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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 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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What is the UFO?

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Humans have been describing UFO encounters for generations.

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With depictions of disc-like objects going back thousands of years.

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But it wasn't until July 1947 and the famous Roswell sighting in New Mexico

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that disc-like objects or flying sources captured the public imagination.

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Conspiracy theories ran riot.

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After it was reported that a UFO had crashed on a ranch.

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Initially the US military even publicly admitted they'd recovered a disc.

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I am here to discuss the so-called flying saucer.

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But they backtracked the next day insisting instead on the more down to earth explanation of a weather balloon.

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Rumors of alien bodies and a government cover-up swelled for decades.

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The airport has been accused in time of hiding information about the USO.

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What do you have to say to that?

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Those charges are absolutely untrue.

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There's nothing to hide.

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There's nothing to hide at all.

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And despite US authorities best efforts to put the rumors to bed.

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Just no indication at all of any kind of incident at Roswell.

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We can't find an advantage to keeping such a thing a secret.

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We think that probably what happened is that there wasn't anything significant.

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Roswell and the image of the flying saucer remains in the public consciousness today.

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Although people see a number of different shapes, people still have in their minds eye

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this image of the archetypal flying saucer, the disc-shaped craft.

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In a recent example, an online video from October 2020

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allegedly shows a round object having landed on a mountain in Mexico.

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But one of the most notorious disc-shaped sightings in modern history

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happened alarmingly above one of America's biggest airports.

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It was 2006 and a crisp autumn afternoon at one of America's busiest airports,

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Chicago O'Hare International.

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November the 7th was a day like any other.

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Until about 4.30pm, when a United Airlines employee on the tarmac

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noticed something strange above Gates C-17.

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Scores of witnesses described a similar thing.

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A silent craft directly above the airport.

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And the calls kept coming in thick and fast.

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With conversations between airport staff and the air traffic control tower

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recorded in real time.

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The Federal Aviation Administration declared it to be a weather phenomenon.

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But we're going to investigate the events of November the 7th 2006

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and get to the bottom of the mystery once and for all.

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I'm excited about this one Sarah. This is a mass sighting.

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It's Chicago O'Hare Airport. A hugely busy airport.

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People are looking to the skies all the time.

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You've got plane watches around and multiple people called in a sighting of a UFO.

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An unexplained stationary object in this case.

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And it was seen for just five minutes before it disappeared.

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How come there are no photographs of this?

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Well this is interesting because this was 2006 this happening.

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So people didn't really have camera phones in the same way we do today.

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When you're in an airport you generally got a camera with you because you're going somewhere.

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That is true, that is true.

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Do you think that people did photograph this, did video it and that video has been suppressed?

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That's an interesting thought.

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We haven't got any photographic evidence but credible witnesses

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called in this unusual sighting to the control tower.

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Let's hear it.

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What a tower this is Dave.

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Hey Dave, it's SuperMedia Tower.

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Hey sir.

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Hey did you see a flying disk out by C17?

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Oh I don't even start sir.

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Why do you see flying disks?

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Well they took a pilot and the plane guys are telling us that C17 they saw some flying disk above and we can't see it.

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Come on sir.

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You gonna see it right?

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Yeah yeah yeah you guys been celebrating the holidays?

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I was already on the flight.

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You having a Christmas party today?

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I haven't actually seen anything so.

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And if I did I wouldn't admit to it.

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No I haven't actually seen any flying disks, I've never seen anything so.

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At least you can do a aircraft you're bringing out today that we don't know about.

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No I haven't actually seen anything so.

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It seems like a very light hearted call.

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I mean the guy in the control tower is saying that he can't see anything and the girl phoning it in.

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She hasn't seen it, she's just been told about it.

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But how would you feel if you're in that job, a very serious job as well if you're guiding aircraft into an out and airport.

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And then someone rings up and tells you about a UFO.

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You wouldn't take it seriously would you?

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No, so with no video evidence, no photographic evidence, only the audio.

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How do we progress with this investigation?

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Multiple people at the airport said they saw something they can't explain.

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But only one person came forward and he spoke to Robert Powell who is an executive board member for the Scientific Coalition of UAP Studies.

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Okay what's UAP Studies Sarah?

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UAP stands for Unidentified Aerial Phenomena.

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It tries to get away from the term UFO which can sometimes be downplayed and overused.

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Okay you're going to try and help us get to the bottom of what happened at O'Hare Airport.

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And it sounds as though it was quite an event.

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Yes, I consider it one of the more interesting events in the history of the phenomenon.

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What exactly happens? Can you talk us through it?

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The guys that were moving suitcases into the plane looked up and they saw this spherical object hovering above the ground.

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There were probably several dozen people that saw this object and there were at least eight who have actually reported the object because that's a safety concern.

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This is safety, right?

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Yes.

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There was a disk out there flying around so if you guys see it out there.

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A disk? How high above Charlie 17?

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Above our tower.

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So if you happen to see it you stay.

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You know what I'll keep a peeled eye for that.

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It was just stationary, not moving at all.

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Their best guess was it was 20 to 80 feet in size.

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It was disk shaped but if you looked at it directly from above all you see is the circle.

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Now on this day it was cloudy.

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The ceiling height was at about 1900 feet.

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What everyone on the ground saw was the object suddenly moved upwards through the clouds at a rapid rate of speed and it went up for several thousand feet.

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And the interesting thing is that the object basically burned a hole through the clouds.

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You mentioned directly from above. Does that mean someone in the air was able to witness this?

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Yes, there was a witness who I've talked to who was in the air who witnessed it.

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Remember this happened in 2006?

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Well this guy reported it to me six years later.

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So my first thought is okay maybe this guy just makes it up.

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And he's heard the news and he just wants to be a part of the story.

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So I asked him if he has any evidence that he was there.

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And he said yes.

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It struck him so strongly he kept his flight tickets the entire time.

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So I look at it and I was able to verify the guy was telling me the truth.

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You've got your tenterhooks here.

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His plane's coming in for landing and he sees this gray circular object below the airplane.

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And as the airplane's continuing on its approach he sees it at the same level instead of above him.

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And the object he can clearly see now is a disc.

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He describes it just like the ground crew.

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A gray colored object that's in a disc shape.

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There are no windows. There are no markings at all.

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It's just a solid piece of metal.

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Or what appears to be metal.

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Now the plane lands.

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You can see the object again.

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That's stationary.

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Now this was really interesting.

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He said it basically did this.

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If you take a penny that's just sitting still and you drop it, it accelerates at a certain rate as it hits the ground.

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Well he said it's just like he did that with this saucer shaped object except it went straight up.

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And he said it was just sudden.

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He also noted that it burned a hole through the clouds.

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So I thought that was an excellent piece of corroborating data.

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What do you think to the explanation that others within the scientific community have given?

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The main explanation that was given by the government was this was just an unusual weather phenomenon.

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I've never heard of a weather phenomenon that sits still for minutes and then suddenly punches a hole through a cloud.

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Especially a deep cloud base like this one.

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Sarah's a lot younger than me and she talks about 2006 like it's ancient history.

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Okay.

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I'm sorry.

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I can assure her that in 2006 people had digital cameras.

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You must be really frustrated that this major event has happened.

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All these people have seen it happen and yet no one, no one's got a shot of it.

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You're right Craig.

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Surely someone could have taken a photograph of it, especially if it sat there for several minutes.

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To this date no one has been able to produce either a video or a photograph of what happened that day.

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What you're telling us is really interesting but also really frustrating at the same time.

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Completely.

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And one of the most unusual events to have happened on Earth I'd say.

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It is.

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It's very unusual event.

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What about the person in the plane?

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Do you think he saw a flying saucer?

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Well I believe that he saw a disc shaped object which some people call flying saucers.

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The most unusual part about this was that the object basically burned a hole through the clouds.

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We don't have the capability for an object to hover, which this object clearly did,

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and to suddenly accelerate and break through that cloud base within one to two seconds

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and to vaporize the cloud base as it moves through it.

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I think it's just a case of you either believe these witnesses or you don't.

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I'm not sure I'm happy with you.

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Why not?

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Robert has just said this is a virtually impossible case.

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It's so frustrating actually isn't it because this is one of the most compelling unexplained sightings

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and yet we're limited by the evidence we've got.

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It's something so extraordinary.

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But we have got audio in real time of it actually happening.

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I'm thinking about where we can go with this and this is a massive international airport.

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Surely there will have been an investigation about this.

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Let's find out.

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Coming up.

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They don't want to use that word UFO. They know that a disc can only mean one thing.

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We find out how aviation bosses dealt with the flying saucer incident at Chicago O'Hare in November 2006.

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Surely it's incumbents on the FAA to investigate what is a major security breach at one of the busiest airports in the world.

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In November 2006 something extraordinary happened in the sky above Chicago O'Hare International Airport.

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A saucer shaped UFO appeared to hover over gate C17 for at least five minutes

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before shooting upward punching a circular shaped hole in the clouds.

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There was a disc out there flying around.

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There was a what?

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A disc?

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A disc?

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A disc.

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Like a frisbee.

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Like a UFO-tread thing.

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The will did United Airlines staff witnessing the appearance of a round flying object above one of the world's busiest aviation facilities is surely cause for concern.

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But did the airline and the American Government Aviation Authority, the FAA, ever investigate?

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With more audio evidence to come through, we're on a mission to get to the truth about this remarkable disc sighting.

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Tower Canada State.

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Some of our pilots on the ground were reporting a UFO sighting at a thousand feet from the east side of the airport.

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Did you guys do anything about it?

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We saw at the ramp tower called the ownership at 10.50 minutes ago. We have not seen anything up there.

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Okay.

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I mean, if we do along...

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Okay, wait, 5668?

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5668, go ahead.

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Yeah, look out your window.

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You see anything above United's catcours?

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They actually, believe it or not, they called us and said there's a... somebody observed a flying disc about a thousand feet above the...

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Gate Charlie 17.

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You see anything over there?

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Not that I can tell.

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Okay, yeah, I thought my job was stressful.

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We saw it half hour ago.

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Who saw it?

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Hold on to that. Hold on to the Charlie Catcours.

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Really? Yeah, who's that?

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It was United, we can't actually panic.

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I thought I was up alone, but we're not sure.

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That was spooky, wasn't it?

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That's really spooky and it's in real time as well.

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And what's strange is you've got pilots on the ground reporting seeing a flying disc, flying at about a thousand feet.

239
00:16:43,000 --> 00:16:46,000
The pilot in the air didn't see it, but the pilot on the ground did.

240
00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:50,000
But when you're talking pilots, it kind of raises the ante.

241
00:16:50,000 --> 00:16:53,000
It kind of says this is more believable.

242
00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:56,000
That's multiple witnesses questioning it.

243
00:16:56,000 --> 00:16:59,000
These are people who spend their life in the skies.

244
00:16:59,000 --> 00:17:01,000
They're used to seeing all different types of weather.

245
00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:03,000
They're used to seeing different types of aircraft.

246
00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:07,000
They're not the sort of person who's going to make up seeing unexplained objects.

247
00:17:07,000 --> 00:17:11,000
But they must have made a report. This must have gone through official channels.

248
00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:14,000
If they did make an official report, why has it been suppressed?

249
00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:17,000
Because surely someone is keeping the lid on this.

250
00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:19,000
That's what doesn't make sense to me.

251
00:17:19,000 --> 00:17:23,000
But someone who might be able to help more with this is a guy called Ted Rose.

252
00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:25,000
So he's from an organisation called Narcap in the US,

253
00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:30,000
which is essentially a place where pilots can report unusual sightings.

254
00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:35,000
What I wanted to do was talk about what happened in Chicago.

255
00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:40,000
We did an intensive study on it and resolved that something unusual had occurred

256
00:17:40,000 --> 00:17:44,000
over the airport and had affected safety factors.

257
00:17:44,000 --> 00:17:47,000
That was one of the most busiest airports in the world.

258
00:17:47,000 --> 00:17:54,000
What we're struggling with, we've got the audio, multiple sightings from the ground,

259
00:17:54,000 --> 00:17:59,000
but no video, no photographs. Why is this?

260
00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:04,000
Well, it's a good question. According to one of the ramp controllers

261
00:18:04,000 --> 00:18:08,000
who offered her report to the control tower,

262
00:18:08,000 --> 00:18:14,000
she mentioned that one of the ground crew had photographed this UFO.

263
00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:20,000
I believe there was a disc flying outside above Charlie 17, and he thought it was pretty much high.

264
00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:23,000
But I'm not high and I'm not drinking.

265
00:18:23,000 --> 00:18:26,000
Someone actually has a picture of it, so if you guys see it out there,

266
00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:28,000
there's a disc, like a frisbee.

267
00:18:28,000 --> 00:18:30,000
Like a UFO type thing.

268
00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:32,000
Yeah, okay.

269
00:18:32,000 --> 00:18:34,000
Yeah, you look big shot.

270
00:18:34,000 --> 00:18:37,000
However, we haven't seen that photograph.

271
00:18:37,000 --> 00:18:42,000
What we have is professionals who are on the job making factual reports

272
00:18:42,000 --> 00:18:45,000
and trying not to sound like idiots while they were doing it.

273
00:18:45,000 --> 00:18:51,000
The conversations between the ramp controller and the tower staff, you know, they're all nervous.

274
00:18:51,000 --> 00:18:55,000
Somebody reported a UFO flying this above Charlie 10 for a seriously.

275
00:18:56,000 --> 00:18:59,000
So nobody can see it. Nobody can see it. They use caution.

276
00:18:59,000 --> 00:19:01,000
All right.

277
00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:04,000
That's tricky.

278
00:19:04,000 --> 00:19:07,000
They don't want to use that word UFO.

279
00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:11,000
They know that a disc can only mean one thing.

280
00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:15,000
They know that there are ground crew that stood there and watched it

281
00:19:15,000 --> 00:19:21,000
and air crew that were moving aircraft around the facility that saw it.

282
00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:26,000
I'm not going to say that those 15 witnesses are lying.

283
00:19:26,000 --> 00:19:29,000
Do you think that people did hand in videos?

284
00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:33,000
They didn't hand in photographic evidence, but someone's kept a lid on it?

285
00:19:33,000 --> 00:19:40,000
It's impossible. It's entirely possible that we have institutional bias in the aviation community.

286
00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:44,000
This incident involved the United Staff and they were terribly forthcoming

287
00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:47,000
in helping us with investigations.

288
00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:52,000
The United denied they did an investigation and then you later found out that they did.

289
00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:57,000
Yeah, there was an internal investigation by United, but that was never made public.

290
00:19:57,000 --> 00:20:03,000
And I don't know how far it went other than probably just shutting their folks up.

291
00:20:03,000 --> 00:20:07,000
So there was a secret investigation into what happened in Chicago?

292
00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:09,000
Yes.

293
00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:15,000
But there was no investigation by the FAA into this incident. Is that correct?

294
00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:19,000
Yes, it is. As far as we know, the FAA did not look at this.

295
00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:23,000
Others are instructed not to report UFOs to the FAA.

296
00:20:23,000 --> 00:20:27,000
And that goes for air traffic controllers and, of course, aviation professionals.

297
00:20:27,000 --> 00:20:30,000
The FAA does not take UFO reports.

298
00:20:30,000 --> 00:20:34,000
Sorry, Ted, but surely it's incumbent on the FAA to investigate

299
00:20:34,000 --> 00:20:41,000
what is a major security breach at, as you said, one of the busiest airports in the world.

300
00:20:41,000 --> 00:20:46,000
I can't find a good reason why the FAA won't take UFO reports.

301
00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:51,000
Many of these cases are reported by pilots and they do include safety factors.

302
00:20:51,000 --> 00:20:56,000
But if you use the terminology of UFO, they won't engage.

303
00:20:56,000 --> 00:20:59,000
That's interesting.

304
00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:05,000
So let me get this straight. The FAA doesn't investigate UAPs or UFOs,

305
00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:07,000
even when they're reported by pilots.

306
00:21:07,000 --> 00:21:10,000
Yes, that's exactly right.

307
00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:15,000
I'm a pilot reporter, so I advise to contact outside organizations like my own.

308
00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:19,000
How numerous are these reports, Ted?

309
00:21:19,000 --> 00:21:23,000
Well, we don't get the majority of them.

310
00:21:23,000 --> 00:21:26,000
We get two, three reports a month.

311
00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:30,000
Do you think there's a stigma attached to reporting UFOs?

312
00:21:30,000 --> 00:21:32,000
Is that the reason?

313
00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:38,000
Well, yes. You have to be careful about what you talk about with who's in the seat next to you.

314
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:42,000
You can end up with a psyche bowel and lose your flight status.

315
00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:48,000
Well, there you go.

316
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:52,000
I mean, this is becoming quite intriguing.

317
00:21:52,000 --> 00:21:59,000
Pilots are scared to report these things in case they lose their jobs.

318
00:21:59,000 --> 00:22:01,000
The FAA won't investigate it.

319
00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:05,000
They're telling pilots not to report this phenomenon.

320
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:07,000
That, to me, was the most curious thing.

321
00:22:07,000 --> 00:22:09,000
Did the FAA investigate it?

322
00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:11,000
Do we just not know yet?

323
00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:13,000
I don't know whether we'll ever be able to find that out,

324
00:22:13,000 --> 00:22:16,000
but the fact that United had an investigation but they denied it,

325
00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:19,000
and as you say, the stigma towards pilots.

326
00:22:19,000 --> 00:22:21,000
15 people phoned this in.

327
00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:23,000
I'm not going on the mass hysteria line.

328
00:22:23,000 --> 00:22:25,000
I don't buy that at all.

329
00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:27,000
Why hasn't no one taken a picture of it?

330
00:22:27,000 --> 00:22:31,000
Unless they did and it's been suppressed and it's looking like it might have been.

331
00:22:31,000 --> 00:22:33,000
But we don't know.

332
00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:35,000
Coming up.

333
00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:38,000
It's really frustrating because this is a huge mystery.

334
00:22:38,000 --> 00:22:44,000
As we continue to search for answers for what happened in Chicago in November 2006,

335
00:22:44,000 --> 00:22:51,000
we delve deeper into whether flying saucers were science fiction or science fact.

336
00:22:51,000 --> 00:22:53,000
That clip is probably the most convincing,

337
00:22:53,000 --> 00:22:56,000
but the footage I've seen so far in this investigation.

338
00:22:56,000 --> 00:22:58,000
Classic flying saucers haven't gone away.

339
00:22:58,000 --> 00:23:00,000
Do you think the government's hiding things?

340
00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:02,000
Oh, governments are always hiding things.

341
00:23:09,000 --> 00:23:15,000
Since 2014, there's been regular UFO sightings reported by the military.

342
00:23:19,000 --> 00:23:23,000
In response to this, in April 2019,

343
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:26,000
the US Navy took the unprecedented decision

344
00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:32,000
to implement official guidelines for pilots who witnessed such encounters.

345
00:23:32,000 --> 00:23:39,000
And in August 2020, the Department of Defense established a new task force to investigate them.

346
00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:42,000
It was a sign that where the military is concerned,

347
00:23:42,000 --> 00:23:49,000
the US government was taking UFO sightings more seriously as a potential safety threat.

348
00:23:49,000 --> 00:23:54,000
And even more so after the US presidential election of November 2020,

349
00:23:54,000 --> 00:24:00,000
and the incoming administration of America's 46th President, Joe Biden.

350
00:24:00,000 --> 00:24:06,000
Certainly the safety of our personnel, security of our operations, our airspace, our paramount concern,

351
00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:11,000
whether that is identified or unidentified aircraft.

352
00:24:11,000 --> 00:24:16,000
In stark contrast, we've discovered that in November 2006,

353
00:24:16,000 --> 00:24:20,000
no such consideration was shown to aviation personnel

354
00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:25,000
after one of the most remarkable flying saucer encounters to date took place.

355
00:24:28,000 --> 00:24:34,000
15 years ago, an astonishing mass UFO sighting stunned America and the world.

356
00:24:34,000 --> 00:24:39,000
When a metallic craft hovered over Chicago, Oh Air International Airport,

357
00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:46,000
multiple eyewitness accounts were captured on radio as they reported what they'd seen up the chain of airport command.

358
00:24:46,000 --> 00:24:50,000
Somebody reported a UFO were flying this above Charlie County close, seriously.

359
00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:54,000
There was no reason for them to lie or falsify their sightings.

360
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:57,000
Each report confirming the other.

361
00:24:57,000 --> 00:24:59,000
We saw it a half hour ago.

362
00:24:59,000 --> 00:25:01,000
Who saw it?

363
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:04,000
All ones of us over at the Charlie County close.

364
00:25:04,000 --> 00:25:10,000
But despite these jaw-dropping accounts, aviation authorities declined to officially investigate.

365
00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:18,000
Something extraordinary was seen that day and whatever it was, the object was shaped like a saucer or a disk.

366
00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:28,000
A disk-shaped saucer is just so science fiction.

367
00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:36,000
Do people see flying saucers because that's what B-movie directors in the 50s decided what spaceships looked like or do they actually exist?

368
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:41,000
Well, it's kind of a bit of both. So the first actual plane sighting of a flying saucer was in 1947.

369
00:25:41,000 --> 00:25:48,000
This guy called Kenneth Arnold, who was a pilot, he was flying his airplane near Mount Rainier in Washington State

370
00:25:48,000 --> 00:25:51,000
and he saw an unusual object in the sky.

371
00:25:52,000 --> 00:25:55,000
He described it as skipping like a saucer.

372
00:25:55,000 --> 00:25:59,000
But when the press got hold of that interview, they then coined the term flying saucer.

373
00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:09,000
But in the natural world, there's also clouds like this that appear naturally, which look like flying saucers.

374
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:13,000
They're both something from science fiction, but also something that occurs on Earth.

375
00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:20,000
So if you look at this video here, it does look like a flying saucer and it's easy to understand why someone might mistake it as one,

376
00:26:20,000 --> 00:26:23,000
but it's actually known as a lenticular cloud.

377
00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:26,000
So you've got moisture, then drier, then moisture.

378
00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:33,000
And when you get either mountains or tall buildings, that creates a disturbance in the air, rising air,

379
00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:40,000
calls and condensers, that creates these clouds, which are shaped like flying saucers, but are actually just clouds.

380
00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:43,000
And how often are these clouds flying in Chicago?

381
00:26:43,000 --> 00:26:47,000
Well, that's an interesting question because you've got a lot of tall buildings in Chicago,

382
00:26:47,000 --> 00:26:51,000
so that will cause that turbulence, which will allow the clouds to form.

383
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:55,000
However, there aren't any mountains and there aren't very tall buildings near the airport.

384
00:26:55,000 --> 00:27:00,000
So it's unlikely, based on the description, the grey-light description as well,

385
00:27:00,000 --> 00:27:03,000
and the low level of it, that this was actually a lenticular cloud.

386
00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:07,000
Okay, so what was it? How close are we to finding it?

387
00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:12,000
Well, we're still not close. This is the issue. We've got the audio recording, and that's it.

388
00:27:12,000 --> 00:27:16,000
It's really frustrating because this is a huge mystery.

389
00:27:16,000 --> 00:27:20,000
There's lots of other cases like this with these flying saucer-type objects in the sky,

390
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:27,000
and I spoke to Nick Pope, who's a former MOD investigator and a UFO expert about two other cases.

391
00:27:27,000 --> 00:27:32,000
Nick, we still hear a lot about these classical flying saucer sightings.

392
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:38,000
Among one of the most recent ones has been September 2020 of this flying saucer-shaped object.

393
00:27:38,000 --> 00:27:42,000
Can you just talk us through whether it's significant or not?

394
00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:52,000
Well, I think that UFOs, people still have in their minds eye this image of the archetypal flying saucer,

395
00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:54,000
the disk-shaped craft.

396
00:27:54,000 --> 00:28:03,000
And even though in more modern times we hear more about triangular-shaped UFOs, the so-called tic-tacs,

397
00:28:03,000 --> 00:28:06,000
classic flying saucers haven't gone away.

398
00:28:06,000 --> 00:28:10,000
And so there are these sightings, and continue to be, all around the world.

399
00:28:10,000 --> 00:28:16,000
I've seen a picture from Yorkshire, which I'm afraid is just a cloud.

400
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:25,000
Do you think sometimes people see this disk-shaped thing, and even though we know it's a cloud, they want to believe it's something more?

401
00:28:25,000 --> 00:28:31,000
Yes, it's absolutely, as the old saying from the X-Files goes, I want to believe.

402
00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:32,000
And why not?

403
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:43,000
Sometimes people's will to believe affects their critical faculties, and they see something that just happens to look disk-shaped,

404
00:28:43,000 --> 00:28:45,000
and they think it must be a disk.

405
00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:51,000
Now, one particular interesting incident, and this was again another flying saucer-type object,

406
00:28:51,000 --> 00:28:54,000
was in Sweden in 2012.

407
00:28:54,000 --> 00:28:57,000
Can you just talk us through what was filmed?

408
00:28:57,000 --> 00:29:02,000
Well, these two people were out. One was driving one of these all-terrain vehicles,

409
00:29:02,000 --> 00:29:11,000
and the other witness was being pulled behind on a sled and saw this strange object in the sky.

410
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:14,000
Hold it up, hold it up, take off!

411
00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:19,000
He shouted to try and alert, I think it was his sister driving the ATV,

412
00:29:19,000 --> 00:29:24,000
and then he said that the shouting seemed to disturb the UFO, which flew off.

413
00:29:28,000 --> 00:29:34,000
It's intriguing, I'll have to say, it's an odd one.

414
00:29:39,000 --> 00:29:41,000
Hold it up, hold it up, take off!

415
00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:48,000
We've got video evidence, but we haven't yet got the resources to actually analyse and find out exactly what this is.

416
00:29:49,000 --> 00:29:56,000
I mean, frankly, this is why governments all around the world need to have active UFO programmes,

417
00:29:56,000 --> 00:30:03,000
because sometimes it's only the government that has the resources and the capabilities to do these proper,

418
00:30:03,000 --> 00:30:08,000
contemporaneous investigations, which the civilian community doesn't.

419
00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:10,000
Does that not worry you?

420
00:30:10,000 --> 00:30:15,000
It always worries me that things like this go on an uninvestigated level,

421
00:30:15,000 --> 00:30:20,000
and that's the most frustrating thing of all, is that we have got the tools to do this.

422
00:30:20,000 --> 00:30:27,000
I think the problem is that most governments embed UFO programmes in the military,

423
00:30:27,000 --> 00:30:32,000
and in the Ministry of Defence, and in the intelligence community,

424
00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:41,000
and so you're dealing with these inherently secretive organisations whose default mindset is not to share this information.

425
00:30:41,000 --> 00:30:43,000
Do you hear the conversation?

426
00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:46,000
Do you think the government's hiding things?

427
00:30:46,000 --> 00:30:49,000
Oh, governments are always hiding things.

428
00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:55,000
Now, whether they're actually sitting on an extraterrestrial smoking gun or not, I don't know.

429
00:30:55,000 --> 00:30:58,000
Not the British government, so far as I'm aware.

430
00:30:58,000 --> 00:31:05,000
I will tell you, we did not have one of these things hidden away at a secret military base.

431
00:31:05,000 --> 00:31:07,000
But Nick, would you be able to tell me if you did know?

432
00:31:07,000 --> 00:31:09,000
Probably not.

433
00:31:09,000 --> 00:31:13,000
I would probably give you a no comment on that, but I'm not giving you a no comment.

434
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:16,000
I'm giving you a no-no. We genuinely didn't have one.

435
00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:21,000
Surely if you knew you weren't able to tell us, you'd just say no.

436
00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:25,000
I know people find this difficult to believe, but governments really don't like to lie.

437
00:31:25,000 --> 00:31:29,000
They sometimes don't tell the full story.

438
00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:36,000
But if you have a spaceship hidden away in a hangar somewhere, and you're asked about it,

439
00:31:36,000 --> 00:31:40,000
you probably won't say no if the answer is yes.

440
00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:43,000
Are you able to tell us the full story about what's going on?

441
00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:49,000
Yes, certainly. I think in the UK, what I don't know is whether other governments,

442
00:31:49,000 --> 00:31:53,000
particularly the United States, know a little bit more.

443
00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:05,000
That clip in Sweden is probably the most convincing bit of footage I've seen so far in this investigation.

444
00:32:05,000 --> 00:32:09,000
There was a bit where it glinted as it flew past.

445
00:32:11,000 --> 00:32:14,000
You could see that it was metallic.

446
00:32:14,000 --> 00:32:17,000
I mean, if that's what they had in Chicago.

447
00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:21,000
I don't think we can say they're related. It's certainly an interesting video, as you say,

448
00:32:21,000 --> 00:32:25,000
but because we haven't got any videos of what happened in Chicago, we can't even compare the two.

449
00:32:25,000 --> 00:32:29,000
In terms of lenticular clouds, I don't think it's them. It doesn't match the conditions.

450
00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:33,000
But I still believe there's a natural explanation for what happened in Chicago.

451
00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:35,000
It's just a rare explanation.

452
00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:37,000
OK, we'll bring it on.

453
00:32:38,000 --> 00:32:39,000
Coming up.

454
00:32:39,000 --> 00:32:43,000
We're seeing things in the sky that humans have never had a chance to see before.

455
00:32:43,000 --> 00:32:50,000
We find out once and for all if natural science can explain the infamous Chicago-O'Hare discycling.

456
00:32:50,000 --> 00:32:55,000
I would love to believe that this is a UFO, but I don't think the evidence suggests that.

457
00:32:55,000 --> 00:32:57,000
What does it suggest then?

458
00:32:58,000 --> 00:33:03,000
Aviation authorities were tight-lipped after a major mass sighting in 2006

459
00:33:03,000 --> 00:33:08,000
of a silent metallic UFO hovering above Chicago-O'Hare airport.

460
00:33:08,000 --> 00:33:10,000
7 left, middle and United States, 1 flight.

461
00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:13,000
828 position, hold United 881, have it.

462
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:20,000
But a freedom of information request uncovered an orjo recording of witnesses reporting the UFO to the control tower.

463
00:33:20,000 --> 00:33:22,000
Here's your flying discs.

464
00:33:22,000 --> 00:33:25,000
I'm sure it's a pilot and the ramp that you're telling us is the C-13.

465
00:33:25,000 --> 00:33:27,000
They saw some flying discs, but we can't see it.

466
00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:28,000
Come on.

467
00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:36,000
Yet despite this hard evidence, the aviation authority declared the event was a weather phenomenon.

468
00:33:36,000 --> 00:33:44,000
We're leaving no stone unturned to find out if the sighting of the disshaped object in Chicago in November 2006

469
00:33:44,000 --> 00:33:51,000
does have a natural explanation for whether only an extraterrestrial one fits the bill.

470
00:33:53,000 --> 00:33:55,000
Okay, Sarah, let's look at what we've got.

471
00:33:55,000 --> 00:34:05,000
We've got an orjo recording of multiple witnesses saying that they see a flying disc above C-17 in O'Hare airport in Chicago.

472
00:34:05,000 --> 00:34:09,000
I think it's just a case of you either believe these witnesses or you don't.

473
00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:14,000
What about the person in the plane? Do you think he saw a flying saucer?

474
00:34:14,000 --> 00:34:20,000
I believe that he saw a disc-shaped object, which some people call flying saucers.

475
00:34:20,000 --> 00:34:26,000
The most unusual part about this was that the object basically burned a hole through the clouds.

476
00:34:26,000 --> 00:34:29,000
We've got no video recording of that.

477
00:34:29,000 --> 00:34:33,000
The FAA has just closed down all communication.

478
00:34:33,000 --> 00:34:37,000
The pilots are instructed not to report UFOs to the FAA.

479
00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:42,000
And that goes for air traffic controllers and, of course, aviation professionals.

480
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:45,000
The FAA does not take UFO reports.

481
00:34:45,000 --> 00:34:50,000
You've got people saying that it could be a weather phenomenon.

482
00:34:52,000 --> 00:34:54,000
Is it a weather phenomenon?

483
00:34:54,000 --> 00:34:59,000
I think weather's certainly interesting, but the fact that you've got multiple witnesses,

484
00:34:59,000 --> 00:35:03,000
credible witnesses on the ground, people who are used to seeing unusual weather,

485
00:35:03,000 --> 00:35:07,000
and they've phoned it in. That, to me, is really intriguing.

486
00:35:07,000 --> 00:35:10,000
But I think there's still a natural explanation to this.

487
00:35:10,000 --> 00:35:14,000
So I've got someone who believes they can explain what happened at Chicago O'Hare Airport.

488
00:35:14,000 --> 00:35:18,000
His name is Dr Mark Hamagron, and he's an astronomer.

489
00:35:18,000 --> 00:35:26,000
Listen, I so want to believe that this sighting at O'Hare Airport is a UFO.

490
00:35:26,000 --> 00:35:29,000
Are you going to put a pin in my weather balloon?

491
00:35:29,000 --> 00:35:34,000
I would love to believe that this is a UFO, specifically an alien craft.

492
00:35:34,000 --> 00:35:37,000
But I don't think the evidence suggests that.

493
00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:39,000
What does it suggest, then?

494
00:35:39,000 --> 00:35:44,000
While listening to the details of the reports, they saw a round circular object

495
00:35:44,000 --> 00:35:51,000
hanging just below a uniform cloud deck, and then they turned and went back to work.

496
00:35:51,000 --> 00:35:55,000
And when they looked back, they saw there was no object.

497
00:35:55,000 --> 00:35:59,000
It supposedly disappeared. It left this hole punched in the clouds.

498
00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:04,000
Now, that phrase right there suggested something that's called a hole-punch cloud.

499
00:36:05,000 --> 00:36:11,000
This is a phenomenon that happens at that time of year with those kinds of clouds,

500
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:17,000
and is caused usually by aircraft passing through a cloud deck, but it's at a very busy airport.

501
00:36:17,000 --> 00:36:21,000
So this could have been a hole-punch cloud that they saw.

502
00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:26,000
We've got pilots on the ground. They're used to seeing unusual weather,

503
00:36:26,000 --> 00:36:28,000
and you'd think they'd be used to seeing a hole-punch cloud.

504
00:36:28,000 --> 00:36:32,000
Why do you think they didn't recognize this as a weather phenomenon?

505
00:36:32,000 --> 00:36:36,000
Well, I'm not certain what it was that they really did see.

506
00:36:36,000 --> 00:36:39,000
We just have to go on the basis of these reports.

507
00:36:39,000 --> 00:36:43,000
Do we know much about the weather conditions on the day of this sighting, then?

508
00:36:43,000 --> 00:36:47,000
Because you need specific conditions for these hole-punch clouds to form.

509
00:36:47,000 --> 00:36:52,000
We know that the weather conditions, the temperatures and the cloud structures were perfect,

510
00:36:52,000 --> 00:36:58,000
but moreover, I decided I would look for some satellite imagery of that area around that time.

511
00:36:58,000 --> 00:37:02,000
Earlier in the day, you can see the Midwestern United States,

512
00:37:02,000 --> 00:37:06,000
and in the clouds you can see some hole-punch clouds.

513
00:37:06,000 --> 00:37:11,000
So the conditions were perfect, and they were occurring elsewhere in the Midwest at the time.

514
00:37:11,000 --> 00:37:15,000
It would certainly explain why the pilot in the air couldn't see it,

515
00:37:15,000 --> 00:37:20,000
and the fact that there was no video or photographic footage of it.

516
00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:24,000
That's right, and that's something as a Chicago native myself.

517
00:37:24,000 --> 00:37:28,000
I find very curious. Ohir Airport is not out in the middle of nowhere.

518
00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:31,000
It's very close to the city, surrounded by suburbs.

519
00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:33,000
Major highways going past it.

520
00:37:33,000 --> 00:37:37,000
If there was something clearly recognizable as a strange object in the sky,

521
00:37:37,000 --> 00:37:39,000
other people would have seen it.

522
00:37:39,000 --> 00:37:42,000
Somebody would have photographed it or videoed it.

523
00:37:42,000 --> 00:37:45,000
You've got a background in astrobiology.

524
00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:49,000
Can you just explain to us more about the concept that we're not alone?

525
00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:52,000
As our knowledge of the world is growing,

526
00:37:53,000 --> 00:37:56,000
as our knowledge of space has grown,

527
00:37:56,000 --> 00:37:59,000
and our own Earth has grown,

528
00:37:59,000 --> 00:38:07,000
we realize that life can exist in conditions that would be prevalent everywhere throughout the universe.

529
00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:12,000
So the chances of life of some kind existing out there are very, very high.

530
00:38:12,000 --> 00:38:18,000
You know, also for a long time, well, we've wanted to believe that we are not alone as an intelligent species.

531
00:38:18,000 --> 00:38:23,000
But as scientists, we really need to have evidence.

532
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:26,000
We can't just believe what we want to believe.

533
00:38:26,000 --> 00:38:30,000
You're ruling out the possibility that this was an unexplained craft.

534
00:38:30,000 --> 00:38:32,000
You're saying this was definitely weather.

535
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:35,000
But there's some sightings that we cannot explain.

536
00:38:35,000 --> 00:38:37,000
Do you agree with that?

537
00:38:37,000 --> 00:38:39,000
Oh, I absolutely agree with that.

538
00:38:39,000 --> 00:38:44,000
But we have to admit that, well, we know for a fact that people lie sometimes for no reason.

539
00:38:44,000 --> 00:38:50,000
We also have to accept the fact that this was a mass sighting, and I don't think it was a mass hoax,

540
00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:55,000
and the people in Chicago actually believed what they were seeing.

541
00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:58,000
That I would absolutely agree with.

542
00:38:58,000 --> 00:39:02,000
Yeah, several independent witnesses, they saw something.

543
00:39:02,000 --> 00:39:05,000
But what they saw is open to interpretation.

544
00:39:06,000 --> 00:39:17,000
So, Sarah, Dr. Mark Hamagrin gives a really convincing argument that it is a weather phenomenon.

545
00:39:17,000 --> 00:39:21,000
What he gives is a very valid scientific explanation for what happened,

546
00:39:21,000 --> 00:39:24,000
that it was something to do with the weather.

547
00:39:24,000 --> 00:39:28,000
You know, this whole punch cloud, you get this super-cooled water in the air,

548
00:39:28,000 --> 00:39:32,000
and then when an aeroplane actually takes off, that causes that water to freeze as it goes over the wings,

549
00:39:32,000 --> 00:39:36,000
and you get this hole punched in the clouds, literally a hole punch,

550
00:39:36,000 --> 00:39:40,000
and it gives you that shape, that disc shape, which all the witnesses have described.

551
00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:43,000
However, I'm still curious.

552
00:39:43,000 --> 00:39:47,000
Pilots and airport workers must have seen those types of clouds before.

553
00:39:48,000 --> 00:39:52,000
We've poured over every scrap of evidence we can get our hands on

554
00:39:52,000 --> 00:39:59,000
relating to the disc-shaped apparition, which appeared over Chicago O'Hare on November 7th, 2006.

555
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:03,000
But where does the truth lie?

556
00:40:03,000 --> 00:40:07,000
In a scientific meteorological explanation?

557
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:13,000
Or in the compelling audio reports of the credible witnesses who were there?

558
00:40:17,000 --> 00:40:22,000
Before we jump to any conclusions, let's review all the evidence that we've got.

559
00:40:22,000 --> 00:40:24,000
Let's start with the audio.

560
00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:27,000
PowerCAD, this is Dave.

561
00:40:27,000 --> 00:40:30,000
Some of our employees, I don't know if you've heard anything about this,

562
00:40:30,000 --> 00:40:36,000
some of our pilots on the ground were reporting a UFO sighting at 1,000 feet from the seaside of the airport.

563
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:37,000
Did you guys hear anything about this?

564
00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:40,000
I know that the ramp they're called, you know, it was about 10, 15 minutes ago.

565
00:40:40,000 --> 00:40:41,000
We have not seen anything up there.

566
00:40:41,000 --> 00:40:42,000
Okay.

567
00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:43,000
Yeah, go ahead.

568
00:40:43,000 --> 00:40:44,000
Yeah, look out your window.

569
00:40:44,000 --> 00:40:46,000
Do you see anything above the United Stats?

570
00:40:46,000 --> 00:40:49,000
Or is they actually, believe it or not, they called us and said there's a...

571
00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:53,000
Somebody observed a flying disk about 1,000 feet above the...

572
00:40:53,000 --> 00:40:54,000
...K-17.

573
00:40:54,000 --> 00:40:56,000
Do you see anything over there?

574
00:40:56,000 --> 00:40:58,000
Not that I can tell.

575
00:40:58,000 --> 00:41:00,000
Okay. Yeah, I thought my job was stressful.

576
00:41:02,000 --> 00:41:04,000
We saw it a half hour ago.

577
00:41:04,000 --> 00:41:06,000
Who saw it?

578
00:41:06,000 --> 00:41:09,000
The old ones who were at the Charlie Care close.

579
00:41:09,000 --> 00:41:12,000
People were convinced that they'd seen a flying disk.

580
00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:15,000
Robert Powell talked about the fact that this couldn't be explained.

581
00:41:15,000 --> 00:41:18,000
A witness that he'd spoken to who was a passenger on an international flight,

582
00:41:18,000 --> 00:41:20,000
that's the early witness we've got.

583
00:41:20,000 --> 00:41:23,000
No pilots saw this alleged object from above.

584
00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:26,000
I still don't quite understand why none of the people in the audio recording

585
00:41:26,000 --> 00:41:28,000
have ever spoke about it since.

586
00:41:28,000 --> 00:41:32,000
I mean, they're too scared to come up and say, I saw a UFO,

587
00:41:32,000 --> 00:41:34,000
in case people laugh at them and denigrate them.

588
00:41:34,000 --> 00:41:36,000
The FAA won't investigate it.

589
00:41:36,000 --> 00:41:42,000
Of course, Ted Rowe talks about a lot of pilots reporting very unusual things in the air.

590
00:41:42,000 --> 00:41:45,000
He also talked about their reluctance to report them.

591
00:41:45,000 --> 00:41:47,000
Well, you can understand the stigma.

592
00:41:47,000 --> 00:41:50,000
At the same time, we've only been flying for, what, 100 years?

593
00:41:50,000 --> 00:41:55,000
I mean, we're seeing things in the sky that humans have never had a chance to see before.

594
00:41:55,000 --> 00:41:58,000
Most of those will probably have a natural explanation.

595
00:41:58,000 --> 00:42:01,000
The first time you listen to the audio from the control tower,

596
00:42:01,000 --> 00:42:03,000
it's really enigmatic, it's really convincing.

597
00:42:03,000 --> 00:42:06,000
It draws you in and makes you believe.

598
00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:11,000
Having spoken to Dr. Mark Hamagarin, I'm less convinced.

599
00:42:11,000 --> 00:42:15,000
I really want to believe, but with all the evidence that we've got,

600
00:42:15,000 --> 00:42:17,000
it doesn't really add up to much.

601
00:42:17,000 --> 00:42:19,000
There's no videos, there's no photos.

602
00:42:19,000 --> 00:42:20,000
What about you?

603
00:42:20,000 --> 00:42:22,000
Obviously, we've got to bear in mind, he wasn't there,

604
00:42:22,000 --> 00:42:24,000
but he has got the satellite imagery,

605
00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:26,000
which shows there are other hole-punch clouds.

606
00:42:26,000 --> 00:42:29,000
He's offered us a reasonable scientific explanation

607
00:42:29,000 --> 00:42:31,000
which no one else has been able to do.

608
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:34,000
OK, so what side of the fence are you?

609
00:42:34,000 --> 00:42:36,000
Case unproven.

610
00:42:38,000 --> 00:42:40,000
Case unproven.

611
00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:45,000
The persuasive explanation behind the sighting of a flying saucer

612
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:50,000
above Chicago O'Hare Airport in November 2006

613
00:42:50,000 --> 00:42:52,000
is that it truly was a phenomenon.

614
00:42:52,000 --> 00:42:54,000
We thought a half hour ago.

615
00:42:54,000 --> 00:42:59,000
Only we've concluded it was a phenomenon of the natural kind.

616
00:42:59,000 --> 00:43:02,000
Perhaps if more witnesses had felt able to come forward

617
00:43:02,000 --> 00:43:05,000
and the government had investigated the incidents,

618
00:43:05,000 --> 00:43:07,000
we'd have reached a difference outcome.

619
00:43:07,000 --> 00:43:09,000
But there's no denying.

620
00:43:09,000 --> 00:43:12,000
A disc-shaped object suddenly appearing anywhere,

621
00:43:12,000 --> 00:43:14,000
let alone in the sky above an airport,

622
00:43:14,000 --> 00:43:17,000
would make anybody shudder.