1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:06,000 What's really up there in the skies above us? 2 00:00:06,000 --> 00:00:11,000 For decades all around the world, thousands of people have reported strange, 3 00:00:11,000 --> 00:00:14,000 unidentified lights and objects aloft. 4 00:00:14,000 --> 00:00:21,000 Some forensically investigated. 5 00:00:21,000 --> 00:00:25,000 Others seemingly covered up by governments. 6 00:00:26,000 --> 00:00:30,000 In Texas, townsfolk are astonished as the sky above them 7 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:35,000 turns into the battle scene from a sci-fi movie. 8 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:38,000 I can't explain just how fast it was, but nothing like a plane. 9 00:00:38,000 --> 00:00:43,000 I mean, they went from point A to point B and they were gone. 10 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:52,000 In the Amazon jungle of Peru, university students filmed something they too cannot explain. 11 00:00:53,000 --> 00:00:57,000 Fearful locals try to scare away the haunting lights. 12 00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:04,000 It's very easy for us to get confused between what we think we're seeing and what we really saw. 13 00:01:04,000 --> 00:01:09,000 And in Australia, a young pilot reports mysterious lights flashing around his plane. 14 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:12,000 It's on Ringbert, but it's not an aircraft. 15 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:15,000 Frederick Valentich never reaches his destination. 16 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:19,000 We're pretty wet, we don't know because we can't find anything of him. 17 00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:24,000 Oh, we've got his tape and his unusual clicks at the end and then nothing. 18 00:01:27,000 --> 00:01:33,000 Some cases seem to defy rational explanation. 19 00:01:33,000 --> 00:01:39,000 The answers may lie in these fascinating stories of UFO conspiracies. 20 00:01:39,000 --> 00:01:46,000 Stevenville, Texas. 21 00:01:46,000 --> 00:01:53,000 This rural community proclaims itself to be the cowboy capital of the world. 22 00:01:53,000 --> 00:02:00,000 In 2008, its main claim to fame is that it's close to the country home of President George Bush. 23 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:06,000 But residents here are about to witness something seemingly far stranger than presidential motorcane. 24 00:02:06,000 --> 00:02:11,000 A chilly 6 am in January. 25 00:02:11,000 --> 00:02:19,000 Local business owner Steve Allen is enjoying a campfire with his buddies when they spot high speed lights racing their way. 26 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:24,000 What is that? 27 00:02:24,000 --> 00:02:26,000 I saw him coming from the east. 28 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:31,000 He was in the middle of a campfire. 29 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:36,000 I saw him coming from the east, going to the west. 30 00:02:36,000 --> 00:02:41,000 They were coming at us at a very high rate of speed, no wind noise. 31 00:02:41,000 --> 00:02:44,000 All we could see was the lights of the parameters of it. 32 00:02:44,000 --> 00:02:49,000 All the same heading, same altitude, about 2,500 foot. 33 00:02:49,000 --> 00:02:56,000 There are lots of lights, but Steven's friends are convinced they're all attached to one huge craft. 34 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:01,000 It appeared to be about a half a mile wide and about a mile long. 35 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:05,000 There was a light on each corner of it at the first when I first saw it. 36 00:03:05,000 --> 00:03:08,000 A very bright, white, intensity light. 37 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:11,000 Totally silent, couldn't hear anything. 38 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:17,000 An hour later, County Constable Leroy Gaten leaves his house. 39 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:23,000 He too see strange glowing lights in the night sky. 40 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:26,000 Like a bubble, I call it an orb. 41 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:32,000 It was large, it was a brightish-reddish-orange color. 42 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:35,000 He hurries inside to tell his wife. 43 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:43,000 When he comes back out, the one light becomes many, strobing and dancing, before hurtling out of sight. 44 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:47,000 I can't explain just how fast it was, but nothing like a plane. 45 00:03:47,000 --> 00:03:52,000 I mean, they went from point A to point B and they were gone. 46 00:03:52,000 --> 00:03:59,000 One of Steve's friends is so frightened by what seems to him to be an alien craft that he flees in his car. 47 00:03:59,000 --> 00:04:05,000 When they call him to check that he's okay, he warns them that the lights are heading back their way. 48 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:06,000 Hell yeah. 49 00:04:06,000 --> 00:04:11,000 But this time, they're not the only fast-moving objects in the sky. 50 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:16,000 It came back from the west, traveling to the east at a high rate of speed. 51 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:21,000 That's when it had its two F-16s directly behind it, full afterburner. 52 00:04:21,000 --> 00:04:23,000 They was chasing it with a vengeance. 53 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:24,000 It headed off to the east. 54 00:04:24,000 --> 00:04:27,000 We watched it until it went across the sunset. 55 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:32,000 Then, events take a more alarming turn. 56 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:39,000 Pursued by the fighter planes, one of the lights now heads towards the home of the county's most heavily guarded resident, 57 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:42,000 President George W. Bush. 58 00:04:43,000 --> 00:04:46,000 I know that's a no-fly zone when he's in town. 59 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:49,000 At that time, it was a 60-mile radius. 60 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:51,000 If he's gone, it's a three-mile radius. 61 00:04:51,000 --> 00:04:57,000 So we're, all of us are very aware that that is there and you don't fly in that area. 62 00:04:57,000 --> 00:05:00,000 Fortunately, the president is not at home. 63 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:07,000 So what has been happening in the skies above Stephenville, and why have military planes been involved? 64 00:05:08,000 --> 00:05:15,000 The news of what Steve and others have seen spreads quickly through town. 65 00:05:15,000 --> 00:05:19,000 Everybody in the small community is keen to swap stories. 66 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:26,000 And the next day in my office, all of our lines was lit up all day long from people that had seen it. 67 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:33,000 There was business people and several law enforcement people, so I just felt like that they was genuine. 68 00:05:34,000 --> 00:05:40,000 But psychologists say the status of witnesses has no bearing on the reliability of their testimony. 69 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:47,000 Critical to spreading a rumor or getting a panic going is having an authority figure talk out about it. 70 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:54,000 Somebody who's very credible in some area of government or politics or entertainment speak out about what happens. 71 00:05:54,000 --> 00:06:00,000 That really has a kind of explosive effect on the credibility to which the belief is assigned by other people. 72 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:08,000 Stephenville townsfolk are desperate to find out exactly what flew over their town that night. 73 00:06:10,000 --> 00:06:17,000 They ask for help from nearby military bases, where the chasing F-16s were thought to come from. 74 00:06:17,000 --> 00:06:24,000 But the Air Force not only denies chasing any lights, it claims that none of its planes were airborne at the time. 75 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:27,000 Even the county constable senses a cover-up. 76 00:06:27,000 --> 00:06:35,000 It was a red flag when they immediately denied not having any aircraft in that sky that night. 77 00:06:35,000 --> 00:06:40,000 They tried to simply explain the phenomena away. 78 00:06:40,000 --> 00:06:46,000 First they said we've got it figured out it was a reflection off of a high altitude jet airliner. 79 00:06:46,000 --> 00:06:53,000 And I had to remark it was a reflection off of my shiny white ass and I don't think they liked that. 80 00:06:54,000 --> 00:07:04,000 Then, curiously, at a press conference two weeks later, the Air Force suddenly remembers that yes, in fact it did have F-16s in the sky at the time. 81 00:07:04,000 --> 00:07:06,000 About ten of them. 82 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:11,000 But none of them, it says, chased any lights. 83 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:15,000 If it's something that military was doing, they were doing it for reason. 84 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:17,000 I hope to find out. 85 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:27,000 One thing I certainly hope is that it's something from this earth that it's not something from somewhere else. 86 00:07:28,000 --> 00:07:37,000 Mystified Stephen Ville Texans soon have an ally in their search for information about the lights they claim to have seen in the sky in January 2008. 87 00:07:37,000 --> 00:07:47,000 The Mutual UFO Network, or MOUFON, is an unofficial organization collecting data on UFO sightings. 88 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:53,000 One of their most experienced investigators is Robert Powell. 89 00:07:53,000 --> 00:07:58,000 Stephen Ville, it's probably one of the most interesting cases, I would say, in the last 20 years. 90 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:00,000 These people didn't all see it at once. 91 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:06,000 They saw it across three hours of time, across a 30 to 40 mile area. 92 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:16,000 MOUFON investigators claim to have found new radar evidence from the night of the sightings confirming what key witnesses saw. 93 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:20,000 Could this solve the mystery of the Stephen Ville lights? 94 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:27,000 It was kind of reassuring that there was something black and white to prove that there was something flying around that night. 95 00:08:37,000 --> 00:08:48,000 Frustrated by a lack of answers from the military, UFO investigator Robert Powell petitions authorities to release radar data from the night of the Stephen Ville sightings. 96 00:08:49,000 --> 00:08:53,000 I immediately filed Freedom of Information Act requests. 97 00:08:53,000 --> 00:08:59,000 There are about five to six U.S. Air Force and Army installations within 60 to 70 miles of Stephen Ville. 98 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:02,000 So I sent Freedom of Information requests to them. 99 00:09:02,000 --> 00:09:10,000 I also sent requests to all the local sheriff offices, to the highway patrol, to the FAA. 100 00:09:12,000 --> 00:09:19,000 The military says it has no records responsive to his request, but the Federal Aviation Administration is more forthcoming. 101 00:09:19,000 --> 00:09:25,000 They provided us five different radar sites that basically covered all of this part of Texas. 102 00:09:26,000 --> 00:09:30,000 Powell and his team analyzed two types of radar information. 103 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:34,000 Data from aircraft which identify themselves with transponders. 104 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:43,000 And radar returns seemingly generated by other objects which lack a transponder signal and are less easy to identify. 105 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:49,000 He and his team take into account the military operating areas or MOAs nearby. 106 00:09:50,000 --> 00:10:04,000 What was interesting and was different in this event was that when we looked where the witnesses were in the area they were looking at when they saw these unknown objects, these lights in the sky, there were no jets in that direction. 107 00:10:05,000 --> 00:10:10,000 Powell believes he is able to verify every detail of Constable Leroy Gaten's sighting. 108 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:15,000 The time on the radar matches, the time he said this occurs. 109 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:27,000 You have an object south of his home on radar just as he indicates, and then suddenly you get a ping far to the northeast and that's actually directionally roices this object suddenly moved. 110 00:10:28,000 --> 00:10:35,000 It was kind of reassuring that there was something black and white to prove that there was something flying around that night. 111 00:10:36,000 --> 00:10:43,000 But radar reflections can come from flocks of birds or be generated by technical glitches. 112 00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:48,000 So Powell's data fails to impress former U.S. Air Force Major James McGayhay. 113 00:10:49,000 --> 00:11:03,000 What they received was the raw data which is the unfiltered data which shows all the anomalies, various bad aspects of radar that are normally filtered out. 114 00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:07,000 In a four hour period there were about two and a half million targets. 115 00:11:08,000 --> 00:11:15,000 Of that they selected 187 of them thinking that this was something significant. 116 00:11:15,000 --> 00:11:24,000 There was no evidence on any radar that night of anything other than a few civilian airplanes and the F-16s flying. 117 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:32,000 One of the U.K.'s leading radar experts is former military communications and radar engineer Chris Mooreshead. 118 00:11:32,000 --> 00:11:37,000 Analysis of radar returns is a fairly specialized task. 119 00:11:37,000 --> 00:11:43,000 The reason is you need to know what you're looking at and be able to interpret what's coming back accurately. 120 00:11:43,000 --> 00:11:52,000 The danger of amateurs looking at a radar response is they will see something and perhaps not understand that that's a common fault perhaps with that radar. 121 00:11:52,000 --> 00:11:54,000 Or common occurrence with that radar. 122 00:11:55,000 --> 00:12:02,000 Robert Powell defends MuFON's radar analysis claiming it's been verified by experienced air traffic controllers. 123 00:12:02,000 --> 00:12:06,000 He also worries about one of the more alarming aspects of the Stephenville incident. 124 00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:13,000 Why did unidentified lights appear to fly so close to restricted airspace around President Bush's ranch? 125 00:12:13,000 --> 00:12:18,000 This is area P-49, the circular area. We put a little blue dot in it so you can see it better. 126 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:24,000 So this is a significant issue for a pilot to dare to fly through this type of area. 127 00:12:26,000 --> 00:12:32,000 Powell claims to have picked up 140 unidentified radar pings traveling from Stephenville towards the Bush Ranch. 128 00:12:33,000 --> 00:12:35,000 These are the actual traces. 129 00:12:38,000 --> 00:12:41,000 Powell is convinced this is no normal aircraft. 130 00:12:42,000 --> 00:12:46,000 There were two different times where the object suddenly increased speed. 131 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:53,000 It would increase its speed up to 500 miles an hour from 40 miles an hour in one sweep of the radar. 132 00:12:53,000 --> 00:12:55,000 And the radar sweeps every 10 seconds. 133 00:12:56,000 --> 00:13:00,000 The radar evidence around President Bush's ranch is confusing. 134 00:13:00,000 --> 00:13:06,000 Could the blips have come from military planes? Or might radar data be intrinsically unreliable? 135 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:14,000 Quite often you'll get a spurious response coming up on a radar for some reason. 136 00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:20,000 So for example, as the radar sweeps through, you might get a bright up occurring. 137 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:24,000 And the next time the radar scans round, there's nothing there. 138 00:13:24,000 --> 00:13:29,000 But the operator would have just ignored that as being a spurious response. 139 00:13:29,000 --> 00:13:35,000 It was just cherry picking various data out of this. It sort of lined up. 140 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:43,000 And the interesting thing is the data lines up very closely with a highway that goes in that direction. 141 00:13:44,000 --> 00:13:51,000 James McGayhay still believes that military activity accounts for what the people of Stephenville see in January 2008. 142 00:13:52,000 --> 00:14:00,000 Stephenville is only 10 miles away straight line from the edge of the Brownwood Moa, 3200 square mile moa, 143 00:14:00,000 --> 00:14:08,000 military operating area for the military to operate various air operations both day and night. 144 00:14:08,000 --> 00:14:12,000 What was going on, the airplanes were conducting air to air operations. 145 00:14:12,000 --> 00:14:18,000 So one would be acting as enemy aircraft and one would be chasing the aircraft. 146 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:28,000 And someone may be ejected a flare, then somebody went to afterburner and you wind up with all these lights in the sky. 147 00:14:28,000 --> 00:14:31,000 And they're changing because of different things are happening. 148 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:39,000 I know what flares look like and they don't travel horizontal either, especially for quite a few miles. 149 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:42,000 And they don't travel with two F-16s chasing them. 150 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:49,000 That's not enough to shake McGayhay's belief that people simply see a mixture of flares and afterburners from fighter jets. 151 00:14:49,000 --> 00:15:01,000 They did afterburner climbs and when they did these afterburner climbs at night, the afterburner, the flame comes out the end of the tailpipe, maybe 100 feet. 152 00:15:01,000 --> 00:15:07,000 And so this would be a spectacular looking thing as viewed in the night sky. 153 00:15:07,000 --> 00:15:11,000 Eye witnesses remain unconvinced. 154 00:15:11,000 --> 00:15:17,000 110% believe that the military is covering something up. 155 00:15:17,000 --> 00:15:23,000 They don't want to say what it really was or not. 156 00:15:23,000 --> 00:15:26,000 The military have never confirmed one vital detail. 157 00:15:26,000 --> 00:15:31,000 Did their fighters that night have transponder identifying transmitters switched on or not? 158 00:15:31,000 --> 00:15:36,000 When these are deactivated, they are not able to see the light. 159 00:15:36,000 --> 00:15:43,000 When these are deactivated in military operating areas, or MOAs, the jets can appear as UFOs. 160 00:15:43,000 --> 00:15:52,000 I wound up clarifying this because I know the exact times that the F-16 flights flew into the MOAs. 161 00:15:52,000 --> 00:15:56,000 So we know exactly when the F-16s went in and when they came out. 162 00:15:56,000 --> 00:16:04,000 And of course the time period in between is when the Stevensville lights were observed in the direction of the Brownwood MOAs. 163 00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:13,000 So the official explanation is that a routine military exercise was taking place. 164 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:19,000 Yet nothing will stop eye witnesses believing they saw something far more mysterious. 165 00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:24,000 Somebody somewhere knows what the answers are. 166 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:27,000 I've made a public plea to then President Bush. 167 00:16:27,000 --> 00:16:32,000 I said, President Bush, the jig's up, the cat's out of the bag. Tell us what's going on. 168 00:16:32,000 --> 00:16:38,000 We can handle it. You know, we're intelligent people. We just need to know, you know. 169 00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:42,000 To date, Steve has received no reply from the White House. 170 00:16:42,000 --> 00:17:02,000 Kukalpa, a sprawling, hot and steamy Peruvian jungle city, home to 200,000 people. 171 00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:11,000 In spring 2008, residents in the nearby village of San Juan see something peculiar as darkness falls. 172 00:17:14,000 --> 00:17:18,000 Strange flashing lights appear, hovering over the Amazon jungle. 173 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:29,000 One of the first to hear about the lights and later to see them himself is Moto Taxi driver Jesus Diaz. 174 00:17:32,000 --> 00:17:38,000 People told me there's an object that pointed us with lights as if it would like to take us away. 175 00:17:38,000 --> 00:17:43,000 They said, we feel scared at night. We can't go out. 176 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:46,000 Then one evening, the object started to follow me. 177 00:17:46,000 --> 00:17:51,000 There were three little lights at a height of 100 meters, 200 meters away. 178 00:17:51,000 --> 00:17:55,000 I was scared and hid in the trees. 179 00:17:55,000 --> 00:17:59,000 I was scared and ran to the plattens. 180 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:06,000 The lights are totally silent, making locals ask, what could they be? 181 00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:14,000 Jesus reports his sighting to the mayor, Guillermo Sanchez Pacheco, who was already aware of growing local concern. 182 00:18:14,000 --> 00:18:18,000 Could other sinister rumors be connected? 183 00:18:19,000 --> 00:18:27,000 Many thought the lights were connected with the disappearance and deaths of local people, later found without their skin or organs. 184 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:30,000 They thought there was a ship trying to take people away. 185 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:37,000 I was totally incredulous. I don't normally believe in that sort of thing. 186 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:46,000 The rumors of deaths remain just folklore to this day, but the mayor needs to investigate. 187 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:56,000 So together with Jesus and his gun, he sets off for the jungle, where many of the sightings are occurring. 188 00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:01,000 At 7pm, the light appears. 189 00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:06,000 I said it's a plane or a helicopter, but it didn't make any noise. 190 00:19:06,000 --> 00:19:11,000 It came closer and closer, so I shot at it. 191 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:16,000 The light went out and disappeared. 192 00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:26,000 Guillermo writes to the Peruvian Air Force to request protection from the lights preying on local people. 193 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:35,000 But at the time, their UFO Investigations Unit in Lima has disbanded and its chief retired. 194 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:43,000 Instead, his daughter, journalism student Teresa Luchia Chamorro, starts an amateur investigation for a university project. 195 00:19:44,000 --> 00:19:54,000 We're not scientists or ufologists. We just wanted to do our assignment, get an A, and maybe help the Air Force a bit. 196 00:19:56,000 --> 00:20:01,000 Teresa and some college friends hope their investigation will be of use. 197 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:08,000 But it all gets more serious in Bacalpa as their filmed interviews reveal true fear in the streets. 198 00:20:13,000 --> 00:20:19,000 People were experiencing a collective hysteria. 199 00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:29,000 Each of them talked about the same dates, the same shape, the same movements, but above all, they shared the same fear. 200 00:20:33,000 --> 00:20:39,000 Fellow student Marta Wong sets out to find some of the very first to witness the mystery lights. 201 00:20:39,000 --> 00:20:48,000 We heard about a boy with his sister who went to fish in the river. They saw the lights and ran away from them. 202 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:52,000 The students track down the youngsters mother for an interview. 203 00:20:52,000 --> 00:20:59,000 He told her, run, go tell them at home, run, go tell our uncle and aunt. 204 00:20:59,000 --> 00:21:04,000 And so she comes running, but she was almost passing out by the time that she reached us. 205 00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:10,000 Whatever it is they're seeing, the townsfolk are clearly spooked. 206 00:21:10,000 --> 00:21:15,000 It was a round light that was moving as if looking for something. 207 00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:22,000 Wherever it fell, they say people disappeared. 208 00:21:22,000 --> 00:21:27,000 Nobody can provide any real evidence of missing people. 209 00:21:27,000 --> 00:21:32,000 Then the students videotape an interview with Moto Taxi driver Jesus. 210 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:39,000 The Air Force came and said it was nothing. They even told me that I was crazy and I was cheating them. 211 00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:46,000 Jesus shows the students where the lights can be found. 212 00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:54,000 Puzzled by a mix of fact and fantasy, they want to know, are the lights still there? 213 00:21:54,000 --> 00:21:59,000 They soon see far more than they bargained for. 214 00:22:03,000 --> 00:22:08,000 It's 8.30pm at the edge of the Peruvian jungle. 215 00:22:08,000 --> 00:22:15,000 Two journalism students become the latest to see the mystery lights that have been tormenting the villagers of San Juan. 216 00:22:15,000 --> 00:22:20,000 And their cameras are rolling. 217 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:30,000 Here it is. At this moment, all the advice about you need to include a tree in your shot so you can see the movement. 218 00:22:30,000 --> 00:22:37,000 You should use a tripod. I forgot all that in the excitement. 219 00:22:41,000 --> 00:22:48,000 And I was looking through the camera and I said this can't be happening. 220 00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:55,000 Was I looking at a street light? But there weren't any street lights. It must be a star. 221 00:22:55,000 --> 00:23:00,000 But the camera didn't have a strong enough lens to see that. 222 00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:16,000 I mean, I was scared. But at the same time, I was excited to be in a place where people told us the truth and we had proved it. 223 00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:26,000 To this day, the students can't explain the mystery of the lights. 224 00:23:26,000 --> 00:23:36,000 After reviewing their evidence, Tareza's father, retired head of the Peruvian Air Force's UFO Investigations Department, has no answers either. 225 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:40,000 He has a suggestion that's more spiritual than factual. 226 00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:52,000 I think that this country is a magical country. And maybe the UFOs is something magical. I like that position. 227 00:23:54,000 --> 00:24:01,000 No answers have ever come from Peruvian officials. That disappoints many local villagers and their mayor. 228 00:24:02,000 --> 00:24:09,000 When I sent the letter, I expected a more conclusive answer from the Air Force. 229 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:18,000 They have the means to be able to identify these objects. I've never received an explanation from the authorities. 230 00:24:23,000 --> 00:24:28,000 So now, the search for answers has been handed to experts outside Peru. 231 00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:39,000 Because the lights appear at the same time as rumors of other sinister events, the first question is, could the villagers all be suffering from some form of mass hysteria? 232 00:24:39,000 --> 00:24:47,000 I don't really like that term because mass hysteria implies that these people are crazy. These people are not crazy. It's something about being human. 233 00:24:47,000 --> 00:24:55,000 It's an underlying social mechanism that when we see lots of other people reporting something or saying something or feeling something, we're more likely to see it too. 234 00:24:55,000 --> 00:25:03,000 The problem is, we have very flawed perceptual systems. It's very easy for us to get confused between what we think we're seeing and what we really saw. 235 00:25:06,000 --> 00:25:17,000 That suggests, beneath all the anxiety and mystery, there could be a simple explanation. Could the lights be those of a regular aircraft? A helicopter, for instance. 236 00:25:18,000 --> 00:25:29,000 Now, if I was looking at the helicopter with a bright searchlight on, the bright searchlight may obliterate the rest of the light, so I may not see anything but the bright searchlight. 237 00:25:29,000 --> 00:25:37,000 But the minute the aircraft starts to change position, then one of the other lights may be visible, such as the flashing strobe light. 238 00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:47,000 That would explain how it moved forward in a straight line, turned on its axis and then went back. But it didn't make any sound. 239 00:25:49,000 --> 00:25:57,000 So, since they don't hear anything, many witnesses dismissed the possibility of a helicopter. But could this be a mistake? 240 00:25:57,000 --> 00:26:12,000 Well, if I give you a scenario of a police helicopter sitting in the hover on a windy night and the witnesses actually upwind of the helicopter, so all the noise footprint of the helicopter is being taken downwind, then upwind you may not hear the helicopter. 241 00:26:13,000 --> 00:26:17,000 Police and military helicopters have good reason to fly here. 242 00:26:19,000 --> 00:26:24,000 Peru is now the world's primary producer of cocaine. Smuggling is rife. 243 00:26:27,000 --> 00:26:31,000 Hunting down the drug barons is a major challenge for the authorities. 244 00:26:32,000 --> 00:26:41,000 So could fear surrounding that criminal activity and simple perceptual error explain the hysteria local people display when seeing the lights? 245 00:26:41,000 --> 00:27:00,000 They're looking for an explanation. They want to understand what it is. And they've got this cultural narrative available that all of us have been exposed to, that if things are flying in the sky and you don't know what they are, it probably makes them a UFO. 246 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:12,000 As there was no official investigation, the case remains unsolved. The sightings last a total of three months, but even today, some still claim to see the lights. 247 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:19,000 Along the river you can see the light. It's a disturbing light, but it doesn't attack them like before. 248 00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:34,000 The people of Picalpa became like family to us. We shared their fear. We got top marks for our work, but I would have preferred to have left them living in peace with the mystery solved. 249 00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:36,000 We were left with a calm mind. 250 00:27:43,000 --> 00:27:46,000 Bass Strait, Australia, 1978 251 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:53,000 It's 6.20 p.m. on a fine October evening. 252 00:27:54,000 --> 00:27:59,000 Frederick Valentich, Freddie as he's known, prepares for take-off from Moriban Airport. 253 00:27:59,000 --> 00:28:13,000 been airport. Ahead of him, a 180-mile, 70-minute flight. Just the day before, a 100-hour service 254 00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:16,200 gives his plane a clean bill of health. 255 00:28:16,200 --> 00:28:22,400 Frederick Valentich's aircraft was a Cessna 182, a typical four-seat high-wing aircraft 256 00:28:22,400 --> 00:28:27,200 with a moderately powered engine. It was a very common aircraft back in those days. 257 00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:32,200 They got a very good safety record. 258 00:28:32,200 --> 00:28:38,200 Local ufologists George Simpson and John Ocottel, a light aircraft pilot himself, both know the 259 00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:40,200 Valentich case intimately. 260 00:28:40,200 --> 00:28:45,200 I actually saw this aircraft flying over my parents' house on the day that Frederick disappeared. 261 00:28:45,200 --> 00:28:49,200 There wasn't a cloud in the sky. There was no wind, or very, very light wind, if any. 262 00:28:49,200 --> 00:28:52,200 It was just perfect flying weather. 263 00:28:52,200 --> 00:28:57,200 Freddie was working his way up like all pilots did in those days. And one of the components is night 264 00:28:57,200 --> 00:29:02,200 navigation. And that's how this story starts, because Freddie was actually building his night 265 00:29:02,200 --> 00:29:05,200 navigation hours up. 266 00:29:05,200 --> 00:29:11,200 Freddie is healthy, happy, and seemingly facing a bright future. A hero to his 12-year-old 267 00:29:11,200 --> 00:29:13,200 brother, Richard. 268 00:29:13,200 --> 00:29:17,200 When he was younger, my dad took him for a joy flight. He just loved it. And that was it. 269 00:29:17,200 --> 00:29:24,200 He was his passion. He wanted to be a pilot from then onwards. And yeah, that's all he wanted to do. 270 00:29:24,200 --> 00:29:28,200 That night he was going to go to King Island. And while he was over there, what he used to do 271 00:29:28,200 --> 00:29:33,200 was he used to catch up with some people that he used to know and buy some crayfish and bring 272 00:29:33,200 --> 00:29:36,200 it back for the family. 273 00:29:36,200 --> 00:29:42,200 Freddie has a modest 150 flying hours under his belt, and is in contact with air traffic 274 00:29:42,200 --> 00:29:46,200 control throughout his flight. 275 00:29:46,200 --> 00:29:50,200 That means that transcripts of his radio messages are available to investigators like John 276 00:29:50,200 --> 00:29:52,200 Ocottel. 277 00:29:52,200 --> 00:29:59,200 About 500 feet, he would switch over to the frequency that looks after the area, which is 278 00:29:59,200 --> 00:30:04,200 controlled by Melbourne's Control Center in over Tullamarene. And that's where Steve 279 00:30:04,200 --> 00:30:09,200 Berovi, the air traffic controller, first makes contact with Freddie. 280 00:30:09,200 --> 00:30:14,200 The original voice recordings have never been released. They're recreated here from official 281 00:30:14,200 --> 00:30:17,200 transcripts. 282 00:30:17,200 --> 00:30:21,200 A question from Freddie gives the first sign of trouble. 283 00:30:21,200 --> 00:30:25,200 Is there any known traffic below 5,000? 284 00:30:25,200 --> 00:30:30,200 And the answer came back very quickly, no, there's no aircraft. And then Fred said, well, I think there's 285 00:30:30,200 --> 00:30:37,200 something flying around here. 286 00:30:37,200 --> 00:30:43,200 Freddie reports four bright landing lights on a fast moving object close to his plane. 287 00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:50,200 It was something very long. It was physical and Freddie obviously could see it. 288 00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:55,200 Freddie persists in his questions to air traffic control. Could military planes be nearby? 289 00:30:55,200 --> 00:31:01,200 And they ask him, can you confirm that you cannot identify the aircraft? And he says yes, 290 00:31:01,200 --> 00:31:04,200 affirmative. You cannot identify this aircraft. 291 00:31:04,200 --> 00:31:10,200 When I heard the tape, the way he describes it, it's just, it's calm and he's just describing 292 00:31:10,200 --> 00:31:15,200 what he's actually seen. 293 00:31:15,200 --> 00:31:20,200 It's been disappearing. It's been above him. More than a thousand of it above him. It's gone away. 294 00:31:20,200 --> 00:31:24,200 It's come back. It's disappeared. And now he says it seems to be playing some sort of a game. 295 00:31:24,200 --> 00:31:30,200 Then Freddie reports lights heading straight towards his plane, a situation in which any pilot 296 00:31:30,200 --> 00:31:34,200 considers rapid evasive action. 297 00:31:34,200 --> 00:31:41,200 A minute or so later, he says, Melvin, that strange aircraft is hovering on top of me again. 298 00:31:41,200 --> 00:31:44,200 It's hovering, but it's not an aircraft. 299 00:31:44,200 --> 00:31:54,200 There are the last words ever heard from Frederick Valentich. What follows next is chilling. 300 00:31:54,200 --> 00:31:59,200 This is the actual recording of what came over Freddie's radio. 301 00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:07,200 Then suddenly there's this click, click, click, click, click for about 17 seconds or so. 302 00:32:07,200 --> 00:32:13,200 Like a metallic sound of something like being rattled along. 303 00:32:13,200 --> 00:32:19,200 The air trapping controllers realize that something unusual has happened to Fred very rapidly. 304 00:32:19,200 --> 00:32:23,200 After that, there's nothing. 305 00:32:23,200 --> 00:32:30,200 12 minutes past 7, Melbourne loses contact with Frederick Valentich. 306 00:32:30,200 --> 00:32:35,200 I thought, no, no problem. If he's ditched in the sea, they'll find him. He'll be floating around. 307 00:32:35,200 --> 00:32:39,200 And there was no problem. They'll just rescue him. 308 00:32:39,200 --> 00:32:46,200 And probably by the end of the night, we'll see him again. 309 00:32:46,200 --> 00:32:51,200 For a week, aircraft and ships scour the seas for Freddie's plane. 310 00:32:51,200 --> 00:32:56,200 There's no trace of it. There's no oil slick. There's no ties around. There's no seat covers. 311 00:32:56,200 --> 00:33:02,200 There's no floating bits anywhere. There's just nothing left over. 312 00:33:02,200 --> 00:33:04,200 An official investigation begins. 313 00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:10,200 Some representatives from the Department of Transport came to our office and asked some questions, 314 00:33:10,200 --> 00:33:16,200 some general questions about whether we knew what could possibly have caused the aircraft to go missing. 315 00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:25,200 I haven't a clue. They took away the logbooks and probably the paperwork and I haven't seen them since. 316 00:33:25,200 --> 00:33:32,200 Soon afterwards, photographs emerge that may help the investigation. 317 00:33:32,200 --> 00:33:37,200 A tourist snapshot allegedly shows Freddie's plane. 318 00:33:37,200 --> 00:33:43,200 Is this confirmation that he is where he says he is at the time? 319 00:33:43,200 --> 00:33:47,200 Even the photograph itself, you blow it up and have a look at it under analysis. 320 00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:50,200 You can see Freddie's 182 going down the coast. 321 00:33:50,200 --> 00:33:57,200 A second batch of sunset pictures from another tourist captures a bizarre looking object far harder to explain. 322 00:33:57,200 --> 00:34:02,200 Now, it took about six photographs. 323 00:34:02,200 --> 00:34:08,200 The last photo was this odd photo, this strange looking thing in the sky. 324 00:34:08,200 --> 00:34:15,200 George Simpson claims the photographs were authenticated by experts, but there's no independent confirmation of that. 325 00:34:15,200 --> 00:34:21,200 I reckon that if it could have been identified, Fred would have told us. He said, I don't know about this thing. 326 00:34:21,200 --> 00:34:27,200 This thing was flying extremely fast. It was doing things that aircraft don't do. 327 00:34:27,200 --> 00:34:31,200 I think he's had an encounter with the UFO. 328 00:34:31,200 --> 00:34:41,200 Ahead of the British government's former UFO project at the Ministry of Defence, Nick Pope approaches the mysterious photographic evidence of a possible alien craft with caution. 329 00:34:41,200 --> 00:34:52,200 The vast straight photos are inconclusive. The photographs were examined at the time by a UFO organisation, but really the resources available to them were limited. 330 00:34:52,200 --> 00:35:01,200 For a proper retrospective analysis, you'd need the photographs, the camera, the negatives and the photographer himself. 331 00:35:06,200 --> 00:35:14,200 Through the years following Freddie's 1978 disappearance, investigators hunt for more down-to-earth explanations. 332 00:35:14,200 --> 00:35:21,200 The first big question, could this be a case of mechanical failure? 333 00:35:21,200 --> 00:35:29,200 The man responsible for servicing and inspecting the plane just 24 hours before the fatal flight is mechanic Mike Hodges. 334 00:35:29,200 --> 00:35:37,200 The plane was in perfect condition when it left. Structurally sound, ready to go for another 100 hours. 335 00:35:37,200 --> 00:35:46,200 But could the aircraft have been overstressed in flight? Some speculate that Freddie pushes it too hard when he fears a collision. 336 00:35:46,200 --> 00:35:52,200 It's approaching from the south-west. The engine is one-file low. The thing is coughing. 337 00:35:59,200 --> 00:36:08,200 Some speculate Frederick Valentich pushes his plane too hard when he fears a collision with the unidentified flying object he reports over his radio. 338 00:36:09,200 --> 00:36:17,200 If another aircraft was coming towards you and you saw it at the last minute, it would necessitate very violent movements on the aircraft controls. 339 00:36:17,200 --> 00:36:22,200 And possibly the aircraft would be overstressed if you go beyond the limits. 340 00:36:22,200 --> 00:36:28,200 The Cessna 182 has a maximum manoeuvring speed of 128 miles per hour. 341 00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:38,200 Beyond this, violent maneuvers run the risk of damaging cables, bending the structure or inducing G-forces that would cut off its fuel. 342 00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:44,200 Could mechanical damage like that account for the radio's haunting recording? 343 00:36:47,200 --> 00:36:57,200 The aircraft is being agitated very violently. The only way you could get that amount of vibration in an aircraft is, for example, 344 00:36:57,200 --> 00:37:05,200 if a propeller blade broke off. I think there's been a mid-air collision of some kind. That's my impression. 345 00:37:05,200 --> 00:37:12,200 But with no officially verified wreckage ever found, such mechanical issues can't be proved or disproved. 346 00:37:12,200 --> 00:37:19,200 So investigators look at another theory. Could pilot error be responsible for Freddie's disappearance? 347 00:37:20,200 --> 00:37:27,200 He is qualified to fly a Cessna, but 20-year-old Frederick Valentich is far from experienced. 348 00:37:27,200 --> 00:37:30,200 This was his first ever night flight over water. 349 00:37:30,200 --> 00:37:36,200 Pilots inexperienced in instrument flying can become disorientated at night over the sea. 350 00:37:36,200 --> 00:37:42,200 So much so that they may even end up unwittingly flying upside down. 351 00:37:42,200 --> 00:37:53,200 If a person is deprived of their visual cues, like it's dark or they're flying in cloud, it's very common for pilots to find themselves upside down and heading towards the ground. 352 00:37:53,200 --> 00:37:59,200 Medical sociologist Dr. Robert Bartholomew believes this accounts for Freddie's unusual radio messages. 353 00:37:59,200 --> 00:38:07,200 It was genuinely, it appears, describing what he thought was a UFO and that he was being tell by this object. 354 00:38:07,200 --> 00:38:12,200 I believe him when he said that, but I think that object was himself. 355 00:38:12,200 --> 00:38:17,200 And he was seeing his own reflection got disoriented and crashed into the water. 356 00:38:19,200 --> 00:38:26,200 A government report found that Freddie was a firm believer in UFOs, a claim his family deny. 357 00:38:26,200 --> 00:38:36,200 Could this, together with the distraction of Freddie's own aircraft lights reflected in the water, have prevented him monitoring the Cessna's instruments with fatal results? 358 00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:41,200 Flying on instruments is a skill and it's a skill that you have to practice and keep current. 359 00:38:41,200 --> 00:38:46,200 And if that scan of your instruments breaks down, then you're in trouble. 360 00:38:46,200 --> 00:38:50,200 Cessnas are not designed to fly upside down for long. 361 00:38:50,200 --> 00:39:00,200 Because they fitted with a carburetor, which is gravity filled, and within a few seconds of the engine being upside down, the engine becomes starved of fuel. 362 00:39:00,200 --> 00:39:04,200 Yet Freddie's flying abilities are vigorously defended by his brother. 363 00:39:04,200 --> 00:39:09,200 If he was out of control, then he should have crashed into the suit. As simple as that. 364 00:39:09,200 --> 00:39:13,200 And so if that's what he's done, then where is any part of the wreckage? 365 00:39:13,200 --> 00:39:25,200 The ocean is a very big place and ships, planes go down all the time and it took years and years, decades to even locate the Titanic. 366 00:39:25,200 --> 00:39:27,200 And that's a massive vessel. 367 00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:34,200 So to think that this small plane that Valentich was in has never been found, that's no mystery at all. 368 00:39:34,200 --> 00:39:46,200 The lack of wreckage makes any theory impossible to prove, which leaves investigators with darker questions of whether Freddie's baffling radio messages were designed to confuse. 369 00:39:46,200 --> 00:39:51,200 An elaborate plot to run away or kill himself? 370 00:39:51,200 --> 00:40:00,200 Yeah, we had the drug running rumour. He wanted to commit suicide and if you want to commit suicide, you just jump off a bridge or just go under a train. 371 00:40:00,200 --> 00:40:04,200 The plane's not his, so there's nothing for him to claim. He didn't have life insurance. 372 00:40:04,200 --> 00:40:12,200 He had no mental illness, anything to really set alarms off when you're doing something like this. The department found nothing also. 373 00:40:12,200 --> 00:40:21,200 He was a guy who was very serious about his flying and so he wouldn't have done anything that would have jeopardized that position. 374 00:40:30,200 --> 00:40:38,200 The lack of any proven cause feeds speculation that Freddie had some form of alien encounter. 375 00:40:38,200 --> 00:40:43,200 What is certain is that the official investigation could come up with no answers. 376 00:40:43,200 --> 00:40:47,200 They don't have Fred, they don't have the aircraft, there's nothing that they can really come up with. 377 00:40:47,200 --> 00:40:51,200 They just said it's undetermined. The cause of this is undetermined. 378 00:40:51,200 --> 00:41:01,200 While it's a fascinating case for UFO investigators, for Freddie's family with no goodbyes and no body to bury, it's a tragedy. 379 00:41:01,200 --> 00:41:18,200 The thought of something from outside taking him is, I don't know, I'm not convinced about that, but without a body or without wreckage, I really don't understand what had actually happened to him. 380 00:41:18,200 --> 00:41:23,200 I mean, all I know is that I've lost a brother and my parents lost a son. 381 00:41:24,200 --> 00:41:37,200 Many UFO sightings have rational explanations, but others continue to defy understanding. 382 00:41:37,200 --> 00:41:46,200 They are the cases that will always remain among the world's most intriguing UFO conspiracies.