actually means "horse".
"Potamy" is Greek for "river".

"Hippopotamus" is ancient
Greek for "river horse".

GEORGE:
Aside from elephants and rhinos,

the hippopotamus
is the largest land mammal.

CYLITA: They're massive herbivores
that can consume

more than 36 kilos of grass a day.

- But hippos are native
to Sub-Saharan Africa.

NARRATOR: They certainly
don't belong over 9,000km away

in the jungles of Colombia.

GEORGE: This doesn't make
any sense at all.

It would be like running
into a giraffe or an elephant

in Yellowstone National Park.

- What are these hippos doing so far
from their natural habitat?

- Could they maybe have escaped
from a local zoo?

NARRATOR: There may be a clue
over 11,000km away,

in Georgia's capital Tbilisi,

where a disaster prompts
a major escape.

GEORGE: In 2015,
hours of heavy rainfall

is raising water levels
to dangerous heights.

- And 20km outside the city,
a massive landslide

turns it into a disaster when
a million cubic metres of land,

mud and trees clog up
the Vere River.

CYLITA: All that water
has to go somewhere,

and the flash flood heads right
through the Tbilisi Zoo,

drowning enclosures
and damaging cages.

- Animals are fleeing
for their lives.

Their hippo, named Beggi, was soon
seen wandering the streets.

- The whole city was in chaos,
but a group of citizens worked

to safely recapture Beggi,
herding him to an area

where he could be safely hit
with a tranquiliser dart.

GEORGE: Is that what happened
here in Colombia?

Did a bunch of hippos actually
pull off The Great Escape?

NARRATOR: But there are two glaring
problems with that theory.

DAN: For one thing, the nearest
public zoo is in Medellin.

That's over 100km away.

I mean, even for good swimmers
that's a ridiculously long distance.

- Another tell-tale sign that these
animals didn't escape from a zoo

is just how many there are.

NARRATOR: In all, over 100 hippos
have been spotted in this area,

and far into the lush and marshy
Magdalena River basin,

ranging over 150km.

GEORGE: That's way too many of them
to have escaped from a zoo.

Unless, they've been here
for a long time.

- So, how did they get here?

NARRATOR: On the edge of the lake
with the out-of-place hippos

is a significant clue.

CYLITA: When you zoom out, you can
see that there are these signs

of human activity nearby.

You've got a pool and buildings.

GEORGE: This looks like some kind of
abandoned compound,

like a ranch or estate.
Who lived here?

And what does that have to do
with these rogue hippos?

TORRI: Who, in Colombia,

would have the money
to build something like this?

There's one person
who comes immediately to mind.

NARRATOR: This was once
the lavish mansion

of one of the most notorious
gangsters in the world.

Colombia's cocaine kingpin
Pablo Escobar.

- Colombia is the world's
largest cocaine producer.

Three-quarters of the world's annual
yield of cocaine is produced there.

TORRI: Throughout the 1970s,
Pablo Escobar made a fortune

by manufacturing and distributing
that drug around the world.

And, according to some,
he was worth around $25 billion.

- He was so rich and powerful
that he bought this massive ranch,

which he called Hacienda Nápoles.

NARRATOR: Hacienda Nápoles spanned
around 3,000 hectares of jungle,

roughly nine times the size
of New York's Central Park.

- The drug lord spared no expense
when it came to constructing

his private paradise, which included
an air strip, a soccer field,

a bullfighting ring,
and his very own private zoo

stocked with wild creatures
that he illegally imported

from around the world.

NARRATOR: Including four hippos,
three females and one male.

But why are so many more
roaming through

the Magdalena River basin now?

GEORGE: Some have been seen upriver,

over 150km away
from Pablo Escobar's mansion.

How did they get here?

NARRATOR: By the early 1990s,

Escobar was on the Colombian and
US governments' most wanted list.

- So, you've got this violent
drug lord that's on the run,

but on December 2 1993,

the Colombian Police
finally catch up to him.

They find him holed up in a house

in Colombia's second-largest city,
Medellin.

- They tried to arrest him,
but when he refused,

Escobar was shot and killed
in a fiery showdown.

- (Gunshot)

NARRATOR: Leaving behind
a menagerie of animals

back at his jungle estate.

DAN: When the authorities
went through Hacienda Nápoles,

they were faced
with this huge problem of,

'What do we do
with all these exotic animals?'

As much as possible, they shipped
them to various Colombian zoos.

NARRATOR:
But why are the hippos left behind?

- Because they were so large
and so difficult to move,

it was decided that they should
just be left in the pond,

where they'd already been living
for a dozen or so years.

GEORGE: The authorities figured that
without anyone to look after them,

the hippos would soon die off
and that would be that.

After all, that's what usually
happens when an animal is forced

to live on their own,
far from their natural habitat.

NARRATOR: So, if the Colombia hippos
are not where they should be,

why and how have they survived?

- How did they escape
from Pablo Escobar's compound?

NARRATOR: And what are
they doing to Colombia now?

- What the hell happened here?

DAN: How did they go from being part
of drug lord Pablo Escobar's

private zoo
on his Hacienda Nápoles estate,

to being spread all through
the Magdalena River basin?

NARRATOR: How did
these hippos defeat the odds

and thrive in the wilds of Colombia?

- They were released in 1993.
That's like three decades ago.

NARRATOR:
And, from the original four,

there's now around 100 hippos
in the Magdalena River basin.

TORRI:
But these guys didn't just survive,

they've thrived here, in a place
they never should have been.

NARRATOR: The question is, how?

- Well, for one thing,
the environmental conditions

are perfect for hippos.

The temperatures are basically
the same here

as they are in their native habitats
back in Africa.

And the swamps of Colombia

are a perfect habitat
for food and shelter.

NARRATOR: But it's mostly about
what isn't here.

- In Africa, crocodiles, hyenas,

and lions have been known
to eat hippo calves.

That's what keeps
their populations in check.

But, in Colombia, hippos have
no known natural predators.

Crocodile sightings are very rare,
and there are no lions or hyenas.

NARRATOR: As a result,
the rare opportunity to see

these exotic hippos up close
has helped boost the local economy.

GEORGE: Every year,
50,000 tourists come

to la Hacienda Nápoles
to see the hippos.

It's become big business.

NARRATOR:
But it's not all smooth sailing.

Now, instead of a cocaine drug lord,

it's the hippos
who are being hunted.

- (camera shutter clicks)
- But why?

- While they bring in much-needed
tourist dollars,

they're also
an ecological nightmare.

CYLITA: Through their movements
and feeding patterns,

these hippos are reshaping
the landscape around them,

and this could cause the extinction
of hundreds of local species.

NARRATOR: Not to mention
their danger to humans.

- Hippos are among the most
dangerous creatures on the planet.

Their powerful jaws
can snap a canoe in half.

GEORGE: I've travelled extensively
throughout Africa

and any time I'm near a river,

I'm more worried about the hippos
than I am about crocodiles.

Each year, hippos kill
about 500 people in Africa.

NARRATOR: Yet, these hippos
aren't being hunted down.

CYLITA: They're actually
being sedated and sterilised

to stop them from reproducing.

NARRATOR: A plan that isn't
exactly running like clockwork.

Like my grandmother always used
to say to me,

"It's very hard to castrate
a hippo."

The testes are hidden inside
the body,

and it's also extremely variable in
terms of where they are in the body.

So, you need to do surgery
to remove them.

NARRATOR: If scientists don't find
a solution soon,

the area faces
an environmental disaster.

Current predictions suggest
that the hippo population

in the Magdalena River basin
could swell

from a hundred individuals to
more than 5,000 by the year 2050.

- Every time the idea of culling
these creatures comes up,

there's such a massive public outcry

that some people think
it's unlikely that

that's ever going
to be allowed to happen.

It's an invasive, dangerous animal.

A cull makes sense
from a biological perspective,

especially from
a conservation perspective.

But public opinion just sometimes
doesn't match scientific reality.

- This is a very complicated problem
with no solution, so far.

NARRATOR: From above, the discovery
of creatures completely out of place

becomes a grim reminder
of the strict laws of nature.

- This is a great example
of how moving an animal

from one habitat to another
can have disastrous consequences.

- These hippos show us
how much of an impact

a species out of place
can really have.

- I think it reminds us

that every little step we make
can change the world.

NARRATOR: From lush rainforests
to ancient arid sands...

..the view from above uncovers

another puzzling
misplaced phenomenon.

On the other side of the world,
on the northern coastline

of the African nation of Namibia,

an eerie shape rises
from the majestic sand dunes

of the ancient Namib desert.

GEORGE: You've got
what looks like this huge crack

in the middle of this sea of sand.

- It's incredibly shocking to look
down at this ghostly image.

CYLITA: There's nothing around
and then you've got this...

thing staring back at you.

It's almost a little unnerving.

NARRATOR: Whatever it is, it's big.

At nearly 95 metres, it's longer
than the statue of liberty.

- You can sort of make out
three-dimensional details,

but this isn't part
of the landscape.

It's something that
shouldn't be there.

- I'm definitely seeing something
partially buried here.

KAREN: It's either in the process
of being revealed,

perhaps by desert winds,

or swallowed up by the sand
dunes surrounding it

for what appears to be miles
in all directions.

- What is it? And who
or what put it there?

NARRATOR: There shouldn't be
anything here except endless dunes.

So, what is this massive
object doing here?

Can the desert itself offer a clue?

CYLITA: The Namib gets less than
10mm of rain annually,

making it one of the driest places
on Earth,

and one of the most inhospitable.

- Because it's such a harsh place,
hardly any humans live here.

GEORGE: At first glance,

it almost looks like the surface
of some alien world.

NARRATOR: Scientists estimate that
the Namib dates back

as far as 80 million years,

making it the oldest desert
on the planet.

The desert has a notoriously
deadly stretch of shoreline

known as the Skeleton Coast...

..named for the whalebones
that litter its beaches.

SHEILA: Can these bones tell us
anything about how

and why this strange object
got here?

TORRI: Whales often beach themselves
when they swim into shallow water,

and when the tide goes back out,
they get stuck.

- Could this mysterious object have
suffered the same tragic fate

as the Skeleton Coast whales?

NARRATOR:
But this is clearly no whale.

GEORGE: When you move in closer,
you see that this is the skeletal

remains of a very large ship.

But what's a ship this big
doing this far inland?

- If this is a shipwreck, I mean,
why isn't it on the beach?

- It's hundreds of metres
from the water.

- Clearly this is something
that shouldn't be here.

- Where did this ship come from,
and how did it wind up here?

DAN: Maybe knowing more about it

can help us make sense
of what we're seeing here.

NARRATOR: Records reveal
the ship is the Eduard Bohlen,

an enormous 2,300-tonne cargo ship
that ran aground here

on September 5 1909.

But what was it doing along
this deadly coastline?

- Was there something special
that happened here back

in the early 20th century
that not only caused it to crash,

but also to wind up so far inland?

TORRI:
Waves will only push a ship so far.

So, what really happened here?

NARRATOR: A wider look from above
reveals that the Eduard Bohlen...

..is not alone.

- The Skeleton Coast is littered
with more than

just the bones of whales.

- How many other ships are scattered
on the Skeleton Coast?

- Records suggest
there are actually hundreds.

DAN: Some of these are
hundreds of metres inland.

How did they get there?

CYLITA: That's a lot of raw tonnage
to move that far inland.

Clearly, the average ocean waves
couldn't have pushed them there.

NARRATOR: But what about
a super-powered ocean wave?

Perhaps there's a clue
in the pacific ocean...

off the coast of Japan.

DAN: In 2011,
a magnitude 9.0 earthquake

set off these enormous
tsunami waves...

..that absolutely demolished
some of Japan's coastline,

bulldozing virtually
everything in their path,

including large ships like
the ones on the Skeleton Coast.

CYLITA:
After the floodwaters retreated,

many of these ships
were left stranded

hundreds of metres from the sea.

TORRI: Is that what happened
to the Eduard Bohlen?

Was it pushed into the Namib Desert

by the force of a devastating
earthquake and a massive tsunami?

NARRATOR: But there are no records
of a major earthquake in Namibia

around the time of the wreck...

..nor were there any reported floods
or tsunamis.

- It wasn't an earthquake
or tsunami, so what was it?

What could have possibly moved these
mega ships so far into the desert?

NARRATOR: What unseen power
could be behind

the largest ship graveyard
in the world?

- Whatever's behind this
must be incredibly powerful.

It's no wonder
that this place is legendary.

NARRATOR: The waters
of the Skeleton Coast are considered

some of the most dangerous
in the world.

Powerful desert winds cause
sandstorms that hide the coastline,

while strong ocean currents
create dense fog

and huge storms that make sailing
here a life-or-death risk.

- Portuguese sailors called
this place the "Gates of Hell."

GEORGE: Many a sailor lost his life
here after being swallowed up

by the thick ocean fog

and then battered to pieces
by the constant, heavy surf.

- But how could these shipwrecks
move from the coast?

NARRATOR: Perhaps a clue
can be found about 300km south

of the Eduard Bohlen, across
the unforgiving desert sands,

where a view from above reveals
another type of graveyard.

- What are these houses doing
in the middle of the desert?

- What is this place?
And where is everybody?

CYLITA: There's something haunting
about this place.

From above, you start to see
half-buried evidence

that this was more than just
a few buildings strung together.

- You can see what looks
like a power station.

Incredibly, these guys
were on the grid.

DAN: It also had a railway line.

Now, was that just
to transport people,

or where they transporting
something else?

NARRATOR: The answer is rooted
in a dark colonial history

and the search for African diamonds.

And the abandoned houses
themselves reveal a clue.

- These were built just like
old German houses.

NARRATOR: But what are German houses
doing here in the African desert?

KAREN: In the 1880s,
Germany began to claim

parts of what is now Namibia

in the hopes of controlling
its valuable mineral deposits.

TORRI:
It was a gruesome time in history,

with Germany enacting the first
genocide of the 20th century

against the Herero and Nama peoples.

- By the early 20th century, this
whole area was under German rule.

NARRATOR: And soon a major discovery
uncovers the wealth

the Germans were hoping for.

TORRI: When Namibian worker
Zacharias Lewala discovered

the first diamonds in these desert
sands on April 14 1908,

he reported this to his German boss,
and the diamond rush began.

NARRATOR:
And this small village, Kolmanskop,

was built around
the new diamond mine.

KAREN: Soon,
Germany controlled around 30%

of the world's diamond supply,
which helped feed the growing market

for diamond engagement rings
in the US.

TORRI: With the violence and abuse
of the Indigenous workers

they brought in to mine the gems,
combined with the genocide,

they really were all blood diamonds.

KAREN: It's a sobering bit
of history to correct the so-called

"long tradition" of a diamond
representing love and care.

NARRATOR: But how is the Eduard
Bohlen connected

to this deadly mining boom?

- According to shipping records,
it was a German ship that

wrecked here en route to deliver
supplies to the diamond miners.

- But that still doesn't explain
how the ship and others like it

end up so far inland
away from the open water.

- Is there anything about Kolmanskop
turning into a ghost town

that can help us understand what
happened to these marooned ships?

- What made everybody leave
this once thriving mining town?

GEORGE: Was it because
the diamonds dried up,

or was it something else?

NARRATOR:
Could the answer lie hidden

inside these abandoned houses?

- This is eerie. It's an entire
house totally filled with sand.

- The sand has taken over
everything.

- House after house has been
reclaimed by the desert.

- It's like this entire town was
just swallowed up by the dunes.

KAREN:
When the diamonds disappeared,

the people soon followed, and
then the town itself began to fade

because of the geological forces
of the desert

that dominate the Skeleton Coast.

NARRATOR:
But how do those forces create

the world's largest ship graveyard
in an ancient desert?

- There's a reason the Bushmen
of the Namibian interior

called this place
the Land That God Made In Anger.

NARRATOR: And it all starts
some 600km south

at Namibia's border
with the longest river

in South Africa, the Orange River.

DAN: For millions of years,
sediment from the Orange River

has been flushed out
into the Atlantic Ocean

and then taken northward
up the Skeleton Coast

by one of the strongest currents
in the world, the Benguela.

CYLITA: There, the sediments
accumulate along the shore

and the constant force of the wind
pushes the sand out into the ocean,

forever expanding
the Namib Desert westward.

NARRATOR: As seen from above,
using satellite imaging,

the shipwrecks that
were once along the shore have,

over time, become part of the desert
as it creeps ever westward.

TORRI: These waves of sand
have replaced the ocean water

that once lapped at
the Eduard Bohlen's rusting remains.

CYLITA: This is the same process
that turned the mining village

of Kolmanskop into a ghost town.

GEORGE: This is the complete
opposite of what you would expect,

which is that the shoreline erodes

and the ocean moves
incrementally inland each year.

CYLITA: Instead,
it's the land itself,

the desert sands
that are overtaking the shoreline

and moving into the ocean.

DAN: The Eduard Bohlen
and the other ships

crashed on the shoreline
and never moved.

It's the shoreline that moved.

GEORGE: In a hundred years,

who knows how far inland
these ships will be.

Maybe a couple of kilometres?
Maybe more?

TORRI: It's incredible to me that,
from the shoreline,

you might assume that there's
nothing out there except sand.

- But when you get up in the air,
you uncover this amazing piece of

natural history, a real testament
to the incredible powers of nature.

NARRATOR:
From a desolate coastal desert

to the edges
of a bustling American city,

a view from above uncovers yet
another baffling misplaced enigma.

Across the South Atlantic
to the North Pacific,

just 30 km west of Portland, Oregon,

past the busy streets
of Downtown Hillsboro

and the patchwork of farm fields
and vineyards,

something extraordinary
is revealed from the air.

TORRI: You can immediately see
a familiar white shape

that stands out against
the green trees.

ROMA: This is such a strange image.

I've got so many questions
when I look at this.

NARRATOR:
This is forest and farmland,

there shouldn't be anything here
except mature fir trees

and orderly lines of crops.

GUY: What we're looking at here
is clearly an aeroplane,

but you've gotta ask, why is there
this massive aeroplane

in this kind of thick clump
of forest?

GEORGE: This is the last place
you'd expect to find an aircraft.

How did this plane get here?
Did it crash?

Did someone put it here?
Where did this plane come from?

- Does anyone even know
that it's here?

NARRATOR: What if the answer
is that it isn't there at all?

- Are we looking at some
kind of trick of light

or an optical illusion?

NARRATOR: Is it possible we're being
fooled by our trusted technology?

What will the view
from above reveal?

GEORGE:
It definitely doesn't belong,

and it certainly makes sense to be
suspicious of something so unusual.

NARRATOR: But it's not the only
mystery plane seen on satellite.

A shocking discovery is made
7,400km away,

off the rugged coast of Scotland.

- While browsing Google Earth,
a man in the UK spotted

what looked like a submerged plane,
just off the coast of Edinburgh.

- Like our plane in Oregon,
there was no evidence

or report of a plane crash.

GUY: Edinburgh is
a large metropolitan city.

It's got over half a million
people living there

and millions of people
visiting every year.

So, it seems completely
inconceivable that all those people

would've missed this large
commercial airliner

falling right there into the sea.

NARRATOR:
That's because it never did.

But how did the satellite produce
such a shocking image?

ROMA: To create the hyper-real
images of our planet,

Google Earth combines millions
of overlapping satellite

and aerial photos
to create one continuous image.

- It's a process called
compositing and mosaicking.

- But sometimes there's a glitch
in the way these photos

get stitched together, and that
creates these phantom images

of things that aren't really there.

TORRI: And that's the case
here in Scotland.

The satellite image of that plane
flying somewhere

in some nearby airspace
was mistakenly overlapped

with those
of this Scottish coastline.

NARRATOR: Could the plane in Oregon
also be the result

of a glitch in Google Earth
technology?

GUY: The problem with this theory is
that, unlike the plane in Scotland,

this one in Oregon
has also been captured

by dozens of different drones.

So, you can't just say, "Ah, it's
a glitch in satellite transmission."

That doesn't make sense at all.

- So, how did this end up here?

GUY: There could be some kind of
somewhat sinister story behind it.

NARRATOR: One clue might lie
with other abandoned planes,

left behind in a race from the law.

TORRI: Obviously, planes are used
all the time to smuggle drugs

back and forth into the US.

But was this plane on
a narcotics run gone wrong?

NARRATOR: Another mystery emerges
in the jungles of Guatemala,

close to the Mexican border,
that may offer a hint.

TORRI: Hidden in
this lush nature reserve,

are signs of a dangerous business.

GEORGE: Over the course of 2019,
security forces found not one,

but a whopping 50 aircraft
abandoned throughout the country.

DAN: But what are all these
aircraft doing here?

I mean, these planes can cost
thousands, even millions of dollars.

Why would they just be left behind
in the middle of nowhere?

NARRATOR: The view from above
reveals clandestine runways

and mysterious planes sprinkled
throughout the forest,

but what are they hiding from?

TORRI: This region is a major
thoroughfare for the cocaine trade,

and these abandoned aircraft are
part of the illicit narcotics trade.

- These planes are left behind
if the military

or a rival drug gang
is closing in.

- Is it possible that
this mysterious plane in Oregon

is part of the same
criminal industry?

NARRATOR: Could this aircraft be
part of a similar operation?

- When we look down from above,
we can't see any sign

of an airstrip like
the one in Guatemala.

ROMA: Plus, where this plane is
sitting is much too crowded by trees

to be part of a planned
landing site.

NARRATOR: A closer look at the
aircraft reveals it's nothing like

the ones used in Guatemala.

DAN: This isn't some private
aircraft like a Cessna.

This looks like a full-on
commercial aeroplane.

GUY: When you get a closer look,
you can actually see the lettering.

This is a Boeing 727.

It's without doubt
one of the most successful

commercial aircraft ever made.

- The first Boeing 727
was produced in 1962

and soon became the gold standard

for mass passenger transportation.

NARRATOR: But what is
this aviation legend doing

in the forests of rural Oregon?

GUY: Clearly,
this huge commercial aircraft

isn't supposed to be here,
not in the middle of a wood.

So, it makes you wonder,
was it forced

to make some kind of
emergency landing?

GEORGE: Unfortunately,
these things do happen.

In the last decade,
it's been reported that,

in North America alone,
as many as 2,000 commercial flights

were forced to make
sudden unplanned landings.

NARRATOR: One of the most famous
and dramatic of these

took place on
the other side of the country,

in New York on January 15 2009.

- After taking off
from LaGuardia Airport,

US Airways flight 1549 flew
into a large flock of Canadian geese

and lost all engine power.

DAN: With 155 people on board
including crew,

Captain Chesley Sullenberger made

an incredibly brave
and daring decision.

- He decided to land
in the Hudson River,

right off midtown Manhattan.

- The water was six-degrees Celsius,

and the Coast Guard rescuers
immediately lept into action

to get everyone out of the water.

- The move worked beautifully,
and 155 lives were saved.

- I think it was a miracle, and I'm
very blessed to walk away from it.

- It makes sense to wonder
if this plane in Oregon

is the result
of another air incident.

NARRATOR: But a view from above
is missing the tell-tale signs

of an emergency landing.

ROMA: This is a massive aircraft.

The sheer force
of an emergency landing

would've simply torn up
the landscape.

GUY: And yet,
we can see that these trees

have been completely untouched.

It would be like driving your car
at full speed

into a China shop
and yet not breaking a single plate.

It would be a miracle.

TORRI: Plus, there's no report
or eyewitness account

of a plane crash in this area, ever.

- The bottom line is, we know
it's there, we just don't know why.

GEORGE: How does a Boeing 727 end up
in the middle of the woods?

Someone must have put it there,
but for what reason?

TORRI: The model of the plane
gives us a clue,

because the last commercial flight
for the Boeing 727 was in 2019.

So, this plane must be
in private hands.

So, is it possible that
it's just being stored here?

DAN: When airplanes get removed
from service permanently,

you can't just park them
at a gate at the airport,

and you can't just
throw them in a local dump.

They need a special place.

NARRATOR: Once decommissioned,
most commercial airliners

are stored in safe,
secluded areas known as boneyards.

- The largest boneyard
in the world

is at the Davis-Monthan Air
Force Base in Tucson, Arizona.

And it's basically
this enormous graveyard

for the world's biggest collection
of military aircraft.

NARRATOR: Which raises
a crucial question

when it comes to the plane
in Oregon.

- If this is a boneyard,
why is there only one plane in it?

Why would anyone go to the trouble
of storing an out-of-service plane

somewhere that's so inaccessible?

NARRATOR: Why was it placed here?

- You have to ask yourself:
could it serve a purpose being here?

- And, if so, for whom?
Who put it there?

NARRATOR: A peek inside
reveals the truth.

- It looks like someone
actually lives here.

NARRATOR: It's the home of retired
electrical engineer Bruce Campbell.

- I'm really jealous
of the guy who owns this.

I want a Boeing jetliner
on my lawn at home to live in.

- But how in the world did he ever
get this giant plane here

in the first place?

Roma: You can't exactly drive
a Boeing through a forest.

With a project like this,
when you just can't fly the plane

to its destination, there is
only one thing you can do.

You have to take it in pieces.

NARRATOR: Before being transported,

the wings of the Boeing needed
to be detached.

Once in the woods, it was
then carefully reconstructed

and steadied on top
of support beams.

But can this recycled airliner offer
ecological solutions for the future?

- Commercial aircraft
are being decommissioned

and reduced to scrap
at a rate of three a day.

Dan: That's a lot of waste,
and a good proportion of it

can't be recycled, so maybe
this should be more of a thing.

Why not turn more decommissioned
airplanes into homes?

ROMA: These amazing pieces
of engineering

can have a life way beyond
their original design.

- I mean, I'd like to live there.
I think that's pretty cool.

NARRATOR: What was once
a mystery from the air

is now revealed as
a possible ecological solution

for future housing.

NARRATOR:
From pine forests to arid deserts,

the view from above
reveals strange objects

that look completely out of place.

Gen Z web sleuths
examining Google Earth

discover something incredible
in the deserts of Nevada...

..and the shocking video goes viral.

Guy: What we're looking at here
is a truly bizarre pattern

of all these kind of
rectangular shapes.

TORRI: It definitely doesn't look
like it's supposed to be there.

It just looks too symmetrical
and organised

to be something formed by nature.

GEORGE: So,
someone must have built it,

but who, and why?

NARRATOR: This is sitting
in the middle of a dry lake bed.

It's the type of place
where nothing even grows.

There simply shouldn't
be anything here.

The bizarre symbol is clearly
out of place, but what is it?

Some online commenters immediately
notice familiar shapes

in the strange figure.

But one stands out.

Could this be a massive
machine-readable image

known as a QR code?

GUY: These codes are used
to translate information

to digital devices
such as mobile phones.

So, if this is one of these QR
codes, what message is it sending?

And actually,
who is the intended receiver?

- You'd have to be thousands of feet
up in the air to even see it.

NARRATOR: But what if we get closer?

- It's clear that someone
has created

this really strange arrangement

of what looks like
shipping containers.

SHEILA: When you see shipping
containers, you immediately think,

of course, shipping.

And these things are everywhere.

There are literally millions
of them all around the world.

- But when we look around
this site from above,

something crucial is missing.

Ships.

NARRATOR: The nearest rail line
is over 20km away,

and there's a mountain in between.

And the closest port
is even further,

more than 400km away.

GEORGE: Without a port
or a rail line for transportation,

these containers
aren't going anywhere.

So, how did they get here
in the first place, and why?

NARRATOR: Other strangely organised
shipping containers

over 8,000km away in Copenhagen,
Denmark, may be a clue.

TORRI: From above, you can see that

these are definitely
shipping containers,

but they're not being used
for cargo.

SHEILA: Humans are great
at coming up with new uses

for things to meet a pressing need,

and one unconventional use of
containers like these is housing.

GEORGE: It's kind of a genius idea.

These things are made
of weather-resistant steel,

so they're pretty tough.

TORRI: And they can be
far more cost-effective

than building
from traditional materials.

I mean, it's no surprise that
there are so many of these homes

popping up around the world.

NARRATOR: So,
could this be the explanation

for the containers
in the Nevada desert?

SHEILA: I know that more and
more people are building homes

out of shipping containers, but not
in the way that these are arranged.

It's such a strange pattern.

GEORGE:
And there's nothing else around.

And I don't see any cars
or paved roads around here.

If this is some kind of
a housing complex,

it's in a really inconvenient place.

GUY: There's no sign of life at all.

There are no people,
there are no animals.

And you've gotta ask, who would
wanna live in a place like this?

NARRATOR: But only 34km away
from the code...

..another pattern
on the desert floor

hints at a hidden past
that may be connected.

GUY: This kind of looks like a grid

of a town that's in the middle
of being built.

NARRATOR: This is Dixie Valley.

Records suggest it was once
the location of a small,

thriving ranching town
founded in the 1800s.

GEORGE: Looking around today,
it's in ruins.

Some of these buildings look like
they've been flattened.

- Where did everybody go?
What the hell happened here?

NARRATOR: Perhaps a clue
is hiding under the ground.

GUY: Nevada is the third most
seismically active state

in the United States, so it makes
sense to wonder if some kind of

natural disaster took this town out.

GEORGE: State documents indicate
that back in 1954,

this whole area was rocked
by a series of earthquakes

measuring between 6.6 and 7.1
on the Richter scale.

Was that the reason
these people fled?

NARRATOR: But records show, ranches
in the Dixie Valley were active

as late as the mid-1990s.

SHEILA: So, what drove
these people away?

Was it a lack of water?
A massive drought?

- Maybe the environment was just
too harsh and the people just left.

GUY: But when you scan south,
you can see

there's actually plenty
of water in this area.

In fact, this is an endorheic basin.

That means it has
plentiful groundwater.

NARRATOR: So, why would the ranchers
of Dixie Valley abandon their homes?

- What happened to Dixie Valley?

And what does it have to do with the
strange shape in the nearby desert?

NARRATOR: From above,
a wider search of the surroundings

reveals a crucial clue:
an area covered in massive holes.

- About four kilometres to the east,
we see an area of ground

riddled with what looks like blast
marks and scorched earth.

- Was this place blasted
from the air?

GUY: There are hundreds
of craters here.

So, what we're looking at is
a lot of firepower,

but what on Earth has actually
unleashed all this destruction?

If we look closely,
there are clues nearby.

NARRATOR: Zooming out further afield
reveals more objects

completely out of place.

- There's a tank and what look
like air control towers.

- What is this place?

GUY: It strikes me that whenever
you see weird structures

or buildings in strange places,
the culprit is often the military.

NARRATOR: This is the Fallon Range
Training Complex,

a US Military facility spanning over
12,000 square nautical miles

of airspace and 200,000 acres
of navy-controlled land.

- That's an enormous area.
Even bigger than New York City.

- But how does this strange pattern
of metal containers fit in?

Are they for storing ammunition
or other supplies?

- It looks more like they've placed
them here for training purposes.

The arrangement of these could be
used to mimic real life urban

or industrial environments.

GUY: Military sites like these
are used to train

for something called MOUTs,

military operations on
urbanised terrain.

Now it's in a MOUT
that a soldier can prepare

for an on-ground situation
where he's facing down enemies

in a civilian environment,
like a city or a small town.

- But that doesn't explain the blast
marks on the ground nearby.

NARRATOR: The mysterious pattern
is part of a much bigger story.

This isn't any old
military compound.

The Fallon Range Training Complex
is designed to train

the very best jet pilots
in the country.

This is the home of Top Gun.

- Millions of people
around the world saw

those two Top Gun movies
with Tom Cruise in them.

But very few know that those movies
were actually based on a real place.

This place here,
the Naval Air Station Fallon.

NARRATOR:
Originally located in California,

the Top Gun training complex
was moved to Nevada

back in the mid '90s...

..exactly when Dixie Valley
became a ghost town.

SHEILA:
That explains the disappearance

of all the Dixie Valley ranches.

The town and area was bought
in the mid '90s

by the US government to build
this training complex.

GEORGE: Nowadays, the valley doesn't
only have ruined old ranch homes,

but old military equipment, like
tanks for on the ground training,

just like the shipping
container site.

NARRATOR: And the most advanced
military aircraft in the world fly

in the airspace above.

GUY: I find it incredible, actually,
that when you look at this

from high up, you might think
that it's just...

just some bizarre pattern,
but actually, it's very deliberate.

NARRATOR: So, how does
the so-called Nevada QR code

fit into the Top Gun
training programme?

- These world-class pilots practise
with live ammunition

over the bomb targets nearby.

- But ground operations
are important, too,

even for fighter pilots. Here, they
can practise crucial air support

for ground missions,
acting as a friendly lookout,

and hitting targets
with safer 'dud' ammo.

TORRI: You can imagine a team on the
ground with the best fighter pilots

in the world flying overhead taking
out nearby targets with precision.

It would give you
a lot of confidence

having them watching over you.

GUY: These metal containers are
also used as calibration targets

for things like spy planes
and satellites.

GEORGE: The irregular and random
shapes of the fake buildings

allow pilots to focus
their aircraft-mounted cameras

on a specific target to test
their resolutions

and allow them to take
clearer pictures at high speeds.

GUY: The technology,
it's changed over the years,

but the goal
has always been the same:

produce the best pilots
in the world.

NARRATOR: And it leaves us
to discover unexpected sights

only truly visible from above.

GEORGE:
There are so many strange objects

strewn across our planet
that can be quite baffling

because they just
don't belong in that environment.

DAN: And, sometimes, the only way
to solve those mysteries

is to see them from a fresh
perspective...

from above.

Subtitles by Sky Access Services