UFO Hunters

On April 21st, 2008, one of the most talked-about incidents in modern UFO history opened a new chapter–the Phoenix Lights. At approximately 8PM, several residents reported seeing a formation of four lights that reminded them of the group of floating lights that appeared above Phoenix, Arizona on March 13, 1997. But few realize there was another event reported state-wide during that original evening–a huge triangular object observed by witnesses from the Nevada-Arizona border to as far south as Tucson. James Fox, the filmmaker behind the seminal UFO documentary, Out of the Blue, joins the team as they travel to Phoenix to re-open one of the most reported incidents in UFO history… and to find out if the lights have returned.

What secrets lay buried in the never-before-seen files of a famous UFO investigator? In the early 1950s, James McDonald, a senior physicist at the University of Arizona, changed the entire course of UFO research. For nearly 20 years he examined UFO reports in great detail–interviewing over 500 witnesses, uncovering important government documents, and testifying before Congress in 1968. He challenged skeptics, performed scientific analysis, and led the charge for UFOs to be properly studied. After his tragic death in 1971, his investigations and files were sent to the University archives, where they lay dormant…until now. The team brings these lost UFO files back into the public eye for the first time on television, and looks at evidence long thought lost to history.

On December 29, 1980, Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum and Colby Landrum took a drive that would become a life-changing nightmare. At approximately 9 p.m., driving through the Piney Woods in Texas, they observed a huge diamond-shaped object flying low above the isolated road, expelling flame and emitting significant heat. That night, all three experienced horrible physical symptoms: nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, weakness, and burning sensations all over their bodies. The team reopens this and other famous cases of alleged alien effects to determine if UFOs are leaving behind more than just stories of sightings.

In May of 2008, the UK’s Ministry of Defense made decades’ worth of classified files on UFOs freely available to the public. One month later, UFO hysteria ripped through the country. In June, a police helicopter crew spotted unusual aircraft in Wales. South Wales Police confirmed the sighting and reported it to the Ministry of Defense. Numerous witnesses and videos poured into Britain’s top newspapers of more sightings–UFO madness had come to the UK. Former MOD investigator Nick Pope joins the team in solving the most exciting and recent UFO sightings in the world.

On January 28, 1994, an Air France pilot, his crew and passengers witnessed a brightly-glowing red and brown disc-shaped object while flying to London. Estimates of the disc’s size were between 800 and 1,000 feet long, more than three times the size of a 747. On April 25, 2007, the captain of a passenger plane crossing the English Channel observed two bright-yellow flat objects for more than 15 minutes. He is astounded by their size, which he claims could have been as much as a mile wide. A pilot from a separate aircraft corroborated the story. The team takes to the skies to probe some of the largest UFO sightings ever recorded.

There are approximately 30,000 commercial flights in the United States every day, and as the number of flights increase, so does the proximity of UFO encounters. On November 7, 2006, a strange object hovered for ten minutes over Gate C17 at O’Hare International Airport in Chicago before rapidly ascending into the sky. On October 23, 2004, in Osaka, Japan, a UFO was spotted tailing Japanese Airlines flight 1512 as it came in for a landing. Are UFOs following our own commercial aircraft and surveying our airports? The team sifts through the evidence of these and other mysterious cases to determine if UFOs have a peaceful or malevolent agenda.

In the early morning hours of May 14, 2008, witnesses in Needles, CA saw a turquoise glowing object in a rapid descent over the Colorado River. Soon after, military helicopters carried away an object that appeared to be glowing, and according to witnesses, military personnel canvassed the town, intimidating witnesses and townspeople. But alleged cover-ups of strange crashes are nothing new; from Flatwoods, West Virginia to Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, reports of UFO clean-ups are rampant. The team visits the site of the world�s most recent UFO crash to search for signs of what some say the government keeps trying to hide.