Ancient alien theory grew out of the centuries-old idea that life exists on other planets, and that humans and extraterrestrials have crossed paths before. The theme of human-alien interaction was thrust into the spotlight in the 1960s, driven by a wave of UFO sightings and popular films like 2001: A Space Odyssey. The space program played no small part in this as well: If mankind could travel to other planets, why couldn’t extraterrestrials visit Earth?
This primetime special reports on the entire scope of the UFO experience from the first famous sighting by Kenneth Arnold in 1947 to the present day. The program draws on interviews with police officers, pilots, military personnel, scientists and ordinary citizens who give extraordinary accounts of encounters with the unexplained. Also included are the voices of professional skeptics about UFOs, including scientists who are leading the search for life forms beyond Earth elsewhere in the universe. The program explores the facts behind the enduring mystery of the incident at Roswell, N.M., and looks into the strange stories of alien abductions.
The Phoenix Lights were a series of widely sighted optical phenomena that occurred in the skies over the U.S. states of Arizona and Nevada, and the Mexican state of Sonora on March 13, 1997. Lights of varying descriptions were seen by thousands of people between 19:30 and 22:30 MST, in a space of about 300 miles, from the Nevada line, through Phoenix, to the edge of Tucson. There were two distinct events involved in the incident: a triangular formation of lights seen to pass over the state, and a series of stationary lights seen in the Phoenix area.
Since the earliest years of man flight, pilots and astronauts from around the world have encountered UFOs high in our skies and beyond. The History Channel’s Black Box UFO Secrets reveals for the first time the cockpit and control tower audio recordings of pilot and astronaut confrontations and sightings of unidentified flying objects high in our skies. From a detailed account of one of the very the first reported pilot case – the Arnold case in 1947 – to recent recordings over New England and Texas and NASA recordings and video from 2005.
While the American Government’s alleged knowledge of discoveries of UFO’s has long been known, The British UFO Files reveals for the first time the secret history of alien aircraft investigations led by the most powerful forces within the British establishment. The program explores hitherto secret departments within the Ministry of Defence as well as controversial claims made by those working within the government and military that the British government has long known about the existence of extra-terrestrial visitors. Despite consistent public denial of the existence of ‘flying saucers’ by the MOD, it has always as a matter of course investigated sightings, ever since pilots during the First World War reported strange ‘aerial phenomena’.
Kapustin Yar was the former Soviet Union’s most sensitive air base, even exceeding America’s Area 51 for the levels of secrecy that shrouded it. UFO Files claimed that it was to present never-before-seen footage of the base, reconnaissance photos and even a virtual tour of its hidden depths. Research is still ongoing at Kapustin Yar, with UFO wreckage being brought to Zhitkur quite regularly and as recently as 1997, when a craft was said to have come down in Poland.
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