1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:22,000 in 2017, this New York Times headline shocked the world. 2 00:00:22,000 --> 00:00:27,000 A clandestine U.S. government program had been investigating UFOs. 3 00:00:27,000 --> 00:00:32,000 The Pentagon has confirmed the existence of the advanced aerospace threat identification program 4 00:00:32,000 --> 00:00:35,000 that studied UFOs and they released video. 5 00:00:35,000 --> 00:00:39,000 Oh, my God. 6 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:44,000 For eight years, the secret program was run by this man, Lou Elizondo. 7 00:00:44,000 --> 00:00:48,000 Time and time again, we were coming up with these mystery objects 8 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:52,000 performing in a way that defies logic. 9 00:00:52,000 --> 00:00:56,000 Frustrated by what he says was a cover-up, Elizondo quit 10 00:00:56,000 --> 00:01:00,000 and joined forces with an elite group of former government insiders. 11 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:03,000 We're going to figure out how to get to the bottom of it. 12 00:01:03,000 --> 00:01:09,000 Now they have one mission, to expose what they say is the truth about UFOs. 13 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:15,000 U.S. airspace is being violated by vehicles of unknown origin with advanced capability. 14 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:17,000 It was raining UFOs. 15 00:01:17,000 --> 00:01:24,000 I put my entire career and future on the line because I believe in what I believe in. 16 00:01:24,000 --> 00:01:30,000 Carl Sagan once famously said, extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof. 17 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:32,000 He was absolutely right. 18 00:01:32,000 --> 00:01:35,000 But now we have the proof. 19 00:01:54,000 --> 00:02:01,000 Lou Elizondo is on his way to interview a key eyewitness to one of the most stunning UFO events in recent history. 20 00:02:01,000 --> 00:02:05,000 We're trying to build a case here for the jury and so when you're building a case for the jury, 21 00:02:05,000 --> 00:02:09,000 there is nothing more compelling than eyewitness testimony. 22 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:12,000 They were there and by the way, they're trained observers. 23 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:19,000 These are people who can think critically and this particular pilot has never given an interview about this incident ever. 24 00:02:19,000 --> 00:02:26,000 In 2004, this Navy fighter pilot was training for deployment on board the USS Nimitz aircraft carrier. 25 00:02:26,000 --> 00:02:31,000 Now a high-ranking officer, this is her first on-camera interview about the incident. 26 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:37,000 She wants to keep her identity hidden due to the sensitivity of what she's about to say. 27 00:02:37,000 --> 00:02:43,000 I want to make sure that everybody understands that her identity is to remain protected at all times. 28 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:47,000 So when that even includes when you're writing notes on email back to executives, 29 00:02:47,000 --> 00:02:50,000 they say that was a great interview with, don't write that. 30 00:02:50,000 --> 00:02:53,000 Don't put it in there, just say the pilot. 31 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:55,000 Wingman pilot would be appropriate. 32 00:02:55,000 --> 00:02:57,000 Okay, so that's the Wingman pilot. 33 00:02:57,000 --> 00:03:04,000 I still have a security clearance, so as a result, we will not be discussing anything classified at all during this interview. 34 00:03:04,000 --> 00:03:10,000 In fact, if at any time anything is discussed at classified, we will stop the interview right there and then. 35 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:22,000 Elizondo is still bound by a note of secrecy, so he hopes testimony like this will force the government to acknowledge UFOs are a threat to national security and to take action. 36 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:27,000 Because this issue is such kryptonite inside the national security establishment, 37 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:32,000 he needed to figure out a way to do it so that what he's gathering could be made public. 38 00:03:32,000 --> 00:03:35,000 These are not crazy people that are reporting this stuff. 39 00:03:35,000 --> 00:03:38,000 These are the people that we entrust our security to. 40 00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:40,000 Why don't we just start from the beginning? 41 00:03:40,000 --> 00:03:48,000 We were operating off the coast of California in a designated military working area with our carrier strike group. 42 00:03:50,000 --> 00:03:58,000 We had launched to perform a practice fight against each other to rehearse our maneuvers. 43 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:08,000 On November 14th, 2004, this pilot took off from the deck of the Nimitz as the Wingman to a second jet flown by her squadron commander. 44 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:16,000 She soon found herself in the middle of one of the most significant UFO encounters on record. 45 00:04:16,000 --> 00:04:19,000 It was daylight and it wasn't the middle of the night. 46 00:04:19,000 --> 00:04:22,000 Clear blue skies, middle of the day. 47 00:04:23,000 --> 00:04:27,000 Normally fighter pilots are directed by a radar plane known as a Hawkeye. 48 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:29,000 99, take over, head mother, Eagle 7. 49 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:35,000 But the two FAA-18 Super Hornets are suddenly redirected by controllers on the USS Princeton. 50 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:39,000 We were interrupted by a ship-borne controller. 51 00:04:39,000 --> 00:04:46,000 Their tone was urgent and their requests were unusual. 52 00:04:46,000 --> 00:04:50,000 This is not an exercise. This is a real-world intercept. 53 00:04:50,000 --> 00:04:52,000 Didn't have much experience. 54 00:04:52,000 --> 00:04:57,000 I thought maybe it's a drug runner or something coming up the coast of Mexico. 55 00:04:57,000 --> 00:04:59,000 And I thought, wow, that would be cool. 56 00:04:59,000 --> 00:05:06,000 With no information about their target, as the two jets arrive at the designated location, they're confused. 57 00:05:06,000 --> 00:05:10,000 My heart sank. There was something in the water. 58 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:19,000 There was a churning and I went from being sort of giddy excited to thinking, oh my God, now we're on-scene commanders of Iraq. 59 00:05:19,000 --> 00:05:25,000 Somebody's crashed and this aircraft is sinking. 60 00:05:25,000 --> 00:05:28,000 And this is when you notice an object. 61 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:31,000 We were all clamoring to get on the radio. 62 00:05:31,000 --> 00:05:37,000 Do you see in the water? What the f*** is that? 63 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:41,000 A bizarre craft is hovering over the churning water. 64 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:43,000 What does it look like? 65 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:46,000 No windows, no flight surfaces. 66 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:50,000 So no wings at all? No wings, no... 67 00:05:50,000 --> 00:05:56,000 Smooth, white, no intakes, no smoke trail. 68 00:05:56,000 --> 00:06:01,000 It looked like a giant tic-tac. 69 00:06:01,000 --> 00:06:02,000 Give me a rough size. 70 00:06:02,000 --> 00:06:03,000 Maybe 40 feet. 71 00:06:03,000 --> 00:06:05,000 Okay, 40 feet. Fair enough. 72 00:06:05,000 --> 00:06:08,000 Large enough to scare the f*** out of me. 73 00:06:08,000 --> 00:06:12,000 It was so unnerving because it was so unpredictable. 74 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:16,000 High G, rapid velocity, rapid acceleration. 75 00:06:16,000 --> 00:06:21,000 So you were wondering, how can I possibly fight this? 76 00:06:21,000 --> 00:06:29,000 We have no ordinance on board unless one of us rammed this thing, which the way it was maneuvering would have been impossible. 77 00:06:29,000 --> 00:06:32,000 So I stayed high cover. 78 00:06:32,000 --> 00:06:37,000 The wingman watched from above as her commander flies directly at the strange craft. 79 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:55,000 Now Elizondo is on his way to interview the other pilot in the air that day, the wingman's commander. 80 00:06:55,000 --> 00:06:59,000 These are reports from military pilots. They've been in combat. 81 00:06:59,000 --> 00:07:10,000 And this is something that they cannot explain, and it's shaking them up to the point that they're willing to risk their professional standing by coming forward and talking about it. 82 00:07:10,000 --> 00:07:11,000 Brother Dave, how are you? 83 00:07:11,000 --> 00:07:13,000 How are you doing, man? 84 00:07:13,000 --> 00:07:15,000 I'm doing better than I deserve. How you doing? 85 00:07:15,000 --> 00:07:16,000 Good. 86 00:07:16,000 --> 00:07:17,000 Boy, you're living in a castle, man. 87 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:18,000 I know it, God. 88 00:07:19,000 --> 00:07:27,000 Retired US Navy commander David Fraver led the Black Aces Squadron, flying combat missions over the Middle East and Africa. 89 00:07:27,000 --> 00:07:31,000 He now works in the private sector as an aeronautics consultant. 90 00:07:33,000 --> 00:07:36,000 Commander Fraver is a very rare breed. 91 00:07:36,000 --> 00:07:40,000 He's one of the few folks that actually run towards danger, not away from it. 92 00:07:40,000 --> 00:07:44,000 Fraver was the wingman's commanding officer that day over the Pacific. 93 00:07:47,000 --> 00:07:53,000 He had that fighter instinct, so it wasn't surprising his actions on that day. 94 00:07:54,000 --> 00:08:02,000 I really wanted to see what it was. I mean, if I could have joined right up on it and got like Blue Angel close, then I probably would have done that. 95 00:08:03,000 --> 00:08:07,000 As Fraver attempted to get a closer look, his wingman watched from above. 96 00:08:07,000 --> 00:08:21,000 This object seemed to recognize that we were there and went from this very low altitude to maneuvering in an erratic, very rapid manner. 97 00:08:23,000 --> 00:08:30,000 So, the hair on the back of my neck is standing up. I'm thinking I'm going to be watching a disaster here. 98 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:46,000 Most of my questions are going to be focused on the five interrogatives, right? The who, what, when, where, how and why, just like we're doing a terrorism and espionage investigation. 99 00:08:47,000 --> 00:08:53,000 Lou Elizondo may be the most significant U.S. official to ever claim the UFO phenomenon is real. 100 00:08:54,000 --> 00:08:59,000 For two decades, he served as a counterintelligence officer for the Department of Defense. 101 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:07,000 Lou is, in many ways, an enigma. Here was a guy who had spent decades, really, in the intelligence community. 102 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:14,000 Whether it was the Taliban or his al-Qaeda or his ISIS or his Guantanamo Bay, he had a deal with all of it. 103 00:09:15,000 --> 00:09:27,000 In 2009, Elizondo took over the $22 million Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, or ATIP, that investigated encounters between UFOs and the U.S. military. 104 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:33,000 Is this three reports? Was this five reports? 105 00:09:34,000 --> 00:09:38,000 We were made aware of many, many, many, many incidents. 106 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:48,000 It remains a sensitive number. Those numbers are increasing on a regular and routine basis. Some of these incidents are very, very recent and very compelling. 107 00:09:49,000 --> 00:09:56,000 But in 2017, he made the shocking announcement he was walking away from a 20-year military career and going public. 108 00:09:56,000 --> 00:10:11,000 I had tried, in vain, to work within the silos of the organization, but I ultimately left the Department of Defense because of my loyalty to the department and to the secretary, not disloyalty. 109 00:10:12,000 --> 00:10:25,000 For the past year, unidentified cameras have had exclusive access to Elizondo and his new team as they tracked down military personnel willing to go on the record with their incredible encounters with UFOs. 110 00:10:26,000 --> 00:10:40,000 You are able to provide a play-by-play of what actually went down those moments that you were encountering that TIC-TAC. 111 00:10:41,000 --> 00:10:42,000 That's correct. 112 00:10:43,000 --> 00:10:51,000 He's meeting with one of the Navy's top former fighter pilots, who came face-to-face with a TIC-TAC-shaped UFO in 2004. 113 00:10:56,000 --> 00:11:01,000 Flying a Navy fighter is probably one of the most spectacular jobs you could ever have in the entire world. 114 00:11:02,000 --> 00:11:11,000 It's like a roller coaster times 10,000, and I got to do it in some semblance of a tactical airplane for 18 years. 115 00:11:13,000 --> 00:11:23,000 On November 14, 2004, Commander David Fraver and his wingman pilot took off from the USS Nimitz, which was on maneuver south of San Diego. 116 00:11:23,000 --> 00:11:32,000 I was the commanding officer of Strike Fighter Squadron 4-1, the Black Aces, flying brand new Super Hornets. 117 00:11:33,000 --> 00:11:46,000 The nuclear-powered USS Nimitz was the lead vessel of a carrier strike group that included the destroyers USS Higgins and Chaffee, the attack submarine USS Louisville, and the radar-equipped missile cruiser USS Princeton. 118 00:11:46,000 --> 00:11:56,000 If you asked any senior military officer, what is the crown jewel of the American military arsenal, they would say the aircraft carrier battle group. 119 00:11:57,000 --> 00:12:04,000 If we have to go into combat sometime quickly, it's likely going to be a carrier battle group that's going to be there first and it's going to be in action first. 120 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:18,000 It was an air defense exercise, two good guys against two bad guys, probably 70 miles, 60 miles off the coast in the gap between San Diego and Ensenada. 121 00:12:18,000 --> 00:12:23,000 Suddenly, the pilots are contacted by radar operators on the Princeton. 122 00:12:24,000 --> 00:12:29,000 The Princeton control comes up and says, we're going to suspend training, we have real-world testing. 123 00:12:30,000 --> 00:12:34,000 The pilots are re-vectored to a new destination, but aren't told why. 124 00:12:34,000 --> 00:12:39,000 So we start heading off to the west, the other plane is on my left-hand side. 125 00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:48,000 It was the junior pilot trying to keep up with the senior pilot and the lead aircraft. 126 00:12:48,000 --> 00:12:53,000 We're looking, we don't see anything on the radars at all, and we're talking to each other trying to figure this out. 127 00:12:53,000 --> 00:13:03,000 The Princeton's Aegis spy 1 radar system is powerful enough to track an object as small as a baseball at an altitude of 80,000 feet, but the jets are flying blind. 128 00:13:03,000 --> 00:13:08,000 We tried to see what was out there, which is difficult when you know what you're looking for. 129 00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:12,000 It's even harder when you don't know what you're looking for. 130 00:13:13,000 --> 00:13:16,000 So it goes down 60, 50, 40, 30, 20, gets all the way down. 131 00:13:17,000 --> 00:13:20,000 They get to a point where they can't separate us from the blimp. 132 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:27,000 They call it merge plot, which means you're in the same space as whatever you're looking for, and you've got to start looking outside because the radar can't help you anymore. 133 00:13:28,000 --> 00:13:34,000 Then far below in the water, they see what looks like a plane crash or a submerging submarine. 134 00:13:35,000 --> 00:13:39,000 But the weapons officer in the rear seat of Frayver's jet spots something else. 135 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:46,000 I hear, hey Skipper, do you see? And as he's saying that, I noticed the tic-tac. 136 00:13:48,000 --> 00:13:51,000 It's white, it has no wings, it has no rotors. 137 00:13:52,000 --> 00:13:55,000 Like a holy, what is that? I mean, I don't know. 138 00:13:56,000 --> 00:14:04,000 According to this leak summary of the incident, contact was made here, 30 miles off the coast, 70 miles south of the US-Mexico border. 139 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:12,000 At first, a strange craft stays close to the surface, moving unlike anything the pilots had ever seen. 140 00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:18,000 This thing would go instantaneous from one way to another, similar to if you threw a ping-pong ball against a wall. 141 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:22,000 And we start to kind of orbit because now we're going to watch this thing. 142 00:14:23,000 --> 00:14:26,000 We start a right hand turn, and we're going from a clock code. 143 00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:31,000 The object is in the middle of the clock, and we're at six o'clock, and we're driving around the surface. 144 00:14:32,000 --> 00:14:37,000 So we get to about nine o'clock, and it's just still doing its little erratic thing, kind of moving around this disturbance in the water. 145 00:14:38,000 --> 00:14:43,000 And I go, hey, I'm going to go check it out. I'm going down there. 146 00:14:44,000 --> 00:14:52,000 As we're coming down nice and easy, we get to about the 12 o'clock position, and all of a sudden it goes, boop, and it kind of turns, and now it's mirroring us, and it starts coming up. 147 00:14:53,000 --> 00:14:54,000 We're like, okay, now it knows we're here. 148 00:14:55,000 --> 00:14:58,000 It seemed to be aware, and it seems to recognize him. 149 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:07,000 It goes from basically just almost a hover into a pretty aggressive climb up to our altitude, so there's a bit of fear because now you're out there dealing with something that you have no idea what it is. 150 00:15:08,000 --> 00:15:10,000 It's actually reacting to what we're doing. 151 00:15:15,000 --> 00:15:18,000 I'm kind of pulling nose, you know, to where he's going to be, and he's coming up. 152 00:15:18,000 --> 00:15:21,000 He just rapidly accelerates beyond anything that I've ever seen. 153 00:15:22,000 --> 00:15:24,000 It crosses my nose, and it's gone. 154 00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:27,000 And I'm like, whoa. 155 00:15:28,000 --> 00:15:38,000 The Tic Tac appears to have vanished, but as the jets streak towards a prearranged rendezvous location known as the Cap Point, the radio chatter becomes frantic. 156 00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:43,000 The controller from the Princeton comes up right as we're doing all this and says, hey sir, you're not going to believe this. 157 00:15:44,000 --> 00:15:48,000 He goes, but that thing is at your Cap Point. 158 00:15:49,000 --> 00:15:57,000 According to FRAVOR, the Tic Tac accelerated from a standing position and flew approximately 60 miles in under a minute, as fast as 3,700 miles an hour. 159 00:16:00,000 --> 00:16:05,000 How did the Tic Tac know the pilot's Cap Point, and how did it accelerate so quickly? 160 00:16:06,000 --> 00:16:09,000 You got something that can accelerate and disappear and then show up 60 miles away. 161 00:16:10,000 --> 00:16:13,000 Kind of in awe a little bit because you go, whoa, we don't have that. 162 00:16:13,000 --> 00:16:18,000 You know, and I'm talking, we're flying one of the premier airplanes on the planet. 163 00:16:18,000 --> 00:16:19,000 What was this? 164 00:16:20,000 --> 00:16:22,000 There was a capability out there. 165 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:23,000 Don't know where it's from. 166 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:27,000 Not saying it's from outer space, but not saying it's from here either. 167 00:16:29,000 --> 00:16:33,000 Back on the Nimitz, the pilots tell the rest of the squadron what just happened. 168 00:16:34,000 --> 00:16:38,000 The next crew is getting ready, so we're talking to them about this, and they're like, you got to be kidding. 169 00:16:38,000 --> 00:16:43,000 They took us seriously, and the whizzo, the guy in the back seat, said, I'm going to go find it. 170 00:16:46,000 --> 00:16:51,000 The next jet to launch had a targeting pod with an infrared sensor and camera. 171 00:16:53,000 --> 00:16:58,000 It jambered our put, he got a lock on it, and that's the video that you see. 172 00:17:01,000 --> 00:17:03,000 That doesn't weird you that, I don't know what it does. 173 00:17:09,000 --> 00:17:10,000 Hey guys, how are you? 174 00:17:10,000 --> 00:17:11,000 Good, Lou, how are you? 175 00:17:11,000 --> 00:17:12,000 Good. 176 00:17:12,000 --> 00:17:14,000 Hope he can shed some light on a few things. 177 00:17:17,000 --> 00:17:25,000 On November 14th, 2004, two pilots launched from the USS Nimitz and intercepted a UFO over the Pacific, south of San Diego. 178 00:17:25,000 --> 00:17:26,000 What does it look like? 179 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:33,000 No windows, no flight surfaces. It looked like a giant tic-tac. 180 00:17:34,000 --> 00:17:40,000 They believe this video, recorded later that day by a pilot from their squadron, shows the UFO they saw. 181 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:47,000 It's one of three Department of Defense UFO videos. Lou Elizondo helped get released to the public. 182 00:17:48,000 --> 00:17:55,000 When the three videos came out, there was this shock by the world community that, oh my gosh, these are real videos. 183 00:17:55,000 --> 00:18:00,000 This effort that we are embarking on, I think it's going to change the conversation forever. 184 00:18:01,000 --> 00:18:09,000 Now Elizondo is meeting with two leading aviation experts to analyze the videos and see if they can help explain the pilots extraordinary encounters. 185 00:18:12,000 --> 00:18:17,000 What I'd like to do is go through these videos very carefully and get your thoughts on these. 186 00:18:17,000 --> 00:18:24,000 The providence on these videos is very well established. They are genuine DoD military videos. 187 00:18:25,000 --> 00:18:32,000 Retired Lieutenant Colonel Chris Cook is a top gun pilot who spent a career flying the military's most sophisticated fighter jets. 188 00:18:33,000 --> 00:18:40,000 Ross Amer flew commercial aircraft for more than four decades and works as a consultant for the National Transportation Safety Board. 189 00:18:41,000 --> 00:18:43,000 It's the first time the three men have spoken. 190 00:18:44,000 --> 00:18:49,000 So the first video I'm going to show you this afternoon was taken into 2004 timeframe. 191 00:18:49,000 --> 00:18:56,000 The first video shows the Tic Tac shaped object seen by the Nimitz pilots, captured by an F-18's infrared camera. 192 00:18:57,000 --> 00:19:01,000 If you look at it out of context, you think, oh, this is just another UFO video. 193 00:19:01,000 --> 00:19:06,000 But from my perspective, he absolutely captured what we saw earlier in the day. 194 00:19:07,000 --> 00:19:15,000 The grainy 90 second video shows the Tic Tac flying slowly, then sipping away at what appears to be a high rate of speed. 195 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:22,000 The altitude is 20,000 feet. We're in the TV mode now, so it's visual. 196 00:19:23,000 --> 00:19:28,000 The display's indicators are familiar to the pilots, but the image on screen is confusing. 197 00:19:29,000 --> 00:19:34,000 It doesn't appear to have any characteristics of any normal aircraft that I've witnessed flying. 198 00:19:35,000 --> 00:19:38,000 The experts wonder how the craft is staying airborne without wings. 199 00:19:38,000 --> 00:19:40,000 No flight control surfaces. I don't see that. 200 00:19:41,000 --> 00:19:42,000 It does not look like an aircraft to me. 201 00:19:43,000 --> 00:19:49,000 But in these images of a fighter jet also shot with an infrared camera, the heat from the engine is clearly visible. 202 00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:54,000 Everything we know about propulsion systems is they create an intense amount of heat. 203 00:19:55,000 --> 00:20:02,000 So if it was a conventional type aircraft, you would most definitely see some kind of air force. 204 00:20:02,000 --> 00:20:12,000 If it was a conventional type aircraft, you would most definitely see some type of an IR signature plume behind the airplane. 205 00:20:16,000 --> 00:20:24,000 If you want to defy Earth's gravitational force, the way to do it is with either a propeller to mechanically displace air, 206 00:20:25,000 --> 00:20:31,000 jet engine to compress air into create an equal and opposite reaction, or a chemical explosion like a missile or a rocket. 207 00:20:32,000 --> 00:20:34,000 That's one of those has a tall tail signature. 208 00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:46,000 Yet here are things that are able to seemingly effortlessly defy Earth's gravitational force and maneuver in ways that are complete contrary to anything that we would presume should be able to fly. 209 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:54,000 The ability to fly without wings or an engine is one of five distinct characteristics Elizondo's Pentagon team discovered. 210 00:20:56,000 --> 00:21:01,000 He calls them the observables and considers them the program's breakthrough discovery. 211 00:21:02,000 --> 00:21:07,000 Anti-gravity, the ability to fly without apparent means of propulsion or lift. 212 00:21:08,000 --> 00:21:13,000 Instantaneous acceleration, the ability to reach a high rate of speed in a short amount of time. 213 00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:20,000 Hypersonic velocity, speeds over 3700 miles per hour, five times the speed of sound. 214 00:21:21,000 --> 00:21:25,000 Low observability, the capacity to cloak or conceal. 215 00:21:26,000 --> 00:21:31,000 Trans-medium travel, the ability to move through space, air and water. 216 00:21:32,000 --> 00:21:38,000 Any one of these minds you would be an absolute strategic game changer for any foreign adversary to have. 217 00:21:39,000 --> 00:21:42,000 And yet here we have things doing all five. 218 00:21:46,000 --> 00:21:54,000 Nobody that I know is aware of some breakthrough that we've made in technology that could allow aircraft to do what these reports are. 219 00:21:55,000 --> 00:21:56,000 What are they doing? 220 00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:01,000 Brian Bender is one of the reporters who broke the story of the Pentagon secret UFO program. 221 00:22:02,000 --> 00:22:07,000 These aircraft seem to defy all of the known aerodynamic properties that we're familiar with. 222 00:22:09,000 --> 00:22:11,000 So let's let the film keep rolling. 223 00:22:12,000 --> 00:22:15,000 The object the Navy pilot is tracking suddenly seems to get bigger. 224 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:20,000 So what just happened there? What's he doing? He's changing the zoom. 225 00:22:21,000 --> 00:22:25,000 The object then appears to accelerate rapidly, disappearing off-screen. 226 00:22:26,000 --> 00:22:35,000 That's a significant rate of acceleration in a horizontal plane off to the left. That's very fast. 227 00:22:36,000 --> 00:22:40,000 The object appears to perform a similar maneuver to what the pilots witnessed. 228 00:22:42,000 --> 00:22:45,000 We're all amazed at how fast this thing just took off and disappeared. 229 00:22:45,000 --> 00:22:53,000 Instantaneous acceleration at this rate would produce a force of gravity or G-force so extreme it would crush a human being. 230 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:57,000 I have no idea what that thing is and it's not acting like a... 231 00:22:59,000 --> 00:23:00,000 Aircraft. 232 00:23:00,000 --> 00:23:02,000 It's not acting like anything I've ever seen. 233 00:23:03,000 --> 00:23:10,000 If there are vehicles out there, aircraft that are doing things aerodynamically that we've never even thought of, 234 00:23:10,000 --> 00:23:15,000 then I think we potentially could have real trouble down the road. 235 00:23:24,000 --> 00:23:28,000 There was another F-18 that was flying with Commander Dave Fraver that day. 236 00:23:29,000 --> 00:23:35,000 And for the first time, frankly ever, we were able to talk to that individual. 237 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:38,000 There was some frustration. 238 00:23:38,000 --> 00:23:40,000 Frankly, there was a little bit of fear. 239 00:23:41,000 --> 00:23:46,000 Lou Elizondo is briefing his team on new information he's learned about the USS Nimitz incident. 240 00:23:47,000 --> 00:23:56,000 This elite group of former government insiders was formed in 2017, bound by their conviction that the craft in these videos must be investigated. 241 00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:06,000 We can make a difference and do things because we have the connections in the network and if we can continue to establish credibility with people in the Hill and the Executive Branch, 242 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:08,000 we might be able to take this the next step. 243 00:24:09,000 --> 00:24:13,000 Chris Mellon served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Intelligence. 244 00:24:14,000 --> 00:24:19,000 Steve Justice was a top aviation engineer at Lockheed Martin's Legendary Skunk Works. 245 00:24:20,000 --> 00:24:23,000 Al Putoff was a scientist for the CIA. 246 00:24:24,000 --> 00:24:32,000 If you were trying to come up with the A-Team of former high-level government officials who would come forward on this issue, 247 00:24:32,000 --> 00:24:34,000 you can't really think of a better team. 248 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:42,000 Lou Elizondo, Chris Mellon, these are guys who still have security clearances, still have networks in Washington, still are in the business, if you will. 249 00:24:43,000 --> 00:24:52,000 Chris Mellon, who's put his entire family's reputation on the line to do this, Steve Justice left a very lucrative job at Lockheed Skunk Works to do this. 250 00:24:53,000 --> 00:24:58,000 But by far the most unlikely member of Elizondo's new team is the man who brought them all together. 251 00:24:58,000 --> 00:25:02,000 The last show I played was in front of 100,000 people. 252 00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:09,000 The lights and the pyrotechnics and all that stuff was going on right behind me, and then they wonder why I'm not doing that now. 253 00:25:10,000 --> 00:25:13,000 So back it up, introduce yourself. 254 00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:15,000 Yeah. 255 00:25:16,000 --> 00:25:22,000 My name is Tom DeLong. A lot of people know me from my band, Blink 182. I started that band when I was 16. 256 00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:32,000 But I got to that point where my daughter was two years old and I was gone for two years straight and I really, really needed a break. 257 00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:37,000 The only other thing I was ever interested in was UFOs. 258 00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:44,000 DeLong walked away from Stardom and dedicated himself to disclosing what he believes is the truth about UFOs. 259 00:25:44,000 --> 00:25:52,000 I needed to get into the government and I needed to find the people that deal with this subject and let them know what I'm thinking of doing. 260 00:25:53,000 --> 00:25:59,000 DeLong says he was able to secure a meeting with a high level aerospace executive with deep connections to the military. 261 00:26:00,000 --> 00:26:05,000 All of a sudden out of nowhere I had an opening and I just go, I am not naive to this subject. 262 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:12,000 I understand the national security implications of this subject, but I am asking for your help because I need guidance. 263 00:26:12,000 --> 00:26:15,000 I just need somebody to help me and give me advice. 264 00:26:16,000 --> 00:26:22,000 And he leans back and he goes, OK, that's when my life changed completely. 265 00:26:23,000 --> 00:26:33,000 Soon DeLong was covertly communicating with powerful people, including General William McCaslin, the former head of a billion dollar Air Force Research Lab, and John Podesta, 266 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:40,000 the former presidential advisor who once said his biggest regret in the White House was not releasing the government's UFO files. 267 00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:45,000 Tom called me out of the blue, sort of who is this fellow and why is he calling me. 268 00:26:46,000 --> 00:26:55,000 And we began to chat and I began to chat with some of the other people he was talking to and he clearly was establishing a network of people who had serious credentials. 269 00:26:56,000 --> 00:27:03,000 There are people like me who see this as an incredible mystery and enigma that needs to be resolved. 270 00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:12,000 DeLong says they were all part of an elite group of high ranking officials dedicated to UFO disclosure, but they wanted to remain in the shadows. 271 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:18,000 Do you think there's a way over time that we can open up some of these discussions, declassify material? 272 00:27:19,000 --> 00:27:25,000 We ought to be serious about investigating what's going on. Other countries have done that. Other countries have declassified the information they've had. 273 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:31,000 He's one of the most tenacious individuals I've ever met. He got to the highest levels of the US government to include Podesta. 274 00:27:31,000 --> 00:27:34,000 Hello, South LA! 275 00:27:35,000 --> 00:27:41,000 But in October 2016, on the eve of the heated presidential election, DeLong was thrust into a media storm. 276 00:27:42,000 --> 00:27:44,000 WikiLeaks released more emails. 277 00:27:44,000 --> 00:27:51,000 The result, it appears, of massive hacks into the National Democratic Committee, private email account of Clinton campaign chair John Podesta, and who knows who else? 278 00:27:52,000 --> 00:27:58,000 DeLong's communications with John Podesta and others were stolen by Russian hackers and published online by WikiLeaks. 279 00:28:02,000 --> 00:28:11,000 The one rule they had is we will help you, but don't go out and tell anybody who we are. That's the only f**king rule. 280 00:28:12,000 --> 00:28:17,000 Overnight, DeLong found himself at the center of the decades-old debate about UFOs. 281 00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:30,000 I think a lot of people thought that Tom DeLong was being used as a tool. They'll tell him some stuff that's not true, and it'll be a diversion and we'll fool the Russians or fool the Chinese. 282 00:28:31,000 --> 00:28:36,000 George Knapp is an investigative journalist who has reported extensively about UFOs. 283 00:28:37,000 --> 00:28:43,000 I'm just going to ask you point blank. Is Tom DeLong being controlled by a small group of powerful insiders? 284 00:28:44,000 --> 00:28:53,000 No. No, I think Tom DeLong has plotted out his own course. He's got some really good advisors who are not part of the government. 285 00:28:54,000 --> 00:29:00,000 All of these events that have happened are because Tom DeLong used shoe leather, knocked on doors, made phone calls. 286 00:29:01,000 --> 00:29:07,000 But what Tom has started in the last year is unprecedented, I think in the history of the study of this field. 287 00:29:10,000 --> 00:29:14,000 By the fall of 2017, DeLong had assembled his team. 288 00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:23,000 Then he learned the head of the Pentagon's secret UFO program had resigned in protest and wanted to join forces. 289 00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:29,000 It was Luis Elizondo. It was the guy that I wasn't supposed to know his name ever. 290 00:29:30,000 --> 00:29:34,000 It was the guy that worked at the office of the director of national intelligence. 291 00:29:35,000 --> 00:29:45,000 And they said, but there's one other thing. There's the first three videos of UFOs are going to be declassified for the first time in US history. 292 00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:59,000 The whole outside of the building was just a huge explosion. 293 00:30:00,000 --> 00:30:07,000 Chris Mellon understands what it means for America to be under attack. On 9-11, he was one of the highest ranking officials inside the Pentagon. 294 00:30:08,000 --> 00:30:18,000 I have lived through and survived intelligence failures, including the attack on the Pentagon. This was a group of 20 guys with no special skills or capabilities or technology. 295 00:30:18,000 --> 00:30:22,000 And they were able to wreck massive havoc on our country. 296 00:30:26,000 --> 00:30:40,000 To me, what is most interesting about this case, most pilots don't report these kinds of incidents or people are bringing information in cases does, which is a sign that, you know, we're establishing some credibility and some presence. 297 00:30:40,000 --> 00:30:49,000 Now Mellon's out of government, part of an elite team of investigators raising the alarm about what they see as another potential aerial threat. 298 00:30:50,000 --> 00:31:09,000 What is really motivating me right now is the Nimitz case. We had multiple naval aviators in what they saw in broad daylight over an extended period of time was corroborated by the most sophisticated sensor systems, air defense systems on Earth. 299 00:31:10,000 --> 00:31:21,000 Any reasonable person would have to conclude defies present understanding of what aircraft are capable of doing. It was clearly something beyond the pale. 300 00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:28,000 Chris Mellon is an interesting character. He's never been very public. His jobs have sort of demanded him to work behind the curtain. 301 00:31:29,000 --> 00:31:39,000 Mellon hails from one of America's richest and most powerful families. The Mellons made fortunes in oil, aluminum and banking and wielded power for generations. 302 00:31:40,000 --> 00:31:47,000 But Chris Mellon found his calling in intelligence overseeing the budgets for some of America's most secret programs. 303 00:31:48,000 --> 00:31:58,000 I was at the Senate Armed Services Committee and the report emerged indicating the United States had lost a nuclear weapon. So they sent me to try to find out what happened to the missing Nuke warhead. 304 00:31:59,000 --> 00:32:08,000 Back when I was a junior person that partnered defense, we all knew who Christopher Mellon was. This was a man who had all the secrets. 305 00:32:10,000 --> 00:32:21,000 I was at Area 51 talking to some guys there working some programs. And I said, you guys ever see anything really strange? I was almost embarrassed to even ask about it because of the stigma surrounding the topic. 306 00:32:22,000 --> 00:32:28,000 And much to my surprise, these guys said, yeah, we've seen some really strange stuff here at night. 307 00:32:29,000 --> 00:32:35,000 The deeper Mellon looked into the controversial subject, the more he began to question why the government was doing nothing about it. 308 00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:46,000 Here's a guy who presumably would know or be able to find out if these sightings were related to some very secret military program that these Nimitz pilots, for example, were not aware of. 309 00:32:47,000 --> 00:32:55,000 And clearly Chris doesn't seem to think that these instances were military aircraft being tested in secret. 310 00:32:56,000 --> 00:33:01,000 He feels so strongly about it that he came out of the shadows when it's not really in his DNA to do that. 311 00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:09,000 Chris Mellon and Luelle Lazzando weren't the only officials within the government concerned about a potential threat. 312 00:33:10,000 --> 00:33:25,000 The Pentagon secret UFO unit, ATIP, was established by a small group of senators, including former astronaut John Glenn, World War II veterans Daniel Inouye and Ted Stevens, and former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. 313 00:33:26,000 --> 00:33:44,000 It's amazing that an individual who worked at such a high level for so long as the Majority Leader of the United States Senate would choose this among all of the myriad of issues that he engaged on with all of the challenges confronting our country today. 314 00:33:45,000 --> 00:33:50,000 And this is one that he chooses in the twilight of his career to try to carry forward. 315 00:33:50,000 --> 00:34:03,000 In 2009, Reid sent this letter to the Deputy Secretary of Defense, arguing America needed to study the potentially groundbreaking technology behind these bizarre craft before it got into the hands of our enemies. 316 00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:10,000 Reid requested a small unit with one of the highest levels of secrecy. It was the birth of ATIP. 317 00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:18,000 He's making that case and that the strategic implications are so great that we have to accord it special protection. 318 00:34:19,000 --> 00:34:29,000 This wasn't the first time the U.S. government studied UFOs. The Air Force launched Project Blue Book in 1952 when a rash of UFO sightings put the nation on edge. 319 00:34:30,000 --> 00:34:47,000 This is David Brinkley in the radar room at Washington National Airport. On these radar screens last Saturday, they saw something strange and unusual and at the moment unexplainable. It was not an airplane. It was not a cloud. Nobody knows what it was. 320 00:34:48,000 --> 00:35:04,000 In the next 17 years, the Air Force studied over 12,000 UFO sightings and found 701 cases that couldn't be explained. But they concluded the incidents posed no national security threat and officially shut Project Blue Book down in 1969. 321 00:35:04,000 --> 00:35:23,000 It wasn't lack of compelling information. It was actually the result of compelling information. Ultimately, they determined that they needed to tamp down the concern, the public concern, in part because during the Cold War, this could create some kind of hysteria and overwhelm our air defense systems. 322 00:35:24,000 --> 00:35:29,000 So the government behind the scenes concluded that they needed to discredit this phenomenon. 323 00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:36,000 Mellon claims Project Blue Book created a stigma around UFOs that continues to this day inside the military. 324 00:35:37,000 --> 00:35:46,000 I talked to people in the Pentagon who had relayed that they were concerned it was going to make the Defense Intelligence Agency look bad. They were more concerned about the optics of it. 325 00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:55,000 I wonder if at some point this is going to go down as a historical document where people are going to look back and say, you know, it doesn't matter what side of the aisle you're on. That was heroic. 326 00:35:59,000 --> 00:36:13,000 I was never formally debriefed and I wasn't taken seriously for years. 327 00:36:14,000 --> 00:36:24,000 For over a decade, the accounts of two Navy fighter pilots of an encounter with an unidentified craft south of San Diego were dismissed by the U.S. Navy. 328 00:36:24,000 --> 00:36:37,000 If I had been a single-seat pilot and I had encountered it by myself, I probably wouldn't have said anything. I wouldn't want to risk my security clearance. I wouldn't want to risk people thinking I was a freak or crazy. 329 00:36:38,000 --> 00:36:46,000 You actually get four people that are eyewitnesses to the performance of this thing and then nothing gets done. So the frustration that comes out of that is why. 330 00:36:46,000 --> 00:36:54,000 It was not only ridiculed but then the intel people didn't seem to be interested in their story. It was the worst of both worlds. 331 00:36:56,000 --> 00:37:07,000 For months, Lou Elizondo and former Assistant Deputy Secretary of Defense for Intelligence Chris Mellon had been working behind the scenes to organize a meeting between the two pilots and members of Congress. 332 00:37:07,000 --> 00:37:20,000 If people see the evidence, they'll understand and they'll find it compelling. Sometimes it's only by bringing the information public and bringing the attention of Congress that you get action. 333 00:37:22,000 --> 00:37:32,000 Elizondo is driving across the country when one of the pilots, retired Navy Commander David Fraver, calls to tell him the unprecedented meeting has just taken place. 334 00:37:32,000 --> 00:37:37,000 Fantastic. And they asked you some hard good questions. On the record, oh my God, phenomenal. 335 00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:45,000 Fraver tells Elizondo that he and his wingman pilot met in secret with members of Congress responsible for national security. 336 00:37:49,000 --> 00:37:50,000 Holy, dude. 337 00:37:51,000 --> 00:38:00,000 The senators don't want their names revealed because of the sensitivity of the issue. The press was not informed and the meeting is not found on any official schedule. 338 00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:03,000 Do you feel positive that it was well received? 339 00:38:05,000 --> 00:38:08,000 Well, congratulations. You just made history, brother. Again. 340 00:38:09,000 --> 00:38:17,000 For the first time in history, U.S. senators were briefed for the record on UFOs affecting U.S. military aircraft and operations. 341 00:38:20,000 --> 00:38:27,000 For Elizondo, this meeting is the first step in an effort to wake lawmakers up to a serious threat to national security. 342 00:38:31,000 --> 00:38:32,000 How does the story end? 343 00:38:33,000 --> 00:38:42,000 I have no idea who it was or what it was. Maybe it's Elon Musk or somebody out there coming up with some, you know, disruptive technology that's going to change our lives like an iPhone. 344 00:38:43,000 --> 00:38:49,000 You know, if you'd show me an iPhone when I was in high school, I would have thought it was voodoo magic. I hope it ends peacefully. 345 00:38:50,000 --> 00:38:55,000 You have to ask yourself, is it E.T. or is it Independence Day? You know, what's the intent? 346 00:38:55,000 --> 00:38:58,000 And right now, we don't know. 347 00:39:08,000 --> 00:39:17,000 I promise I will try not to yammer on too long. I don't think necessarily disclosure is an event. I think it's a process. And I think that process began. 348 00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:25,000 We trust the American people to know that there are certain countries that have nuclear warheads pointed at New York and Los Angeles. 349 00:39:25,000 --> 00:39:32,000 That could wipe out millions of people in an instant. And yet, we don't trust the American people to know that there's something in our airspace that we don't know what it is. 350 00:39:33,000 --> 00:39:40,000 There's a lot more I don't know than I do know. But that's okay. That's why we have to continue to seek to find the answers and collect the data. 351 00:39:40,000 --> 00:39:43,000 Because ultimately, the data will speak for itself. 352 00:39:44,000 --> 00:39:54,000 I think the public is closer to understanding the UFO mystery than at any time in my lifetime. It's astonishing. And yeah, it's a little bit scary. 353 00:39:58,000 --> 00:40:00,000 What's worst case scenario? 354 00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:08,000 I would tell you already, it's too late. Because it's here. So we have a choice. We can live with our heads buried in the sand and hope it goes away. 355 00:40:08,000 --> 00:40:15,000 Or we can take our head out of the sand and try to figure out how it works. But it doesn't really care what we think in this room because it's here. 356 00:40:18,000 --> 00:40:20,000 This season on Unidentified. 357 00:40:25,000 --> 00:40:28,000 Never forget those voices. You know those voices? Yeah. 358 00:40:28,000 --> 00:40:31,000 Elizondo's mission to track down more eyewitnesses. 359 00:40:31,000 --> 00:40:34,000 If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I don't know if I would have believed it either. 360 00:40:35,000 --> 00:40:37,000 It was raining UFOs. 361 00:40:37,000 --> 00:40:39,000 Leads him to reveal a disturbing pattern. 362 00:40:39,000 --> 00:40:42,000 They disappeared down off the coast. I can tell you the latin line. 363 00:40:42,000 --> 00:40:45,000 I saw a little sphere. Suddenly it jumped. It moved. 364 00:40:45,000 --> 00:40:47,000 Like that. Fast. 365 00:40:47,000 --> 00:40:49,000 And to expose an even larger threat. 366 00:40:49,000 --> 00:40:52,000 These UFOs had an intense interest in anything nuclear. 367 00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:55,000 What are they and where are they from? 368 00:40:55,000 --> 00:40:59,000 The beams went down into the weapon storage area. And I'm thinking, oh my god. 369 00:40:59,000 --> 00:41:00,000 God. 370 00:41:00,000 --> 00:41:03,000 Now these objects have a global presence. 371 00:41:05,000 --> 00:41:08,000 Helicopter arrived and they requested all the data recording. 372 00:41:08,000 --> 00:41:13,000 They didn't want the world to know. Which is scary. You don't know what else they're covering up. 373 00:41:13,000 --> 00:41:19,000 Unidentified vehicles are operating at will in restricted airspace. Just minutes from the nation's capital. 374 00:41:19,000 --> 00:41:23,000 Thousands of people have experienced unidentified flying objects. 375 00:41:25,000 --> 00:41:27,000 It's time to look into it. 376 00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:31,000 You can't ignore facts.