The Global Threat (Full Episode) | UFOs: Investigating the Unknown

air 1628 heavy Anchorage good afternoon Squad 1550 go ahead uh have a traffic in front of us 168 it's 1986 over Alaska Japan Airlines encountered something truly inexplicable in the night sky these guys were flying from Paris to Tokyo they notice a very bright light and it's following them 162 if you're able to identify the type of aircraft and see if you can tell whether it's military or civilian we cannot identify but very deat the pilot kenu tarach had described it as being several times larger than his airplane and his airplane had an elevator in

it it was huge and Captain Vero was open about the fact that he was afraid during this event but the Japanese Airline incident was hardly unique we just had something go right over the top of us it's a definite UFO or something like that incident like this were much more widespread than anybody realized I have no idea what that is it just right over me the L is unbelievable like UFO UFOs definitely represented an aviation safety hazard there were many cases documented that showed that and yet the government didn't seem to care in tonight Special

Report Mary Murphy finds that while the US government has closed its eyes on the matter the public hasn't stopped seeing or believe it the US government closed its formal study of UFOs in late 1969 the cases that required investigation none of that went away and so people stepped in to fill that void youf reporting C we got a call he saw five distinct lights in a triangular pattern thankfully these events were recorded by civilian researchers that showed that the phenomenon was continuing and it was extensive that it was wide spread I mean look what these

people are saying look what they've documented this is real and it's a safety hazard we get reports every night I don't know what the hell it is looks like they rotating light around it I'd like to report a UFO [Music] euphology today is in the state I would say that say chemistry was when chemistry was Alchemy a mixture of superstition wild ideas unproved claims and yet out of that whole mess finally the very first class science of chemistry evolved what we need in ethology is to make it professional Jen heinik was a great advocate for

civilians to be researching UFOs he felt that the subject deserves scientific scrutiny Dr hein's been studying UFOs for 30 years his files contain unexplained sightings from 140 countries after heik died in 1986 his work was carried on by a handful of National UFO research groups even though the government wasn't paying attention the civilians were pH rogo of greenish Connecticut has recorded more than 300 hours of conversations with people who reported UFO sightings Larry Foxon a police officer in centry Connecticut he helped establish citizens against UFO secrecy UFO rep Center I have never been a believer

of UFOs in my entire life and I just seen at minimum of 9 this morning with my own eyes and I mean I a Believer my goal in writing about UFOs has been mainly to bring information forward to the public but beyond that it's to motivate the official world to pay attention once I realized that there was enough data to show that these things are real and the possibility that there are other civilizations visiting us here I was just hooked and I realized that I needed information that could be verified and documented and cases that

were irrefutable I turned to the most credible civilian researchers because they were the ones doing the work the National Aviation Reporting Center on anomalous phenomena Nar cap was founded by Dr Richard Haynes who is a former Chief scientist for NASA hey dick can you hear me I sure can sir sure it's good to see you what is your reflection on you know looking back at Nar cap like why you started it well I'd spent quite a number of years as a hobby of studying this phenomena and I finally came to the understanding that euphology the

study of UFOs or APS these days is not going to progress until there's some practical benefit from it and so I came up with this idea let's look at Aviation safety the FAA did not want to receive any reports from any of their personnel about UFO events it was actually written in their manual that if anyone saw a UFO they were to report it to a civilian group Nar cap is a report Reporting Center for pilots and air traffic controllers who would like to make a report of their sightings in a completely confidential manner we

are looking carefully at events that are happening in our skies all the time where flight safety could be impacted our objective is to make flying safer the work I did with Nar cap and really getting familiar with the aviation safety hazards I became more focused on that as an important component of this whole issue the second story that I ever published on UFOs in 2001 was based on 100 page report that narccap produced there were cases where the pilot would have to make a very fast turn or you have to dive to avoid hitting a

UFO cases where passengers were actually injured by Maneuvers the airplane had to make if you have commercial pilots that are somehow in danger I just thought as a journalist this is really important I mean how could the aviation World ignore this one of the most fascinating cases in the report was the Japan Airlines case 1986 1628 I'm picking up a uh a hit on the radar approximately 5 miles in trail your 6:00 position what was really compelling about this case is that you have the radar data and then you got the testimony of the pilot

talking to Ground Control you still have visual contact same same there are these amazing tapes in Richard haynes's Archive of calls he made and the the pilots will give him detailed accounts of what they saw one of the recordings was with Captain Tachi from the Japan Airlines case how long did it take to move from the 12:00 position [Music] as there approaching Anchorage they again radio the FAA and they had the plane do a couple of turns to see if the object continues to follow it request you to make a right turn 3 3 traff

Captain truchi was very surprised to realize that the object was still beside him throughout that turn how is it able to do that why would it do that the phenomenon acts with a what I would call curiosity to me that's that's intelligence it raises some fundamental questions about the nature of the phenomenon would it constitute a threat to flight safety and the answer is clearly yes the Japan Airlines event was fairly lengthy as UFO sightings go they watched it for perhaps a half hour or more it moved in different positions around the aircraft eventually as

they descended and approached the airport it disappeared but the real import of the case is what happens after the sighting captain tarachi spoke to the American Press about this event and Japan Airlines took him off the job for like a year it just shows that professional Pilots cannot report an actual event that happened that might even be a hazard to their aircraft without facing repercussions now on the phone with us from Anchorage is Paul stuki who's public affairs officer for the FAA in the Alaska region what Paul does the FAA say this is well we've

got some possible evidence of confirmation but it is not real strong and the military is is totally unable to confirm whether this object was real by its radar and neither are we actually publicly the FAA said that the object on radar was an unexplained split image of the Japanese 747 and not a separate object but there was more going on with this case than what the FAA had to say publicly when John alahan who was the head of accidents and investigations at FAA First heard about this event he ordered that all the data be sent

to him immediately on this case I said to the software people I want a briefing in the Next Room I want to see on a chart uh every place where the uh Japanese guy was and I want to see all the targets around them I uh watched on radar I took a videotape of it and the next day came back to Washington headquarters this is where at first starts starts at 19 after the hour you see that little dot that's the UFO he studied all this data and then according to Callahan he was called to

a meeting at the Washington headquarters that meeting involved a team of representatives from the White House it included CIA Representatives that's strange these things are not typically investigated by the FBI not the CIA I play the tapes for them I show them all the paperwork we got I give them the whole tale and they were all excited about it so I'm standing next to this uh this little guy and he says uh okay we we're never here we're confiscating all this data and you're all sworn to secrecy so I said what do you think it

is I'm still thinking it's the stealth bomber he says well it's a UFO so the US government doesn't take UFOs seriously and yet they do this so what's going on here of course we don't know because they disappeared into the black MW of the government my story about pilot encounters with UFOs got a lot of play and it was picked up all across the country but the culture as a whole didn't really take UFO seriously it was still considered Fringe and I I felt kind of determined to fight that have you ever wondered why there

wasn't more coverage in the mainstream media about the subject of UFOs we are very pleased today to have an investigative journalist who has pushed through that barrier Leslie Kan thank you so much for joining when I started out reporting on UFOs I mean I felt like I was risking my career as a journalist I did feel that way I was sort of an anomaly I mean there was nobody doing this in the main stream I was really nervous about being ridiculed because the attitudes of people were mainly that it was a joke if I would

go to a party and people said what do you do I would have to say well I'm a journalist and then I the next question was always well what do you write about and I was dreading that question I did not want to have to say what I wrote about it was embarrassing but the fact that there was so much opposition to it the fact that it was ridiculed actually kind of fueled my fire and I felt so clear that there was something to it that I just was willing to take that risk and then

I realized that there were others who are out there researching this taking it out of The Fringe who took it upon themselves to do what the government wasn't doing which was to investigate cases your new documentary James I know what I saw assembles accounts from various UFO Witnesses from around the world what do you believe James I believe that there are structured craft of Unknown Origin whizzing around in our airspace whose flight characteristics are so beyond anything we've had my name is James Fox I have been working on UFO films for coming up on my

third decade I was never out to prove that ET has landed my primary objective is to say there is some really compelling evidence that needs further investigation I stuck with it despite the level of ridicule for decades because I had gone to locations I'd met with the witnesses I'd looked up the documents from government files because I wanted to create a body of evidence that I could present to mainstream and say look there's something to it over the years James Fox and I had a kind of Cooperative relationship and we shared a frustration about the

lack of government investigation the lack of transparency this sort of Blas attitude that it didn't matter James had experienced this frustration for a long time in so many cases that he investigated one of them being the Phoenix Lights of 1997 we're visiting with James Fox filmmaker in in town uh doing research on the uh the UFOs and interviews what makes the Phoenix Lights UFO case so compelling is the sheer volume of eyewitness testimony hundreds of witnesses saw something Gliding Over the State of Arizona for over an hour and a half it was Thursday night March

13th 1997 nice calm evening about 8:30 my daughter Monica came running in the house and said you've got to come outside as I closed both windows and I looked to the north I saw a large black craft coming right towards us and I told my wife that time that I said that son of a is a mile long I was working on a film of the time on UFOs and so I saw the progression of this whole story unfold it barely missed that mountain really yeah came floating over the mountain the witnesses described this Boomerang

shaped object that was over a mile across from wing tip to wing tip it's coming across the sky and as it's moving it's blocking and unblocking the stars there is actually a shape we were just in awe of it I mean no fear or anything just kind of like oh this is the coolest thing I've ever seen I thought I was going to pass out because I stopped breathing I was so enthralled in looking at this thing the Phoenix Lights event of March is being talked about now all over the world the buzz is very

big in the desert Southwest after some weird happenings in the Skies over Phoenix recently the objects in the sky over Arizona were probably seen by more witnesses than any other single UFO event in American history so many people wanted answers that the governor had to respond the governor had said he was going to provide answers for people they built up this hope and expectation there's been an investigation and we're going to get something here I believe it a serious offense for anyone human space alien or otherwise to engage in mysterious activity in our nighttime Skies

that is why I will personally ask that the perpetrator be prosecuted to the fullest for the Havoc wrought on our entire Community don't get him too close to me please you know this just goes to show that you guys are entirely too serious he had one of his AIDS dressed up in an alien suit and he made a mockery of the whole thing and I was in touch with the witnesses and they were just furious thank you thank you that case is I think pretty pretty much representative of how the US government treats the phenomenon

even this Mass sighting which involved hundreds of witnesses and lots of concern in the state of Arizona even that was not enough to get government involvement and to get government [Music] accountability the lack of transparency within the American government on this topic was so frustrating but James and I have both discovered that there are other countries that really take this seriously as a filmmaker I was able to have a level of participation from foreign governments and military personnel that I didn't see in the United States James and I went to France together to the headquarters

of the French agency that studies UFOs situated within the equivalent of NASA in France in the space studies Center France sees it as a scientific problem they had access to Specialists from all over the country who would contribute to investigation so if they needed a weather Specialist or a soil expert psychologists who would interview the witnesses all these different areas of expertise that all have a role to play in an investigation I meet with military people in China and in Russia and in Africa and Australia and South America there were similar things happening all around

the world there were there was a very compelling incident that happened in tan Iran in 1976 that involved the pilot trying to shoot down a UFO the Pilot's name was parvis Jafari and he described this whole cat and mouse thing with this object he said it could literally go from this point in the sky to this point in the sky in the blink of an eye and he said that was Miles I was looking here at about 70 Mi out and he jumps all of a sudden 10° to my right I was wondering what is

it at one point I think he felt threatened and decided to shoot it that turned out to be not such a good idea his whole control panel froze up he was thinking he might have to eject from the airplane then that thing went away I our radio uh became operative again Jafari made a very important contribution by speaking out about this and in Iran none of it was Kept Secret it was a big event in that country countries in South America also took reports from Pilots a lot more seriously the Government of Chile sees it

as mainly an aviation issue Costa Rica also does not keep things secret they had what I think maybe the best photograph of a UFO ever released that was taken by a govern government mapping plane that photograph was made public it was studied by scientists we don't know what our government actually possesses in terms of photographs or videos because they've been kept classified in America UFOs became really prevalent during the Cold War and during the Cold War we did not want to disclose anything so that's sort of when we got on the groove of keeping it

secret it just sort of became ingrained in our system to see this as a national security issue which therefore needs to be classified some of these other governments they look at it as an aviation safety problem perhaps or a scientific problem to me this is the way things should be done after returning from these explorations of other countries I brought that information to a very important government Insider who I had met in 2001 who was all about government transparency John podesta was President Clinton's chief of staff and under Clinton he was partly responsible for the

release of many many documents through the Freedom of Information Act it's been really great I appreciate your I came into this really as an advocate of open government more than I had thought a lot about UFOs or uaps they were a curiosity for me really but the two interests kind of married in 2001 when I met Lesley Kaine uh I think it's time to open the books on the question question of of government investigations of of UFOs it's time to find out what what the truth really is that's out there I think there has been

fear that if the government ever tip their hand to say well we have some phenomena and we don't know what it is the public would just freak out and I think quite the contrary I think the the public can handle the truth I wonder if you'd like to see a photograph I would go to these countries and then I I put together information about how these agencies worked into a dosier and I gave it to John podesta you know until the United States government joins and has their own official agency like the French like the

British like the people in Chile people in Peru it kind of holds back the whole world in that dossier were two letters to John podesta specifically to him one written by the head of the Chilean government agency studying UFOs and one written by the head of the French agency explaining why they felt it was absolutely crucial that the United States be involved if we're going to make any progress with this I think it's important for investigative journalists like Les K to keep pressing for answers so I put my credibility on the line and I supported

her efforts to open the space for politicians to say it may be a question of National Security it is a question of Aviation safety it seemed like what we really needed was was some kind of major UFO event a major case with lots of data with great witnesses that would Galvanize the country that would be in the media and that would force government involvement hey hey did you see a flying disc out by [Music] C7 November 7th 201 and six something happened over O'Hare Airport an event that once again suggests a problem with Aviation safety

this time over one of the country's busiest airports you had workers on the tarmac and the pilots when these guys look up at around 1,000 ft they see a disc shaped object above them some of our pilots on the ground were reporting a UFO at 1,000 ft you don't believe this was possibly your imagination it was definitely not my imagination Joe is a mechanic for United Airlines while taxiing a jumbo jet to the hanger he and another mechanic noticed an object up in the sky sitting above the terminal complex it had a metallic grayish appearance

to it it appeared to be 30 to 40 ft in diameter it's not moving at all I mean there's no motion this goes on for a few minutes until suddenly the object just goes straight up and in doing so Burns a hole through the clouds there there was a disc out there flying around there was a what a disc a disc like a frisbe like a UFO type thing my name is John hovic I was Transportation reporter at Chicago Tribune for roughly 18 years a few days after the alleged citing I got a phone call

from an official with the National UFO Reporting Center I think he assumed that I had heard about this and he wanted to know was I working on a story I covered Transportation uh UFO was not part of the beat at all so you know I had my healthy reporters skepticism about this but this is highly restricted airspace you don't want something up there that doesn't belong there so I took that information and contacted the FAA and United Airlines and they both denied any knowledge of this alleged sighting they were sort of amused by it like

are you okay John you know you're asking these weird questions I spent the next couple of weeks interviewing as many people as I could about this sighting these were all trained Aviation professionals pilots who are taxing on the ground ramp workers who were pushing back planes given the push back from the FAA I submitted a fire request for the logs at O'Hare tower for that day November 7th somebody reported a UFO playing this above Charlie seriously excellent yeah we saw a half hour ago whole bunch of us over at the Char really when I heard

the recordings it was clear that this alleged sighting was logged in O'Hare Tower the United Airlines was told about this by numerous employees there was just an abundance of radio chatter between O'Hare Tower and various people on the Airfield fly you're seeing flying discs the pilot in ramp guys are telling us at C7 they saw some flying disc above we can't see above us see it right I have anything so and if I did I wouldn't admit to it United uh despite their uh insistance to me that they had no knowledge of this and they

took no action was first to backtrack to say that yes it had received reports of this and then the FAA said that upon further review yes they had received calls saying that something was up there is it standard that the FAA if you ask him a straightforward question would lie essentially well I mean there was there's nothing standard about this story the story ran on page one of the Chicago Tribune on January 1st 2007 and the reaction to it was unbelievable John the response has been well out of this world asn't it I mean just

the last two days this is my email several Pilots apparently said Chicago's oare swear they saw one a UFO it looked like literally someone had poked a hole in the clouds it got more hits on the Chicago Tribune website than any story they had ever written in the past but there was still a very strong taboo against this so there were some Skeptics that were called on these various shows who kind of debunked it we return to the chief astronomer for the Franklin Institute Derek pittz Derek thanks for being with us again my pleasure Keith

all right let's start with the UFO sighting at O'Hare when it's Pilots saying this do we have to listen and then what is it they could have seen but not been able to identify well that's a really difficult question to answer because there are all kinds of Sky phenomenon that could have manifested themselves but that doesn't necessarily mean that they are alien spacecraft I was intrigued that so many people had seen this but we can't just suggest here's a spacecraft from another planet that defies the laws of physics so for me I go to those

things that seem much more likely much more reasonable much more possible when I read the Chicago Tribune story I was really shocked by the FAA efforts to try and explain this away first of all they said it was airport lights reflecting off the clouds and it turned out that the airport lights had not even been turned on yet when the event occurred so that explanation didn't work the FAA adds that a sighting might have been caused by a weather phenomenon the next explanation they provided was that it was a weather phenomenon I knew what that

probably meant was this phenomenon called a hole punch class CL it's very rare where ice crystals fall from one cloud above to a lower cloud and they melt a hole in the cloud I called a bunch of cloud experts asked what the conditions were that would be required for a whole punch cloud to form I learned that the temperature would have to be below freezing which it was not at that day at O'Hare it was around 50 de so I was able to completely dispatch the faa's explanation of a weather phenomenon for the FAA and

the government it's just come up with something to make it go away no matter how ludicrous it is no matter how inaccurate it is this was an aviation safety hazard this thing was floating over an airport it made me feel inspired to really want to do more because this just can't keep going like this [Music] in 2006 we had that very compelling case that happened at O'Hare Airport that got a lot of media coverage we were coming up on the 10-year anniversary for the Phoenix Lights case that was getting a lot of coverage and there

seemed to be a whole new wave of interest in the media on the phenomenon and I decided to kind of strike well the iron's hot ever since the Phoenix Lights case I was meeting with the witnesses and I heard their frustration with how the governor treated their testimony by making a mockery and ridiculing so in 2006 I managed to get a hold of five simonon who was no longer governor of Arizona he responded immediately and accepted my invitation for an interview and ended up being one of those aha moments for me as a reporter if

you had to do it over again would you have done it any differently uh you know I think it was a legitimate uh occurrence of an unknown origin probably one of the major sightings in you know in modern history in the country cuz a lot of people saw it in am the county and I saw it too so I and I saw it too did I just hear that straight did the former governor of Arizona who made fun of one of the most significant modern-day Mass sightings just admit that he too was a witness at

least I have the opportunity now to correct the record and that's important I knew I had captured lightning in a bottle I I really knew this was going to be so I reached out to Leslie Kain who I said hey you're not going to believe this I could not believe it and my immediate response was I want to break this story Leslie helped get that story out and we got a lot of news coverage if you had been here 10 years ago and standing out here and looking up there at the U at the lights

in the view um you would have been astounded you would have been amazed and I suspect that uh unless uh uh the defense department proves us otherwise that it was probably some form of alien spacecraft there was momentum that started to build and it was sort of a catalyst for us to feel look at what's going on let's do something really big that will draw attention to this I joined forces with James Fox and we decided to bring together a panel of the very most credible Witnesses from all over the world to a major event

in Washington which would draw a new level of attention to incidences like the O'Hare event we had scientists generals Pilots both military and civilian from multiple countries among them was parvey Jafari the Iranian pilot who had tried to shoot down a UFO John Callahan from the Japan Airlines case and the moderator of the event was former governor of of Arizona F Simington he recognized that if there had been an agency in place when this event happened in 1997 everything would have been different Leslie and I wanted to see if we could set up a new

government agency a modern-day Project Blue Book I'd like to welcome you all here today and I don't think there's ever been a more high level or distinguished group this event was the culmination of all the work I had done previously to bring everybody together in one room like that ladies and gentlemen good morning my name is Je duok I am a retired Air Force Captain I Rodrigo Bravo captain and pilot of the Chilean Army what I'm about to tell you is about an event that never happen the power of this was that you had all

these people in one room telling their stories one after the other ladies and gentlemen I'm Oscar Santa Maria wer official pilot of the Peruvian Air Force currently retire Oscar Santa Maria encountered a UFO over an air base in Peru and he was instructed to go up and shoot it down my unit Commander ordered me to take off in my22 jet to shoot down the spherical object he said he Unleashed all of his Firepower direct Target hit and it just absorbed his bullets the co shaped wall of fire that I sent out will normally obliterate anything

in his path we also had Harvey stari who talked about what happened to him I tried to launch a heat seeker missile to it but my missile panel went out the momentum just kept building and building and building hundreds of people saw a majestic triangle crafts I have no idea what we saw that night but I do know with great certainty it was under intelligent control there's something very pragmatic about Pilots particularly military Pilots when you hear enough of those cases from around the world I felt like the government had to pay attention [Music] attention

we want the United States government to stop perpetuating the myth that all UFOs can be explained away in down toe and conventional terms instead our country needs to reopen its official investigation that had shut down in 1969 we made the appeal at that press conference for a government agency to up do I look all right cuz my wife will yell at me if I don't when it comes to events of this nature dealing with the great unknown we deserve I believe more openness and a serious pursuit of the facts by our government thank you very

much that press conference was a moment for all of us all of us had been in the trenches for all those decades it was a very satisfying moment and we got some very mainstream coverage a group Gathering here in Washington to talk about their UFO sightings but this apparently is no crackpot convention former highlevel government and military officials are among those sharing what they've seen in the skies the press conference felt like a moment of huge success but I this fantasy well maybe this will lead to some kind of hearings on this nothing nobody in

the government batted an eyelash it didn't accomplish what we had hoped for which was to get our government engaging with it I thought that the five-minute presentations that these Witnesses made simply weren't long enough to really get across what happened to them so I was inspired to bring these people into a book and they reported on their cases in their own words they wrote their own chapters I don't think people at that level had ever come together under one umbrella before and it had a lot of authority to it not because of me but because

of the people I brought to the book when it became a New York Times bestseller I think it brought heightened credibility to the topic our next guest calling for a formal investigation of unidentified flying objects Leslie Kane I'm here to talk about UFOs Leslie Kane please welcome lesle Kane real generals or like Captain Crunch like real honest real generals hon what generals think that they're they're aliens out there they don't think they're aliens and that's one of the points they all make in this book is we don't know what they are all right you thank

you so much Leslie when I first read Leslie Kane's book I thought her investigation of this was exactly the kind of real science investigation that we should be thinking about starting around unidentified flying objects in fact I had Leslie as a guest here at the Franklin Institute to give a presentation about her book we're about real science we are not about speculation and I felt that the work that Leslie demonstrated in her book was a responsible way to go about this I wrote the forward to her book which at the time people thought was just

something to go on the Shelf with the other ufologist uh but uh was really I think uh a serious effort to try to document what pilots had seen what other military senior leaders had documented the success of the book brought so much credibility to this topic and it drew people into my life that hadn't been there before insiders who have been involved with this thing for a long time some of them with security clearances and they trusted me that's what led to my being invited to a meeting years later where I was handed the biggest

scoop of my career Leslie Kane one of the investigative reporters who broke this story this report is stunning The New York Times breaking the news that the Pentagon has been secretly researching the possible existence of UFOs apparently the Department of Defense launched the program in 2007 2007 the same year that we gave our press conference it just so happened that this government program was already being being set up we didn't know about that at the time of course but it was actually happening the article was a huge moment a moment I'll never forget I had

friends and family from all around the world going oh my God maybe you were right maybe you maybe you're not as crazy as I thought you were you know it was it was a good feeling I was really proud of Leslie because the rest of the world was paying attention that maybe maybe there is really something going on here that article was really just the beginning it opened the door to all these questions that arose after that about what this program actually had learned about UFOs is it going to release information to the public all

these questions that people want to know about UFOs well if there's a program what do they know imagine just how wonderful it would be to to have those questions asked on behalf of the American people today we will bring that organization Out of the Shadows I think for for far too long people have said oh the public isn't ready to know about these things but I think that the public is ready now more than ever we were seeing things off the coast every day the pilots know what they are seeing they are not crazy you

just have to realize that it's using a kind of technology that we don't understand one of these objects happened to be from another civilization that would change the future of humanity [Music]