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Stargazing scientists at NASA are confident that when the next few decades humans will discover the very first signs of extraterrestrial life.

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Yet some believe it's entirely possible alien craft have already visited Earth.

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Large black flying object.

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Hey calm down calm down.

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But extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence.

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In this series I'm going to investigate some of the most remarkable and recent UFO sightings from around the world.

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They saw something really strange in the sky that day.

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And I'll be joined by renowned astrophysicist and space journalist Sarah Cruders.

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The thing is with something so extraordinary like this we've got to look at all the more logical explanations.

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I still think this can be explained by science.

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As together we'll separate back from fiction once and for all.

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That is an unidentified flying object.

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I knew you were going to say that and yes it is.

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It's one of the greatest UFO mysteries of all time.

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From our specially created UFO investigation hub we'll speak to experts.

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We have no conventional explanation for what we are seeing here.

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Whistle blowers.

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Anytime you step out of ranks in an organization like mine there's obviously going to be some repercussions.

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And first hand witnesses.

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There was this massive boomerang.

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It was at least a mile to a mile and a half wide.

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It was huge.

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Wow that's just spooked me now.

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And finally answer the big question.

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Are we alone in the universe?

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Whatever they are they're not of this world.

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The question of whether UFOs exist has been the source of fascination for over 50 years.

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And in this time a pattern has emerged.

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The strong link between some of our biggest military installations and sightings of UFOs.

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There's a track record of encounters between UFOs and the military.

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Whether it's aircraft in the skies or military bases on the ground.

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But these interactions have been going on for decades.

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Recent reports indicate that UFOs enter US military designated airspace at least once a month.

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And the fact these incursions are being witnessed by highly trained military personnel adds significant credibility.

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In 2019 unidentified objects hovered motionless above the ocean.

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While US Navy fighter jets race past them capturing these images.

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The Pentagon later admitted they were authentic and the subject of ongoing investigations.

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It could potentially involve safety and or national security concerns absolutely.

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In 1994 a UFO was captured on camera by a radar tracking system at Nellis Air Force Base in the Nevada desert.

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The astonishing video evidence was subsequently leaked to the press.

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But one of the most famous UFO cases of all time took place much closer to home in 1980.

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A remote pine forest in Suffolk was the scene of the most significant UFO sighting on British soil.

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Boxing day 1980 3 a.m.

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US military personnel were on patrol at an RAF airbase when they noticed strange lights descending into Rendlesham Forest.

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Servicemen left their base and as they approached the scene they saw a strange object ahead.

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Three meters tall and three meters wide smooth and glowing.

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As they closed in what appeared to be a craft darted away through the trees.

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As dawn broke the military and police discovered broken branches and three small radioactive triangular impressions on the ground.

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The news of this eerie event reached a bemused deputy commander of the base Lieutenant Colonel Charles Holt and other personnel.

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But even their military training couldn't prepare them for what happened next.

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A close encounter with something unlike anything they'd ever seen before.

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A few days later

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Sarah something obviously unusual went on.

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This is the Holy Grail of UK UFO sightings more than four decades on.

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It's still not been solved.

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Why hasn't it been solved? I mean the military with the heart of this encounter.

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As far as I know it never came back.

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But it did.

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It's a bit of a mystery.

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A couple of days later they went into the woods again looking for evidence.

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Scorch marks and broken trees took an audio recorder with them.

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To catalogue what they found.

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But Lieutenant Colonel Charles Holt saw it again and this is an audio recording of that encounter.

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Okay stop stop.

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Hey this is Eerie.

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This is strange.

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You just saw a light up there.

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Where?

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Right at this position here.

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Straight ahead in between.

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There it is again.

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There it is. I see it too.

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What is it?

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There's no doubt about it.

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Just some type of strange flashed red light in here.

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Weird.

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It's coming this way.

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It's definitely coming this way.

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It's a little shine on.

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There is no doubt about it.

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This is weird.

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There's a light.

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It's flashed lights off.

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There's something very very strange.

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Strange.

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Here he comes from the south.

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He's coming towards us now.

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I don't know if something would appear to be a beam coming down to the ground.

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This is unreal.

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Well that is chilling.

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It is. It feels like you're listening to a horror movie.

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It's like a train to be in difficult situations.

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Yeah I'm genuinely a bit freaked out.

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Let's face it these guys work in an Air Force base.

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They know what aircraft look like.

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And they're saying that was weird.

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Not weird but weird.

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Not strange but strange.

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I mean they're really emphasizing the unusualness of this.

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There's definitely something out there that is not off this world.

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We know something strange went on.

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But there's not enough proof and that's the problem with this.

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It's not solved but it is very compelling.

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OK so 40 years on how do we add to this?

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How do we find evidence and proof?

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We need to speak to experts and we also need to try and find someone from the military.

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Someone who was there that night and witnessed it firsthand.

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That's going to be key to solving this.

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OK who do we talk to first?

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Well we need to speak to Nick Pope, former MOD investigator, UFO expert.

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And what he doesn't know about this case isn't worth knowing.

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We're really excited about this.

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We have audio recording of the Rendlesham incident.

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You're our man in the know.

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Tell us all you know about the incident and its aftermath.

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Well this was December 1980.

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Two US military bases on British soil and Rendlesham Forest lies between them.

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And these encounters happened over three separate nights.

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One of the witnesses on the first night said that when this thing landed and then subsequently took off again,

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it accelerated away at a phenomenal rate and of course all these people were used to seeing fast jets.

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And he just wrote down in his police notebook, speed impossible.

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Now on the last night of activity, yeah, the witnesses included Lieutenant Colonel Charles Holt.

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He went out into the forest skeptical about all this, saw the UFO himself and as you've heard, encountered it.

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It's just such a great case in terms of multiple witnesses, military witnesses, declassified government file, I mean everything you could want.

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Well it sounds like it's a slam dunk case, doesn't it?

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I mean, it seems obvious to me that would say aliens existed.

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In terms of evidence, it doesn't get much better than this.

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Now I can't quite push you over the line with this because even those of us at the Ministry of Defence who looked at this and our counterparts in the United States,

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we didn't find any definitive proof that this was extraterrestrial.

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But it's kind of like flipping it the other way around and saying we ruled out all the conventional explanations so we're left with a genuine mystery.

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The lights that they're seeing in the woods, what could they possibly be?

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That's a real mystery because the colours and the configuration, the flashing or whatever, it doesn't correlate to, for example, aircraft lights.

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You wrote a book on this subject and it had to actually be cleared by the MOD before it was published.

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Yes, actually the book needed Department of Defence security clearance in the US too.

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I mean I take my security oath seriously, I don't want to inadvertently disclose classified information.

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How much information haven't they declassified? How much couldn't you tell us?

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There are still things that can't be revealed.

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So for example, the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Air Force in Europe flew specially to the bases, was briefed on this incident,

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took possession of various items of evidence and took them back to his headquarters in Ramstein, Germany.

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And the MOD file shows how angry we were about this, that items of evidence pertaining to the investigation were removed and not shared with the UK.

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We don't know what they did with it, we don't know what they concluded and we don't know where it is now.

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Was this physical evidence, could this been anything like part of a craft?

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We don't know for sure, we know that it does include soil samples taken from the landing site.

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Some of the radar operators have gone on the record.

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They tracked what they call an uncorrelated target.

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But the raw data itself, the original radar tapes, gone.

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Wow.

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Just to play devil's advocate slightly, I know I can be a bit of a killjoy with this, but is it not possible it's just a downed Russian satellite or some sort of foreign technology?

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We can't completely rule that out.

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Have you ever heard of a downed Russian satellite flying upwards at an impossible speed?

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No I haven't.

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Do you know more about this than you're able to tell us?

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I, it's a difficult question actually to answer, I know a little bit more but I don't want to tease you.

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I don't want to imply I know the answer to this because I don't, I genuinely don't.

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There are some things that have not yet been released.

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For example, the issue of the radiation at the landing site is extremely sensitive.

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Some of the witnesses who got close to this thing said that they think health issues that they've had have been attributable to that and there has been a settlement with the Veterans Administration in the US over this.

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Senators got involved, the US government got involved.

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Some of the witnesses were asked for their blood samples, DNA samples, looking at whether there were physiological changes.

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That's about all I can say on that.

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But if the government are doing things like that, checking if someone's DNA has been altered, something, something must have happened, something must have been there.

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Yes I think so, undeniably.

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Well what do you make of that?

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Well Americans nicked our soil, stole all the physical evidence and flew it off to Germany.

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It is interesting though that someone was investigating this and taking physical evidence, it shows that the MOD, the CIA, whoever else was taking this seriously.

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And then later on they've blood-tested people who came into contact with the site.

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So with all this going on, why isn't this down as case-proved?

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What I find interesting is journalists were covering this story. People tried to solve this at the time, but as yet it remains unsolved.

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Where do we go next?

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We've got a lot of potentially credible evidence but actually I want to rule a lot of stuff out because if we can rule a lot of stuff out, we're left with the more extraordinary explanation.

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So I want to speak to a journalist who covered this from the beginning.

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Coming up.

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What I don't understand is why 40 years on we still haven't got to the bottom of this mystery.

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A revelation brings everything crashing back down to earth.

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Well when he told me his answer I nearly fell off my chair.

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I'm just going to sit down a minute because I think you've just bashed my balloon a bit.

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Speechless.

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One of the biggest and to this day still unexplained sightings of the modern era happened deep in the forests of Rendlesham Suffolk.

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In 1980, US Air Force base personnel got up close and personal with what they were convinced was an alien craft.

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There it is again.

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Watch.

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Throw the head off my slasher.

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There it is.

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I see it too.

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What is it?

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We don't know, sir.

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This case is a standout example of a seemingly undeniable connection between UFOs and the United States military.

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It's a military.

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It's a military.

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Our investigation so far has proven a remarkable encounter really did occur in Rendlesham Forest.

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It appears that he made a balloon a bit this way.

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Yes, it's right on the house bed.

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Bill, it's coming this way.

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But the question remains, was it of extraterrestrial origin or man-made?

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Okay, so let's have a look at what we've got.

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American Air Force Base noticed some strange lights going in to Rendlesham Woods.

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Okay?

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Yeah.

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We sent a Lieutenant Colonel Charles Holt to investigate.

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And we've got the audio recording of that.

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I've got the transcript here.

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He says, there's no doubt there's some type of strange red flashing light.

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Weird.

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It's coming this way.

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It's definitely coming this way.

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Peters of it is shooting off.

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There's no doubt about it.

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This is weird.

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To the left, definitely moving.

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Two lights, one light just behind and one light to the left.

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Keep your flashlights off.

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There's something very, very strange.

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This reads like a horror film.

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It is chilling.

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And then Lieutenant Colonel Charles Holt wrote a memo to the Ministry of Defence.

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It's known as the Holt Memo.

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This is famous.

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So the MOD are taking this seriously?

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So seriously, in fact, the former chief of the UK Defence Staff, Lord Peter Hill Norton,

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wrote the MOD to ask them to clarify what steps were being taken to investigate the Rendlesham incident.

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What I don't understand is why 40 years on, we still haven't got to the bottom of this mystery.

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It's one of the greatest mysteries of all UFO sightings of all time.

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And I think we need to rule things out, do a process of elimination.

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So how do we go about this?

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Well, we need to speak to a journalist.

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The media picked up on this story.

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The MOD actually released a press release and it was front page news at the time.

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And this guy Ian Ridpaff, he is a science journalist and he was one of the first people to report on this.

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Listen, Rendlesham's been part of your life for what, say 40 years?

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Am I right to be getting excited about this?

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At the time, you would have been yes, because as you said, it was front page news.

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One of the great headlines, isn't it?

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UFO lands in Suffolk and that's official.

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And when I saw that, I thought, well, I really have to look into this and find out what actually happened.

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And the report spoke of a bright flashing light between, seen between the trees at the eastern edge of Rendlesham Forest in Suffolk.

236
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And seen on at least two separate nights.

237
00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:02,000
That's a strange, small red light.

238
00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:04,000
There is no doubt about it.

239
00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:06,000
There's some type of strange flashing red light ahead.

240
00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:08,000
Weird.

241
00:18:09,000 --> 00:18:16,000
So to try and find out what it might have been, I rang the local forestry office.

242
00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:25,000
And I spoke to a young forestry and I asked him what he thought it might have been that they'd seen.

243
00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:31,000
And well, when he told me his answer, I nearly fell off my chair.

244
00:18:31,000 --> 00:18:35,000
He said, I think it's the lighthouse.

245
00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:45,000
Now, in all the reports in the news papers, no one had said anything about a lighthouse.

246
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I didn't know anything about a lighthouse, because I thought, well, I really have to go there and see it for myself.

247
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I think that's the answer to what they saw.

248
00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:01,000
There are other parts of the case as well, which I continued to investigate.

249
00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:04,000
Why had they gone out into the forest in the first place?

250
00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:08,000
They said they thought they'd seen something crashing.

251
00:19:08,000 --> 00:19:14,000
I know from experience that bright fireballs can give that impression.

252
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That is a natural piece of space junk burning up in the atmosphere.

253
00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:22,000
So 100 miles up, it looks as though it's much, much closer.

254
00:19:22,000 --> 00:19:26,000
That was almost certainly what they saw, triggered the whole thing.

255
00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:28,000
They thought something had crashed in the forest.

256
00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:30,000
They went out to look for it.

257
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They saw this flashing light between the trees, which they hadn't expected, because they'd never been out there before.

258
00:19:37,000 --> 00:19:41,000
And they put two and two together and made rather too much of it.

259
00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:47,000
Ian, I'm just going to sit down a minute, because I think you've heard just, you've just bashed my balloon a bit.

260
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Two nights later, they called out their superior officer, Colonel Holt, who went out there with a tape recorder and a small party of men.

261
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One of the men pointed out to Holt, this flashing light in the distance.

262
00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:05,000
And as they went towards it, they were moving between the trees.

263
00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:08,000
The light appears to move between the trees.

264
00:20:08,000 --> 00:20:12,000
Well, that's the direction of the Orford Nest Lighthouse.

265
00:20:18,000 --> 00:20:22,000
On Colonel Holt's tape, you can hear the men calling out the flashes.

266
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There it is. There it is again.

267
00:20:24,000 --> 00:20:26,000
Five second gap.

268
00:20:26,000 --> 00:20:29,000
That's the flash rate of the Orford Nest Lighthouse.

269
00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:36,000
Later in the night, he saw other lights, bright starlight lights, he called them.

270
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They twinkled, colours.

271
00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:40,000
And they hovered for several hours.

272
00:20:40,000 --> 00:20:47,000
Well, again, from my experience of investigating UFOs, I know that star-like objects, which hover and twinkle,

273
00:20:47,000 --> 00:20:49,000
are almost certainly stars.

274
00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:59,000
And he specifically picked out one to the southwest, which was where the brightest star in the sky, Sirius, was setting.

275
00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:05,000
So you're trying to tell me that this whole incident is basically a lighthouse and the dog star.

276
00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:07,000
And that's all it is.

277
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:09,000
It's a combination of three things.

278
00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:14,000
And the interesting thing about the case is that you have these three quite separate stimuli.

279
00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:18,000
The bright fireball that brought them out there on the first night.

280
00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:25,000
Then the lighthouse and the bright stars, you put them all together and you have this wonderful case.

281
00:21:25,000 --> 00:21:28,000
And it's like so many UFO cases.

282
00:21:28,000 --> 00:21:34,000
It's a misidentification of normal stimuli, things that we can quite easily identify.

283
00:21:34,000 --> 00:21:36,000
Oh, that stopped me at my tracks.

284
00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:37,000
Yeah.

285
00:21:37,000 --> 00:21:41,000
And does Colonel Holt agree with your interpretation of events?

286
00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:44,000
Oh, no, he doesn't. It would be embarrassing, wouldn't it?

287
00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:48,000
I think he's not his man, but he's made an honest mistake.

288
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:50,000
He's a UFO celebrity.

289
00:21:50,000 --> 00:21:52,000
He doesn't want to give that up.

290
00:21:53,000 --> 00:21:55,000
Speechless.

291
00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:02,000
Well, that's really based my bubble that has.

292
00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:04,000
When I started the show, I said this was going to be a slam dunk.

293
00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:05,000
No.

294
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:08,000
I thought that we were going to eventually prove that aliens exist.

295
00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:11,000
Having spoken to Ian, I'm seriously conflicted now.

296
00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:16,000
And this is the photograph of his website which shows Lieutenant Colonel Holt's point of view.

297
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:18,000
And you can see the lighthouse in the distance.

298
00:22:18,000 --> 00:22:22,000
The aliens didn't know the lighthouse existed, and that's why he was confused about the flashing lights.

299
00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:27,000
I mean, Ian's given a very plausible and a very scientific explanation to what happened.

300
00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:29,000
But we've got these MOD reports.

301
00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:31,000
We've got credible witnesses.

302
00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:33,000
These are highly trained military personnel.

303
00:22:33,000 --> 00:22:35,000
It doesn't make sense to me why they'd be so confused.

304
00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:37,000
Something doesn't add up to me.

305
00:22:37,000 --> 00:22:39,000
I think we need to track down Colonel Holt.

306
00:22:39,000 --> 00:22:40,000
I agree.

307
00:22:40,000 --> 00:22:42,000
He led the investigation into this.

308
00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:43,000
He was there.

309
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:48,000
Coming up.

310
00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:51,000
The military personnel are saying, hey, what is that?

311
00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:52,000
Is it a helicopter?

312
00:22:52,000 --> 00:22:53,000
Is it a balloon?

313
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:59,000
Another notorious UFO incident, close to a secret military base, this time in America.

314
00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:05,000
Which may well have a bearing on the mysterious events at Rendlesham in December 1980.

315
00:23:05,000 --> 00:23:06,000
It's moving like an insect.

316
00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:10,000
Like a bee or something, but you couldn't pile it something like that.

317
00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:15,000
Within government and military circles, there are people who are too afraid to come forward.

318
00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:17,000
They're too afraid, yes.

319
00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:28,000
During the last 75 years, there's been a multitude of reports by the military of anomalous flying objects.

320
00:23:28,000 --> 00:23:35,000
It's only been in recent years, however, since the Pentagon confirmed in September 2019

321
00:23:35,000 --> 00:23:42,000
that this very footage captured by the US Navy between 2004 and 2015 is authentic,

322
00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:46,000
but many are finally coming to light.

323
00:23:52,000 --> 00:23:57,000
But why is it that UFOs appear to be persistently attracted to our military?

324
00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:01,000
And do they pose a threat to our national security?

325
00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:08,000
As we endeavour to find out, there's a particular case that has caught our attention.

326
00:24:08,000 --> 00:24:13,000
The Rendlesham UFO incident is as remarkable as it is mystifying.

327
00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:21,000
US military personnel reporting how they came face to face with an alien craft 40 years ago on UK soil.

328
00:24:21,000 --> 00:24:25,000
Make this sighting extraordinary.

329
00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:28,000
Here he comes from the south. He's coming toward us now.

330
00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:33,000
I don't know if something like this appears to be a beam coming down to the ground.

331
00:24:33,000 --> 00:24:35,000
This is unreal.

332
00:24:42,000 --> 00:24:44,000
Okay, so let's look at what we've got.

333
00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:48,000
Military base sees some bright lights smashing into Rendlesham Woods.

334
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:54,000
They go and investigate and they see something that they think is out of this world is very, very strange.

335
00:24:55,000 --> 00:24:57,000
Weird. Yeah, it's strange.

336
00:24:57,000 --> 00:25:00,000
Small red light. There is no doubt about it.

337
00:25:00,000 --> 00:25:04,000
Just sometimes strange flashing red light ahead. Weird.

338
00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:10,000
And then a journalist investigates and he says it's a series of unconnected incidents.

339
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:17,000
He says it's a fireball, it's a lighthouse and it's serious the dog star in the sky.

340
00:25:17,000 --> 00:25:23,000
Do you know one thing that puzzles me is how come so many UFO sightings are by military bases?

341
00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:29,000
It's a great question. It all started with Area 51 and we've had numerous sightings by military bases over the years.

342
00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:33,000
And I caught up with Nick Pope, our man on the inside, about why this happens.

343
00:25:34,000 --> 00:25:38,000
What's the relationship between military bases and UFOs?

344
00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:42,000
Because there seems to be a plethora of UFO sightings near military bases.

345
00:25:42,000 --> 00:25:47,000
UFOs are undeniably seen very close to military bases.

346
00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:51,000
Believers say that's because aliens are studying us.

347
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:55,000
Skeptics say, come on, that just proves it's military tech.

348
00:25:55,000 --> 00:26:00,000
So in terms of Nellis Air Force Base, there was some significant sightings there.

349
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:05,000
Yes, I mean this really is the Area 51 story.

350
00:26:05,000 --> 00:26:13,000
I mean Area 51 is part of the Nellis Air Force Base and the wider proving grounds around it

351
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:19,000
where all sorts of secret technologies are developed and test flow.

352
00:26:22,000 --> 00:26:26,000
But of course over the years, believers say it goes further than that.

353
00:26:26,000 --> 00:26:34,000
People say the US government has recovered alien technology and Area 51 is where it's being either stored and or back engineered

354
00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:37,000
so we can construct our own.

355
00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:43,000
This really became a big deal in the 90s where this became part of popular culture.

356
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:55,000
And in particular there was a video that emerged and it showed what some people said was a UFO in terms of an alien spacecraft.

357
00:27:05,000 --> 00:27:10,000
There's a group of Dutch experts who have looked at it.

358
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:15,000
They've done a phenomenal amount of research on this video.

359
00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:18,000
They've slowed it down, they've enlarged it.

360
00:27:18,000 --> 00:27:20,000
Can you describe what's in the footage?

361
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:33,000
It rapidly moves from side to side in a way that implies speeds and G-forces that would be problematic for us.

362
00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:41,000
And it shows this undeniably solid, structured craft.

363
00:27:41,000 --> 00:27:50,000
And the other thing is that there's some audio with this video because some of the military personnel are saying,

364
00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:53,000
hey what is that? Is it a helicopter or is it a balloon?

365
00:27:53,000 --> 00:27:57,000
And then suddenly it's like, no, no, it's not behaving like that at all.

366
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:05,000
Where is it?

367
00:28:05,000 --> 00:28:07,000
It's right here.

368
00:28:11,000 --> 00:28:15,000
It's right in the middle of the area.

369
00:28:15,000 --> 00:28:17,000
It's in the middle of the area.

370
00:28:20,000 --> 00:28:22,000
Are we going to go up?

371
00:28:22,000 --> 00:28:24,000
Yes.

372
00:28:24,000 --> 00:28:29,000
So who are the witnesses on the video?

373
00:28:29,000 --> 00:28:35,000
Well, not all of them have come forward because they were not authorized to speak on the record.

374
00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:42,000
That's problematic in evidential terms for sure, but it's somebody who's worked in that classified world.

375
00:28:42,000 --> 00:28:45,000
It's understandable as well.

376
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:52,000
Within government and military circles, there are people who are too afraid to come forward about what they've experienced.

377
00:28:52,000 --> 00:29:03,000
They're too afraid, yes, frightened in terms of if they discuss something or release something and it turns out that it's classified.

378
00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:05,000
That's a criminal offense.

379
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:18,000
The UFO sighting over the Nevada desert in 1994 has been followed by further, more recent sightings.

380
00:29:18,000 --> 00:29:23,000
Some reported as recently as this year by members of the public.

381
00:29:23,000 --> 00:29:29,000
The Nellis Fussage is really interesting. Can we have a closer look at that?

382
00:29:29,000 --> 00:29:36,000
Because it almost looks like it's moving like an insect, like a bee or something, but you couldn't pile it something like that.

383
00:29:36,000 --> 00:29:41,000
I mean, the G-forces would be impossible, so it would have to be a drone or something like that.

384
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:44,000
Look at how it's changing shape almost.

385
00:29:44,000 --> 00:29:51,000
But we also know that Nellis Air Force Base, they've got some pretty high-tech stuff there, so it could potentially be just secret military technology.

386
00:29:51,000 --> 00:29:54,000
It's certainly something that we can't explain.

387
00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:56,000
That is an unidentified flying object.

388
00:29:56,000 --> 00:29:58,000
I'll give you that one.

389
00:29:58,000 --> 00:30:05,000
And we've got really recent sightings. Is it a disc? Is it an orb? And if that was a balloon, it wouldn't move that quickly.

390
00:30:05,000 --> 00:30:07,000
It depends on the wind speed of the day.

391
00:30:07,000 --> 00:30:09,000
Oh, true, suppose.

392
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:15,000
Let's head back to Rendlesham. How are we going to find our truth in this investigation? Where do we go next?

393
00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:21,000
Well, there's one person we need to speak to, one person who might hold the key, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Holt.

394
00:30:21,000 --> 00:30:27,000
We've read his transcript, we've heard his audio record, and he sounded as though he was really freaked out by the whole thing.

395
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:31,000
Yeah, and this is a man who's trained. He's a military man.

396
00:30:31,000 --> 00:30:36,000
He led the investigation into this. He was there. He saw the second sighting.

397
00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:40,000
Coming up.

398
00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:46,000
There are really two stories here. What happened in the forest and what happened afterwards.

399
00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:53,000
We tracked down the Lieutenant Colonel Charles Holt and hear his account of what happened at Rendlesham first hand.

400
00:30:53,000 --> 00:30:55,000
It's like an unbelievable story, isn't it?

401
00:30:56,000 --> 00:30:58,000
Oh my gosh, dude.

402
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:01,000
Wow, look at that man. Look at him cry.

403
00:31:02,000 --> 00:31:10,000
We're exploring the deeply intertwined relationship between the military and unidentified flying objects.

404
00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:12,000
Whoa, it's getting close.

405
00:31:12,000 --> 00:31:14,000
What was that?

406
00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:16,000
Splash. Mark bearing in range.

407
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:22,000
The focus of our investigation in this episode has been the infamous Rendlesham incident,

408
00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:29,000
which has remained an unsolved mystery since it occurred in Suffolk in December 1980.

409
00:31:31,000 --> 00:31:37,000
Okay, Sarah, we're investigating the most famous UFO sighting in British history.

410
00:31:37,000 --> 00:31:43,000
An American air base say they saw a spacecraft crash into Rendlesham Woods.

411
00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:48,000
They went to investigate. They saw scorch marks. They saw triangle and marks in the Earth.

412
00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:50,000
They went back a couple of days later.

413
00:31:50,000 --> 00:31:55,000
Lieutenant Colonel Charles Holt saw bright lights, things that were not of this world.

414
00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:58,000
Okay, stop. Stop.

415
00:31:58,000 --> 00:31:59,000
Wait on.

416
00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:01,000
Hey, this is Erie. This is Erie.

417
00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:04,000
Erie, tell them I love the stars in the ground.

418
00:32:04,000 --> 00:32:07,000
He sounded as though he was really freaked out by the whole thing.

419
00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:11,000
Yeah, and this is a man who's trained. He's a military man.

420
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:16,000
It is interesting though that the MOD, the CIA, whoever else, was taking this seriously.

421
00:32:16,000 --> 00:32:23,000
The MOD file shows how angry we were that items of evidence pertaining to the investigation

422
00:32:23,000 --> 00:32:26,000
were removed and not shared with the UK.

423
00:32:26,000 --> 00:32:28,000
Now, a leading journalist investigated at the same time.

424
00:32:28,000 --> 00:32:32,000
He says it's a fireball that they saw. They saw the light from a lighthouse.

425
00:32:32,000 --> 00:32:35,000
And the light in the sky was the dog star serious.

426
00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:41,000
It's like so many UFO cases. It's a misidentification of normal stimuli.

427
00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:43,000
Where did we go from here?

428
00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:46,000
Well, Craig, I'm really divided on this one like you.

429
00:32:46,000 --> 00:32:48,000
To me, we've got a credible scientific explanation.

430
00:32:48,000 --> 00:32:54,000
Those three unrelated events, that makes me skeptical about this case.

431
00:32:54,000 --> 00:32:59,000
But perhaps the final word should go to the man who was actually on the scene at Rendlesham

432
00:32:59,000 --> 00:33:02,000
and explored the site in December 1980.

433
00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:06,000
Former deputy base commander, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Holt.

434
00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:11,000
We've tracked him down to Virginia to hear his story firsthand.

435
00:33:11,000 --> 00:33:15,000
We are investigating the strange goings on in Rendlesham Woods.

436
00:33:15,000 --> 00:33:18,000
You're the man in the know. You were there.

437
00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:22,000
Can you tell us, convince us that it happened and tell us your story?

438
00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:27,000
Three cops thought they saw a downed aircraft on the back gate at Woodbridge Base.

439
00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:29,000
And three of them went out in the forest and investigated.

440
00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:31,000
And they had some kind of an encounter.

441
00:33:31,000 --> 00:33:34,000
The third night, the base commander said,

442
00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:38,000
why don't you go and take a couple of people with you and go out there and put this thing to rest.

443
00:33:38,000 --> 00:33:40,000
Can you just talk us through what happened?

444
00:33:40,000 --> 00:33:43,000
We went across the base and went out into the forest.

445
00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:48,000
And, more on behold, there are three indentations about an inch and a half or two inches deep.

446
00:33:48,000 --> 00:33:53,000
And we look out into the farmer's field, which is directly across from us.

447
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:57,000
And there's a glowing object about the size of a large beach ball.

448
00:33:57,000 --> 00:34:01,000
We watch it for a few minutes and I realized, I can't explain this.

449
00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:06,000
And the object moves into the forest, obviously avoiding the trees.

450
00:34:06,000 --> 00:34:09,000
And I'm thinking this is under intelligent control, whatever it is.

451
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:11,000
So we try and approach it.

452
00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:16,000
The object goes back out into the farmer's field, directly between us and the farmhouse.

453
00:34:16,000 --> 00:34:23,000
Suddenly, the object silently explodes into five white objects like fireworks and it's gone.

454
00:34:24,000 --> 00:34:28,000
So let's go out in the field and see if we can find any evidence.

455
00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:32,000
And somebody notices up in the sky, about three or four thousand feet,

456
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:37,000
are several elliptical shape objects with multiple-colored lights on.

457
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:42,000
And they're moving together in synchronization as though they're flying in a pattern.

458
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:47,000
And we notice two very bright white lights to the south.

459
00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:50,000
One of the objects comes directly overhead at very high speed.

460
00:34:50,000 --> 00:34:52,000
I mean, it's almost like instantaneously.

461
00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:54,000
It stops directly over us.

462
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:59,000
It sends down like a laser beam about 10 or 15 feet from where we're standing here.

463
00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:01,000
I'm really getting nervous.

464
00:35:01,000 --> 00:35:06,000
Is this a weapon? Is this a warning? Is this some kind of communication?

465
00:35:06,000 --> 00:35:11,000
They move over Bintwater Space and I can see them sending down beams there,

466
00:35:11,000 --> 00:35:13,000
in or near the weapon storage area.

467
00:35:13,000 --> 00:35:17,000
We could hear the chatter on the security radio net that the people in the weapon storage area

468
00:35:17,000 --> 00:35:19,000
were seeing these beams too.

469
00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:27,000
Well, it sounds...it sounds...it's a...it's like an unbelievable story, isn't it?

470
00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:29,000
I can't come up with a rational explanation.

471
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:33,000
What I was thinking at the time was, why did I ever come out here?

472
00:35:33,000 --> 00:35:36,000
Nobody's going to believe this. This is a problem.

473
00:35:38,000 --> 00:35:41,000
So many of these sightings seem to be near military bases.

474
00:35:41,000 --> 00:35:43,000
Is something which is drawing these objects in?

475
00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:47,000
There's some type of attraction or some type of a power source.

476
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:53,000
The military base, obviously, in what we had and what we did probably was a great interest or whatever it is.

477
00:35:53,000 --> 00:35:55,000
We've had one journalist Ian Ridpath.

478
00:35:55,000 --> 00:36:05,000
He dismisses your claims, Charles, by saying that what you saw was a fireball, a lighthouse,

479
00:36:07,000 --> 00:36:12,000
and that the Dog Star series was right in the sky that night.

480
00:36:13,000 --> 00:36:15,000
What did you say to that?

481
00:36:15,000 --> 00:36:18,000
We know it wasn't the lighthouse. We could see the lighthouse.

482
00:36:18,000 --> 00:36:21,000
Did you ever see a lighthouse move through the forest?

483
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:23,000
No, I did not.

484
00:36:23,000 --> 00:36:26,000
Did you ever see a fireball send down a laser-like beam?

485
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:28,000
No, I did not.

486
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:31,000
He can think whatever he wants, but he wasn't there.

487
00:36:31,000 --> 00:36:32,000
That is true.

488
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:33,000
That's a bad point.

489
00:36:33,000 --> 00:36:37,000
The air traffic controllers saw the people in the weapon storage area.

490
00:36:37,000 --> 00:36:41,000
There were 10 or 15 of them. All saw the objects in the sky.

491
00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:44,000
Ian isn't listening.

492
00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:48,000
What was the reaction from your superiors when you submitted the memo?

493
00:36:48,000 --> 00:36:53,000
My superior actually believed me because I gave him the tape the following morning.

494
00:36:53,000 --> 00:36:56,000
My memo was released against my wishes.

495
00:36:56,000 --> 00:37:00,000
It wasn't intended to go to the Ministry of Defense or to anybody else.

496
00:37:00,000 --> 00:37:02,000
It was not career-enhancing.

497
00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:08,000
You know, in 1980, UFO was a tab-boost subject for the military.

498
00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:14,000
The reason the air traffic controllers didn't come forward until later after they retired

499
00:37:14,000 --> 00:37:19,000
is they learned that other controllers that reported UFOs got decertified.

500
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:22,000
There are really two stories here.

501
00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:26,000
What happened in the forest and what happened afterwards.

502
00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:31,000
So the authorities have been suppressing this story for like 40 years.

503
00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:36,000
What they did is they planted enough disinformation with several people

504
00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:41,000
which clouded the whole issue and made it almost ridiculous.

505
00:37:41,000 --> 00:37:46,000
When the CIA turned up on the base after the first night, why were they there?

506
00:37:47,000 --> 00:37:49,000
That's a very good question.

507
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:51,000
Did they speak to you?

508
00:37:51,000 --> 00:37:54,000
I don't have the answer to that. They were there to investigate, I'm sure.

509
00:37:54,000 --> 00:37:59,000
Did any shadowy forces ever approach you and tell you to keep quiet?

510
00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:02,000
No, I was never debriefed.

511
00:38:02,000 --> 00:38:07,000
Right after the incident, a clean-up crew came in and tidied up the area.

512
00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:12,000
I do know individuals that were involved in the first night that were debriefed with drugs and hypnosis

513
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:17,000
spooked, so to speak, CIA and probably British.

514
00:38:17,000 --> 00:38:19,000
What they've done is they've given them screen memories.

515
00:38:19,000 --> 00:38:21,000
In other words, false memories.

516
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:29,000
Are you saying that sort of military intelligence have messed with the memories of some of the people involved in this

517
00:38:29,000 --> 00:38:31,000
to make them remember different...

518
00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:33,000
I know they did. There's no doubt about it.

519
00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:37,000
How do you feel about the embellishments that some people have added to the story?

520
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:43,000
I never intended to go public. Nobody wanted anything to do with it, and I was left hanging.

521
00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:47,000
The only reason I've ever spoken out is there's so many people that claim crazy things.

522
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:50,000
It gets totally out of control.

523
00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:55,000
The real truth is never going to come out to whoever is behind it decides it's time.

524
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:58,000
The truth needs to be out there.

525
00:38:59,000 --> 00:39:01,000
Powerful.

526
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:13,000
Wow. The aftermath sounds just as intriguing as the event itself.

527
00:39:13,000 --> 00:39:22,000
People getting their memories erased, the CIA on the site, kind of intimidation, dark forces.

528
00:39:22,000 --> 00:39:23,000
It's all very odd, isn't it?

529
00:39:23,000 --> 00:39:27,000
It is all very odd. I feel like some of this, we haven't got a lot of evidence brought in.

530
00:39:27,000 --> 00:39:31,000
In terms of people having their memories erased, potentially drugs being used.

531
00:39:31,000 --> 00:39:35,000
He can tell from the tone of his voice. He doesn't really want to talk about this.

532
00:39:35,000 --> 00:39:38,000
He wants to move on with his life. It's like he's getting dragged into it.

533
00:39:38,000 --> 00:39:42,000
He's not coming forward saying, look at me, look at me, I'm a professional UFOer.

534
00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:50,000
We've sought out key expert and witness accounts and analysed an abundance of military documents.

535
00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:55,000
But will we, from what we've seen and heard, be able to draw a conclusion?

536
00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:58,000
Or will this legendary case remain shrouded in mystery?

537
00:40:04,000 --> 00:40:12,000
One of the things I thought was quite convincing was Ian Ridpath's photograph of the lighthouse, which is there.

538
00:40:12,000 --> 00:40:17,000
And this was Lieutenant Colonel Charles Holt's view through those trees.

539
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:21,000
But Charles Holt said, have you ever seen a lighthouse coming through the trees?

540
00:40:21,000 --> 00:40:26,000
I'm hugely conflicted with this case. When we spoke to Ian Ridpath, I was convinced.

541
00:40:26,000 --> 00:40:30,000
Case closed, we've solved it with science, but he wasn't there.

542
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:36,000
Then when we spoke to Lieutenant Colonel Charles Holt, his account was very compelling. He was there.

543
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:42,000
Before we reach our verdict, let's listen to that audio recording again of him in the woods.

544
00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:46,000
There is no doubt about just some type of strange flashed road light in here.

545
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:52,000
Still, I saw a yellow tinge in it too. It's coming this way. It is definitely coming this way.

546
00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:56,000
There is no doubt about it. This is weird.

547
00:40:57,000 --> 00:41:03,000
That to me doesn't sound like someone seeing lights from a lighthouse in the trees.

548
00:41:03,000 --> 00:41:07,000
And I keep thinking the military maps, they know the layer of the land.

549
00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:10,000
Even if they hadn't been in that forest before, they know what's around. This is the military.

550
00:41:11,000 --> 00:41:16,000
And these guys have a fear of being stigmatised and yet they still push forward with their claims.

551
00:41:16,000 --> 00:41:19,000
And when you speak to Charles, you wish it hadn't happened.

552
00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:28,000
And when you see all the M.O.D. involvement, you see the CIA, the accusations of people messing with memories, dark forces at work.

553
00:41:30,000 --> 00:41:33,000
Something definitely strange happened in those woods.

554
00:41:33,000 --> 00:41:37,000
I agree. That tape is credible. It's legitimate.

555
00:41:37,000 --> 00:41:41,000
And the fact remains, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Holt, he was there.

556
00:41:41,000 --> 00:41:45,000
I keep coming back to that thought that he was there. He witnessed this.

557
00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:49,000
He's got no reason to lie. His superiors have taken this seriously.

558
00:41:49,000 --> 00:41:55,000
Yet at the same time, others have now embellished the story and the truth's kind of got muddied somewhere in the water.

559
00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:57,000
Okay, so watch your verdict.

560
00:41:58,000 --> 00:42:05,000
Craig, this kills me somewhat because I want to side with science, but it really doesn't match the account of the person who was there.

561
00:42:05,000 --> 00:42:10,000
Something went on in those woods that night and we don't know what it is.

562
00:42:10,000 --> 00:42:14,000
So I'm going to say, case unsolved, but case ongoing.

563
00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:28,000
It's no wonder the Rendell-Shem incident is a special place in the UFO Hall of Fame, confounding skeptics and believers alike.

564
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:35,000
Our due diligence has revealed the admission that key evidence was removed by the authorities,

565
00:42:35,000 --> 00:42:41,000
proving this case to be far more complex than it appears on the surface.

566
00:42:42,000 --> 00:42:52,000
But the lesson learned from this encounter and others like it is that someone or something is being repeatedly drawn to our military bases and installations.

567
00:42:53,000 --> 00:43:00,000
Perhaps curious to observe us or interested in our technology and weaponry.

568
00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:10,000
Either way, we don't yet know if the unexplained objects in our skies are friend or foe.

569
00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:21,000
A former lawyer takes up one last case after her brother is accused of murder.

570
00:43:21,000 --> 00:43:28,000
The new Spanish drama, Ana, All In, stream free on SBS On Demand.