1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,440 What are UFOs? Where do they come from? And when did governments begin to study them? 2 00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:16,440 In 1947, a series of American UFO sightings triggers an unprecedented analysis of the 3 00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:25,440 UFO phenomenon. But their internal investigation reveals the unthinkable. Join us as we investigate 4 00:00:25,440 --> 00:00:33,440 how the fledgling 1947 US Air Force comes to the stunning conclusion that UFOs are from 5 00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:46,440 another world. A global effort has begun. Secret files hidden from the public for decades, 6 00:00:46,440 --> 00:00:52,440 detailing every UFO account, are now available to the public. We are about to uncover the 7 00:00:52,440 --> 00:00:58,440 truth behind these classified documents. Find out what the government doesn't want you to know. 8 00:00:58,440 --> 00:01:09,640 Unseal alien files exposing the biggest secret on planet Earth. In the years right after World War 9 00:01:09,640 --> 00:01:18,360 II, UFO sightings are still considered rare and unusual events. But the UFO phenomenon is about 10 00:01:18,360 --> 00:01:25,800 to descend onto the world stage. Many government experts consider the unusual aircraft are not 11 00:01:25,800 --> 00:01:33,960 aliens from another world, but Soviet spies or Nazis testing Allied defenses and gathering 12 00:01:33,960 --> 00:01:40,280 intelligence for an impending war. In the mid to late 40s, when you had these unknown craft that 13 00:01:40,280 --> 00:01:45,720 were appearing above the United States, there wasn't really necessarily an immediate fear that this 14 00:01:45,720 --> 00:01:51,080 was aliens attacking us. But we were just out of World War II. There was a lot of fear that this 15 00:01:51,080 --> 00:01:56,760 could be Nazi technology that survived the war, and they were doing some kind of second push. 16 00:01:56,760 --> 00:02:05,720 Public attitudes about all of this were strange. We were in that odd post-war era. Everything was 17 00:02:05,720 --> 00:02:14,440 kind of in flux. The Nazis, the Japanese have been defeated, but this new enemy, our former ally, 18 00:02:14,520 --> 00:02:21,800 the Soviet Union had emerged. The Second World War had transitioned into the Cold War. It was a 19 00:02:21,800 --> 00:02:29,320 time of great uncertainty, great confusion. After Hiroshima, America's secret weapon is no longer a 20 00:02:29,320 --> 00:02:37,480 secret, but no one knows if the Soviet Union also has atomic weapons, or if escaped Nazis, 21 00:02:37,560 --> 00:02:45,640 harbor the technology. It was a period of unprecedented confusion, uncertainty, and nerves. 22 00:02:45,640 --> 00:02:51,000 We knew that Nazis had escaped Germany. They could have very well have created some base, 23 00:02:51,000 --> 00:02:55,800 somewhere else, with this technology and started to attack us. Unsealed case file. 24 00:02:57,240 --> 00:03:03,480 The Kenneth Arnold sighting. June 24th, 1947. Mount Rainier, Washington. 25 00:03:04,440 --> 00:03:14,680 In June 1947, just before the infamous Roswell incident, a light aircraft pilot called Kenneth 26 00:03:14,680 --> 00:03:20,920 Arnold had a sighting which would change the world. While he was flying over the Cascade 27 00:03:20,920 --> 00:03:29,560 Mountains in Washington State, he saw nine strange objects flying in formation. At a speed, 28 00:03:29,560 --> 00:03:37,400 he estimated to be 1200 miles an hour. Arnold claims the objects are delta-shaped craft and 29 00:03:37,400 --> 00:03:44,920 vary their angle and speed in a manner impossible for 1947. He describes the saucers moving at a 30 00:03:44,920 --> 00:03:52,600 speed that would kill a normal pilot, and initially concludes the objects are either remote controlled 31 00:03:52,680 --> 00:04:01,160 and man-made or not of this world. He was a pilot. He was aware of what was supposed to be in the 32 00:04:01,160 --> 00:04:07,880 sky and what was not. This was significantly ahead of any technology that was flying at the time, 33 00:04:07,880 --> 00:04:14,360 and these strange delta-shaped craft were like nothing he'd ever seen before. And of course, 34 00:04:14,360 --> 00:04:20,200 he was a pilot, so a very good witness. His story has been really known in the field of 35 00:04:20,200 --> 00:04:29,000 ufology as that first case, that first unknown interaction between an actual pilot, seeing 36 00:04:29,000 --> 00:04:35,640 craft outside of his window that lacked any explanation whatsoever. When he was asked later 37 00:04:36,280 --> 00:04:43,960 how these things moved, not only did he describe the speed, but he went on to talk about a sort of 38 00:04:44,040 --> 00:04:53,720 jerky movement, and he said it was like a stone would be, like a saucer would be if you skipped it 39 00:04:53,720 --> 00:05:03,720 over the water. Before 1947, the public really didn't have anything to call UFOs. There was really no 40 00:05:03,720 --> 00:05:10,200 label for all of this. But a newspaper catches on to Arnold's saucer description, and the term 41 00:05:10,200 --> 00:05:16,520 flying saucer enters the modern lexicon. It tapped into something. It captured the public 42 00:05:16,520 --> 00:05:25,400 imagination. The story was syndicated around the world, and suddenly flying saucer fever 43 00:05:25,400 --> 00:05:31,800 swept the world. A new term had been born, and this really was the beginning of the flying 44 00:05:31,800 --> 00:05:38,440 saucer age. In 1947, at the dawn of modern day ufology, where flying saucers were being seen 45 00:05:38,440 --> 00:05:44,200 all around the United States, the government created the United States Air Force. Now the 46 00:05:44,200 --> 00:05:49,640 United States Air Force pretty much took the lead in trying to figure out what UFOs were. 47 00:05:49,640 --> 00:05:55,320 Just one week after the Air Force officially separates from the army, it creates Project 48 00:05:55,320 --> 00:06:02,280 Sine, which becomes the first organization in the world to try and understand the UFO problem 49 00:06:02,360 --> 00:06:09,320 from a scientific perspective. A Project Sine investigated numerous reports, brought in scientists 50 00:06:09,320 --> 00:06:14,200 to say, what are we dealing with here? There wasn't one or two sightings at this point. They were 51 00:06:14,200 --> 00:06:20,920 being reported throughout the United States at a very high rate, so they knew the phenomena was real. 52 00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:27,080 They had to figure out what it was. The fledgling U.S. Air Force initially considers many UFO 53 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:32,760 sightings might be foreign enemy technology. When these crafts were appearing above America, 54 00:06:32,760 --> 00:06:38,520 we had no idea if the Soviets decided, well, hey, you know what, maybe Hitler had a point to rule 55 00:06:38,520 --> 00:06:43,080 the world, and even though he failed and we got him, let's turn our sights to America and let's 56 00:06:43,080 --> 00:06:50,520 control those guys. But as UFO sightings increase, so does the government's fear of what UFOs might 57 00:06:50,520 --> 00:06:57,320 actually be? Just as the United States grabbed a whole bunch of Nazi scientists in 58 00:06:57,320 --> 00:07:03,000 Operation Paperclip and started putting together secret programs of their own, well, 59 00:07:03,000 --> 00:07:11,960 maybe the Soviets got some too. So could some of these flying sources be Soviet aircraft or even missiles? 60 00:07:12,920 --> 00:07:21,560 In 1947, UFO researchers from the United States Air Force struggle to explain a wave of sightings 61 00:07:21,560 --> 00:07:28,200 across the country. Until a series of sightings at an important U.S. Air Force base has the 62 00:07:28,200 --> 00:07:37,880 government on high alert. Unsealed case file, the Merak Air Force Base incident. July 7th, 63 00:07:38,120 --> 00:07:46,600 1947, Southern California. Shortly after Kenneth Arnold's flying 64 00:07:46,600 --> 00:07:52,040 saucer sighting, shortly after the Roswell incident, came a series of strange sightings at 65 00:07:52,040 --> 00:07:59,880 Murot Air Force Base, now known as Edwards Air Force Base in California. At 10 a.m. on July 7th, 66 00:07:59,880 --> 00:08:07,320 a pilot observes an unknown spherical object flying east at about 10,000 feet. On July 8th, 67 00:08:07,880 --> 00:08:14,520 four military personnel observe two circular objects flying at approximately 300 miles per hour, 68 00:08:14,520 --> 00:08:19,800 spiral toward the horizon. Some of the craft were described as simply light spheres or orbs in the 69 00:08:19,800 --> 00:08:27,480 sky, while others were the more common flying saucer UFOs. Later that evening, a P-51 pilot 70 00:08:27,480 --> 00:08:33,160 twice attempts to intercept a flat silver disk of a quote, light reflecting nature. 71 00:08:33,960 --> 00:08:41,800 Pilot of a jet aircraft who actually chased a UFO unsuccessfully for a while, the speeds and 72 00:08:41,800 --> 00:08:47,880 maneuvers were described as too great for him to even catch this thing. Even the commanding officer 73 00:08:47,880 --> 00:08:54,840 had a sighting. UFO sightings have suddenly become an alarming trend within the military community. 74 00:08:55,400 --> 00:09:01,240 It's one thing for a civilian or even a civilian pilot to see flying saucers and describe them as 75 00:09:01,240 --> 00:09:07,000 such, but when the military themselves start seeing the same phenomena, they're seeing it 76 00:09:07,000 --> 00:09:13,880 over military installations, that's a problem. When people who have huge experience in judging 77 00:09:13,880 --> 00:09:19,640 heights and speeds, when they say these are disc shaped craft, when they talk about strange 78 00:09:19,640 --> 00:09:26,920 rotational motions, the military sits up and takes notice. These sightings were hugely significant. 79 00:09:27,480 --> 00:09:33,720 Many inside the Air Force start to suspect that the unknown craft may be top secret American 80 00:09:33,720 --> 00:09:40,600 technology. The United States Air Force went through the assumption that they must be dealing with 81 00:09:40,600 --> 00:09:48,280 some sort of US domestic military program that people investigating all of this just hadn't been 82 00:09:48,280 --> 00:09:56,280 briefed into. But internal inquiries turn up nothing. Now eventually that theory was discarded 83 00:09:56,280 --> 00:10:02,360 because after a certain degree of investigation, all the branches of government were brought into 84 00:10:02,360 --> 00:10:08,600 this and they said no, we don't have anything like that. Still without answers, Project Sine recruits 85 00:10:08,600 --> 00:10:15,480 a number of leading aeronautical experts. Among them, Alfred Loading. One of the scientists that 86 00:10:15,480 --> 00:10:20,440 Project Sine brought aboard was Alfred Loading. His expertise would be instrumental to try and 87 00:10:20,440 --> 00:10:27,240 figure out what the UFO phenomenon was. Alfred Loading was an aeronautical engineer who had 88 00:10:27,240 --> 00:10:35,640 done pioneering work on disc shaped and delta shaped aircraft. Loading was seconded onto this 89 00:10:35,640 --> 00:10:41,560 because of his expertise and asked what is it that we're dealing with here? Loading and his 90 00:10:41,560 --> 00:10:47,320 colleagues are considered some of the greatest technological minds America has to offer. These 91 00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:53,720 people were aeronautical engineers. These people were aviation specialists. These people were 92 00:10:53,720 --> 00:11:02,360 physicists. They, better than anyone on the face of the planet, had an idea of what the level of 93 00:11:02,360 --> 00:11:09,160 aviation technology was. So when they looked at the UFO reports, they said, look, the speeds, 94 00:11:09,800 --> 00:11:14,920 the manoeuvrability here, the rotation, the strange way in which these things move. 95 00:11:15,800 --> 00:11:23,560 We can't do that. For the leading scientists of the day, it becomes a process of elimination. 96 00:11:23,560 --> 00:11:30,280 This isn't German technology back engineered. This isn't Soviet stuff. This isn't US domestic. This 97 00:11:30,280 --> 00:11:38,440 is above and beyond that. These scientists said, we simply don't have that technology. If it's not 98 00:11:38,440 --> 00:11:46,360 us, it must be somebody else. Increasingly and sensationally, parts of the US government 99 00:11:46,360 --> 00:11:57,000 started to think the unthinkable. In the summer of 1947, a wave of UFO sightings forces the 100 00:11:57,000 --> 00:12:03,640 government to investigate what is being witnessed in the skies all across the country. Could it be 101 00:12:03,640 --> 00:12:11,240 technology created by hostile governments or something even more disturbing? Unsealed case 102 00:12:11,240 --> 00:12:22,440 file, the child's whited incident. July 24, 1948, Montgomery, Alabama, chief pilot, Clarence Childs, 103 00:12:22,440 --> 00:12:28,440 and co-pilot, John Whited, are flying a DC three passenger plane on a routine night flight 104 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:35,320 when Childs spots an object rapidly approaching in the sky. Now, the pilot saw this craft. He knew 105 00:12:35,320 --> 00:12:41,320 it shouldn't be there and it also did not look like anything that he could really easily recognize. 106 00:12:41,320 --> 00:12:46,360 He ends up tapping his co-pilot on the shoulder, telling him to take a look, and then they see 107 00:12:46,360 --> 00:12:52,280 this craft travel in an incredible rate of speed from a fairly far distance to nearly 108 00:12:52,920 --> 00:12:59,320 right in front of them. The pilots described the craft as cigar-shaped, with glowing windows on the 109 00:12:59,320 --> 00:13:06,600 side. This thing was closing fast. They almost literally braced for impact, took evasive action, 110 00:13:06,600 --> 00:13:14,920 and this object passed rapidly along the side of the aircraft. This is a classic case of trained 111 00:13:15,640 --> 00:13:23,240 aviation personnel, pilots, seeing these things and saying this was literally like nothing on earth. 112 00:13:23,240 --> 00:13:28,600 The near miss is taken seriously by the U.S. government. I think the military knew that this was 113 00:13:28,600 --> 00:13:35,080 a very reliable case. They knew that the witnesses were very reliable themselves. The case truly 114 00:13:35,080 --> 00:13:41,000 showed how dangerous this phenomena could be. The pilots knew that they had to take evasive 115 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:47,640 action to not collide with this unidentified craft. When you're looking at highly trained pilots 116 00:13:48,280 --> 00:13:53,800 with nothing to gain and arguably everything to lose by coming out with this sort of thing, 117 00:13:54,920 --> 00:13:59,640 in terms of credibility, this is about as good as it gets. I think the military knew as the 118 00:13:59,640 --> 00:14:04,840 commercial flights were going to increase in the coming years and decades, the problem had to be 119 00:14:04,840 --> 00:14:10,920 solved. It didn't matter if the UFO was alien or not. The fact that it was there, that a physical 120 00:14:10,920 --> 00:14:17,240 craft was there, that could potentially cause that collision, bring down an airliner, that's a 121 00:14:17,240 --> 00:14:24,120 problem that needs to be fixed. But according to aeronautics engineer and project sign investigator 122 00:14:24,120 --> 00:14:31,000 Alfred Loading, the problem is something the Air Force finds hard to accept. It was Loading 123 00:14:31,000 --> 00:14:38,200 who was one of the first people to actually ask could we be dealing here not with domestic U.S. 124 00:14:38,200 --> 00:14:44,760 technology, not with Soviet technology, but with extraterrestrials. And he became one of the 125 00:14:44,760 --> 00:14:52,200 first people to really consider what was in later years dubbed the extraterrestrial hypothesis. 126 00:14:52,200 --> 00:14:57,880 The cases that they were investigating, the UFOs, the craft were performing maneuvers that we 127 00:14:57,880 --> 00:15:03,160 essentially couldn't do at the time. And so they really had no other explanation for it. 128 00:15:03,160 --> 00:15:10,840 This near miss put in people's minds for the first time the idea that we're dealing here with not 129 00:15:10,840 --> 00:15:18,600 just lights or shapes in the sky, but structured craft with occupants. These craft are now showing 130 00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:24,760 that they can go anywhere and everywhere that they want, that there's absolutely no limitation to it. 131 00:15:25,400 --> 00:15:33,960 To this day, the Child's Whited case remains unidentified. Later when people involved in 132 00:15:33,960 --> 00:15:41,480 Project Bluebird, like Captain Ruppelt, looked back and said what are the most compelling 133 00:15:42,120 --> 00:15:47,320 cases that we have on our files? This near miss is pretty much at the top of the pile. 134 00:15:47,320 --> 00:15:53,800 The Child's Whited incidents lead some experts to consider an unimaginable possibility. 135 00:15:53,800 --> 00:16:00,920 If it isn't us, could it be that some of this is extraterrestrial in technology? Are we being 136 00:16:00,920 --> 00:16:10,920 visited? After a wave of sightings in the 1940s, the US government's UFO investigative body, 137 00:16:10,920 --> 00:16:17,800 Project Sine, is tasked with finding an explanation. And Project Sine investigated 138 00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:24,680 numerous reports, brought in scientists to say what are we dealing with here? And finally, 139 00:16:24,680 --> 00:16:32,440 they produced an assessment, an intelligence assessment known as estimate of the situation. 140 00:16:32,440 --> 00:16:39,400 Now this was a document that essentially outlined their conclusions. It put forward the explanation 141 00:16:39,400 --> 00:16:44,920 that the UFO phenomena truly was connected to aliens and extraterrestrials. 142 00:16:44,920 --> 00:16:52,600 To this day, the report has allegedly been seen by only a select few. Nobody can find it. 143 00:16:52,600 --> 00:16:57,720 It mysteriously just simply vanished. Freedom of Information Act requests have been filed all 144 00:16:57,720 --> 00:17:03,080 over the place and the document just doesn't exist. It was suppressed, it was hidden, 145 00:17:03,080 --> 00:17:10,840 maybe it was shredded. This was dynamite. It marks the beginning of a decades long denial 146 00:17:10,840 --> 00:17:17,240 of the UFO phenomenon. This was essentially the dawn of the military denial phase. It was like one 147 00:17:17,240 --> 00:17:22,600 arm would say, hey, this is true. The other one would say, no, no, it's not true. It really was a 148 00:17:22,600 --> 00:17:29,880 tug of war between believers and skeptics, not in the public, but within government, within the 149 00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:36,040 small ranks of those people charged with investigating this phenomenon. So this document, 150 00:17:36,040 --> 00:17:43,400 I think, is probably, if it exists, the most important piece of evidence that would come out of this era. 151 00:17:43,400 --> 00:17:51,640 This was nothing short of those people within the US government charged with investigating UFOs 152 00:17:51,640 --> 00:17:58,920 saying we have investigated and we are being visited. It would be like the chairman of the 153 00:17:58,920 --> 00:18:05,160 joint chiefs saying, you know what, all this talk about UFOs, it's real. We're being visited. We're 154 00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:14,120 not alone. Can you imagine the public reaction? This is Unsealed. Alien Files, exposing the biggest 155 00:18:14,120 --> 00:18:19,720 secret on planet Earth.