[josh] on this episode of expedition x,
Okay, let's do this!
My team travels into the notorious ring of fire,
A hotbed of seismic activity
To one of the world's most volatile volcanoes...
Look at the smoke coming out of there!
[josh] ...Where they dig into eyewitness accounts...
Wait, the plane hit the object?
-In the sky? -Yeah.
[josh] ...And dramatic videos...
[man speaking]
[josh] ...Of ufos.
[phil] oh!
-[jessica] what? -Just saw a red flash.
Did you really?
[josh] to find out why mysterious flying object
Seem drawn to this smoke spewing crater,
Phil takes to the skies...
[phil] wait, what is that flying?
You see that?
[josh] ...While jess breaks out high-tech cameras
And tracking devices...
-[phil] all set? -We're all good.
Let's do this.
[josh] ...On a mission to investigate one of mankind's oldest question
[josh reading]
Holy [bleep]! Danny, look, look, look.
Do you see that?
All right, that's a problem.
[josh] it's a dangerous journey to uncover...
-[jess] [bleeping] [grunts] -[phil] jess!
...Ring of fire ufos.
My name is josh gates.
In my travels, I've experienced strange things
That defy logic.
And made me question everything.
Oh, my god!
Now, I've put together a team to investigate
The stranger side of the unknown.
Let's go!
[josh] phil torres is a scientist
Who hunts for rational explanations.
[josh] jessica chobot's paranormal research
Has made her a true believer.
If you're here with us, knock again.
[josh] together, we're searching for answers...
[phil] what is happening here, jess?
[josh] ...To the world's most extraordinary mysteries
This is expedition x.
All right, jess, phil, how many flights would you say you've been on at this point?
-Oh! -Ooh!
I mean, too many to count.
-Hundreds, probably. -[josh] yeah.
Wait, are we looking for ghosts on a plane?
Are we looking for snakes on a plane?
'cause I'd get on that plane.
No, it's not ghosts or snakes on a plane.
But, it is about something mysterious
Flying over the skies of mexico.
Both commercial and military pilots
Have recently come forward with reports
Of strange objects, and mysterious lights
That they've seen over mexico city.
So strange objects,
Mysterious lights,
So we're talking ufos.
-Yeah, I mean-- -[jessica] listen!
You can still be a skeptic and use the term ufos.
Yes! These are unidentified flying objects.
-Can I try? -Go for it.
Ufo.
-Oh, yay! -Feels good, doesn't it, phil?
-Felt kind of good. -Yeah, yeah.
Oh, and ufos have become
Quite the hot topic these days,
Especially since the pentagon released that report in 2021,
Basically admitting these things are flying around
And they don't know what they are.
So now the whole world is starting to focus on this phenomenon.
And in this particular case,
It's not just these pilots.
There are air traffic controllers that have come forward with reports.
And hundreds of eyewitnesses on the ground.
And all this activity seems to be centered around one geological feature.
An active volcano.
December, 1994.
43 miles southeast of mexico city,
The popocatepetl volcano re-awakens.
At nearly three and a half miles high,
El popo becomes one of the largest active volcanoes in the world,
Spewing plumes of ash and smoke.
And it hasn't stopped.
Over 20 million people live in el popo's shadow,
And the threat of a major eruption is so great
Authorities have set-up 24/7 live video feeds of the volcano.
But it seems these cameras are catching more than just volcanic activity.
Some say they're documenting ufos.
In the years since the re-awakening,
Mysterious objects are often spotted
In the sky around the crater
But unlike rock fragments expelled from eruptions,
These objects seem to have a life of their own,
With unpredictable trajectories.
And, there are witnesses
Who have reported close encounters with these airborne anomalies.
January 10, 2007.
A commercial aircraft from the state of tabasco
Prepares to land in mexico city.
As the plane cruises past el popo,
The crew spots an intensely bright light in the sky
Traveling alongside the aircraft.
Suddenly, the object accelerates,
Vanishing into the thick clouds around the volcano.
The pilots can't believe their eyes,
And immediately report it to air traffic control.
But no one can explain what the flight crew saw.
Since then, the sightings of strange, luminous object
Flying all around the smoking volcano
Have dramatically increased
[man speaking]
They're seen by pilots in the air
And people on the ground.
A few recent witnesses
Have even managed to capture
Their own video evidence of the phenomena.
So what is it about this hotspot
That seems to attract unexplained activity?
Are these lights coming from somewhere beyond this world?
And what is their connectio to the volcano?
So, what do you make of this?
Well, there's a popular theory among investigators
That ufos are coming here looking for elements that they need.
Something like uranium
Which would be found in a volcano.
Okay, before we start thinking about the motivation for these ufos,
We need to figure out what people are actually seeing there.
Could be satellites. Could be meteorites.
Could be some other natural phenomenon.
There's a thing called earthquake lights
That happens in areas of high seismic activity,
Like, mexico city.
Yeah, but here's the thing. Those videos didn't look like anything natural.
So this is the mission.
The videos and the eyewitness reports, they're undeniable.
People are seeing something.
So get down to mexico city and find out what.
Is there an actual explanation?
Meteorites. Satellites. Weather phenomenon.
Or, is it something other-worldly?
Either way, you gotta bring back some proof.
-All right, we're on it. -Okay.
And hey, if you guys have never been this close to an active volcano before,
Trust me, you're gonna 'lava' it.
-[sighs in exasperation] wow. -Jeez.
You guys can go now.
Gladly.
[josh] phil and jess travel 2100 miles from new york
To the benito juarez international airport in mexico city,
Latin america's busiest airport.
[folk music playing]
Back in mexico city, your favorite place.
This city has so much culture here.
Okay, jess, aztec quiz. Let me hear it.
How do you pronounce the volcano?
Uh...
-Come on. -Um...
Uh... Popo...
Let me see if I can mimic you.
-Popo... -Popo...
-Ca... -Ca...
-Te... -Te...
-...Petl. -...Petl.
-Popocatepetl. -Yeah!
Popocatepetl in nahuatl
Actually means "the smoking mountain."
People here call it el popo.
I'll go with el popo.
[jessica] josh has arranged for us to meet enrique kolbeck,
One of the longest serving air traffic controllers in the country
And a former pilot.
Enrique.
-Hola. -Hola!
-Buenos dias. -Buenos dias.
[jessica] enrique's career spans 40-plus years,
So he knows what should and shouldn't
Be flying in the skies.
Not only has he heard numerous stories from pilot
About ufos near the volcano
He has personally seen them on radar.
When did you start seeing these strange objects?
[alarm beeping]
-Wait, the plane hit the object? -Yes. Yeah.
-In the sky? -Yeah.
And we closed the airport.
Gosh.
I've never heard of a plane actually getting hit
-By an unidentified flying object before. -Oh, yes. Of course.
[jessica] enrique says an inspection of the plane
Revealed damage to the front wheel hydraulic
But no one could determine exactly what caused it.
So then what's the government's take on this?
I mean, that's really dangerous.
Of course, in our case,
We made the reports our supervisors,
Or mexican authorities,
But nobody knows nothing about it.
The mexican aeronautical authorities,
Another part of the government also.
Nobody pay attention.
In my country, nobody cares about it.
[phil] it seems like there's a hotspot
Of sightings around this whole popocatepetl.
Are you even allowed to fly over the volcano?
[phil] and that's because it's an active volcano?
It doesn't follow a schedule.
Yeah, that it could blow at any moment.
[phil] okay.
Have you noticed any volcanic activity when these sightings occur?
Yes, of course.
We have the reports about the many objects
Going up to the volcano area,
Especially inside of the cone
And leaving the volcano in a fast way.
How often would these sightings occur?
Sometimes we receive a report about
Three times a day,
Three times a week or three times a month.
And perhaps
-Three months we never have nothing. -[phil] yeah.
So if the volcano has this 10 mile radius around it,
There should be nothing flying in there.
-Yes. -Yet, on your radar, you're seeing
Objects flying around.
Sometimes appears very close and inside of the prohibit area.
What patterns are you seeing them do?
Is it just a blip? Is it something moving around?
These objects moves in different way
Than the aircrafts normally way...
Wow.
[jessica] according to enrique,
There are frequent sighting of mysterious objects
Flying where no aircraft should be.
Around the crater of el popo
We're going to try to captur evidence of that phenomenon
For ourselves.
-Here's a bumpy road, jess. -That's nice.
[jessica] el popo is locate about 40 miles from the city
And if the webcam ufo video are any indication,
We should be able to get a clear view of the volcano
And the airspace around it from the northwest.
We just have to find the best vantage points through the clouds.
-Oh, yeah! -Is that it?
-Check that out! -Wow!
Oh, my goodness, jess!
That is awesome!
[phil] I think we found el popo.
Look at that!
Oh, you can still see-- yeah, looks like it's smoking on the top.
[phil] to make sure no one gets caught in an eruption,
Hiking to the crater is prohibited by the government.
But I've got an even better idea.
Our plan is to get a closer look
Without causing an international incident.
Hello, capitan!
-[speaking spanish] -[pilot] okay.
Whoo! Okay, let's do this!
Next stop, el popo.
Whoo! Okay, let's do this!
So the plan here is that jess will be on the ground
With a giant lens
Basically focused at the to of this volcano.
Just to see if we can docume any activity from the ground
We're gonna be in the air.
This is where we've got a great bird's eye view
And I'm really hoping that el popo doesn't decide to pop off today.
I mean, maybe just a little.
Our permitted flight plan to get us to el popo
Starts over the city.
Right below us right now,
That is mexico city,
Actually what technically makes el popo
One of the most dangerous volcanoes in the world.
Because if it blows, everybody out here could be at risk.
Mexico city's basically built in a field of volcanoes.
All of these hills that we're seeing around here,
Those are all dormant volcanoes.
But where we're heading, that's an active volcano.
This whole area is seismic activity central
Thanks to mexico's location within the world's so calle ring of fire,
A 25,000 mile stretch
That contains 75% of the world's volcanoes
And 90% of all earthquakes.
During earthquakes and volcanic eruptions,
Rock friction near the earth's crust
Releases energy into the atmosphere,
That some scientists believe can result
In startling flashes of ligh seen for miles.
They're known as earthquake lights.
And I'm wondering if that light
Is what people are mistaking for ufos.
[walkie talkie beeps] right, jess, we're scanning in the skies.
All right...
So we've got the seismometer set up.
It's actually really sensitive
So if we do get a little mini earthquake around here,
It'll give us an indication of that.
And then we also have the camera
Pointed right at the top of the volcano
Where people say they see a lot of these
Unidentified balls of light
And unidentified objects coming in and out of.
My camera is equipped with a telephoto lens
With 40 times magnifying power.
And a polarizing filter to reduce glare and reflections
From filming the daytime sky
I'll also be monitoring reports of seismic activity in the area.
Phil, you copy?
To see if there might be a correlation between volcanic rumbling
Earthquake activity
And ufos.
So I've got the camera set up and I've got my seismometer and everything.
Also, just as a heads up, my earthquake app here says that we just had
A 4.0 about 36 kilometers away
This morning.
Wow, okay. That's fantastic.
Just let us know if there's any seismic activity on the ground while we're up here
Because I wanna look in the air and see if anything matches.
[phil] it's already a seismically active day.
A series of smaller earthquakes,
Known as an earthquake swarm
Can last days or even weeks.
Swarms are especially prevalent
In close proximity to, you guessed it, volcanoes.
I hope we can catch the next rumble
And any strange lights it might generate.
We've asked the pilot to manoeuvre the chopper
For the best vantage point of the volcano,
So we can get as close as possible.
But we also don't want to set off any alarm bells
By entering government-restricted airspace.
Captain, what's our elevation right now?
9500 feet.
Look at that!
That's popocatepetl, right in those clouds.
Wow.
The upper slopes of el popo are covered nearly year roun with snow and ice,
Both of which make great reflectors.
Any sunlight that bounces off and hits some ash and ro in the air
At the right angle,
Well, that combination could add up
To a reported ufo sighting.
Look at that volcano!
Oh, my god! Look at that smoke coming out of there!
[jessica over radio] phil! I can see you approaching the volcano!
[phil over radio] oh, I see you! I see you!
Did you see that plume of smoke that came out of the volcano?
Yes, I did!
[phil over radio] this thin is active!
Look how big that plume is.
That is an active volcano.
Right now, that thing is smoking,
There's lava inside of it.
If they are ufos,
Maybe they're coming here because they need resources.
An area that has a high concentration of heavy metals.
Everybody thinks they're here to, like,
Always just keep an eye on,
Like the military or this or the other thing,
But maybe they're actually using us for mining.
Who knows? Who knows what kind of resources they would need?
And who knows what's potentially in there that's usable for them.
Since the development of nuclear weaponry in the 1940s,
Military personnel have reported sightings of ufos
Near nuclear storage facilities, and weapons training bases.
According to employees at america's first nuclear testing site,
In white sands, new mexico,
Ufo sightings were so prevalent
That a secret team was assigned to monitor the activity.
Nuclear weapons use uranium,
So I'm still wondering if elevated uranium levels around el popo
Could explain why ufos are attracted to this volcan in particular.
Do you wonder why they call this thing an active volcano?
Look no further than all that smoke billowing out of this thing.
In addition to the crater and the plume,
I'm also keeping an eye out for major cracks in the eart going up the volcano.
Anything that could give ris to possible earthquake light
Holy [bleep]! Danny, look, look, look!
Is that them? Or is that something else?
Do you see that?
[jessica over radio] phil! I see something!
What are you seeing?
Oh, my god! What is that?
Scratch that. That's a plane.
False alarm.
Okay, well, that's still great intel so we can review some of the other videos
Of what people claim are ufos
And maybe mark some of them off as aircraft.
So I mean, that's exactly what enrique was talking about.
How these flights, these commercial flights
Have to actually fly around the volcano
And not over the top of it because it's still active.
So that's probably a designated flight path
For the mexico city airport.
The more time we spend around this volcano, the more I think
Two things are happening here.
Jess just said herself that she's seeing
Airplanes in the path of the volcano,
So it could be kind of an optical illusion to someone standing over there.
The other thing is this is an incredibly seismically active place.
Full of clouds. Full of potential for those earthquake lights
That could be what people are actually seeing
And calling ufos.
To test whether something like earthquake lights coul be obscured in those clouds
I'm using a flir,
Which detects heat variation
And displays them as different colors.
This here is a thermal camera
And one of the interesting things about this earthquake light
Is that they're plasma,
And plasma is thousands of degrees hot,
So my hope is that even if we can't see it 'cause it's bright,
If I use this, we'll maybe be able to detect it
Because this thing is filming heat signatures.
So right now, we're above cloud level,
So any anomalies that we get,
Obviously, will be exciting.
You guys seeing anything?
-[pilot speaking] -okay.
Wait, what is that flying?
You see that? Oh!
[suspenseful music playing]
[phil] wait, what is that flying?
You see that?
Wow! Okay! Uh...
There's something that looked like kind of a bright reflection.
Hotspot of light.
I'm trying to figure out what that was.
That was crazy!
[over radio] jess, I just caught a bright flash
Like a ball of light. It flew right through the frame on the flir.
Are you serious?
Yeah. Could have been some, some trick of the clouds.
But really, just looked like there was something out there.
Really, really bright spot.
It's unclear what I saw on the flir.
But it was definitely faste than any bird or plane.
I doubt it was a spacecraft
But seeing as how I have yet to identify it,
I suppose it fits the technical definition of a ufo.
And I have to admit,
It looked pretty similar to the many bizarre webcam videos
Captured over el popo recently.
So bizarre.
[over radio] I don't know what I've seen up here, jess
But I tell you what? There's strange things in the sky around el popo.
[indistinct chatter on radio]
[phil] the captain says we're running low on fuel
So we start heading back.
After getting closer than I probably should have
To a highly active volcano,
I still can't figure out what I saw.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see this flash.
-We were above the cloud layer. -Uh-huh.
It was near the volcano.
And there was just this bright-- it looked like just a giant sparkle.
Just happened right in the middle of the clouds.
Like lightning or what?
No, almost like it was reflecting off something.
But there was nothing else in there.
Oh, whoa, that's cool.
So, yeah, I mean, I saw a light.
I saw something weird around the volcano
Which is kind of what we're here for.
So, I really want to try to figure out
What that was.
And I, I almost wouldn't believe me if I heard this story,
But I saw something flash in the clouds around el popo.
I mean, that tracks with all the eyewitness accounts.
I guess it does.
Well, that makes me a little bit more hopeful that
We're actually gonna figure out what this is.
-Yeah. I know. -'cause I think you got eyes on something strange?
[phil] jess did detect an earlier earthquake nearby
But what I saw from the air
Didn't look to me quite like earthquake lights
I'm a biologist, not an atmospheric expert.
So I've arranged to meet with an atmospheric scientis
Who I'm hoping could give u some perspective on what I might have seen.
-[cell phone ringing] -oh! Hey, josh is calling.
Gonna start. Look for a place to pull over.
-Yeah. -All right.
-Hi! -Hey, josh!
How's it going?
-Good! -It's going pretty good.
All right! Seen any ufos around that volcano?
Well, I took a helicopter pretty close to it
And I did see a bizarre ligh fly near the crater.
A bizarre light? Sounds promising.
Any idea what it was?
I've got a few theories.
So I've arranged to meet with an atmospheric scientist on the volcano.
Okay, great. Phil, you stay on that angle.
But the reason I called is, jess,
I got a hot tip on a guy that you have to go meet, like, now.
Like, right now?
Yes, right now.
-Who is it? -He's a mountain guide
Who practically lives on el popo.
And apparently, he had a close encounter
With these mysterious lights.
Now, this is something he has never told anybody about
But he has agreed to talk with us
If you can meet him on the mountain today.
So you've got to get out there and get to him before he changes his mind.
I'm on it.
Just send me that guy's information and I'll track him down.
All right, I'm looking forwa to hearing what you find.
Good luck.
-Thanks so much. -Awesome! Bye, josh!
[phil] with this new info,
We'll need to divide and conquer.
I'll meet with the atmospheric scientist
While jess locates the witne at the coordinates
Josh just sent over.
-That's my trail. -Okay.
-Meet up later? -Meet up later.
[phil] I drop her off at a hiking trail near the base of el popo
To meet josh's new witness.
-Good luck. -Thank you, you too.
And then I continue on to meet with my atmospheric scientist contact
A few miles away.
Manuel?
Hola!
-Hi. -Hi, jessica. Nice to meet you.
Manuel lives nearby
And leads volcano enthusiast on treks around el popo.
Josh said he has a story I have to hear.
Three triangles?
Okay.
-Were they glowing? -Yes.
And how big were they? Could you tell from where you were standing?
-So all three of them were about the size of a truck? -Yeah, yeah.
Huh-uh? Interesting.
Were they... Not at all?
-Just hovering? -Yes, yes.
Did they leave like a light trail?
Did you see them move away?
Or did they just disappear?
It crashed?
[jessica] it crashed?
Were you able to see any smoke or anything?
You saw a little smoke, but you didn't actually see it crash?
Or you did see it crash into the side--
Okay.
You have, like, a map or anything that you can show me
As to where it was located?
Yes, yes, of course.
-Okay. -I show you.
Huh-uh.
Mm-hmm.
Manuel points out the best route for trekking to the crash site.
So my plan is to reconnect with phil and head out there
Do you mind sending me that map?
-Really fast? -Yeah, yeah, of course.
[phil] while jess questions the new witness...
How you doing? I'm phil.
I'm meeting joel bermudez.
With a phd in physics
And a research background in astronomy
And atmospheric sciences,
He might be able to help me make sense of what I saw from the helicopter.
Look at el popo!
-[joel speaking] -yeah.
Wow. Okay.
We're here investigating
What people see around el popo.
People say they see lights,
They say they see things go into el popo,
Come out of el popo.
Definitely there are things coming out of the...
-[chuckling] -oh, yes! Oh, yes. And so, I'm just really curious.
What's your take on it?
What do you say people might be seeing around here
That's not ufos, not an alien,
But it's something that is, I guess,
Based on science
And what we understand about volcanoes.
There are several phenomena that occur around volcanoes that can be
Uh, relatively easy explained.
There are some others that we still do not understand quite well.
That's because it's difficult indeed to investigate all the physical phenomena
That occur on the top of the volcanoes, like this one.
So you're saying there's a lot that we don't know about volcanoes.
Exactly.
-Because they are so big. -Yeah, for sure, for sure.
What can you tell us about what kind of interactions
Will that smoke and that ash
And that vapor have in the atmosphere?
When you have a volcano like this one,
It is not rare that it expels some ashes.
And depending on how the ashes are expelled,
You can form linings
Round the top of the volcano.
When the ashes rubs against each other,
They basically gain or lose some electrons.
-So it's like... Static electricity? -It's like static electricity.
-Ooh. Making like a giant battery in the sky. -Exactly.
This is how lightnings are created on top of the volcanoes.
And from time to time, you can see those lights.
When we flew over el popo,
-We were above the cloud layer. -Okay.
We were in a helicopter, and we'd seen a lot of smoke come out.
And then, within the cloud layer around there,
I saw a bright flash.
Joel explains that volcanic eruptions
Are sometimes accompanied by lightning
And any ash that's spews ou from the erupting volcano
Can become electrically charged.
That charge does dissipate quickly
As the ash moves away from the volcano.
But it could conceivably show up on a thermal canner
Okay. So you think there's a chance that what I saw
-Could have been this ash lightning? -Yeah, sure.
Okay. And you could see
Kind of how a legend could form from something like that.
-Exactly. -What is your take?
Are there ufos out there?
I think most of the things that we see in the sky
Can be explained by physical phenomena or weather phenomena, right?
All right! Well, thank you, joel.
Well, now we can add another possible natural explanation
Behind some of the ufo sightings around el popo.
Electrified ash.
Before I meet back up with phil,
I wanna collect some sample of what look like lava rocks
Oh, finding some volcanic rocks.
While you would expect to find traces of uranium
And other metals in most volcanic rocks,
I'm curious if the ones around here
Might show particularly high concentrations.
I'll have these samples analyzed
Hoping the results will help us figure out
What the ufos might be after
[phil] though the flying lights have been seen during the day,
We'll get our best chance o spotting any electrified as
Or earthquake lights after dark.
-[jessica] all right, here's a good spot. -Okay.
Whoo. All right, set it up.
[phil straining]
[jessica] tonight, we're going to set our sight
On both the sky and the ground.
While phil's here looking for natural causes behind the ufo reports,
I'll be searching for any evidence of the crashed ufo manuel reported.
We established a position on the southwestern edge of the volcano.
The same side where manuel believes he heard a ufo cras
My plan is to first angle our surveillance gear over that area
To capture any ufos attracted to the same location.
And then, hike farther up the mountain to look for evidence of the alleged cras
Okay. Dap cam's all set.
I'm gonna point this towards the top of the volcano.
Dap stands for data acquisition project.
This high-tech camera scans the sky
Looking for moving objects.
Once the device locks on to a target,
It uses specialized softwar that analyzes the object's appearance and trajectory
To determine if it's a bird
A plane or maybe something unknown.
-Hopefully, some of these clouds go away. -[phil] yeah.
-Looks like it's clearing up a little bit. I'm hopeful. -Yeah, little bit.
-What? -I just got super excited
'cause I thought I saw something in the sky.
But it was the moon.
Jess! This is the first time we've seen the moon tonight.
But it looks like a glowing--
It totally does.
In addition to the dap cam,
I'm also setting up an infrared camera.
We need all the eyes we can get on this volcano
And the ir setting might be able to better capture
The electrified ash phenomenon.
-[phil] all set? -We're all good.
-Let's do this. -All right, grab the stuff.
[jessica] with our cameras in place,
We set off on our hike to the area
Where manuel claims he heard a ufo crash.
If some kind of craft did collide with the volcano
Odds are it would have left behind debris.
So I'm packing my highly sensitive metal detector
To help me root out any metal in the dark.
-[phil] oh! Just saw a red flash. -What?
-Did you really? -Yeah.
-Did you see that? -I did see that.
Oh, my gosh. Maybe the dap camera picked it up then.
Oh, boy.
All right, that's a problem.
-Is there a way to cross it? -That's a good question.
-[phil] right here, right here. -Oh yeah?
-[jessica] let me see. -Got a spot.
[phil] okay. [bleep]
All right. How's this gonna work?
Jess, here's what I'm thinking.
[jessica] shimmy across?
Why don't I take the line now. I could tie it and toss it.
Okay. That'll work.
Ooh.
[jessica] careful! It's slippery! Don't... Don't [bleep] standing up!
Don't stand up!
All right.
And jess, slide my backpack across.
All right, here it comes!
Whoo.
-All right! Got it! -Got it?
[phil] the trick now will be getting the crew
And all the expensive gear across,
Without falling into the drain.
Yeah.
All right, you want me to grab your gear, man?
-[man speaking indistinctly] -cameras clear?
Got it.
Going good.
[phil] ooh!
[bleep] oh! [bleep]
-Oh! [bleep] me. [bleep] -jess!
-Whoa! -[bleep]
If you believe extra-terrestrial enthusiasts,
Mexico isn't the only place
Where ufos like it hot.
Japan's most iconic mount fu
Is an active volcano that
According to some, is also home to an alien base
Miles below the surface.
For years, images have been circulatin
That appeared to show massive, mist covered
Disc shaped crafts next to the picturesque peak
But no so fast, says the scientific communit
They confirm the images actually show a weather even
Known as a lenticular cloud
Formed when stable, moist ai passes over a mountain.
And the resulting oscillating waves
Can cause the formation of clouds
That when lit up by the sun look admittedly other worldl
So if you have yourself a close encounter,
Be sure to check the five-day forecast.
It might just be cloudy with no chance of aliens.
[phil] ooh!
-[bleeping] -jess!
God!
Whoo!
Whoo. I'm good.
[phil] okay!
-[jessica] okay. Which way? Over here? -Adventure continues.
[jessica] grade school gymnastics.
Still paying dividends after all these years.
With near disaster behind us
We regroup on the other side of the stream,
And then press on with the hike to look for evidence of the ufo cras
All right, so let's see. I think we go over here, yeah.
[sighing] let me check the map.
[both muttering]
-Yeah, I think this is it. -What's the plan?
I think we just start metal detecting all around this area.
[phil] while the dap cam we set up records any strang lights over the volcano,
And jess uses the metal detector
To look for any traces of an alleged ufo crash
I break out the magnetometer.
This device should detect variations
In electromagnetic fields
Emanating from the earth, which could suggest seismic activity.
And if there are earthquakes
There might be earthquake lights.
-[jessica] ooh, careful. -Slippery.
[jessica] slippery. It's gonna get slippier now that it's raining
-[phil] yeah. -Again.
Okay. Time to put the jackets on.
Jacket back on.
Thank you.
-What's that? Yeah. -All right, can go this way.
You getting any hits on your end?
[phil] nothing crazy right now.
-[beeps] -oh!
-[beeps] -all right, let's dig.
[muttering indistinctly]
Something in here is setting off the metal detector.
But if we're not seeing anything in this,
I don't know if that means it's really deep in
Or if it's miniscule yet clearly,
-We're gonna hit some. -Yeah.
Let's move on.
[phil breathing heavily]
Jess, it just peaked for a second.
-Where? -Right around here.
-Right around here? -Oh! Just did it again.
-What the heck? Oh! -[alarm beeps]
[alarm beeps]
-Right here. -Right there?
-It's on there. -Oh, yeah. There's something in there.
-Mm? I think so. -Did you hit something?
-[jessica gasps] -holy [bleep], jess!
What is that? Oh, my god!
What is that?
[both exclaiming]
[jessica] what the [bleep]!
What is this [bleep]?
Let's see what we get.
-That's a huge hit. -That's a huge hit!
[jessica] this metal disk is surprisingly heavy.
And the fact that it's a powerful magnet
Makes this find even more bizarre.
So I'm bagging this bad boy for further examination.
-Got it. -Well jess, I gotta say,
Your guy didn't lie.
-No, he did not. -Something was here.
[jessica grunts]
We stay on the hunt for any other possible crash evidence
Until mother nature chases us away.
Jess, the river levels, with all this rain, be getting higher.
-So we should really, probably get out of here. -Okay. Okay.
[josh] my team went to new heights
To investigate the unidentified luminous objects
Flying around el popo.
Jess started with the theor that ufos
Maybe attracted to metallic elements
Brought to the surface by volcanic eruptions.
We find us some volcanic rocks.
[josh] we tested the lava rock she collected
And they contained greater than average concentrations of radon.
Uranium decays into radium,
Which further decays into radon.
Could the presence of uraniu
Inside and spewing out of the volcano
Make el popo a tempting target
For extra-terrestrials?
-Oh! Just saw a red flash! -What?
[josh] we checked the dap cam footage
To identify the source of the flashes phil and jess saw.
The device did start to loc onto something in the sky,
But likely due to the weather conditions, it couldn't track it.
So there's no telling if it was a ufo,
Lightning from the storm
Or some other natural occurrence that phil suspected.
But would any natural phenomena
Explain what pilots and air traffic controllers
Have seen in the skies around el popo?
It's worth noting that natural occurrences
Probably wouldn't show up as a moving dot on radar.
We also review the images captured from the air and the ground.
The light that zoomed acros phil's flir
Appears to match some of the webcam videos.
And couldn't potentially be electrified ash.
Oh, my god! What is that?
[josh] and finally, we had the strange metal dis
From the alleged crash site analyzed.
Turns out it's made from a steel alloy.
But while it was forged from materials
We can find here on our planet,
The mechanical engineers we showed it to had no earthly idea
What it's used for.
Though we can't yet confirm whether the mystery lights at el popo
Are terrestrial in origin
Or something extra,
Whatever's happening in the skies over mexico city,
The world is watching.
For more information on expedition x,
Head to discovery.Com/expeditionx.