- Tonight, on The Proof Is Out There.
A special episode probing the truth about UFOs.
The United States government admits
it's baffled by videos like this.
- The Pentagon themselves have listed this as unidentified.
- [Tony] But is it hiding a deeper secret?
- I was informed in the course of my official duties
of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval
and reverse engineering program.
- And there's been a disinformation campaign in place
for the last 50 years.
- [Tony] What are these unidentified objects
that keep turning up near the US military?
- This one is truly anomalous.
- [Tony] Does this leaked footage reveal an alien craft
the government wants to keep secret?
- A helicopter or plane is out of the question.
- [Tony] And a new take
on the most famous UFO footage of all.
- The importance of this video cannot be overstated.
- I'm not saying it's aliens, but it's aliens.
- [Tony] Prepare yourself
for The Proof Is Out There: The UFO Files.
(dramatic music)
Good evening and welcome
to The Proof Is Out There: The UFO Files.
We're not talking about science fiction here.
UFOs have become the subject of congressional hearings,
government studies, and eye popping whistleblower claims.
The topic isn't fringe any longer.
We've decided to devote an entire hour
to the best videos and images
of unidentified aerial phenomena, or UAP,
the government's preferred term for UFOs.
Some are recent, some go back more than 30 years,
and some are out of this world.
Or are they?
Because during these last few months, more than ever,
that's been the biggest question.
Where are these objects coming from?
- Maybe we're on the cusp.
Maybe we're on the cusp of something brand new,
something exciting.
- [Tony] Both the Pentagon,
through its All Domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO,
and NASA, through its UAP Independent Study Group,
say there have been 800 UAP sightings since 2022.
Of these, up to 5% cannot be explained away
as aircraft, debris, birds, or anything else we know of.
Officially, the officials don't know what they are.
- Without sufficient data,
we are unable to reach defendable conclusions
that meet the high scientific standards
we set for resolution.
And I will not close a case
that I cannot defend the conclusions of.
- Most UAP sightings
result in very limited data
that makes it even more difficult
to draw scientific conclusions
about the nature of UAP.
- We're seeing advanced types of propulsion being displayed,
but no real answers as to what they are.
- [Tony] Neither agency has gone as far as saying
these objects are extraterrestrial,
but one man did go that far
and even if you don't know his name,
you probably heard what he said.
- I was informed, in the course of my official duties,
of a multi-decade UAP crash retrieval
and reverse engineering program.
- [Tony] David Grusch,
former military intelligence officer
turned Pentagon whistleblower,
came forward in June 2023,
claiming the government has been running
a secret UFO crash retrieval program
since at least World War II.
According to Grusch,
the US is in possession of downed alien craft,
alien corpses, and the US and other nations
may even have some kind of ongoing diplomatic relationship
with aliens.
- Do you believe our government has made contact
with intelligent extraterrestrials?
- Something I can't discuss in public setting.
- I believe David's claims in the fact that
we are covering extraterrestrial craft
and extraterrestrial bodies
from the general scientific community
and the public at large
and there's been a disinformation campaign in place
for the last 50 years.
- [Tony] Much of what Grusch is claiming
has been said before.
What makes this version of the story special
is who is saying it and who he's saying it to.
- It's very interesting to see someone
with such a credentialed background
as an intelligence officer make these claims
in such an official manner.
If he was lying, he could be held criminally liable.
That would suggest to me that he certainly is not lying
about what he's saying.
- [Tony] But while Grusch has been making claims boldly
and without equivocation,
he has not presented the public
with any physical evidence, documents, or images
that corroborate them.
- Unfortunately, just testimony alone
is not enough to change the public's perception.
We need physical evidence.
- I'm highly skeptical of the idea
that the US government has any type of crashed UFOs,
but I do find the information that's being shared
or relayed certainly merits investigation.
- [Tony] Some say Grusch may himself
be part of a disinformation campaign
to keep us talking about aliens
instead of the uncomfortable truth.
The theory that many, if not all of these UAPs
are really assets of rival militaries
conducting reconnaissance on our aircraft, warships,
and nuclear bases.
- It's possible that this could be
secret military technology.
- [Tony] But until that theory is backed up by proof,
the best evidence we have
is still these infinitely intriguing videos.
- Now, Pentagon whistleblower David Grusch
has claimed the US government
is sitting on much more UFO evidence
than the handful of videos
that they have officially released.
Even if that's the case,
what we've seen so far is pretty compelling.
Like this video, that's left
top government investigators stumped.
July 12th, 2022,
at an undisclosed location in the Middle East,
an American MQ9 drone observes a conversation
between two people on the street below.
As they walk away from a house,
a strange object comes into the sensor's field of view.
A shiny, metallic ball darts diagonally across the frame,
prompting the camera to jolt away from the people
and follow the sphere eastward instead.
The sphere looks to be at least a few feet across
and it shoots through the sky
in what appears to be a straight line.
The grainy video ends with the sphere in mid-flight
and center frame.
This sphere took on greater meaning
when AARO presented it to the public.
- This is essentially all of the data
we have associated with this event.
It is going to be virtually impossible
to fully identify that.
- [Tony] That's right.
Unlike other UAPs it's looked into,
AARO still considers this video unresolved.
- Kirkpatrick was tight-lipped
about the exact origins of this object,
but he did acknowledge the almost inhuman speeds
at which it travels and the strange design.
He also identified the Middle East region
as a hotspot for UAPs.
- [Tony] Considering the ongoing conflicts
in the region, we have to wonder
if these UFOs are related to others
that have turned up during wartime.
In 1951 during the Korean War,
a group of American GIs stationed near Chowan
encountered a mysterious glowing object
that floated to the center of artillery explosions
but took no damage.
One veteran later claimed the glowing craft pulsated
and changed colors.
In the following days,
the GIs fell sick with what some believe
was radiation poisoning.
Some theorized that this unidentified craft
and the hundreds reported by US troops since 2021
are attracted to military targets.
But why?
- One explanation is that they're actually alien probes
measuring our defensive or offensive capabilities.
In an optimistic view, it's possible that
they are simply trying to observe our behavior
and figure out why we are so often in conflict.
- [Tony] Whatever the reason,
this sphere sighting over the Middle East
appears to uphold the pattern.
A Pentagon report released in 2022
found evidence that UFOs can inflict injuries
including radiation burns, paralysis, and brain damage.
So while Kirkpatrick's office said
this object wasn't an apparent threat,
we are inclined to take another look.
(tense music)
We start by asking aviation expert Tim McMillan,
could this be an advanced military drone?
- This doesn't match any type of technology
that we're aware of.
I don't see any obvious signs of propulsion,
I don't see any wings.
So all the necessary components for a typical aircraft.
You'll notice we can see other features in the terrain
which is below this object really clearly.
So you would be able to definitely see
if there were wings,
there were rotors, any of those features on it.
- [Tony] So it's a spherical object in the sky
without apparent means of propulsion.
Could it just be a balloon?
- It certainly could be a balloon of some sort.
Particularly in the Middle East there have been very crude,
airborne, improvised explosive devices,
so you attach some sort of explosive
to a balloon in hopes that it collides with the aircraft.
The key piece of missing evidence here
is we would want to know the wind direction
and wind speed here.
- [Tony] That info has been redacted.
Otherwise we could determine whether wind is with
or against this object
and if it's against, then this can be no balloon.
- I think that's what makes this interesting for me
because the Pentagon has listed this as unidentified
but they have access to that information,
so they should have been able to better narrow down
it being a balloon.
- [Tony] Then could this really be
some kind of alien probe?
- Though this video is definitely intriguing,
we also don't see any real extreme flight characteristics
that require the existence of aliens
or some type of advanced physics.
- [Tony] That means this UFO isn't displaying
the hallmarks the US military has cataloged
on other UFOs,
including instantaneous acceleration,
hypersonic velocities, cloaking, and transmedium travel,
the ability to fly into and out of the water.
Nor does it convince McMillan
that UFOs are particularly interested in human conflict.
- There are more pilots
being perceptive of their surroundings in a war zone.
So I think it gives us that idea
that perhaps UFOs are interested in human conflict
when in fact, what it is
is we're paying more attention to the skies
during human conflict.
(tense music)
- Our verdict, we're calling this a possible UFO.
On one hand it has no wings or obvious propulsion,
which is very UFO like.
There is a chance it's a balloon pushed by a stiff wind.
But you'd think AARO would know that by now.
If we get more information, we'll let you know.
But you'd think AARO would know that by noback, .
We are going to continue our UFO special
with input from one of the biggest names in ufology.
In recent years, freelance filmmaker Jeremy Corbell
has built a reputation
for releasing sensational UFO videos
allegedly leaked by members of the military.
The videos have made headlines worldwide
and tonight, we're gonna look at some of his latest
and hear from the man himself.
On the morning of April 16th, 2016,
an American MC12 reconnaissance plane
soars over Mosul, Iraq at the time under ISIS control.
Its primary objective
is to observe what's happening on the ground,
but today it captures something highly unusual in the air.
This frame pulled from the footage
reveals a metallic looking ball flying over a city street.
The object reportedly moves alongside the spy plane
without dropping in altitude,
traveling in a lateral direction from south to north.
It would take seven years, but on January 24th, 2023,
Jeremy and his co-host George Knapp
obtained and released this shocking image
to the American public for the first time
on their podcast, "Weaponized".
- The Mosul orb is the first time
we have a verified, bonafide image
filmed by our military over a conflict zone
that shows a UAP.
It raised a lot of interest within our intelligence agencies
and Department of Defense
because they could see that it was
under intelligent control.
- [Tony] A few months later on March 6th, 2023,
Jeremy reveals six more intriguing images
also shot in Iraq
on a thermal camera set to display heat as white
and cooler objects in black.
- We labeled it the Baghdad Phantom.
We have seen it described as cylindrical
and under intelligent control and controlled flight
with a stable lateral direction.
And it's designated UAP by our Department of Defense.
- [Tony] Again, is it possible that
some airborne power has an interest in our military?
And if that's the case, is it alien or human?
- Some people online are claiming that this is
proof of non-human intelligences
operating within Iraqi airspace.
One other theory is that
these objects are potentially some foreign adversary,
such as China or Russia,
that is operating some sort of vehicle
or weapon system inside Iraq.
- Jeremy says intelligently controlled UAPs
are picked up by radar, seen by pilots,
and engaged by our military on a daily basis.
He argues that there's no reason
this information should be kept from the American public
and he believes the potential for misidentification
in these incidents could have devastating consequences.
So, let's turn to the experts to assess the threat level.
(tense music)
First off, aviation expert Tim McMillan
examines the image of the sphere
taken by a spy plane over Mosul.
- You can actually see
this object has three dimensional shape,
so this appears to be airborne.
I don't see any obvious signs of propulsion.
We don't see rotors, we don't see wings,
and so it really limits us to a balloon
is the only thing, given that size and shape,
that it could possibly be.
- Astronomer and video effects designer Marc D'Antonio
thinks he knows exactly what kind of balloon it is.
- One of the earthly possibilities for this
is that we're looking at a weather balloon
that's got a payload that we can't see.
- [Tony] But according to records,
aerial winds at the time
would've been pushing against this object.
Plus, McMillan sees evidence presented in the video
that bursts D'Antonio's weather balloon theory
once and for all.
- Because of the information that's displayed,
we know at what altitude
the actual drone that's filming this is at, 26,000 feet
and that would be substantially lower
than most weather balloons are gonna be flying.
- [Tony] Weather balloons typically reach altitudes
between 60,000 and 105,000 feet.
And what about the Baghdad Phantom?
Could this cylindrical UFO be a plane or even a drone?
- I don't see any parts that automatically suggest
that it is a drone,
so I don't see any wings or control surfaces.
So it's certainly not a drone or aircraft.
- [Tony] McMillan thinks
he may be zeroing in on the target,
but just when he thinks he's getting hotter, things go cold.
- My first impression is that
we're looking at, likely, a surface to surface missile.
This particular video was filmed in Iraq
and so there's a lot of rocket attacks.
However, the fact that the object is black,
meaning it's cooler than the ambient air around it,
is inconsistent with anything that I've ever seen
when filming missiles with an IR system like this.
- [Tony] But D'Antonio thinks
he may have an answer to how a missile could display
such a surprisingly cold heat signature.
- If this is really black as cold,
the temperature difference doesn't have to be a whole lot
and if this is flying over Iraq,
it's possible that the ground is 130 degrees
and this object here, it's possible it could be 90 degrees
and look as different as that.
- [Tony] So what about the notion
that we're dealing with genuine UFOs
in both the case of the Mosul Orb
and the Baghdad Phantom?
D'Antonio doesn't see it.
- The fact that we know of other objects that are human made
that look like this, it's a stretch to say
that they're unidentified flying objects.
They're probably human made objects,
possibly a weather balloon
and very likely a missile in this case.
- [Tony] McMillan respectfully disagrees.
- The objects in both images are unknown.
I cannot give you a concrete explanation for what they are,
but potentially with more information,
we could arrive at a more firm conclusion.
(tense music)
- Our verdict? Split decision.
We're calling the Mosul Orb a genuine UFO.
It's flying too low to be a weather balloon.
We're going with D'Antonio on the Baghdad Phantom.
It's most likely a missile.
Still, we can't say for sure,
since Jeremy claims the government refuses
to release the complete video
that these images were taken from.
to release the completFO invesn
with another video released by the Pentagon
that instantly made headlines.
So far, we've been focusing on UAPs
captured by our military in the Middle East, but of course,
the US has airborne assets all over the globe
and believers say this next remarkable piece of footage
is proof that aliens do too.
January 15th, 2023,
an undisclosed location in South Asia.
A remotely piloted Air Force MQ9 drone
closely monitors another MQ9 in the skies
via infrared cameras.
It seems like a routine reconnaissance mission until...
Four seconds into the clip,
an oblong object flies past the other MQ9
in an apparent near miss.
And take a closer look at this.
The UFO seems to leave an atmospheric wake
as its zips across the sensors field of view
right through here.
Now that could be fuel exhaust
or perhaps even a disturbance in the air pressure.
One thing's for sure,
it doesn't look anything like this drone.
Writer Amy Teitel says
that despite the video's public release,
much still remains unknown.
- This video came out
as part of a congressional hearing in April of 2023.
So we know that it is a real video.
We don't know any other details though.
- [Tony] What we do know is like the Middle East UFO video,
this footage also earned a place
in Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick's presentation
to the Senate's Armed Services Committee.
- This one everyone thought was truly anomalous,
but this is the kind of data that we have to work with
and the type of analysis that we have to do,
which can be quite extensive
when you have to pull these apart frame by frame.
- [Tony] Dr. Kirkpatrick told Congress
that out of the 650 UAP reports under AARO review,
this one caught their attention because of its odd shape.
- [Amy] It doesn't have obvious wings,
it doesn't have a tail,
it doesn't have an obvious propulsion source.
- [Tony] In other words, it has the makings of a UFO.
According to AARO,
most of the UAP incidents reported to them
occurred between 15 to 25,000 feet in altitude,
which is controlled military airspace.
AARO subscribes to the theory
that unresolved sightings are more likely
the work of US adversaries,
not extraterrestrial intelligence.
Will our experts reach the same conclusion
with this footage?
(tense music)
Could this be an object sent by a foreign power?
The lack of information has Tim McMillan unsure.
- Some key pieces of information that would be contained normally
on the heads up display of the drone,
critically, the date, the time,
and location would help us narrow down
exactly where this is.
- [Tony] But that very lack of information
might tell us something
about the nature of this mission.
- Could this be related to a classified mission?
In this case, probably not.
And the reason I say that is that this long endurance drone
typically will fly just by itself.
It doesn't need a support drone.
- [Tony] To McMillan,
the fact that there are two drones operating here,
one in the footage, the other doing the recording,
means this is probably just a training mission.
So we turned to Rich Hoffman
of the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies to ask
could this simply be a passing plane?
- I looked at it frame by frame
and you see what looks like an aircraft tail and wings
and the fact that it's flying consistently
in the same direction, that it went by rather quick,
it has the appearance of an airplane.
- [Tony] But McMillan isn't so sure.
- You wanna look for signs of a propulsion system,
so exhaust from a jet engine, that type of thing.
We don't necessarily see that with this,
although we, we can see this interesting trail.
However, that is actually an artifact
of the multi aperture camera system.
So you're talking about camera systems
that have hundreds of lenses
with hundreds of independent sensor systems
that form one fluid picture here,
but that can create ghosting
that appears like a trail behind it
when in actuality, what we're seeing
is the overlaying of all of the different images
from those hundreds of different camera lenses.
- [Tony] Then could this be another drone?
- If it's similar to an aircraft design,
much like the MQ9 Reaper, it could be that as well.
- Certainly, it could be.
It could be a lot of things.
There's just not enough information there.
- [Tony] Well, then we have to ask,
could it be a UFO?
- You're trying to deduce what you can
from just a short little clip,
but it flew in a straight line, consistent speed.
The last hypothesis I would've ever gone with
would've been extraterrestrial craft.
The first and the most predominant hypothesis
are that it's an aircraft that you can't make out.
- McMillan says that the Pentagon,
with that redacted information at its disposal,
came to a conclusion consistent with Hoffman's.
- The Pentagon was provided with
the date and time and location and all of that,
and they were able to determine,
without a doubt that what we're seeing here
is actually the rear end of a commercial plane
that is actually flying away from the two drones.
And so, the movement that we see is actually the movement
that's being caused by the drone itself in flight.
(tense music)
- We have to agree with the experts at AARO for this one.
Our verdict is a plane.
While many UFO believers express
disappointment that AARO seemed to downplay
truly anomalous phenomena during the hearing,
other groups applauded this
public release of factual UAP data.
Files.
So far, we've been looking at UFO footage
captured by US forces in foreign countries,
but of course, there are plenty of homegrown sightings too.
One UFO researcher has a series of clips
that indicate a pattern of UFOs near the US Mexico border.
We've investigated one before and now there's yet another.
Take a look.
February 3rd, 2020, south of Tucson, Arizona
at approximately 2100 hours,
a border patrol fleer camera scans a residential area.
Houses and cacti populate the frame.
When suddenly a strange white object appears.
It glides across the screen
with an almost humanoid silhouette
passing over a long stretch of desert and even some cattle.
It maintains both a consistent elevation
and that bright white color.
The video is one of several shot by US authorities
and leaked to UFO Investigator Andy Marshal.
- The footage was leaked to me by
Department of Homeland Security agent.
He wished to remain anonymous.
He knew what was captured in these videos were anomalous
and that he had to get the videos out somehow
to show the world that these things are real.
- Andy dubs the video La Bruja, Spanish for "the witch",
because it looks like a witch sitting upright on a broomstick.
Longtime FLIR technician David Falch
says that to understand the thermal footage,
you first need to know that in this case,
the camera is set to display white as cold and black as hot.
- What you're seeing is a white object
and a black hot scene.
So, this being white means it's ice cold.
You don't see anything like that in the sky.
You see birds, you see aircraft,
everything is putting on a warm thermal signature.
There's nothing out there in the sky
that's got a cold thermal signature.
- Nothing that we know of,
but Andy can think of a similar unknown object
spotted around Tucson,
which came to be known as the rubber duck.
- The rubber duck incident took place November 23rd, 2019
and it was shot from a reconnaissance plane
and as they were overlooking the landscape,
an object came into view
and they recorded it for up to 40 minutes.
That object that was captured in that footage
is almost identical to the one captured in La Bruja,
the shape, the fact that it was emitting zero heat.
- [Tony] In 2021,
Andy helped leak the rubber duck footage,
so called because it looks like a rubber duck.
Here on Proof, we declared it a genuine UFO
and a recent paper
from the Scientific Coalition of UAP studies,
or SCU, concurred.
Falch, who contributed to the paper,
can attest to the in-depth analysis
which led to that conclusion.
- The paper investigated
the characteristics of the rubber duck,
what the approximate temperature was,
the speed of the aircraft, the trajectory, the fight path.
- [Tony] The paper found the rubber duck anomalous
in three respects.
It's white cold temperature,
it's odd shape, and its speed,
especially that it flew
against the wind,
meaning it could not
have been a balloon.
- All these things combined
to come up to this big conclusion of,
they didn't know what it was either.
- [Tony] So, is La Bruja
related to the famed rubber duck?
- They're both ice cold, not having any signs of propulsion,
not changing thermal signature,
looking like they're on a linear travel.
It doesn't make any sense.
- Now because we're talking about the US Mexico border,
we have to consider whether both these objects
were aerial devices used to smuggle drugs.
After all, border patrol agents recently saw 21 cases
of drone infiltration along the San Diego Mexico border
in a 13 month period.
But that's just one possible explanation.
Let's see what our experts say.
(tense music)
We first ask SCU President Rich Hoffman
if there is any way this could be a bird.
- Even in infrared,
you can make out a lot of details
that are pretty remarkable.
You'd be able to tell that it was a bird or not a bird.
There's no flapping and birds aren't cold like this.
In thermal, a bird will appear dark.
- [Tony] And as we did with the rubber duck footage,
we have to consider if this could just be a balloon.
In this case, the wind actually supports the theory.
Falch estimates that the FLIR camera is pointed southwest,
meaning La Bruja is headed southeast
and the weather data in Tucson at the time of the sighting
shows a light breeze from the west northwest.
But Hoffman says it doesn't look quite right.
- Some party balloons, for example,
like latex, will be see-through.
A mylar balloon will reflect the heat from the ground
and so, it wouldn't be completely white like this.
- [Tony] So could this be
some type of conventional aircraft?
Falch doesn't think so.
- A helicopter or plane is out of the question
because this FLIR is just looking around,
kind of almost at a ground level.
So if it was an aircraft,
it would have to be extremely small in size
and it's not emitting any type of heat,
so it's obviously easy to rule out
that it's no type of aircraft.
- If it has to be low flying, then could it be a drone?
- You would see stop go movements
that would kind of sway the object,
you don't see that in La Bruja.
And how the signature looks compared to a drone,
you would see a difference from the heat
in the thermal signature generated from the engines.
- [Tony] So is this really a UFO?
- Bottom line is, you've got an unusual shape here
and I haven't been able to put this to anything rational.
It just doesn't match up.
So it's unknown to me.
I can't begin to classify it at all.
(tense music)
- Our verdict, like the SCU's conclusion
with the rubber duck,
we also think La Bruja is a genuine UFO.
If you're interested in reading the SCU's full analysis
of the rubber duck incident,
feel free to visit the organization's website,
at explorescu.org.
No words yet on whether La Bruja
will be given the same treatment.
No words yet on whetherc music)a
- What's the best UFO photograph ever taken?
That's depends on whom you ask.
But we're about to show you one of the leading candidates
and this one was kept hidden for more than 30 years.
August 4th, 1990,
two hotel employees are on a walk
in the Scottish Highlands near Calvine.
Mid hike, they allegedly noticed something in the sky.
Overhead, the men see a massive, diamond shaped UFO
accompanied by a military plane.
One of them snaps a photo.
The object is clear, it has four sides
and a horizontal division
between an illuminated top and a shadowed bottom,
like a three-dimensional object illuminated by the sun.
After about 10 minutes,
the diamond allegedly shoots straight up into the sky.
Writer Amy Teitel says
little is known about this diamond shaped UFO.
- The Clavine photo is a very classic UFO image.
It doesn't give us a lot of details,
we can't tell from the image how fast it's going,
what it's doing.
- [Tony] And it's not just unidentified,
it's state certified unidentified.
Nick Pope, a former UFO investigator
for Britain's Ministry of Defense.
says the MOD thought the photo genuine.
However, despite widespread speculation
that the object's origins are extraterrestrial,
Teitel notes that the Calvine UFO
might not be interstellar at all.
- It's possible that the Calvine photograph
is actually secret military equipment.
- [Tony] In fact, rumors at the time of this sighting
support that theory.
- There have been rumors of the US Air Force
testing of reconnaissance aircraft called Aurora
in Scotland.
- [Tony] The rumor top secret aircraft
was purportedly 110 feet long, 60 feet wide
and capable of speeds up to Mach 8.
- There were sightings of this aircraft
said to be a black triangular vehicle
in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
- [Tony] So, was the Calvin incident one of those sightings?
If you believe Nick Pope, even the UK's
Ministry of Defense considered the possibility
that the Calvine UFO
might have been the rumored Aurora aircraft.
However, the MOD itself remains mum
of what it thinks the photo depicts.
So what is it?
Time to ask our experts.
(tense music)
First, is this photo even real?
Forensic video analyst Michael Primeau says it's hard to say
because the negatives have been lost.
It's only because of journalist David Clark
that this print recently came to light.
- Dr. Clark actually tracked it down
by finding a former RAF press officer named Craig Lindsay,
who had an original copy of it still preserved.
- [Tony] Unfortunately, a copy
doesn't make a strong case for authentication.
- We don't have the original evidence.
We have a version that was printed
and then surfaced several years after.
But the photo definitely looks real.
No abnormalities in the physical aspects of the scene.
- [Tony] So we ask our skeptical science writer, Mick West,
could this be the rumored Aurora aircraft?
- No actual Aurora craft has ever emerged.
And even the artist renderings of the Aurora craft,
they don't really look like this.
This doesn't look like an aerodynamic craft.
There's no real visible exhaust.
There's no control surfaces.
It just looks like a weird diamond shaped thing.
- [Tony] If it doesn't look aerodynamic,
is there a chance it's not even in the air?
Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy thinks so.
- The key piece of evidence is the fence.
Fence posts, if installed vertically,
actually give us a vanishing point.
Now, if they were looking up as they claim to have been
when they took that photo, the fence posts
would've converged in an upwards direction,
not a downwards direction.
And if it was pointed down,
then we are not looking up into the sky at all.
- [Tony] So what are we looking at?
- I think we're looking at an object
that's reflecting in a body of water.
- [Tony] Imagine you're looking out at a lake,
a large triangular boulder juts out of the water
and casts a perfect reflection beneath it.
Looks a lot like the Calvine photo, right?
But West isn't so sure.
- So I think it's somewhat implausible
that you would get a such a mirror-like, still pool
up in the Scottish highlands.
I tried recreating this in my pool in the backyard,
which is very sheltered and it's a very small body of water,
and I had to do it early in the morning
before there was any wind.
So it's very difficult to do.
- [Tony] Instead, West suggests
we recalibrate our sense of scale.
- We don't actually know how far away it is.
What if it was only say two feet away?
Then it could be very small indeed.
And that kind of brings us to the other way
we can fake images just using a model.
I did a few tests outside,
just simply dangling the object from the tree.
And so I think it's very easy
to have simulated this photo,
using just a simple model hanging from this tree.
(tense music)
- Our verdict?
We're tempted to call this one a hoax,
considering both West and McCarthy proved
that it could be faked.
But the British Ministry of Defense
has reportedly investigated the image
and has not declared it a phony.
So for now,
we have to say this remains an unidentified object,
but we're not gonna call it a UFO
because we're not even positive it's actually flying.
but we're not gonna call it a UFO )
- Finally tonight, we want to talk about what's become
one of the most famous UFO encounters ever.
The 2004 Nimitz Tic Tac UFO.
The US government still considers this
an official, unresolved UAP.
But recently, our in-house skeptic Mick West
says he came up with an explanation for it.
So how will the debunker's theory hold up?
Many of you already know this by heart.
It's November 14th, 2004, off the coast of San Diego.
The aircraft carrier USS Nimitz
is leading its strike group on practice maneuvers
when something strange occurs.
While radar is indicating an unknown object in the air,
Lieutenant Chad Underwood seeks out the anomalous object
and manages to take a video.
What he captures on camera changes ufology forever.
The infrared camera picks up a white,
almost star-shaped blob
hovering at an altitude of about 15,000 to 24,000 feet.
It has a bright white center, meaning the object is hot
and several gray spikes coming out of it
representing the dispersion of heat.
The camera then switches off its infrared setting
and we see the object as a solid black disc in the distance.
The craft appears to rotate,
now resembling more of a tic-tac shape.
Finally, the object subtly shoots off the screen
at stunning speed to the amazement of the pilots.
- They claim that it was performing in ways
that were definitely anomalous.
For something that had no propellers, no rotors,
it had no exhaust plumes, it had no surfaces
that could generate lift,
and to them, it seemed intelligently controlled.
The importance of this video in the UFO circles
cannot be overstated.
It is continuously brought up
at government hearings concerning UFOs.
It's brought up in front of the Senate,
it's brought up in front of Congress.
It's been brought up literally to the president himself.
- As we said earlier, AARO has reported that to date,
it's found no proof of alien technology.
So does that mean the Nimitz Tic Tac can be explained?
Science writer Mick West thinks so,
but he's not the only one with an opinion.
(tense music)
First, Mick tackles the tic-tac seemingly extreme speed.
- There's two points in this video
where the object appears to demonstrate
amazing acceleration,
and the first one comes where it appears to shoot off screen
very, very rapidly.
But that coincides, as to most of the movements,
with a camera change.
- [Tony] Watch as the sensor's zoom level
abruptly doubles during one of the object's quickest movements.
- So even though it looks like it's moving very, very fast,
all it is is the camera moving
from one magnification to another.
- [Tony] However, physicist Matthew Szydagis
thinks otherwise.
- With the testimony of Lieutenant Chad Underwood,
who actually took the video,
we are actually seeing an object
that produced such a high acceleration
that it broke the targeting lock
of our multi-million dollar system
that should not be able to lose lock so easily.
- [Tony] In fact, a peer reviewed publication
authored by a colleague of Szydagis's
suggests that the accelerations we're seeing here
are far beyond the capabilities of any known human aircraft.
- Professor Kevin Knuth at the University of Albany
reviewed the video and found that the most probable solution
to the motion we see involves accelerations
of at least 70 G, which would rip the engines off a plane.
- [Tony] Still, Mick West wonders if this whole thing
might just be a case of misidentification.
- I first thought that it might be
a nearby commercial airplane
because these training ranges are actually adjacent
to commercial traffic routes.
But a bigger jet would have two hotspots where the wings are
so I think it's probably more likely
to be something smaller.
Something smaller actually fits the angles and the sizes
and the position of the engines in the infrared.
It fits with something much more like an F18 plane.
- [Tony] West says it's the infrared that gives it away.
- You can see a little hotspot
on the right side of the plane
would correspond to the engines of a small jet.
- [Tony] But again, Szydagis disagrees.
- There is no FAA or ADS-B record
of an airplane at this day and time
because this was a military exercise area
in the first place.
We have evidence from multiple sources
corroborating from the US government,
saying that the military exercise was canceled.
That means there weren't other F18s in the air
during the tic-tac encounter.
So we can conclusively rule out
without even arguing about acceleration or speed,
that this is not an F18.
- [Tony] So, where do we land?
Szydagis is convinced.
- I think we're looking at a genuine UFO.
I think it's very telling
that the speeds and accelerations measured are
abnormally high
in a way that would point towards
some sort of advanced craft
not constructed by human beings.
- [Tony] Mick West remains unconvinced.
- This is all consistent
with something like a distant plane.
I don't think it's a genuine UFO
in that it doesn't actually demonstrate
any real anomalous properties,
which is something you want from a UFO.
(tense music)
- Our verdict?
The Nimitz Tic Tac remains a genuine UFO.
Mick West brings up some interesting points,
but the preponderance of evidence,
notably the testimony of multiple Navy pilots,
still points to something inexplicable.
And as we've seen tonight with other footage,
this UFO is not alone.
That's our show for this evening.
The great UFO question continues to build momentum.
So if you see something in the sky,
keep those cameras rolling.
(dramatic music)