- Tonight on The Proof Is Out There,
a strange sound from the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean.
- We just had not heard this kind of thing before.
- [Tony] Is it mechanical, animal, or alien?
A mysterious object spotted near the Panama Canal.
Is Central America the new UFO hotspot?
- This made me do a double take.
- [Tony] A case that puzzled experts for decades.
What really happened to this group of hikers
found dead in the Russian Mountains?
- One theory suggests that it may have been a Russian Yeti
that attacked and killed these nine hikers.
- [Tony] And the ongoing story of a phantom plane
that's seen on radar but nowhere else.
- It's possible that what we are seeing in this image
is a new technology that's not released to the public.
(intense music)
- [Tony] Around the globe are videos.
- [Witness] What the heck is this?
- [Witness] It's moving.
- [Tony] Photos and sounds that defy explanations.
(electric crackling)
- [Marc] Is it some kind of unidentified object?
What's exciting is nobody really knows.
- [Tony] What are they?
- [MJ] Some sort of bizarre mutation.
- Extraordinary claims need extraordinary proof.
- I'm Tony Harris,
and as a journalist for more than 30 years,
I've followed the facts where they take me.
Now I'm bringing that spirit of investigation
to the world's strangest sounds and images.
We'll analyze each one with top experts.
- It's a credible case, it's a credible video.
- [Tony] And pass a verdict on what it is.
- This video was clearly faked.
- The proof starts now.
(dramatic theme music)
Good evening and welcome to The Proof Is Out There.
We know the ocean is as mysterious as it is deep,
but what we don't know is why there's been a spate
of odd creatures from the depths
washing up in the same area in California.
See if you can figure it out.
It's 2021 at scenic Crystal Cove, California,
a seaside nature preserve in Orange County.
While out for a refreshing surfside stroll,
one beachcomber comes across a carcass
that looks like something imagined by Jules Verne.
The photo shows a bizarre, huge, round fish
with a gaping toothed mouth
and an odd, joystick-like appendage
protruding from its body.
It seems to lack eyes and fins, and its near black coloring
only adds to its disturbing phantasmagoric appearance.
And this incident was not a fluke.
Pun intended.
- [Witness] Yeah, it's a barracuda.
It's a barracuda.
- [Tony] No, a barracuda looks like this.
What we see here is another bizarre,
out-of-place sea creature that washed up in recent months.
A few miles up the coast,
a strange fish flailing about on the beach.
Are these creatures natural, and if they are,
what accounts for their appearance on these shores?
Field researcher, Ken Gerhard goes fishing for an explanation.
- Some UFO theorists talk about Sycamore Knoll,
a strange, anomalous structure about 2,000 feet
under the water off the coast of California.
UFO enthusiasts have speculated that it might represent
some type of underwater alien base.
- [Tony] The Sycamore Knoll is three miles wide
and 2,000 feet beneath the surface.
That alien base theory stems from its oval shape
and perfectly flat surface.
One theory is that the Sycamore Knoll is emitting signals
that are driving deep sea fish to the surface.
Another theory is that we are.
- Another possibility is that the U.S. military
and other military forces around the world
deploy new types of sonar and underwater experimentation,
driving these strange-looking creatures to the surface.
- Another note.
22 miles off the coast of Southern California
lies Catalina Island,
a place where some of our own experts
have recently been documenting anomalous activity in the skies.
In other words, this area is a noted hotbed
for unexplained phenomena.
So what are these strange creatures,
and why are they washing up on shore with such frequency?
Let's hear from the experts.
(tense music)
Marine biologist, Shea Conger
says the strange fish in the photo can be identified.
- This is a football fish, which is related to angler fish.
Football fish have this large lure on top of their head
to bring in prey to eat.
This is not an animal that we would expect to see
washed up on a beach, because it is a very deep sea animal.
- [Tony] She also identifies the long skinny fish from the video,
which is very unusual to find on dry land.
- This is the lancet fish,
and they're typically very deep-dwelling.
A lot of benthic or abyssal fish are built like this,
where they have really striking fins
that help them stay upright in the water,
and they have these long, sinuous bodies,
because they live under a lot of pressure.
- [Tony] By abyssal, she means the zone of the ocean
roughly 10,000 to 20,000 feet below the surface,
where no light reaches, resulting in perpetual darkness
and an absence of oxygen-producing plant life.
But the mystery remains.
Why are these deep sea creatures
turning up on the beaches of California?
Conger considers the Sycamore Knoll theory,
but she says it's not an alien base.
It's a natural geological formation called a seamount.
- This is probably just a normal ocean feature,
and seamounts like this
are actually really important for ocean life.
- [Tony] But what could cause the creatures
congregating around the Sycamore Knoll to wash ashore?
Conger moves on to the top secret experiment theory.
- Military testing is definitely an explanation
of why we might find deep sea fish
abnormally washed up on shore.
Sonar testing is incredibly powerful.
Being hit with that high impact of sound and pressure
can be very injurious or even deadly for marine animals.
- [Tony] Conger also suggests a natural cause:
underwater seismic activity.
- Many of the Earth's fault lines
are actually off the coast of our continents,
so there could be earthquakes,
and that's why we have tsunamis, for example.
There's a lot of volcanic activity
under the ocean as well,
and it's not unfeasible that this would cause animals
to wash up on shore.
- [Tony] But at the end of the day,
she thinks the real culprit is us,
specifically the global fishing industry.
- Within the last decade,
there's been an uptick of species washing up
that are traditionally deep water species.
The reason for this may have to do with
when humans are out fishing,
we catch a whole variety of species in those fishing nets,
and the animals that aren't marketable are discarded,
and eventually they float to shore.
(tense music)
- Our verdict?
We're looking at a football fish and a lancet fish,
both deep water creatures.
As to why they washed up, that remains a mystery.
I'm drawn to the fishing theory,
but you can pick your favorite.
We're gonna stay with the Pacific Ocean now,
but we are going much deeper, literally.
The Mariana Trench of the Pacific Ocean
is nearly 36,000 feet deep.
To put that in perspective,
you could pick up Mount Everest and drop it in the trench,
and the mountain would still be a mile
below the water's surface.
Due to such enormous depths,
the trench still has not been widely explored,
so when a monstrous sound was detected there,
it was a mystery for us all.
It's November 16th, 2014.
Dave Mellinger and his team of marine researchers
drop a passive acoustic ocean glider
into the deepest part of the Pacific Ocean,
the Mariana Trench.
There, they record this.
(deep, resonant droning)
The five-part sounds,
which last no longer than 3.5 seconds each,
include deep moans at frequencies as low as 30 hertz,
low rumbles, high pitched screeching,
and a strangely metallic finale
that reaches frequencies
as high as 8,000 hertz.
The noises return.
Let's turn up the volume.
(deep, resonant droning)
A weird auditory mixture
of the biological and the mechanical,
leading to confusion over the likely cause.
- We ran across this very strange, unusual sound,
which we later called the Western Pacific Biotwang.
We started hearing it, and we were like,
what the heck is that sound?
But we really didn't know what this sound was.
We just had not heard this kind of thing before.
(deep, resonant droning)
- [Tony] Journalist Erin McCarthy says the biotwang
emanates from a place so remote,
it might as well be another planet.
- Up until recently, more people had been to the moon,
so you're looking at an area of the planet
that is basically like an alien world.
I think it's fair to say that this sound
is fairly alien-like, which has led some people to speculate
that aliens have set up underwater bases
in the Mariana Trench,
because it's more like their world than it is ours.
- [Tony] But that isn't the only possible explanation
for the mechanical sound.
- A potential explanation
is some kind of top-secret military transmission.
- [Tony] The U.S Navy has conducted underwater experiments
for decades; some of the most famous
include the Sealab underwater habitats.
There was an underwater nuclear bomb test,
and, more recently, they've started testing bullets
that can shoot from underwater.
Until recently, scientists assumed
that the murky depths of the Mariana Trench were quiet,
but research teams have since discovered
that it is actually abuzz with sound.
A NOAA research oceanographer has even said
that there is almost constant noise
from both natural and man-made sources.
So the question remains:
what created these mysterious sounds?
Our experts go on a deep dive.
(tense music)
First, could the sound be seismic activity?
The Mariana Trench is a hotbed for earthquakes,
thought to be due to the high pressure
at the bottom of the trench.
Compared to the nearly 15 pounds
per square inch of pressure we feel on land,
the ocean floor has a pressure of over 16,000 PSI,
and scientists theorize that this pressure,
alongside the seawater, lubricates the fault lines
enough to create frequent sudden slippage
in the tectonic plates.
Soundscape ecologist, Dr. Ben Gottesman has his doubts.
- There's hundreds of thousands of earthquakes
happening each year.
It's one of the more common acoustic signals
we have in our oceans.
(low-pitched rumbling)
This is super low frequency,
and it's this continuous rumble,
which is way different than the biotwang.
(deep, resonant droning)
(low-pitched rumbling)
We could say definitively
it's not caused by seismic activity.
- [Tony] Next, Gottesman explores
whether the noise might be manmade.
- We can compare it with sonar of a submarine.
(sonar pinging)
So you have this repetitive, simple pinging.
Contrast that with this biotwang,
which is extremely complex, five parts.
(deep, resonant droning)
So this biotwang is not a sonar.
- [Tony] Marine biologist Dr. Shea Conger
focuses on the bio in the biotwang.
She thinks it could be an animal, but what?
- This sound was similar in pattern and frequency
to marine mammals that use sound
either to inform or locate
other individuals of their species,
or they might use echolocation
to navigate their environment.
- [Tony] So if it is biological,
Conger wonders if it could be something
from an undiscovered or presumed extinct species.
- In recent years, there have been sightings or biopsies
of whales that we thought were extinct
and in fact, they weren't.
We're only getting small glimpses of what's going on
in places like the Mariana Trench.
- [Tony] Conger believes the biotwang
was made by one such species,
not one believed extinct, but one that's rarely seen.
- The researchers that study these types of animals
were able to determine that this is probably a Bryde's whale.
They spend a lot of time at the surface,
but they're very elusive,
and we don't know a lot about them.
(deep, resonant droning)
- [Tony] But hang on.
As Dr. Conger mentioned,
the Bryde's whale spends the majority of its time
in the top 10 meters of the water column,
not the bowels of the planet's deepest ocean trench.
And there's another problem here
with the persistence of the sound.
- These whales primarily use these sounds for mating,
which happens mostly in late winter,
but this sound, they've recorded it
all year round at this location.
(tense music)
- Okay, so the ocean scientists
say the Bryde's whale theory is possible,
but as we just saw, it doesn't really fit all the facts.
The sound is similar enough to other whale calls
to rule out anything mechanical.
But our verdict?
This is an unidentified ocean animal,
quite possibly a species we've never seen before.
- Many religions share a belief in doomsday prophecies
that describe the end of the world.
Until now, the most terrifying images of these end times
have appeared only in our imaginations.
But could a recent incident in the holy land
be seen as an omen, heralding the day of judgment?
It's September 2021 near the shores of the Dead Sea
in Ghor Al-Haditha, Jordan, when scientists get wind
of a positively biblical event taking place.
They head to the site to check it out.
There they film a scene straight out of a horror film.
(eerie music)
The water in a small pool by the side of the Dead Sea
has turned blood red overnight.
The Dead Sea and other nearby pools are still deep blue,
but this one spot is unmistakably crimson.
Journalist Eric Grundhauser says the location of this event
naturally brings up biblical connotations.
- The site sits on what is believed by some
to be the location of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah,
famously destroyed by God for their sin and iniquity.
This could be a signal of a modern plague
that we are being punished for our modern sinfulness.
- [Tony] Catholic miracle researcher Michael O'Neill
says it hearkens backs the book of Exodus,
when God unleashed plagues to punish Egypt
for enslaving the Israelites.
- It's one of the first of 10 plagues.
God commands Aaron to stick his staff in the water,
and when he does so, it turns to blood.
All the fish die.
The Egyptians are unable to drink from that water
or any of the nearby springs.
- Several books of the Bible prophecy that the moon
will turn into blood at the end of days.
As a result, some believe it's a bad omen
to have four consecutive total lunar eclipses
where the moon briefly turns a reddish hue,
what is known as a blood moon.
So is this red pool also a sign?
It's no secret that the Dead Sea
is one of the world's saltiest bodies of water,
and the area around it is famed for its geological oddities.
So is this an act of God, a unique natural phenomenon,
or perhaps some combination of the two?
(tense music)
O'Neill first investigates if it could be divine retribution.
- In 1981, in those Marian apparitions in Kibeho, Rwanda,
that were approved by the Vatican as being authentic,
several children saw visions of the Virgin Mary,
and they saw rivers of blood
that were a foreshadowing of the Rwandan genocide.
- [Tony] In this case, they tested the water,
and it's not blood.
But a similar recent incident at the Alexander River
in nearby Israel was the blood of animals
dumped from a local slaughterhouse.
So could illegal waste disposal, just not blood,
also be to blame at the Dead Sea?
- Typically that would be in a moving body of water
that can flush away pollutants
or in a larger body of water, like the sea.
This is a really isolated pool of water.
- [Tony] Then if it's not human dumping,
archeologist Dr. Ed Barnhart considers
that the reddish hue could be plant-based.
- There's a lot of salt content here.
That is an environment in which
a particular kind of red algae can really thrive.
So when the water becomes more salty,
the sort of things that eat the algae die off,
and only the algae can proliferate,
and that turns the water red.
- [Tony] But Conger is somewhat skeptical
that algae is the answer in this case,
since this is the only red pool in the area.
- If this is actually an algal bloom,
we would probably expect to see this happening
in other bodies of water around it, but we're just not,
so I don't think that's what's happening here.
- [Tony] So if it's not animal or plant,
could it be mineral?
Geologist Dr. Bob Anderson says a natural occurring element
is likely the cause.
- From the scientists who have done soil
and water samples in that area,
they're seeing higher concentrations of manganese,
most likely in the form of manganese oxide.
Manganese oxide would act very similar to iron oxides,
causing this water to turn red.
- [Tony] Manganese is usually a brown-black substance,
but in some rare cases, manganese oxide can take on
the same rusty orange red color as iron oxide.
(tense music)
That seems to solve this mystery.
Our verdict? Manganese oxide.
Scientists say the mineral could have entered
the stagnant pool through fissures
that allow fresh water to bubble up from the seabed.
But does that natural explanation
mean it's not the hand of God?
Or is the natural world, as many believe,
just another of his tools to communicate?
That is a matter of opinion.
- There are more objects flying in our skies
and orbiting in space than ever before.
At any given moment,
there are as many as 20,000 planes
and nearly 5,000 satellites above our heads,
and that's not even counting the drones.
So it takes something pretty unusual to grab our attention,
and this next sighting
recorded near the Panama Canal, no less, did just that.
(dramatic music)
It's October 9th, 2019 in Panama City, Panama.
Jose Angel Castro is strolling on a pedestrian bridge
when he suddenly notices something strange
floating in the sky.
- [Tony] Take a closer look.
A thin, smooth, white disc is simply floating in the sky.
Now, if you've watched us before,
you may think this is just another case of reflection
or optical illusion,
but there's no doubt in Jose's mind what he's seeing.
- [Tony] Journalist Erin McCarthy
isn't surprised by Jose's reaction.
- There are UFO sightings in Central America
pretty frequently,
usually around volcanoes and things like that,
so it doesn't surprise me
that someone would think this is a UFO.
- [Tony] In fact, just this year,
a recently resurfaced photo of this flying saucer
in neighboring Costa Rica has been making headlines,
some calling it the best UFO photo ever taken.
The image was captured in September 1971
during a survey for a hydroelectric project
and estimated to be between 120 and 220 feet in diameter.
The photograph was analyzed in France and the United States
by different organizations and confirmed to not be faked,
but what it is remains a mystery to this day.
So we have a 50-year-old UFO seen over Costa Rica.
Now this mysterious white disc seen near the Panama Canal?
What's going on here?
Is there something drawing extra terrestrials
to Latin America?
We asked our experts to take a look.
(tense music)
We begin with aviation expert Tim McMillan.
In this footage, the object is so flat and long,
it sure doesn't look like a plane or a drone,
and McMillan says it doesn't look or move
like a balloon either.
- If it was a balloon,
we should be seeing more of a larger, oval shape.
The lighter-than-air gases that are inside of that
that would be causing it to fly
would be distributed in a manner
where it wouldn't stay level, and we don't see that here.
- [Tony] But McMillan does observe that,
whatever this craft is,
not everyone in the video is as excited as Jose.
- We can see the gentlemen that are in the cherry picker,
but we can't help but notice
that they seem unaffected by whatever this is,
so that's kind of a red flag there to me.
- [Tony] Next, we ask science writer
Mick West to take a look.
Could this footage simply be a hoax?
- Quite often you can see people use a Gaussian blur,
de-focusing technique when they make fake videos,
but this looks more like a proper out-of-focus video.
I can't see anything that really stands out as fake.
- [Tony] So then is Jose right? Could this be an actual UFO?
- The thing about it being a UFO
is that it doesn't do anything particularly interesting.
It doesn't change direction.
It doesn't appear to hover without any means of propulsion.
It doesn't really meet any
of the interesting criteria of a UFO.
- [Tony] However, West does have a clue
that meets his criteria to solve the mystery.
- We know it's a real video, shot in a real place.
We can look it up.
So here we've got Panama City, and we can zoom in,
and find the Albrook Mall right here.
And this is where the video was filmed.
He's on this bridge here, I believe,
and he is taking the video in this direction.
- [Tony] West says that Jose's location is the key.
- Right behind, there is an airport.
Now, there'd be these buildings here,
which are obscuring the view of the airport.
We can see the plane would've started
down at this end of the runway.
- [Tony] Mick says the brightness is caused
by the angle of the sun reflecting off the wing.
It's the intense light rays
that obscure the rest of the plane.
- And it's pretty consistent
with something like a Cessna
with a high wing and the fuselage underneath.
Some friends of mine on my website, Metabunk,
actually tracked down an actual plane
that was taking off at that time.
It's a Cessna 182,
which would be white and illuminated by the sun,
and that would give the appearance of a saucer.
(tense music)
- Our verdict? Airplane.
The angle and the reflected sunlight
made it look like a flying saucer.
But as of now, the good people of Panama
and that crucial canal remain safe from alien invasion.
- [Tony] Planes are tracked almost everywhere by radar.
Sometimes, though, the signal disappears
and the plane keeps going.
But what does it mean if the signal keeps going
and the plane disappears?
Follow closely now.
This story takes place in November 2021,
off the coast of Russia
and in the deserts of Arizona.
People are monitoring a flight tracking site
called Flight Radar 24 that tracks planes in real time,
when they start noticing something strange going on.
They share screenshots from the site,
showing a plane identified as Avrora.
It looks like it's on a standard trans-Pacific flight path
from Arizona to Russia, but it's actually not.
Its callsign is seen flying over Arizona's Sonoran Desert,
when it suddenly disappears.
It's gone for almost 22 hours.
Then it reappears off the coast
of Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, over 4,000 miles away,
where it is spotted for the next three days.
It's a flight that should only take 8 to 10 hours,
and there's no data showing a path between the two points,
so it's just an interpolated great circle,
a perfect arc between the two points,
which likely doesn't accurately represent
a real flight path.
And when the radar tracking is examined more closely,
it appears that when the aircraft was over Arizona,
it was just doing tight circles.
Science journalist Amy Teitel says
that's not the only odd thing about these images.
- This plane with this callsign has never been seen in person.
It is only visible on this website.
This is not the normal type of call sign.
They usually have a flight number
and the aircraft or the airline identifier.
- [Tony] There's a military testing site
in the Sonoran Desert,
near where the call sign was spotted over Arizona,
so perhaps this was a secret government experiment
or an attempt to get intel.
- The fact that it's flying
between the United States and Russia
does suggest we're going back to Cold War days,
that it could be some kind of new spy technology.
- [Tony] Some also believe this could be
an extra terrestrial craft with stealth capabilities
creeping along to secretly observe Earth.
Another possibility for how a spacecraft
could disappear and reappear over 4,000 miles away
is that it could be using hidden portals
that travel from one point to the other
without being detected by prying eyes.
This fits with a UFO theory known as Dark Forest,
which suggests alien species purposely hide from us
because they are not sure yet
if we're a threat to them or will become one.
This theory stems from the Fermi Paradox,
which suggests there's a disconnect
between the number of advanced civilizations
that should be in space
and the lack of hard evidence for any of them.
The term Dark Forest comes from a novel of the same name
that compares the universe to a dark forest
where every species stalks through the woods
as stealthy hunters.
Scientists believe this dark forest idea
could potentially explain why we haven't been picking up
extraterrestrial radio activity.
It's because they are hiding
as they scan the universe for threats.
So could this be a stealth UFO?
Let's turn to our experts.
(tense music)
Aviation expert Tim McMillan examines the data
to see if it could have an extra terrestrial origin.
- These particular devices are only picking up
the transponders that are coming off of the aircraft,
and so I would be inclined to say it's not a UFO,
because it has a transponder.
- [Tony] But video analyst Mick West says there's something
about how the transponder is transmitting its code
that still seems off.
Could it be a glitch in the system?
- The transponder codes that we see here are the ICAO,
the International Civil Aviation Authority Codes.
They are a six-digit, hexadecimal code,
which means it uses the digits zero through nine
and A through F.
But in this case we don't have a code,
we just have all fives, which is an invalid code.
- [Tony] Then could it be a plane
that's relaying a false code to trick a potential adversary
into thinking it's there when it's not,
a practice known as spoofing?
- Explain why you would spoof that particular image,
because nothing about the data that's being provided
resembles a real aircraft.
- [Tony] McMillan says the data makes it hard to believe
this could be a real plane, nevermind a fake one.
- It's moving extremely slow.
It's going around three knots an hour,
slower than even a balloon might travel,
and it's only at about 3,300 feet in altitude.
None of that matches with a known airplane.
- [Tony] So West comes up with only one possible answer.
- I think what we have here is two separate incidents.
An aircraft in Arizona, possibly an aircraft in Russia,
that just happen to have the same invalid transponder code.
- [Tony] West says the planes
likely don't have a transponder code,
so they're being assigned the same default code:
555555.
So while the Russian plane's call sign may be Avrora,
the tracking system is accidentally identifying
a different plane in Arizona
that's using the same default 555555 code
as the Russian plane Avrora.
- Avrora is simply the Russian spelling of the word aurora,
and Aurora is actually the name of a Russian battleship,
so it kind of hints at some kind of Russian military origin
for the callsign.
We don't know what the aircraft is,
we don't know what was hovering over the ocean in Russia,
and we don't know what was making circles in Arizona,
so it's a mystery.
(tense music)
- We think West's guess that these
are two separate aircraft is the most likely,
but even that theory requires
a series of coincidences to line up.
So for now, we're going to consider this
an unsolved aviation mystery
until we get more information about this unusual callsign.
- Last season, we showed you a rectangular object
flying over Wichita, Kansas
that was not identifiable as a plane
nor any other easily recognizable aircraft.
Now, rectangular UFOs are strange, even by UFO standards,
so when another one appeared on this next video,
we knew we had to investigate.
On a clear December day,
a father and daughter are driving south on Route 347,
near Phoenix, Arizona, when they spot something unusual.
They pull over to the side of the road
and begin recording this.
- [Father] Here we go guys. What is this right here?
- [Tony] Flying through the air above South Mountain
is what appears to be a black, rectangular-shaped object.
- [Father] It's definitely not a plane.
- [Tony] You see that? Let's zoom in for a closer look.
Four solid corners are clearly visible
as the object glides over the mountain range.
At first blush, we thought advertising banner,
but where's the plane pulling it?
- You can understand why the man filming this
would be a little bit freaked out.
There are no wings, there's nothing that says
this object should be able to fly.
- [Father] I don't know what that is, guys.
My daughter, who is with me,
we are convinced that this is possibly a UFO.
- [Tony] Could he be right?
Well, it wouldn't be surprising.
Teitel says Phoenix's South Mountain
is known for its UFO sightings.
But a UFO in the form of a rectangle?
Now that's unusual.
- People who believe they've seen UFOs
don't typically report rectangular or square shapes.
They're usually discs or circles or balls,
but there seems to be a rise
in non-traditional flying saucer-type UFO sightings.
- [Tony] But why is this rectangular object
in the skies over Phoenix?
- Luke Air Force Base is near Phoenix.
Arizona's National Guard in Papago Park is there.
Because there's so much military activity
and there has been historically
a lot of advanced military technology tested in the area,
this might actually be a correlation
with the high volume of UFO sightings in the southwest.
- Phoenix is also the site
of the famous Phoenix Lights incident in 1997,
a widely reported series of UFO sightings
that remain unexplained to this day.
But the question is, do we have yet another
true UFO sighting here,
or is there a more obvious explanation?
(tense music)
First, we take the video to astronomer
and video effects designer Marc D'Antonio.
- This guy pulled over and thought it was UFO,
but could it be an aircraft?
Well, what about the Super Guppy?
NASA makes a Super Guppy aircraft,
and because it's so oddly shaped,
it will indeed be mistaken as a UFO.
- [Tony] The Super Guppy is a large, wide-bodied aircraft
that can carry loads up to 54,000 pounds.
- [Marc] The skin of the Guppy is very reflective,
and it's a bright, clear day,
but nowhere in the video do you actually see
any kind of reflection off of this object.
And they can track where the Guppy is at all times,
and for this date and time,
you can look up and see if the Guppy was in the area,
and you'll find that it was not.
- [Tony] Instead, D'Antonio has an explanation
that appears to match the visual facts.
- You'll notice that the shape sort of subtly changes
as if it's flapping.
I would basically say that, based on the shape,
based on the speed, it looks very much like an object
that is an advertising banner.
- [Tony] But advertising banners can't fly by themselves.
Plus, they're usually low enough
and close enough to read the ad, right?
A check of real time flight radar data
does show daily small aircraft activity near South Mountain.
So where's the plane?
Physicists Michio Kaku explains.
- There should be an airplane pulling the whole thing,
but you don't see it, but that could be an optical illusion.
- [Tony] Kaku says that the long distance
between the camera and the object,
combined with atmospheric conditions,
could be important factors.
- Notice that this videotape was done
from a distance of several miles.
Because of that, you can have mirage effects
that would hide the airplane.
Hot air rises and expands.
When light goes through air that is less dense,
it starts to bend, and there could be air currents here
which distort the light,
and that's probably the reason why you don't see the airplane.
(tense music)
- Our verdict?
The fluttering is the key.
We're going with our first instinct: advertising banner.
But the absence of the plane in the footage is strange,
and it certainly had people online talking.
These mysterious rectangular objects
are a definite phenomenon,
and as you continue to document them,
we'll keep investigating.
- UFO sightings, hallucinations,
and malfunctioning compasses are all features
of one anomalous zone in the wilds of Russia
and part of the 62-year-old mystery that is our next story.
January 23rd, 1959, in the mountains of western Russia.
Nine members of the Ural Polytechnic Institute
head into the frigid wilderness
on a skiing expedition led by Igor Dyatlov.
The team makes camp on February 1st.
Those seven men and two women are never heard from again.
A search team arrives on February 26th
to find the tent half torn open, covered in snow,
and cut open from inside, as if the campers were trying
to escape something in a hurry.
The group's shoes and other belongings
have been left behind.
Footprints lead to the team's dead bodies,
dressed only in underwear.
Three hikers have skull damage and major chest fractures.
Notably, the corpses have no external wounds
associated with those fractures.
The diaries and cameras left behind
offer the only clue as to what happened.
Amongst the dozens of photos taken during the ill-fated trek
is an alarming image of a darkened figure
that seems to be approaching from not far off.
Field researcher Ken Gerhard
explores one of the most popular hypotheses
about the group's demise.
- One theory suggests that it may have been a Russian yeti
that attacked and killed these nine hikers.
- [Tony] Yetis are said to have razor-sharp teeth
and be closely related to bears,
as opposed to the ape-like nature of a Sasquatch.
In 2019, the Indian Army posted a photo
of a 32x15-inch footprint found near the Makalu base camp
they suspect was made by a yeti.
The terrain here is similar.
- We are talking about a fairly remote, mountainous area,
and this is the type of habitat
where yeti-type creatures have been said to roam.
- [Tony] It's also been suggested the bright lights
emanating from orbs in the sky
that were captured in the group's photographs
could imply some otherworldly force
was behind the tragedy.
- UFO theorists have speculated that there could be
some type of extraterrestrial involvement
in these mysterious deaths.
- [Tony] Another theory is that a local native tribe,
the Mansi people, may have killed the hikers
after they trespassed on sacred lands.
In fact, at one point during their journey,
the group is believed to have been following
the tracks of a Mansi hunter.
Soviet investigators concluded that, during the night,
an unknown compelling force killed the hikers.
They immediately classified the case files,
but bowing to public pressure, Russia opened
a new investigation into the incident in 2019.
So what will our experts say when they investigate?
(tense music)
Professor of anatomy Dr. Jeff Meldrum
weighs the possibility that these hikers encountered a yeti
and whether that could account for the ripped tent
and the figure captured in the photo.
- There's a line of ski tracks
that lead right straight to the figure.
Looking more closely at the photos
for hints from the garb worn,
anoraks and gaiters, gloves, hoods, and so forth,
it's one of the trekkers.
There's no question left in my mind,
based on that comparison.
- [Tony] Next, astrophotography expert Andrew McCarthy
examines the photos for clues of the UFO theory,
and he offers an explanation.
- A common subject for photographers is the full moon.
It's a beautiful sight to your eyes.
However, it can be difficult to photograph.
Sometimes it can look great through your eye piece,
but unless you really dial in your camera settings,
the photo's not going to turn out very good.
- [Tony] McCarthy says this image
is likely an attempted handheld shot of the moon,
overexposed and blurred by the motion of the camera.
And those strange lights and shapes seem to be the results
of the photographer's attempt to capture photos of stars
and planets in the night sky.
As for the Mansi people, this theory was abandoned
due to a lack of motive
and any concrete evidence of their involvement.
So what could prompt the crew to cut through their tents
and face the Russian winter in a state of undress?
Meteorologist Juan Hernandez has a theory.
- There's something called a slab avalanche
where you have a slab of snow
that is moving down the slope of the mountain.
The slant has to be around 30 to 45 degrees
for it to be able to go down the slope.
There was a significant wind, there was significant cold.
That would likely be the cause of a slab avalanche.
- [Tony] Hernandez beliefs it was a mixture
of the avalanche itself and the extreme cold
that killed the hikers.
This explanation would help explain the fascinating mystery
of why their bodies were brutally pummeled
and broken inside,
but strangely unharmed on the outside
with no visible external wounds.
- So here we have a windshield chart
which, unfortunately, the hikers
were in the extreme end over here
where winds were around 60 miles an hour
with a temperature of -40.
So, given the wind chill of -91,
they would likely have less than five minutes
before the frostbite setting in.
- [Tony] And Jeff Meldrum believes this theory
explains the grizzly state in which the bodies were found.
- The avalanche explanation makes clear
why they were buried in their tents
and had to dig their way out.
When a slab avalanche like that goes whipping by,
it grinds things to a pulp, it's like crumbled concrete.
(tense music)
- Our verdict? An avalanche and frostbite
caused by freezing conditions killed these hikers.
The area has been named Dyatlov Pass
in memory of Igor and the rest of the group.
And that's our show for tonight.
Thank you so much for watching,
and, as ever, keep those cameras rolling!
(dramatic theme music)