- [Tony] Tonight on "The Proof Is Out There: Alien Edition."
A mysterious object flies over a military base.
Are we under surveillance?
- Nothing.
Nothing should be coming into that airspace
without absolute control.
- A Navy pilot captures the strange object on video
and the Defense Department is stumped.
Is it a genuine UFO?
- Anything is on the table,
but it's definitely unknown and really intriguing.
- And a photo taken at a naval base
that has baffled experts for nearly 70 years.
Will our experts be able to crack the case?
- Some think that this is definitive proof
of extraterrestrials.
- [Tony] With UFO reports at an all-time high,
we are examining the most compelling evidence
caught on camera.
Tonight's focus?
UFO sightings reported by military forces
around the world.
Our experts will analyze the evidence
and then pass a verdict.
- So there are some who believe
that this alien technology is surveilling humans.
[graphic whooshing]
- "The Proof" starts now.
[compelling music] [graphic whooshing]
Good evening, and welcome to "The Proof Is Out There."
For the past decade,
American investigative journalist Jeremy Corbell
has been at the forefront of UFO reporting.
He's leaked several videos
and photos of UFOs captured by the military,
which have stumped the experts.
And this next one might be the weirdest one yet.
[suspenseful music]
It's October 2017.
We are at a US joint operations base somewhere in Iraq.
It's a quiet night at this sensitive military installation.
A targeting system scans the sky for threats
when it's forward-looking infrared or FLIR camera
captures something no one expected.
[pensive music]
A jellyfish-like object moves across the sky.
There's an organically-shaped mast at the top
with what looks like tendrils hanging from it.
Despite its brisk clip,
the object maintains an eerily rigid shape
seemingly undisturbed by the air it flies through.
Jeremy Corbell obtained and then released the video
to instant headlines.
But this is just a clip.
He says the Department of Defense
is withholding the full-length version,
which reveals the true extent
of the object's anomalous capabilities.
- Every witness that described
seeing the full footage
describes the object going out over a lake,
dropping into the lake for about 17 minutes,
and then shooting off at a 45-degree angle.
[graphic whooshing]
- [Tony] That's important
because those alleged capabilities
align with the Pentagon's official investigations
into what the government calls UAP,
unidentified anomalous phenomena.
- One of the observables we had in the Pentagon
was transmedium travel,
the ability to operate in multiple different domains
and environments.
And if this thing did indeed go underwater,
well, it would certainly flip that bill
as being transmedium.
- [Tony] Not only that,
but it may represent the return
of a little known type of sighting.
- I think people would be really surprised to learn
that these type of objects have been reported for decades
and they actually are referred to as jellyfish UFOs.
- [Tony] One of the most famous instances
was a 1977 mass sighting
over the Soviet city of Petrozavodsk.
This photo captures what witnesses described
as a huge glowing jellyfish with a bright red center.
And this wasn't the only sighting of its kind
back in the 1970s.
- I had the personal privilege
of speaking to an elderly gentleman
who described in Washington D.C., in the broad daylight,
what appeared to be a luminous jellyfish.
And he said it looks almost like a parachute,
as it was going up,
had this multicolored of red and black,
and it reminded him of molten lava.
[suspenseful music]
- [Tony] But why are these so-called jellyfish
making a sudden return five decades later?
Have they gravitated from our nation's capital
to our nation's military installations?
That's the concern.
- What's so troubling here
is that this is a very significant potential threat
to the safety and wellbeing of the individuals
on this military installation.
Imagine if these things can fly now
over controlled US military airspace
completely anonymously and unchallenged.
Let me be clear, UAP are real.
Advanced technologies not made by our government
or any other government
are monitoring sensitive military installations
around the globe.
[suspenseful music]
- Here on "Proof,"
we've analyzed several other transmedium UFOs,
but none of them looked anything like this, right?
Look at these appendages here, and here, and here.
They seem to come down from this irregularly-shaped mast
right there in the center.
And then at the top,
there are these nodules there, and there, and there.
What are they?
Antenna?
I can't make heads or tails of what it is
we're actually seeing here.
Maybe our experts can.
[pensive music] [graphic beeping]
Since World War I,
camo nets have been used
to soften the appearance of harsh edges,
on everything from helmets to entire vehicles.
So, could this be a drone using that time-tested technique?
- You'll see, at one point in the video,
you can see several people in this area.
You know what a body temperature of a person is,
and so this is not something that's hotter than 98 degrees.
So when it comes to any types of military machinery,
anything like that that run cold,
or able to fly at a cold temperature,
really nothing comes to mind.
- [Tony] So, is this a genuine UFO?
Certain intel says otherwise.
- [Lt. McMillan] I reached out to sources within the Pentagon.
They said that this video
actually had been explained by analysts.
They didn't, unfortunately, tell me what that was
because it's classified.
[pensive music]
- [Tony] But don't worry,
we have our own analysts on the case
zeroing in on an important clue.
- We can see what appears to be a flag
very briefly in the video.
And this enables us to estimate the wind speed
at approximately 10 miles per hour,
which is consistent
with the motion of the object in question,
and so it's possible that this could be a bunch of balloons.
[graphic whooshing]
- [Tony] This object does appear to drift with the wind,
just like a balloon, except for one key detail.
- We never see any change of shape at all.
It seems like the object in the video is too rigid
to be a cluster of balloons.
- [Tony] And if this craft really dove into the water,
then sped away, as Jeremy Corbell has claimed,
how could it be balloons?
He says it's time to release the rest of this footage.
- [Jeremy] The UFOs is not a matter of belief, it's true.
So, I ask that our American government,
please release the last bit of this footage
because it is astonishing.
[pensive music] [graphic beeping]
- Our verdict?
Unidentified object.
This thing defied expectations at every turn.
Camouflaged drone?
Too cold.
Balloons in the wind?
Too rigid.
But until we see the full video,
we can't call this a genuine UFO.
[suspenseful music] [graphic beeping]
In 2022,
Congress held a formal public hearing on UAPs,
the first in more than 50 years.
- Unidentified aerial phenomena
are a potential national security threat,
and they need to be treated that way.
- The Pentagon disclosed to lawmakers
that it has cataloged more than 400 reports of UAPs,
11 of which were near misses with aircraft.
They also released this next video,
which made headlines across the world.
[suspenseful music]
It's 2021,
and a Navy pilot is flying his F-18 Fighter Jet
off the East Coast,
when reports come in of a strange object in his airspace.
As the pilot scans the skies,
he also takes out his cell phone,
and that's when he captures this.
[pensive music]
Watch closely. Did you catch that?
It's not something you'd have seen in "Top Gun."
Let's zoom in.
[suspenseful music]
For a split second,
what appears to be an unknown spherical metallic object
hurdles past the plane.
- The US government could not say for certain
what is in this video,
but it is something physically going by the window.
- [Interviewer] Mr. Bray,
can you describe what we're looking at?
What are we observing?
- It's reflective in this video, somewhat reflective,
and it quickly passes by the cockpit of the of the aircraft.
- [Amy] It is significant that the government is saying
that they are, in fact, real
and that they are, in fact, unexplained.
- [Tony] But what makes this such a mystery?
Teitel explains it's that this craft has hallmarks
of what UFO investigators
called the five observables.
[pensive music]
- [Amy] They typically demonstrate anti-gravity lift,
they can accelerate very quickly,
and they can move at hypersonic speeds
without any kind of exhaust.
They're very hard to see or use some kind of cloaking,
and they can move from water to air seamlessly.
- [Tony] This object appears to be flying at Mach speeds
without any visible means of propulsion.
The question for Congress and the Pentagon.
Why do the vast majority of these unidentified objects
seem to target military aircraft?
- [Amyl] A lot of UAP sightings
come from aircraft.
So there are some who believe that this alien technology
is surveilling humans
and is targeting aircraft as a means to explore it
and study the technology here on Earth.
[pensive music]
- So now, the military and the Congress
are opening the doors to their investigation of UAPs.
Well, some of them at least.
There are still closed-door sessions happening
on what the government is calling more sensitive cases.
But we're gonna stay focused on the case at hand
because maybe this strange jump jet can be identified.
Let's see what our experts say.
[pensive music] [graphic beeping]
Are we simply seeing another aircraft or even a drone?
- We definitely do not see the wings
or any of the control surfaces
that you should see in a fixed-wing drone or airplane.
And then in terms of a rotary wing drone or helicopter,
we don't see the rotors.
Cubes and balls don't fly,
so to me, the only type of objects that are airborne
that really could match that description would be balloons.
- [Tony] So, could this be a balloon?
The Pentagon claimed the wreckage
found at Roswell in 1947
was part of a military operation
using high-altitude balloons.
Believers question that explanation.
But there is at least one known balloon
designed to function miles above the Earth.
- Google had what they call the Google Loon Balloon.
They were testing balloons
to be able to provide internet to people around the world.
- [Tony] The typical fighter jet
flies about 50,000 feet above sea level.
The Google Loon Balloon
is designed for altitudes around 60 to 75,000 feet.
But Hoffman notes two issues.
[graphic whooshing]
This object doesn't have the shape
and size of a Google balloon,
and that program ended in January 2021
before this footage was likely taken.
So, if it's not a plane or a balloon,
does this mean we've got eyes on top-secret technology?
[suspenseful music]
- That would be extremely unlikely
because this comes from the Office of Naval Intelligence,
and you wouldn't publicize your top secret technology.
- [Tony] So, if it's not ours,
is it coming from somewhere further away, like outer space?
- [Lt. McMillan] It doesn't match our flight physics.
In my opinion, anything is on the table till it's not.
Could be an alien, who knows?
But it's definitely unknown,
and so it's really intriguing.
[compelling music]
[pensive music] [graphic beeping]
- Our verdict?
Genuine UFO.
Our experts agree with naval intelligence.
They also have no idea what they're looking at.
The good news,
the Pentagon is now taking this seriously enough
that it's established a special task force
to detect, identify, and attribute objects of interest.
We're looking forward to their next report.
- [Tony] The Air Force's Project Blue Book
investigated thousands of UFO reports.
Many were explained; hundreds weren't.
One rare daytime sighting
still raises questions more than 70 years later.
[pensive music]
It's a muggy summer morning on July 16th, 1952.
Around 10:00 AM, 21-year-old Shell Alpert,
a Coast Guard seaman and naval photographer
is inside his photo lab
at the air station in Salem, Massachusetts
cleaning his camera.
Glancing out the window,
he suddenly spots strange lights in the sky.
Quickly, he snatches his camera off the desk
and makes UFO history.
[pensive music]
Four mysterious lights appear in an asymmetrical V formation
in the sky above the airfield
to the right of some power plant smoke stacks.
The lights don't seem to resemble distinct
geometric shapes,
but instead resemble rough blobs of illumination.
- The fact that this came from a Navy photographer
only lent to its credibility
with the mainstream press at the time.
And when this picture came out, was released,
it definitely hit newspapers around the globe.
- [Tony] The Alpert photos were eventually analyzed
as part of a government's
massive Project Blue Book UFO Investigations.
- [MJ] We know that there were professors
from various universities, including Harvard,
who looked at this picture.
We also know that there were a lot of intelligence agencies
and operatives trying to assess what was going on here.
Of all the Project Blue Book reports between 1947 and 1969,
thousands, and thousands, and thousands
of photographs and reports were submitted.
Only about 700 or so
remain, according to the Air Force, unidentified.
This photograph is one of those examples.
- [Tony] It seems the Alpert photos
aren't the first UFO sighting to come out of Massachusetts.
- [MJ] In fact, the first recorded UFO sighting
in US history occurred in Massachusetts in 1639
when Governor John Winthrop
recorded a sighting in his journal.
- [Tony] According to Winthrop's journal,
three locals he described as sober, discreet men
spotted a strange light in the night sky
as they rode their boat through a marsh.
They claimed it moved with great speed,
like an arrow, to a neighboring town.
- People claim that this is a solid UFO story,
and it remains unknown to this day.
- [Tony] Like the Winthrop diaries,
the Alpert photos still spark debate.
- Some think that this is definitive proof
of extraterrestrials,
and others think this is just a smudge on a lens.
[pensive music]
- The time of day may not seem like such a big deal
with the Alpert photos, but in fact,
it radically changes our entire investigation.
You'll often see daytime photos
where the sky is so bright it actually looks white.
In this photo, not even close.
I mean, look at this.
The UFOs far exceed the daylight.
Look at that.
Not even the chrome car bumpers are shining as brightly.
So, what could possibly be so bright
at an already well-lit time of day?
We ask our experts to shine some light on this mystery.
[pensive music] [graphic beeping]
First, the obvious question.
Could these images simply be everyday objects,
like planes or birds, reflecting sunlight?
- Now, considering that the sun is very, very bright,
you might say, "Well could these be objects
illuminated by the Sun?"
Well, we don't see direct sunlight on the cars.
It looks like it's a cloudy day.
So these objects up here, they're exceedingly bright,
something lit up by the sun.
Looking that bright, I think, is a long shot,
and I don't think that's what we're seeing here.
- [Tony] Could this, then, be a deliberate camera trick,
like double exposure?
- Double exposure,
where you take two photos without advancing the film
and you end up with both exposures on the same slide.
And if you took a photo of your parking lot and your factory
and then you took a photo
of just these four random bright lights,
but in a dark room,
you could potentially get a result like this.
I think that this image
is low-contrast enough to explain that.
- [Tony] But McCarthy admits that despite the low contrast,
other tip-offs to double exposure seem to be lacking.
- One artifact from double exposures is ghosting,
where you see unwanted elements of that second photograph
in the developed final product.
I don't really see too much of that here.
[graphic whooshing]
- [Tony] D'Antonio looks to the witness statement
for critical info.
- [Marc] He was cleaning his camera
and then looked out the window.
[camera clicking]
So, the picture was taken through a window.
That's a very interesting development.
- [Tony] Could that window be the key
to solving this decades-old mystery?
- [Marc] It's possible that when he was taking that picture
through the window,
he did not notice
that there were possibly four lights behind him
reflecting in the window.
I'm thinking that we're looking at something
that was actually reflected in the window,
- [Tony] But could the Air Force's
Project Blue Book investigators
really have overlooked such an obvious explanation?
And what's more,
McCarthy sees problems with D'Antonio's theory.
He says any reflection
would mimic the perspective of the lights
which appears smaller the further away they are.
But this photo shows the exact opposite.
- I don't really know what we're looking at here.
It could be some lights reflected off a window
or it could be something of supernatural origin.
We don't really know.
[pensive music] [graphic beeping]
- Our verdict?
Genuine UFO.
We think both our experts presented compelling cases,
but the reflection theory just doesn't hold up.
And we can't think of anything else
that would explain these UFOs.
If you can, let us know.
- In May 2023, NASA held its first public meeting on UFOs.
One of the videos presented certainly grabbed our attention
not only for what the government would reveal about it,
but what they wouldn't.
[suspenseful music]
2021,
an undisclosed military range in the Western United States,
a P-3 surveillance aircraft
is in the midst of a training mission
when its infrared sensors begin jittering.
Soon, the flight crew sees why.
[radio chattering]
Before them,
three unidentified objects appear on their cameras
flying equidistant and on the same flight line.
At times, they resemble moving stars traveling westward.
And other times, the UAPs morph into dotted lines.
The trio's movement appears unaffected by a fourth object
that whizzes by below them
flying in the opposite direction.
This video was released
and discussed publicly by the leaders of AARO,
the government body set up
to investigate what it calls unidentified aerial phenomenon.
- AARO stands for the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office.
And according to its former head, Dr. Sean Kirkpatrick,
only about two to 5% of those reported cases
end up being categorized as anomalous.
- The majority of unidentified objects reported to AARO
and in our holdings demonstrate mundane characteristics
of readily-explainable sources.
-[MJ] Dr. Kirkpatrick stated that the aircraft in question
that was recording these objects
was not able to intercept them.
- [Tony] But given that this video was shot
by a P-3 Orion surveillance plane,
we know there is much more data yet to be disclosed.
-[MJ] It's equipped with incredibly
high-resolution infrared cameras
and is designed for intelligence gathering.
This aircraft is able to collect
significant telemetry and data and visual data
on any given target within its search radius.
-[Tony] But whether or not the P-3 was dispatched
to specifically track these objects,
that's unknown.
[suspenseful music]
Now, can we glean anything from where this video took place?
Well, all we were told during the hearing
is that this video was taken on a training mission
in the Western United States,
but with more than 30 bases in California alone,
that's not a lot to go on.
So we're calling on our experts
to get to the bottom of this.
[pensive music] [graphic beeping]
- There is one object I can definitely explain.
On the bottom, you do see an object streak by
that has a definitive contrail.
That fits the profile of a plane.
So, that's most likely one of our own aircraft in the sky.
- [Tony] But what about the other three objects
seemingly moving in unison and without contrails?
- [Andrew] My gut initially tells me
that these might be satellites.
Starlink trains
are becoming more and more common in the night sky,
as these satellites are deployed to low-Earth orbit.
- [Tony] Starlink is Elon Musk's network of satellites
that can provide internet access anywhere on the Earth.
They are launched in groups and travel as a train
until they reach their operating altitude and separate.
- And when they're in lower altitude just after sunset,
they shine brightly against the horizon,
so you'd actually see something very similar to this.
- [Tony] But Tim McMillan disagrees.
- [Lt. McMillan] When you think of Starlink satellite,
you would see is a series of a string of dots
across the sky 'cause Starlink is a satellite chain.
It looks like just a string of dots coming across here.
We don't see that here.
- [Tony] Instead, McMillan believes
the same object McCarthy saw closer to the camera
is the key.
- [Lt. McMillan] If you look towards the bottom,
you can see another point of light
that resembles the other three lights.
We actually can see evidence of an exhaust trail
or contrail very consistent with an airplane.
That leads me to believe that what we're looking at here
are, likewise, also airplanes.
However, the one that passed in front of the camera
where we were able to see the contrail
was just closer to the Orion filming it.
- [Tony] In fact, McMillan believes
AARO wanted this footage released to the public,
specifically to pour some cold water
on the heated topic of UAPs.
- [Lt. McMillan] These are definitely
distant commercial airplanes.
Frankly, I think this video was intentionally released
to give people an idea
of how aircraft could be misinterpreted as UFOs or UAP
by the Department of Defense.
I absolutely do not believe that Department of Defense
ever thought these were unidentified aerial phenomenon.
[pensive music] [graphic beeping]
- Our verdict?
We're going with planes in the distance.
It turns out the team at AARO
also came to that same conclusion.
Although we have to admit,
it is strange they appear to be flying in unison.
But hey, AARO,
next time you've got a video that can't be explained,
be sure to come to us.
- With the establishment of the Pentagon's
All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office, or AARO,
it's clear the government is becoming more aware
and worried about UFOs,
especially around military targets like this one.
Take a look.
[pensive music] [graphic beeping]
April 20th, 2021.
It's a quiet crystal-clear evening in the skies
over a marine base near Twentynine Palms California
in the Mojave Desert. [telephone ringing]
Until multiple reports suddenly come in
of a strange set of lights appearing in the sky.
The base's night-vision cameras captured this.
[suspenseful music]
Five orbs are hovering in a curved formation in the sky.
[pensive music]
They each contain a small bright spot in the center
surrounded by a glowing aura.
- It appears to be showing some type of arc
of connected lights,
but is this one object
or is it a collection of orbs staying in formation?
- [Tony] What's unusual about this sighting
is that the people who reported it
aren't your average bystanders.
-[Jason] Reportedly over 50 people
actually witnessed this strange phenomenon,
a group of Marines who are all very familiar
with different types of aerospace technology,
military aircraft.
Yet, to them, they were fascinated enough
to say it caught their eye,
and it was truly bizarre.
- [Tony] So, this isn't anything recognized
by local military personnel,
could it be extraterrestrial?
Turns out, it's not the first time alleged ETs
have been reported near a military base.
In 1967,
guards outside Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana
reported seeing a strange red light over the facility.
The light appeared to be a hovering oval-shaped craft
about 30 to 40 feet in diameter.
Then, without explanation, one by one,
the nuclear missiles became disarmed.
So, was something similar happening over Twentynine Palms?
- I think we have enough of a framework there
to say that trained military personnel
found this to be a fascinating object,
and, to me, that would merit further investigation.
[suspenseful music]
- Because this video was recorded
by a military infrared camera,
we can presume it hasn't been doctored.
But what is it that we're seeing here?
What could be behind those big balls of light?
Time to ask our experts to illuminate us.
[pensive music] [graphic beeping]
- From first impression,
you get the idea that these five lights
are connected to a single object.
This could be some type of triangular craft
that has these five lights in different points.
But I don't see the control surfaces, the wings.
It's traveling much too slow.
So, we can really easily rule out airplane.
- [Tony] After incidents like those
over other bases like Malmstrom,
is it possible extra extraterrestrials
really are monitoring our military capabilities?
- Throughout history, we've had a lot of military bases
that have had UFO reports near them.
And what we've seen from just all those sheer cases
is it's almost on the scale of surveillance.
What's curious is these lines that are going up there,
these would indicate some sort of trail
that's being left behind them.
And you don't see that on UFO reports.
[graphic whooshing]
- [Tony] Instead of UFOs,
McMillan sees a clue
that brings these objects back down to Earth.
- [Lt. McMillan] Looking at the smoke and vapor trail
that's being left behind them,
you see that these are actually independent points of light
and they appear to be in a free fall,
dependent on gravity.
And the fact that these are moving slow like this
leads me to believe that what we're looking at here
is actually the deployment
[weapon firing]
of illumination flares that are providing light
for some type of ground forces' coordinated activity.
-[Rich] Illumination flares.
They're very, very bright,
and they're often quite often reported as UFOs.
[pensive music] [graphic beeping]
- Our verdict?
This isn't a UFO attracted to our military.
These are just illumination flares.
But keep an eye out
for other unexplained objects around military bases,
just in case the extraterrestrials
are keeping an eye on us.
- [Tony] Italy has long been a hotspot for UFO sightings,
but one case photographed by a military pilot
continues to spark debate nearly four decades later.
[suspenseful music]
It's June 18th, 1979.
[pensive music]
Pilot Marshall Giancarlo Cecconi
is flying his Fiat G.91 reconnaissance aircraft.
Outfitted with four cameras,
they're about to come in handy.
Around 11:30 AM, Cecconi receives a radio transmission,
indicating the radar crew at Istrana Airfield
has detected an unidentified object at low altitude.
When Cecconi encounters the object,
he uses the aircraft's cameras
to capture some of the most puzzling UFO photos ever taken.
[suspenseful music]
- It's this strange cylindrical-shaped object,
he says it sort of looks like a semi-squashed cigar.
The sides of it are black.
However, the middle section on the top
are a slightly lighter color.
And it seems to just be floating in the air.
- [Tony] Now, this object is reportedly 20 to 25 feet long
and around 10 feet wide with a dull, dark surface.
And importantly,
the alleged craft seems completely unaffected
by the turbulence thrown
from the plane's formidable jet wash.
When the object begins climbing, Cecconi pursues,
speeding past it as he sets up another photo run.
But when he returns, the object has vanished into thin air.
[suspenseful music]
Strange?
Sure, but this is nothing new for Italy.
- Italy has a long history of UFO reports.
- [Tony] Pentagon whistleblower David Grusch
has recently reiterated Italian claims
that Mussolini had a secret UFO program,
which recovered at least one down craft.
Grusch says that when the axis fell to Allied Forces,
the Allies confiscated the alien craft
and shifted stateside.
Sound incredible?
How about another incident with a few thousand eyewitnesses?
-[MJ] One of the most famous cases
in Italian UFO history occurred in 1954.
There was a big soccer match in Florence,
and a crowd of 10,000 people looked up
and saw these strange objects flying over the stadium.
- [Tony] Some accounts claimed the objects
dropped a glitter-like substance,
and others describe the objects as looking like,
you guessed it, a Cuban cigar.
But, as MJ Banias points out,
this cigar-shaped sighting has something others may lack.
-[MJ] This case has a lot going for it
from a credibility perspective.
One, you have a fighter pilot who knows the sky.
He knows what should and shouldn't be up there.
[suspenseful music]
- All pilots are trained to be aware of their surroundings
and to be on the lookout for something unusual.
Plus, the pilots who flew the Fiat G.91 reconnaissance plane
had very specialized training to observe, record,
and report with critical detail.
Could we have a better witness?
Let's see how our experts do with this one.
[pensive music] [graphic beeping]
-[Ric] Nobody's had craft that are cylindrical like this
without wings,
without any typical structures
that we normally see on aircraft.
But it has positive lift.
There's no propulsion system on it,
and yet it's up in the air.
[suspenseful music]
-[Andrew] One of the most peculiar things
about this object,
it went from being stationary and midair
to vanishing without a trace.
In order to accelerate out of this area that quickly,
it would've to have some kind of propulsion
that didn't exist in 1979
and certainly doesn't still exist today.
- [Tony] Some have speculated
it could be a secret military test craft,
but McCarthy doesn't see the logic.
- You would think if this was some secret military craft,
they would've known what it was
and not sent a fighter pilot to go document it.
- [Tony] So, we turn to another theory,
that this object was a solar balloon.
- [Andrew] This actually really closely resembles
a solar balloon.
Solar balloons are made with black materials,
so that they can absorb the sun's energy
so they heat up the air and begin to float.
- [Tony] As Hoffman points out,
the balloon theory does also explain
the sudden disappearing act
-[Rich] When it disappeared off-radar,
was that because the balloon blew up and disintegrated?
- [Tony] But one piece of the balloon puzzle
just doesn't fit,
the object's stability
in the face of Cecconi's roaring jet wash.
- In order to not be affected by the aircraft's turbulence,
this object would've had to be tethered
from at least three different locations.
That way, it would be stationary in the sky
and not move at all.
Despite being photographed from multiple angles,
not a single tether is visible
in these photographs of this object.
It's really hard to say, for sure.
[pensive music] [graphic beeping]
- Our verdict?
Genuine UFO.
At first glance, everything about these pictures
indicates we are looking at some kind of massive balloon.
But the pilot's testimony
about the object's bizarre stability in the jet wash
poses far more questions than we have answers for.
- Trindade, a small volcanic island
located about 700 miles off the coast of Brazil,
is well-known today as an important nesting spot
for the endangered green turtle.
But as you'll see in our next story,
turtles might not be the only exotic visitors
to this desolate island.
[suspenseful music] [waves crashing]
It's high noon on January 16th, 1958.
The Brazilian naval training ship Almirante Saldanha
is preparing to depart Trindade Island, Brazil.
- Onboard the ship are a number of sailors
and also scientists who are going out
on an international scientific mission.
As the crew members gather on deck before leaving,
their attention is all diverted
to this thing flying nearby in the sky.
-[Tony] The crew immediately
summons their esteemed photographer,
Almiro Barauna,
and he captures a series of images
that would become UFO legend.
A dark gray aerial object
looks to be flying over the distant mountain.
[graphic whooshing]
Zooming in reveals what appears to be a saucer-shaped object
with a ring around its center,
almost resembling the planet Saturn.
Barauna claimed the UFO approached the island,
flew behind a mountain peak,
and then turned back around the way it came.
[graphic whooshing]
One of the witnesses,
Vice Admiral Paulo de Castro Moreira da Silva,
said the object was encircled by a greenish glow.
- [Amy] The crew all saw the object glowing
before it turned towards Wished Peak,
then it turned sharply northwest and disappeared from view.
The entire encounter lasted just 20 seconds.
- [Tony] Immediately, Barauna's photos
became an international sensation.
While some were skeptical of the photographs,
their authenticity was seemingly bolstered
by multiple investigations.
-[Amy] The photographs were studied
by the Brazilian Navy's aerial reconnaissance laboratory,
as well as the aerophotogrammetric lab
of Cruzeiro do Sul.
They were deemed to be authentic
taken of a real event,
backed up by the eyewitness testimony
of military experts and personnel.
They were even confirmed
by the Brazilian president at the time.
- [Tony] In the years since, however,
new details revealed about the incident
have drawn skepticism to the once bona fide evidence.
-[Amy] Barauna held the negatives
away from the Brazilian Navy
for two days before surrendering them.
He had even cut some of the photographs off
of the end of the film roll.
It's unclear whether he tampered with the negatives
before handing them over
or whether there was something else on the film
he didn't want seen.
And in August of 2010,
a Brazilian TV show claimed he was known
to have created hoaxed photographs before.
- [Tony] Both in spite of and because of the controversy,
the incident continues to be one of Brazil's
most famous UFO encounters,
and that's saying something.
[compelling music] [graphic whooshing]
- [Amy] The Brazilian UFO archives spans 60 years
and has more than 700 documented and researched UFO cases.
And of all of them, this is one of the most legendary cases
in all of Brazil's history.
[suspenseful music]
- Brazilian newspapers
ended up printing Barauna photographs.
He took six pictures in total,
but the alleged saucer only appeared in four of them,
supposedly because he was bumped by sailors
during the excitement of the event.
Something tells me our experts are just as hyped up
to analyze this case.
[pensive music] [graphic beeping]
-[Marc] I grew up with this image.
When I was a little kid, this was my gateway UFO.
- [Tony] First, D'Antonio addresses the theory
that this is simply a terrestrial aircraft.
- [Marc] Aircraft at the time had very specific shapes,
and it doesn't match any of those configurations from 1958.
[graphic whooshing]
- [Tony] Astrophotographer Andrew McCarthy
reviews another common theory
that this object is simply a bird.
-[Andrew] It's shaped somewhat similarly to a bird in flight,
but birds actually tend to absorb more light.
So, they would show up as a shadowy object
against the relatively bright blue sky.
So, in this case,
I think we can safely rule out it being a bird.
- [Tony] But examining the shadows further
alerts McCarthy to a detail he considers suspicious.
-[Andrew] When you look at this object closely,
you see at the top and bottom of it
are roughly the same brightness.
If this was a flying object,
the top of it would be
illuminated by the Sun
and the bottom
would be in shadow.
And since this object
doesn't seem to obey the laws of physics,
I have to start looking at other explanations
of how this managed to get on film.
- [Tony] So, are these legendary photos a hoax after all?
One theory is that airbrushing techniques
were used to create a hoax,
but McCarthy disagrees.
- Airbrushing film
is basically like painting whatever you want
directly into the film negative,
which, of course, would be easily detectable
by the Brazilian navy.
So, it may still be a hoax, just not airbrushed.
- [Tony] If there's no smoking gun,
how do we decide if it's real or a hoax?
D'Antonio says the answer
is a little more nuanced than that.
- There's no way to look at this
and definitively say it's a hoax
or definitively say it's real
'cause there's problems with each of those determinations.
But if these are a hoax, you know what I say?
So what? Why?
Because these are images that many people grew up with,
and they learn to be critical thinkers as a result of them.
My entry into the field is, in part, because of this photo.
If it's hoaxed, it brought in a lot of people into ufology,
and we were better for it.
[pensive music]
[graphic beeping]
- Our verdict?
For now, this remains a genuine UFO.
All we really know is that a group of scientists
claim to have seen a glowing object in the sky
at the same time.
We don't think the negatives were airbrushed,
but we still can't explain the anomalous light and shadow.
This flying object could be real, it could be fake.
But until we learn more, it remains unidentified.
[graphic whooshing]
Around the world,
military forces continue to document objects
that defy explanation.
If something is out there, are they friend or foe?
Thank you for watching this special edition
of "The Proof Is Out There."
Please send us any videos, images,
or sound that you think we should investigate.
And remember to keep those cameras rolling.
[compelling music] [graphic whooshing]