UFO video documentaries - military and pilot UFO sightings
The Kelsey Bay, Vancouver Island BC, Canada Oct-1981 UFO seems to be a disk with a transparent dome (this crop-out is grainy due to max magnification from 2nd generation negatives - full uncropped photo, magnified cropout).
Story: During a family vacation, Mrs McRoberts saw "a cloud over a mountaintop, suggestive of a smoking volcano" and snapped a photo of it. She didn't notice the UFO at the time the photo was taken, it was captured by chance.
More case details at ufobc, ufoevidence
APRO, Dr.Harder and Dr.Haines (a retired NASA scientist, who in 2000 established NARCAP - compiled a database of over 3000 UFO sightings by pilots - see documentary "Pilot UFO sightings") took an interest in the photo.
An analysis of the Kelsey Bay UFO photo is published in the scientific report of the Sturrock Panel 1997, funded by billionaire Laurance Rockefeller.
Dr.Haines considered the possibility that it was just a small frisbee near the camera, and argued that a frisbee wouldn't fly well if it had a dome on its top -as the Vancouver object apparently has- nor would it show up sharp in the photo due to its quick movement.
Reports of very close sightings of discoid UFOs with transparent domes, with "human-looking" UFO-occupants, include Mrs.Roestenberg and her two sons over her home near Ranton, Staffordshire, England in Oct-1954 - sketch (ref: various video interviews, incl. one in Arthur C Clarke's "Mysterious World UFOs") and another one near Cowichan Hospital, again in Vancouver Island BC Canada on New Year's Eve 1-Jan-1970 more:
Mr Fregnale, Auvergne, Lac Chauvet, France 1952 UFO Photos (2 of a total of 4) analyzed by GEPAN -later SEPRA- (official UFO study project in France) and considered genuine.
LAC CHAUVET, France 1952: Mr. Fregnale electrical engineer of Le Puy, was hiking in the area of Bessem Friday in search for geological study, near Lake Chauvet, when he saw a kind of disc that crossed the sky from West to East. He took 4 photos.
"I had the time to take four shots very quickly. I saw the machine approximately during 50 seconds and after having taken the photographs I observed the craft with binoculars. According to my observations and calculations I made afterwards, if the saucer were at 3.000 meters it was going at approximately 300 meters per second. If it were at 8.000 meters its speed was larger obvioulsy and could reach 800 meters per second. I heard absolutely no noise.
"The craft - as often told - had the shape of an oval saucer. Below and in the center it seemed that there is a light bulge, but I am not certain. Around the circular part, a brilliant circle appeared. I suppose that above the apparatus, a rotor, or some other gyroscopic system, rotated very quickly, which would explain the reflection that one very clearly sees on the photographs that I took."
-- Translated extract from report in French newspaper "Le Meridional", 1952
The latest study of the 1952 negatives was published by Dr. Guerin in 1994:
"... We have demonstrated that the photographs showed a disk-shaped object located at a large distance in the sky and, thus, having large dimensions ... The disk was flying along a straight and horizontal trajectory, keeping an inclination to the horizontal plane, about the axis trajectory and at an angle which remained between about 5 degrees and 12 degrees. The eccentric spot remained aligned along this axis during the observation, which makes unlikely the possibility of forgery by means of a model hung at the end of a wire or thrown into the air" -- SSE Vol.8, Num.4, Art.1 1994 "A Scientific Analysis of Four Photographs of a Flying Disk Near Lac Chauvet (France)" by Pierre Guerin, Institut d'Astrophysique, Paris, France
French Gendarmerie UFO Files include a photo of a classic flat-bottomed disk (typical eye-witness descriptions: "upside-down saucer", "silver dome", "chrome hubcap" or even as "flying shields" in ancient times).
(bigger photo)
The witness was sitting on the passenger's seat, taking landscape photographs under the rain when suddenly a luminous disk appeared. The photograph is from the UFO files of the French Gendarmerie Nationale.
Even though photographed during daylight, there is a noticable luminous "ion cone" under the saucer, usually visible at night.
Indeed this "ion cone" effect is commonly reported for saucers.
As Paul Hill points out in his book, apparently air ionization is a secondary effect of the force field used for the UFO's propulsion system.
"Most ground heating data is from saucer-type UFOs, and these are the ones known to focus their ionizing radiations downward with considerable accuracy, because of the observed saucer ion cones and saucer (landing) ring data."
Todo: Add here the video interview of Russian Colonel Vyatkin Lev Mikhailovic (HistoryChannel "Russian Roswell" 34'48"), who describes an encounter with a disk-shaped UFO on 6-Aug-1967. His plane "shook" as its wing was hit by a "ray of light" emanating from the underside of the UFO above him.
Bold = highly recommended to watch
Selected UFO video documentaries and witness testimonies (simply click the links to watch; Hint: for long-duration videos, keep in mind that since Sep-07 BOTH Youtube and Googlevideo allow you to click on the "progress bar" to skip and access any parts of a video).
E.g. 10min long extract from the late Peter Jennings' Feb-2005 ABC Special "UFO: Seeing is believing":
featuring two cases from USA with multiple corroborating witnesses, a recent and a classic one:
[recent] St. Clair County, Illinois 5-Jan-2000 4:00AM police officers in five adjoining towns all independently report witnessing a large flying craft with multiple bright lights moving silently across the sky at a very low altitude, with the unfolding of the incident recorded on radio transcripts. (Note: The Jennings clip gives the "5 minute briefing", a much more elaborate documentation of this case is offered at dbakertv and NIDSCI)
[classic] Minot Air Force Base, N.D., Oct-1968 (BlueBook case #12548) when 16 airmen on the ground witness UFOs hovering and zipping around ("darting very quickly one way or the other") near the Minuteman missile silos of the 91st Strategic Missile Wing of the base. Moments later, the crew of an airborne B-52 which was called-in to investigate, saw visually and also tracked on radar a huge (est. 200ft diameter and 100s of feet long) UFO pacing their plane.
Animated graphics were used to re-enact sighting accounts.
Extract (8 minutes long) from CBS TV's 1966 Special "UFOs: Friend, Foe or Fantasy?", narrated by Walter Concite, deals with the famous Michigan sightings, for which astronomer J.Allen Hynek (in USAF's Project BlueBook payroll at the time) invented the "swamp gas" explanation, which became sortof a national joke ever after.
Note: Both the ABC 2005 and CBS 1966 TV specials were criticized for "bait and switch" techniques, as well as inaccurate and misleading presentations. The CBS 1966 special "left the unmistakable implication... that those who report UFOs are either unreliable or mentally unbalanced", writes Terry Hansen in his 2001 book "The Missing Times: News Media Complicity in the UFO Cover-up".
Whoever has the money to reach millions owns "the truth."
Latest 2007 UFO Documentaries (*not* the usual superficial, melodramatic and even disinformation-filled mockumentaries):
the 5-Year Anniversary Edition of "OUT OF THE BLUE: The definitive investigation of the UFO phenomenon" - the best general UFO documentary of this decade sofar
"Best Evidence: Top ten UFO sightings", more in-depth look into ten compelling UFO incidents
First Edition of Out Of The Blue: The definitive investigation of the UFO phenomenon (2003). Watch online GoogleVideo or YouTube, 1hr30min 353MB (GoogleVideo). This is the best "general background" UFO documentary of the decade sofar. Includes iterviews with former astronauts (Gordon Cooper and Dr Edgar Mitchell), military pilots, radar operators, scientists. UFO initiatives by former US presidents Carter, Ford and Clinton etc. Briefly covers classic UFO incidents in US, Russia, Britain, France, Iran etc and studies like the French COMETA Report. (purchase the 2007 Update DVD directly)
Pilot UFO sightings (amazon) (44min) several cases, both classic and less known ones, incl. commentary by Dr.R.Haines, who specialises in UFO sightings by pilots. Its weakness is the not-so-accurate artist re-creations of some cases. You'll need some background in the UFO subject to appreciate this video, some people will find parts of it boring. Or you can skip to 34'15" to 36'10" to hear retired NASA scientist Dr.Haines summarize.
Note: In this documentary, Dr Haines goes over the case of the UFO encounter by flight Japan Airlines JAL-1628 over Alaska in 1986. The Japanese pilot lost his job for reporting the incident to the public, but 15 years later, the story was corroborated by Callahan, former FAA Head of Investigations in DC.
FAA administrator Donald Engen briefed members of President Reagan's Scientific Study Team, the FBI and the CIA in Washington, D.C. We know the details today because John Callahan, Division Chief of the Accidents and Investigations Branch of the FAA, attended the secret meeting and saved all audio and video evidence of the event. Watch Callahan's testimony at Disclosure Project's Press Conference in 2001:
Compilation of UFO Video Footage and Testimony GoogleVideo (1hr 35min 329MB). Privately-(home)-produced. No speaking at all, just 60 minutes of raw UFO footage (from a selection of over 200 clips) and 35 minutes of witness testimony. With 80's music in the background. Same in more (2hr28min) of the same (but first one is better).
The Disclosure Project Witness Testimony (2001) Googlevideo (2hrs), part 1 of 2 (59min 230MB) and part 2 of 2 (1hr 240MB). Two hours long video distillation from 400hrs of raw video footage of dozens of retired USA intelligence, government and military persons testimonies on the subject of UFO and US government coverup. Quick text summary (.html) sample of such testimonies given in 1999-2000.
(FWIW older version of "Disclosure Project witness testimonies" video YouTube [01hr 22min], which includes testimonies that weren't included in the final version, particularly about the UFO event at Rendlesham forest / Bentwaters military base in UK; starts with LtCol. Corso's testimony).
Also "The Disclosure Project 9-May-2001 National Press Club Conference" video (1hr56min), viewable online at GoogleVideo / YouTube where 21 former US military and government witnesses -in advanced years and most have passed away since- came forward to testify on the subject of UFOs; to serve as catalyst for "full, open Congressional hearings on the UFO/Extraterrestrial presence subject, including witness testimony with release from security oaths" (NOTE: the NPCC video starts a bit "slow"/boring, you may want to fast-forward/skip the first 15min and go directly to Callahan-FAA-JAL1628 case)
Watch individual testimonies, e.g. Commander US Navy Graham Bethune (2min):
US Navy pilot Graham Bethune describes the encounter with a huge 300ft discoid UFO in 1951 on the way back from a classified mission to Iceland: "We had 31 people on board and a psychiatrist, we all witnessed it". NPCC 2001 (Googlevideo), Fastwalkers 2006 (3min) (Youtube). [story and drawings, more]
UFO Invasion - Rendlesham.wmv about the landmark case of UFOs visiting the nuclear-armed US military base at Bentwaters (Rendlesham forest) Suffolk, UK. UFO activity for several nights, then UFO landing near the base on 27-Dec-1980. The UFO(s) seen at close-range by base personell (base deputy commander, 4 airmen) and even touched by security police officer: a smallish triangular/pyramid UFO 3m (9ft) per side, 2.5m (8ft) high; craft skin smooth like black glass; "hieroglyphic" symbols engraved on left front (see Penniston testimony at 27'-33'). Documentary by SciFi channel (220 MB) 1hr30min (2003)
Larry P. Warren UFO Connection - The Woobridge / Rendlesham forest UFO Incident - Bentwaters. At the age of 19, he was member of the US Air Force Security Police stationed at the base in 1980 and a first-hand witness of the incident. Others witnesses of the case have speculated that Larry had been given Sodium Pentothal and "worked on" by the OSI (Office of Special Investigations).
"Black box UFO sightings" pilot sightings documentary with real audio of communication between pilots and control tower GoogleVideo (43min) by History Channel
Dr Ted Loder (Professor of Earth Sciences at the Univ. of New Hampshire) testimony on technologies being kept secret part 1, part 2, part 3. He got involved after the revelations of his first cousin, retired LtGeneral Stephen Lovekin (served in WHASA -White House Army Signalling Agency- which provided crypto secure communications and went everywhere it was needed, e.g. the White House basement, Camp David, Mount Weather). Lovekin was briefed about the Roswell UFO/ET while serving under President Eisenhower.
Roswell incident related:
The Roswell Incident, older documentary from Channel 4 in Britain shown in 1994, about the crash of a UFO in Roswell New Mexico in July-1947. Many interesting witness testimonies (Marcel Jr, Glenn Dennis the town's mortician) and some testimonies which have later been discounted (Frank Kaufman's and hoaxer Ray Santilli). At the end, includes complete footage of the fake Ray Santilli "Roswell Alien Autopsy" black-and-white video. (GoogleVideo 1hr4min 223MB)
Roswell debris tested comments by Dr Leir MD and Jesse Marcel Jr, a medical doctor/flight surgeon in reserve who served 1yr in Iraq in 2005 despite being 67yr old (son of Jesse Marcel Sr, the Intelligence Officer of the Roswell AirForce Base, who examined the debris field in July-1947)
Second part of "Secret NASA transmissions - The smoking gun" featuring footage by Martin Stubbs (a former cable TV station manager from Vancouver in Canada who, over a period of 5 years, used his station's satellite array to record on videotape over 2,500 hours of Space Shuttle transmissions via NASA's downlink. Since 11-Mar-2000, when some of Martin's footage was released in public, there has been considerable debate as to the origin and makeup of the objects seen in the footage.):
"Fastwalkers - Ufo and Alien Disclosure 2006" (src: youtube) Dec-2006 1hr37min. Documentary consisting entirely of interviews with UFO researchers, whistle-blowers, witnesses, "experiencers" / "contactees" etc. Some testimonies have an "esoteric" / "spiritualistic" bend, some are interesting, but several ones questionable and with inaccuracies (e.g. a testimony claiming $1.7trillion/yr US black-budget?! a more realistic estimate would be $25-50bn/yr) and a lot of pretty "far out stuff" which I don't know what to make of... Other sources: buy DVD, or torrent.
"UFO - The Best Evidence Ever caught on tape Part 2" documentary. Various (not particularly close-up / great detail) video footage of the 1990s from US, NASA, Mexico, China, Germany, Israel etc. Technical commentary by Bruce Maccabee and a special-effects (FX) guy. (174MB 44min)
NBC's "Unsolved Mysteries: UFOs" Vol 1-4 4xDVDs (Amazon or get from ED2K P2P). Other than the fact of slightly "spooky" background and that a couple of all the cases have later been discounted, overall it's quite decent. Covers UFO sightings (Belgian UFO flap 1989-1990, Phoenix Lights 1997 etc), alien abduction cases (Allagash, Travis Walton), crop circles etc. Features UFO segments, complete with re-creations of each incident by actors, many interviews with the witnesses and UFO researchers and occasional interviews with UFO skeptics. Overall a nicely put together and professionaly produced collection.
Sample on the Belgian UFO wave 1989-1990:
NBC's "Confirmation: The Hard Evidence of Aliens Among Us?" (1999). So-so, spooky music and narration, with a few interesting bits and pieces. 1hr30min 850MB
Trailer on multiple policemen sighting at Trumbull County, Ohio (note: water connection) - part1part2:
ABC's Special - "Peter Jennings Reporting - UFOs: Seeing is believing" Feb-2005 (ABC, ED2K P2P 1hr27min 215MB). Mediocre, not too bad for a lamestream media production, but criticized:
ufowatchdog, reviews, Friedman, Greer, Dolan and Haisch on ABC's UFO Special (.PDF). Dolan called it "spinning and deceiving" stuff (rightfully IMO, considering the treatment of Roswell and Friedman, although the first ~40minutes were decent). Others are more positive, e.g. Twitchell.
Extracts from Peter Jennings' UFO Special: part1, part2, part3.
Hon. Paul Hellyer At Exopolitics Conference (Toronto, 25-Sep-2005) Paul Hellyer, former Canadian Defense Minister (period 1963-1967) endorses the validity of LtCol Philip J Corso's Book "They Day After Roswell", which states that an extraterrestrial "flying saucer" crashed in 1947 in New Mexico and that in the early 1960s he, Corso, distributed debris to US companies for reverse-engineering. (GoogleVideo 31min 109MB). Personally I find it hard to believe all of Col.Corso's claims.
Apollo 11 "UFO" - Buzz Aldrin, YouTube 4min. Buzz Aldrin talks about the UFO which the Apollo 11 crew saw on their way to the Moon.
UFOs: 50 years of denial? 44min (1997) video documentary, by the same people who later produced the state-of-the-art UFO documentary "Out of the Blue" in 2003. Brief and concise introduction. Some new sighting stories, UFO raw footage, eye-witness testimonies etc. Features astronaut Dr.Mitchell, LtCol.Corso, Marcel on Roswell UFO crash and Robert Dean on the SHAPE/NATO Assessment on UFOs/ETs. Attempts to answer the question of how religion(s) and such beliefs would be affected if the existance of extra-terrestrial visitation (ETV) is acknowledged by officialdom. ED2K P2P src
UFO - Silently breaks up in several parts Silently breaks up in several parts (effect reminds of Colonel Halt's description of Rendlesham incident "like dripping molten metal") 2.5min
Retired USAF LtCol Wendelle Stevens (Foreign Technology Command of Air Materiel Command), who reportedly was involved in a UFO monitoring project in the Arctic in 1946-1949. By exchanging UFO pictures, he has compiled the largest library of UFO images, over 4000 pictures (how many authentic?). A controversial figure in UFO field, who has embraced the Billy Meier (Switzerland) "contactee" case, which most UFO researchers consider a hoax. He has also privately published books with several other "contactee" stories.
Interviews:
Video interview 1999:
older video interview (7min, 18MB) Video is very poor quality. Talks about USAF monitoring operations of UFOs over the Arctic in 1947-1949 using B-29s specially equipped with photo and video equipment, as well as radiation detectors, magnetic detectors, and RF emission scanners.
Makes some extraordinary statements, that their project photographed 2-3 UFOs every month in the Arctic, while he was there. More in his interview (2003) .html with "far-out" stuff...
British UFO Files (GoogleVideo 47min 356MB), a so-so documentary. If you can overcome the hurdle of the sensationalistic spooky music and narration in the beginning, it offers several interesting bits of info lateron, e.g. a 1952 sighting when 2 British pilots (RAF pilot Michael Swiney and his Royal Navy student David Crofts who saw 3 flying saucers in formation with ground radar confirmation, on the 15'-21'). Physical landing trace case in 1952 with round scorch-marks left in the ground. Interest expressed by the Duke of Edinburgh and Earl Mountbatten was covered. And ofcourse the classic Bentwaters-Rendlesham case of 1980.
UFO at Voronezh, SE Russia, 27-Sep-1989 landed, occupants reportedly seen by tens of witnesses; this story has been put in doubt by Boris Shurinov in his book "Les Ovnis en Russie".
"UFO The Greatest Story Ever Denied" (1hr34min) or buy DVD from official website. A lot of duplication as it includes in verbatim many testimonies from DisclosureProject (see above), but also some unique/interesting bits and pieces.
Extract with testimonies on NASA airbrushing structures ("alien bases") on moon:
Billion Dollar Secret.wmv mediocre documentary about US's "black-projects" taking about $40bn/year. The most interesting part is on 25th min interview with researcher Boyd Bushman about anti-gravity research in USA. Covers black-project planes like the alleged "Aurora" etc. Tackles the UFO issue in connection with US military black projects (wrongly IMHO). Discovery Channel by Nick Cook, the Aviation Editor of Janes Weekly (Defense industry magazine) (116 MB 46min)
UFOs The Secret Evidence (Oct-2005) another mediocre production with Nick Cook. It seems to imply that many UFO sightings were secret US military aircraft, like U2 (!!!) and CIA kept the "myth" going as a disinformation campaign as a smokescreen for the Soviets. His reasoning suggests that US government encouraged a "UFO craze" in US, among its citizens, but targeting Russians so they "wouldn't see classified US technology but a vehicle of outer space" (referring to the U2 times! how anyone could mistake a U2/SR71 or even F117/B2/etc for a flying saucer is beyond me!). Facts and animations are often totally wrong e.g. in the Zamora case it depicts a flying saucer instead of the ovoid (egg-shaped) craft it actually was (on the other hand e.g. Unsolved Mysteries mentioned earlier had a remarkably accurate re-creation). Still the video has a handful of interesting parts, bits of info here and there and a short interview with abductee Travis Walton. My conclusion is "to a kid with a hammer everything looks like a nail". (1hr41min 352MB)
Well-written summary of several UFO documentaries linked here (if you want to get a quick overview - UFO documetary reviews by Steve Johnson (!!!LONG AND HEAVY PAGE!!!)
XCon 2005 - Seen From Above Military and Airline Pilot's Experiences with UFOs. Commander Graham Bethune, David Coote, Jim Courant, Don Daniels and Robert Durant.
"Riddle in the Skies" series by british Discovery Channel: Series #1 and Series #2 (not too bad)
As a final note, when watching any documentary (considering the abovementioned ones are some of the "better" ones), keep in mind the points made by producer Carol Rainey:
UFO documentaries and why they stink
"I often read here of people's great disappointment after a UFO documentary is aired - and their often justifiable sense that they, as vitally interested explorers in the realm, and also the participants featured in the show, were somehow duped. As a producer/director of 30 documentaries, most broadcast on PBS and cable networks, I wouldn't disagree with those feelings most of the time. The shows that have aired over the past decade are usually banal and simplified, reworking cases mined to death, and, by the end of an hour or two hours, the producers simply haven't done more than touch the tip of the submerged mystery. And that's a description of the 'good ones'!"
Forgive me for stating what may be obvious to some of you, but not apparent to others: television and film are inherently reductionist media. They don't do detail, make subtle distinctions, or usually address well the concerns of an informed subculture, like the Listserve. If you want that, read a good book on the topic, footnotes and all. Visual media's great for the gestalt of the thing, the feel, tone, and just a taste of whatever the subject is." -- src -- producer Carol Rainey Apr-2007
Therefore, if you are really interested in learning more about the UFO phenomenon, you should read in-depth material such as the books in the docs and research sites in resources pages.
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