Hangar 1: The UFO Files (2014) s02e11 Episode Script
Extreme Close Encounters
Man: Okay.
We're recording.
Today's date is January 2, 2005.
Anytime you wanna start.
Chet: My name is -- and I was living in California at the time.
( helicopter whirling ) Narrator: 1985, Los Angeles, a pair of teenage friends sneak out after curfew.
Man: A 16-year old kid to protect his identity, we're referring to him as Chet, had just gotten his driver's license, he takes his best friend out to explore a place that's considered off-limits.
Narrator: Their destination, a decommissioned missile site.
In 1950s, the US Military installed a ring around Los Angeles on 16 Nike missile sites.
These are anti-aircraft missiles mainly put in there to defend the growing aerospace industry in Southern California.
By the early 1980s, however, many of these had been shut down.
I suspect there are few things more appealing to a group of teenage boys in the prospect of checking out an abandoned missile site.
Man: Chet and his friend hopped the fence to take a look around.
There's not much to look at anymore but they're having fun, sneaking around and exploring.
Man: The kids are having a great time being kids when suddenly Chet looks up and notices something.
There are blue lights just above them in the sky.
Chet: These blue lights appeared and I'm thinking, "Oh, man, this is a police helicopter, we're gonna get busted for trespassing.
" If this was a helicopter, the rotors would be deafening by now.
Instead, the boys don't hear anything.
It's totally silent.
Narrator: The blue lights descend from above and the boys quickly realize they are not dealing with the police.
Chet: I don't know what to call it.
It wasn't like anything I'd ever seen on Earth.
A giant UFO.
Tony: Now, this UFO is so bright that the boys can barely see the craft itself.
The entire missile base is getting lit up like it's the middle of the day.
Chet and his friend are frozen.
Narrator: The witnesses are paralyzed by more than just fear.
Chet: This light was shining down on us and I suddenly realized, I couldn't move.
It was like this UFO was somehow holding me in place.
I couldn't run and hide, I couldn't yell out.
I felt trapped.
Man: What were you thinking at that moment? Chet: I was thinking, "Am I gonna die?" Narrator: Chet's experience is not unique.
Hundreds of everyday citizens report having their lives turned upside down by a UFO.
Could these never-before-told stories hold the key to the UFO mystery? MUFON investigates extreme close encounters right now.
The Mutual UFO Network known as MUFON is an independent organization not bound to any government.
They investigate reports of UFO sightings from around the world.
Over the past five decades, they have collected more than 70,000 files stored at a secure location known as Hangar 1.
Now, MUFON is granting assess to their vast are kind.
These are the files of Hangar 1.
Narrator: Los Angeles 1985, a pair of teenagers are trespassing at a decommissioned missile base when a UFO descends from above, projecting a light that appears to paralyze the friends.
Man: What were you thinking at that moment? Chet: I was thinking.
"Am I gonna die?" And then it started to feel like something was invading my brain.
Man: Invading? Chet: Yeah, somehow I knew that this UFO was like scanning me, you know.
I could feel it in there, reading my mind.
Chet's friend later reported experiencing the same thing.
Was the UFO scanning these kids? And if so, why? Was the UFO specifically interested in these particular boys or could it have been attracted activity on the missile site? Tony: After about a minute of what the witnesses called telepathic scanning from the UFO, the intense light surrounding the craft dimmed.
The boys finally feel like they can move again.
Narrator: The UFO quickly flies up into the sky just as silently as it appeared.
Man: Do you recall how you felt? Chet: I don't know.
I was just glad it was over.
Equitz: These teenagers have just been through something amazing.
But now that it's over, what do they do next? To tell their story is to admit that they were trespassing on government property.
Not to mention, they're afraid of being ridiculed.
So they keep it to themselves.
Man: There are very confusing aspects of these experiences and the physiological impact of just seeing these incredible things.
The spiritual awakening that occurs when you realize that we are not alone in the universe.
It is life changing.
Man: These lesser known stories can be very important because they often validate some of the more famous sightings.
But when they decide to come forward, a pattern starts to emerge.
Man: Okay.
We're all set.
You can start when you're ready.
Woman: Okay.
Thank you.
Narrator: Summer 1970, Loreen Cosentino spots her young son pedaling home on his bike.
Loreen: Even from the door, I could tell right away that something was wrong.
Man: The kid races up the driveway, jumps off his bike and makes a beeline for the front door.
Man: The boy is talking a mile a minute.
Loreen can't even make out what he's saying.
The kid is clearly rattled.
She thinks maybe there's been an accident or something.
Narrator: But the boy is upset about far more than scrapes or bruises.
Ventre: The son tells his mother he just saw a UFO, a flying saucer covering directly over the neighborhood.
Man: And what was your reaction? Loreen: I was just happy he wasn't hurt.
I wasn't really taking the UFO part seriously.
Man: She tries to console her son, telling him it's probably just a plane or a trick of the light or something but this only starts to upset him again.
Loreen: He was begging me, just come with me and see.
Ventre: So like when a child is afraid of a monster under his bed, Loreen wants to show her son, there's nothing to be afraid of but then she looks up.
Loreen: It appeared right over the roof.
Man: What appeared? Loreen: It was-- I guess the best way to describe it is a flying saucer.
Ventre: Just as she's assuring her frightened child that there's no such thing as flying saucers, bam, there's one plain as day.
Now, she doesn't know what to say.
Ray: This UFO is shiny and metallic.
There don't appear to be any windows or doors or hatches or even any seams at all.
It's just a perfect disk, quietly levitating over their neighborhood.
Ventre: Now, the mother and her son are just standing there, staring at this UFO.
They don't know what to do.
They're awestruck, but they're both seeing it together.
It's very real.
Ray: They keep watching this thing for almost five minutes, it's not moving, they're not moving.
It's like the whole world had stopped.
But then the mother take a step closer and everything changes.
Narrator: The flying saucer suddenly launches itself upward and disappears into the sky.
The witness described it as not building to acceleration, it was just instantaneous.
Whoosh.
It was gone.
The first thing the mother wants to know is, "Are we the only ones that witnessed this?" This is a mind-blowing but very brief encounter.
No one else was there to see this UFO which means that Loreen's story is not going to make any headlines.
This is the 1970s, there's no internet.
So, how do you confirm this kind of sighting? The mother calls the local news to ask if anyone else has reported seeing a UFO in the area.
And as it turns out, the answer is yes.
Several people reported similar sightings that day.
That night, she tunes into the news but there's no mention of flying saucer reports.
So, this amazing story just remains this family's own secret for decades.
Then in 1990, the mother learns about MUFON, and finally has somewhere to officially report her encounter.
Harzan: Well, some witnesses may wait years to reveal their stories.
Once in a while, a MUFON investigator will be in the right place at the right time and stumble across an amazing case that might never have been reported.
Narrator: Next, a chance discovery uncovers a lost history of terrifying UFO events going back over 50 years.
This has got to be alarming.
Here's this flying saucer and it circling you like an animal, getting ready to pounce.
Narrator: And later, a late night encounter on a lonely highway gives one man an up close look inside a UFO.
When we return.
Narrator: MUFON archives contain thousands of UFO accounts previously unknown to anyone without access to this vault.
Some witnesses wait decades to report UFO encounters and even when they don't come forward, sometimes an investigator will be lucky enough to stumble onto their amazing case.
Narrator: In 1991, MUFON investigator, Davina Ryszka receives a file containing two photos.
They depict a saucer-shaped UFO flying over a wooded area.
Equitz: These pictures were sent to MUFON from an Air Force contact who received them years earlier from a former neighbor.
The neighbor got them from a friend who may or may not have been the original photographer.
Ray: These are not high quality images.
These are black and white Xeroxes of old pictures.
But there's something intriguing about these photos.
This UFO isn't some blur way up in the sky, it's right there in front of the camera hovering just off the ground.
Davina needs to know if these photos are legit but nobody can find the original photographer.
Narrator: After four months of investigative work, Davina Ryszka is finally able to track down the original witness.
It turns out the photographer, a 64-year old widow named Jane was living in Ellsworth.
And over a cup of coffee, Jane reveals that this UFO photos go back almost 30 years.
( explosion sounds ) ( birds chirping ) Narrator: Fall, 1962 Elk Creek, South Dakota, Jane accompanies her husband and son on a rabbit hunting trip.
Ray: Jane had just bought a Polaroid camera and she's eager to try it out.
So she figures this outing will be a great chance to take some nice nature photos.
( birds chirping ) Ventre: The family is enjoying a peaceful afternoon together.
And then all of a sudden, the tranquility is shattered by his piercing mechanical shriek coming from the sky.
Narrator: The high pitched noise drops to a steady rumble that begins to grow louder.
Woman: So tell me what happened next.
Jane: Whatever was making all these noise, it sounded like it was closing in on us.
Equitz: The rumble is everywhere.
She can't tell where it's coming from.
Then Jane turns, and there it is.
( birds chirping ) Narrator: A metallic flying saucer hangs in the air, hovering behind Jane and her husband.
She instinctively raises her camera and start snapping photos.
( camera clicks ) Ray: As soon as Jane starts taking pictures, the UFO begins to move.
But it doesn't fly away.
Instead it keeps hovering just out of reach and begins to slowly move counterclockwise around the group.
Narrator: Jane continues to take photographs as the UFO circles around her.
Woman: Can you describe it? Jane: It was really loud like a--like an old furnace clanking and banging around.
And it was leaving a trail of dark smoke ball through the woods.
This has got to be alarming.
Here's this bizarre, noisy, smoking flying saucer.
And it's circling you like an animal getting ready to pounce.
But Jane's first thought is to make sure she gets this thing on film.
This could be a world changing event.
( camera flashing ) Ray: Jane keeps snapping away until the UFO suddenly flies off in a straight line and vanishes over the horizon.
She looks to her family and they all just shared this absolutely mind-blowing experience, right? Well, they had a different reaction to the encounter.
Ventre: Jane's husband says it's probably just an experimental military aircraft.
Jane can't believe he's being so casual about this.
Equitz: To be fair to Jane's husband, Elk Creek isn't too far from Ellsworth Air Force base.
So it's not unreasonable to assume this UFO might be man-made.
But it's still way more advanced than anything they've ever seen.
Woman: What did you think? Jane: I felt like we had just witnessed something from another world.
But my husband didn't seem to care.
He just wanted to go back to hunting rabbits.
Oftentimes, some witnesses just flat out don't want to acknowledge it.
Ventre: After that trip, anytime Jane brings up the encounter or gets out the photos, her husband laughs at her.
She becomes afraid to speak of her UFO experience and refuses to talk about UFO's for the next three decades.
And that's a shame because when she finally opens up to the MUFON investigator, it turns out, there's a lot more to the story.
Narrator: In 1991, Jane reveals a secret she has never shared with anyone.
( music playing ) At this point, Ray: Jane is elderly and not in the best health.
She's ready to put it all out there.
She confides in the MUFON investigator that following that encounter she woke several times in a paralyzed state and observed shadowy figures standing above her.
On another occasion, small glowing orbs entered her house flying from room to room.
Man: This woman lived with these very unsettling experiences for years.
And felt like she had to suffer in silence for fear of ridicule.
And important questions went unanswered.
Was she chosen based on that first encounter or was she being tracked because she saw something she shouldn't have.
Narrator: Jane is not alone in her reluctance to come forward with an extraordinary story.
Narrator: Next "Hangar 1" reveals another file from deep within their vault of extreme close encounters.
Harzan: We have what seems to be a human directly interacting with a UFO.
Narrator: A flying saucer descends upon a small farm but is it friend or foe? Narrator: MUFON investigators have studied thousands of UFO witness testimonies.
Stories that when otherwise remained unknown to the public.
Including extreme close encounters with ordinary citizens whose lives are forever changed by a UFO experience.
Harzan: Right.
So it's important to MUFON that we get very close encounters reported to us.
'Cause many time, there's interaction between the beings on the craft and the individual witnessing the event.
Something happened, maybe the reality is transformed, space and time are manipulated, things of this nature which are so far beyond what we're normally used to.
That it has a startling effect most cases on the witnesses.
Man: Okay.
We are rolling.
Thank you for doing this.
Man #2: No problem.
No problem.
Narrator: Summer, 1975, William Riley runs a small farm in Grinnell, Iowa.
Riley: I was sleeping on the front porch.
Man: Why the front porch? Riley: It was a really hot night.
We didn't have air conditioning and the porch was cooler than the house.
Narrator: Riley is awakened in the early morning hours as an unusual odor drifts across the front porch.
Equitz: Riley wakes up wondering, "What's this weird smell?" There are a lot of odors on the farm but this is something entirely new.
It's an almost overpowering burning chemical smell.
He gets up to go investigate and that's when the sounds begin.
Riley: This deep like buzzing was moving through the whole farm.
I can feel the ground and everything starting to rumble.
At this point I had no idea what could be happening, but I was worried about what was happening to my farm.
Narrator: Riley follows the sound to his barn and is shocked to discover the source.
And right there in front of it hovering 80 feet of the ground is a giant ball of orange light.
Woman: It's takes a few seconds for his eyes to adjust and he sees that this isn't just a ball of light.
Narrator: The light is coming from a large rectangular craft hovering overhead.
Riley: I had no clue if this one is hanging over me.
But after a few seconds, I took a step closer and this UFO instantly moved back.
Man: Moved back? Riley: Yes, sir.
It backed up the exact same distance I moved forward.
So then I stepped backwards and the thing moved back to its original position.
This is very interesting because we have what seems to be a human directly interacting with a UFO.
Man: There are a lot of encounters on file where a witness becomes burned, sick or otherwise injured after getting too close to a UFO.
So maybe, this dance is actually the UFO trying to protect the witness.
Narrator: Riley continues his tentative interaction with the UFO until the craft makes an unexpected move.
The UFO stops dancing and suddenly launches dozens of burning bright projectiles in every direction.
Riley: I didn't know what was happening.
Was I being attacked here? Was this UFO about to fry me here and my farm? Tittl: He's bracing for the worst, but then he notices these projectiles are just hanging there in the air.
It's actually quite a beautiful light show.
Narrator: The glowing spheres slowly drift towards the ground but completely dissipate before touching the farm soil.
Then just as suddenly as this light show started, it stops.
Riley: The UFO went totally dark.
There was this loud flick like someone just flipped a giant switch.
And then it shot straight up into the sky and disappear.
I never saw it again.
Narrator: William Riley doesn't know where to turn with his story until years later when he learns about MUFON.
Here we have one man who experiences something amazing all alone in the middle of the night.
This case doesn't become front page news, but it's a very fascinating encounter nonetheless.
And with this encounter in the MUFON files, someday, this seemingly random event will provide an important piece to a larger puzzle.
Narrator: Next.
A Long Island teenager's backyard UFO encounter is finally verified three decades later.
After keeping this bottled up for his whole life to the point where maybe he was even doubting his memories, Simon gets this confirmation, "This did happen.
I'm not crazy.
" Narrator: When we return.
Narrator: Thousands of extreme close encounters are archived within Hangar 1, events that have been reported to MUFON by witnesses who are initially hesitant to come forward.
Harzan: Sometimes, a UFO witness will keep their encounter a secret until many years later, they begin to question the details of what happened but on occasion, one of these witnesses will be fortunate enough to get confirmation of their sighting even after several decades of uncertainty.
Narrator: August, 1977.
High school student Simon Quinn enjoys a summer evening outside his family's Long Island home.
Simon is in the backyard with his brother, sister, cousin and his brother's girlfriend.
Simon is distracted by something unusual in the sky.
Narrator: A trio of lights appear in the distance.
There are three separate lights but they seem to be flying in formation holding a triangle pattern in the sky.
Equitz: The kids stopped their game and started watching these lights.
What are they? They're flying too low to be airplanes, they're also moving in a very strange pattern, but the three lights maintained the same distance from each other the whole time.
Narrator: Suddenly, two of the lights vanished in the darkness.
When two of the lights disappear, the third light continues to move directly towards Simon and his family.
Simon's brother wants a better look at this thing so he runs inside the house to retrieve his glasses.
Man: Did anything change about it? Simon: Yeah, in the minute and a half or so that my brother was gone, the light came a lot closer.
They're watching this thing approach, mesmerized and before they know it, the UFO is passing right over.
Simon: At this point, I was like, "Oh, my God.
This is a flying saucer.
" Narrator: Simon describes the craft as disc-shaped with no windows.
The UFO comes to a stop hovering over his neighbor's yard.
The group is terrified about what might happen next.
Then suddenly, the UFO projects an intense cone of light down on the neighbor's yard.
It is so bright that it makes the green grass appear white.
Simon: I remember thinking, "Is this thing here to take us away?" This is petrifying.
For all the kids know, they're about to get abducted, but suddenly, the blinding light cuts out.
Man: Then what happened after? Simon: The UFO started to make this soft whirring sound.
( whirring ) Then it shot off to the horizon.
It was gone in seconds.
Just as the UFO vanishes, Simon's brother finally comes back outside with his glasses but he missed everything.
The kids snapped out of their terror and started screaming.
"What just happened?" Tittl: They all clamber into the house to tell their parents about the unbelievable thing that just happened outside but nobody believes them.
The adults laugh off the story.
Simon: After that night, we didn't talk about it at all.
Mathieson: To see an event like this and then only the very next day to have to completely shut up about it because you're getting laughed at.
It is disappointing to say the least when even very, very intelligent people around you are not willing to admit that there could be something beyond what you've been told all your life is true.
Equitz: Decades later, Simon is speaking with his sister and he finally brings up the UFO.
Equitz: It turns out that she's been keeping the story to herself too.
She recounts the entire event back to Simon just the way he remembers it.
After keeping this bottled up for his whole life to the point where maybe he was even doubting his memories, Simon gets this confirmation, "This did happen.
I'm not crazy.
" Narrator: Simon reaches out to another witness, his brother's ex-girlfriend.
Simon's brother hasn't spoken to her in decades and she's now married, has a family, but they managed to track her down and ask about that night in 1977.
And it's like she's remembering a ghost.
She was very unsettled by the event but she only remembers parts of the story, the approaching lights and then the very bright white light.
For some reason, the rest of her recollection is hazy.
Equitz: It's as if there are holes in her memory.
Did she block them or as many witnesses report, do this close encounters have a way of erasing themselves? Harzan: We have an interesting phenomenon, multiple witnesses with varying degrees of recollection about the event.
Is this simply due to selective memory? Narrator: While some UFO sightings may be buried or erased from witnesses' minds, other encounters are so incredible that those who experience them often question whether or not the event was real.
Next, a Missouri UFO encounter that predates the Roswell crash and could provide a glimpse into our future.
What if this UFO pilot is actually a time traveler? Narrator: When we return.
Equitz: Two years before the Roswell crash put UFOs on the front page, a couple of kids experienced something just as incredible if not more so, the difference that their story only exists in a MUFON case file, but when you start to pull all of these cases together, you discover a pattern of incredible encounters that occur much more often than we realize.
Narrator: 1945, Saint James, Missouri, teenage brothers Andy and Patrick Calhoun are enjoying a Sunday morning on the family farm.
These two kids are sitting around the kitchen table and they're reading the Sunday comics and suddenly the older brother notices something outside the window.
Ray: The older brother bolts out of the house.
The kid brother follows him and finds him standing in front of their garage looking up at the roof.
Narrator: Hovering over the farm's garage is a small flying saucer.
Man: The object sort of swayed in the air like it was very light in weight.
Equitz: As if witnessing a flying saucer isn't enough, the brothers can see into the dome on the UFO and there's a pilot inside.
And he's not what you might expect.
Church: There's a man inside it.
Seemingly oblivious to them, but this UFO pilot doesn't seem too alien at all.
It's a human-looking male.
Blond hair, buzz cut, and he's wearing a nondescript jumpsuit with no patches or insignias.
Equitz: What are they seeing here? A science fiction serial is coming to life on the family farm.
Ray: The saucer is starting to make a lot of noise and the pilot is pre-occupied with the control panel area as though he might be making some type of repairs.
Church: The two brothers are just staring up at the UFO in total astonishment.
This is 1945 and they are witnessing some kind of antigravity motion system.
There are no propellers, no jet engines, nothing.
But this saucer somehow is equipped with a technology to hover above their garage.
Narrator: Soon, the pilot notices he has an audience.
Man: What did this pilot do? Man: As soon as he saw me, he reacted as if he wasn't supposed to be seen.
Ray: The pilot looks down and sees these two farm kids gawking at him.
He's startled, drops whatever he was working on, grab the controls, and the UFO blasts off.
It's gone in an instant.
Patrick and Andy never see the UFO or anything else like it ever again.
Ray: They're still not exactly sure what they saw on the farm that morning or what it means.
Man: I'm inclined to think it was American made.
The pilot certainly looked American.
Equitz: The pilot looked human, but there was no technology like this at the time.
You might make the argument that this was a reverse engineered alien craft, but if Roswell was the dawn of UFO reverse engineering, then how do you explain this craft zipping around two years before Roswell? Man: How would they have got the technology before that time and how long would it take to produce their own version of it? That's the real question.
I can't see that happening in 45 or a few years after.
That's the real problem is trying to track that down.
We have a UFO featuring highly advanced technology that clearly doesn't belong in this time or place.
Could it be that the UFO pilot was actually a time traveler? Schratt: One hypothesis that these beings are us from our future and they're coming back now.
It's difficult to pin that down, but when you talk about ufology, almost all bets off.
Equitz: I don't know if in 1945 these boys were thinking time travel or aliens.
At the end of the day, they didn't know what to say.
So, they didn't say anything.
They keep the experience to themselves until adulthood when one grows up to be an aerospace engineer and the other brother is the mayor of a large Missouri city.
Equitz: Time and again, we have these unbelievable reports.
And what seems to be a pattern in many of them is that there is a reluctance to come forward with the story.
Are these witnesses afraid or maybe they find their own stories difficult to believe? Narrator: From this reported UFO encounter with the seemingly human pilot, MUFON investigates another case of a one man's surprising look inside a UFO, and its extraterrestrial crew.
Mathieson: He looks into this opening and there are figures looking right back at him.
Narrator: When we return.
When you start to search through these lesser known MUFON files, you'll discover these mind-blowing UFO sightings by some highly credible witnesses.
We recently had a man come forward to us with a story that offers an amazing, incredible account of what might be going on inside a UFO.
Man: Okay, we're rolling.
Man #2: I need to tell my story because maybe somebody else will step forward and tell what they saw.
Narrator: Fort Worth, Texas.
A security guard is driving home from his job at a local trucking company.
Man: It was in July of 2007 when I noticed an orange-gold glow coming from the north.
It looked like a beautiful full moon horizon.
But then he realizes, "Wait a second, I'm heading north.
That can't be the moon up ahead.
" Equitz: Ken's trying to figure out what's happening when suddenly this moon starts zipping around the sky.
It's a bright orange-yellow ball, crisscrossing the road and it's getting closer.
I got a full glance of exactly what it was.
Narrator: A massive flying saucer comes into focus above the road.
Ken: I thought to myself, "This cannot be what I think it is.
" Really, that time, I thought, "Okay, it's a hoax.
This can't be real.
" Since there was no real traffic, I slowed down and just observed this thing.
Man: The UFO circles around until it's traveling alongside the highway, right next to Ken's vehicle.
The truck and the UFO are basically cruising down the highway together and he can get a really good look at the strange craft.
He describes it as shaped like two salad bowls joined by a ring of lights.
Ken is trying to take in all the details of this UFO.
But the UFO is apparently trying to do the same thing to him because it suddenly projects a beam of blue light.
This is isn't like a flashlight or laser though.
It's a very strange light.
Schratt: It was almost like a light saber where the light came out slowly and could stop at a certain distance.
I don't know how they would do that.
Narrator: The blue beam extends across the highway and directly into his vehicle.
This beam isn't simply shining through Ken's window, it's actually stretching out into a wide flat shaft of light and penetrating the entire body of his vehicle.
And it's not like it's burning a hole in the metal or anything, the beam just keeps projecting uninterrupted as though nothing is in its way.
Ken: I had no idea what to think about that.
There was no heat.
There was no sound.
There was no vibration.
There was no tingling.
There was nothing.
It did not damage or stop the motor on my vehicle.
It didn't change anything.
It didn't even make a static on the radio.
It was just there.
It did what it did and then it was gone.
He reports that this light seems to pass through both him and his car as though he is being scanned.
He later speculated that perhaps the UFO was assessing his threat level.
Narrator: With the scan completed, the blue beam is retracted back into the UFO.
What happens next is truly amazing.
Narrator: As Ken keeps pace with the flying saucer, he notices movement on the side of the craft.
I look over to the side, I could see that a window or a portal-- it was a great big square opening in the craft.
Ken is trying to understand this bizarre craft and suddenly he's granted an almost perfect view right into the heart of this mystery.
And he's astounded by what he sees.
In the craft, there were five beings, two very tall ones, and three small ones, we know them as the Grays.
The other ones were twice as tall.
They had very thin heads, almond shaped eyes.
The one thing that I did notice, it eased my mind, all of them were holding hands.
The only thing that came to my mind was they care about one another.
So they can't be dangerous.
It was the most wondrous moment in my life.
Imagine it, you're driving home after work and suddenly find yourself in a staring contest with a group of extraterrestrials.
How do you even begin to tell people about this? And who is going to believe you? In cases like these, witness credibility is especially important.
Ventre: He's agreed to a background check.
He's a veteran of 16 years of distinguished military service, no criminal record, and he doesn't want any attention over this encounter.
A lot of these witnesses like Ken, the brothers who saw the UFO pilot in 1945, the teenagers at the missile silo, Jane who photographed a UFO in the woods, they have nothing to gain by coming forward, except the hope that their combined experience might one day help solve the UFO mystery.
Mathieson: These people coming forward, they are seeking some kind of verification and some kind of acknowledgment that what they have said is true.
We want to be accepted as real people and not just people imagining things in our minds.
Narrator: Thousands of similar, undisclosed UFO sightings exist within the files of Hangar 1.
Incredible reports from everyday citizens who struggle to know if what they experienced is real.
Ask your friends and family if they have had any of their own extreme close encounters.
You may be surprised by what you learn.
We're recording.
Today's date is January 2, 2005.
Anytime you wanna start.
Chet: My name is -- and I was living in California at the time.
( helicopter whirling ) Narrator: 1985, Los Angeles, a pair of teenage friends sneak out after curfew.
Man: A 16-year old kid to protect his identity, we're referring to him as Chet, had just gotten his driver's license, he takes his best friend out to explore a place that's considered off-limits.
Narrator: Their destination, a decommissioned missile site.
In 1950s, the US Military installed a ring around Los Angeles on 16 Nike missile sites.
These are anti-aircraft missiles mainly put in there to defend the growing aerospace industry in Southern California.
By the early 1980s, however, many of these had been shut down.
I suspect there are few things more appealing to a group of teenage boys in the prospect of checking out an abandoned missile site.
Man: Chet and his friend hopped the fence to take a look around.
There's not much to look at anymore but they're having fun, sneaking around and exploring.
Man: The kids are having a great time being kids when suddenly Chet looks up and notices something.
There are blue lights just above them in the sky.
Chet: These blue lights appeared and I'm thinking, "Oh, man, this is a police helicopter, we're gonna get busted for trespassing.
" If this was a helicopter, the rotors would be deafening by now.
Instead, the boys don't hear anything.
It's totally silent.
Narrator: The blue lights descend from above and the boys quickly realize they are not dealing with the police.
Chet: I don't know what to call it.
It wasn't like anything I'd ever seen on Earth.
A giant UFO.
Tony: Now, this UFO is so bright that the boys can barely see the craft itself.
The entire missile base is getting lit up like it's the middle of the day.
Chet and his friend are frozen.
Narrator: The witnesses are paralyzed by more than just fear.
Chet: This light was shining down on us and I suddenly realized, I couldn't move.
It was like this UFO was somehow holding me in place.
I couldn't run and hide, I couldn't yell out.
I felt trapped.
Man: What were you thinking at that moment? Chet: I was thinking, "Am I gonna die?" Narrator: Chet's experience is not unique.
Hundreds of everyday citizens report having their lives turned upside down by a UFO.
Could these never-before-told stories hold the key to the UFO mystery? MUFON investigates extreme close encounters right now.
The Mutual UFO Network known as MUFON is an independent organization not bound to any government.
They investigate reports of UFO sightings from around the world.
Over the past five decades, they have collected more than 70,000 files stored at a secure location known as Hangar 1.
Now, MUFON is granting assess to their vast are kind.
These are the files of Hangar 1.
Narrator: Los Angeles 1985, a pair of teenagers are trespassing at a decommissioned missile base when a UFO descends from above, projecting a light that appears to paralyze the friends.
Man: What were you thinking at that moment? Chet: I was thinking.
"Am I gonna die?" And then it started to feel like something was invading my brain.
Man: Invading? Chet: Yeah, somehow I knew that this UFO was like scanning me, you know.
I could feel it in there, reading my mind.
Chet's friend later reported experiencing the same thing.
Was the UFO scanning these kids? And if so, why? Was the UFO specifically interested in these particular boys or could it have been attracted activity on the missile site? Tony: After about a minute of what the witnesses called telepathic scanning from the UFO, the intense light surrounding the craft dimmed.
The boys finally feel like they can move again.
Narrator: The UFO quickly flies up into the sky just as silently as it appeared.
Man: Do you recall how you felt? Chet: I don't know.
I was just glad it was over.
Equitz: These teenagers have just been through something amazing.
But now that it's over, what do they do next? To tell their story is to admit that they were trespassing on government property.
Not to mention, they're afraid of being ridiculed.
So they keep it to themselves.
Man: There are very confusing aspects of these experiences and the physiological impact of just seeing these incredible things.
The spiritual awakening that occurs when you realize that we are not alone in the universe.
It is life changing.
Man: These lesser known stories can be very important because they often validate some of the more famous sightings.
But when they decide to come forward, a pattern starts to emerge.
Man: Okay.
We're all set.
You can start when you're ready.
Woman: Okay.
Thank you.
Narrator: Summer 1970, Loreen Cosentino spots her young son pedaling home on his bike.
Loreen: Even from the door, I could tell right away that something was wrong.
Man: The kid races up the driveway, jumps off his bike and makes a beeline for the front door.
Man: The boy is talking a mile a minute.
Loreen can't even make out what he's saying.
The kid is clearly rattled.
She thinks maybe there's been an accident or something.
Narrator: But the boy is upset about far more than scrapes or bruises.
Ventre: The son tells his mother he just saw a UFO, a flying saucer covering directly over the neighborhood.
Man: And what was your reaction? Loreen: I was just happy he wasn't hurt.
I wasn't really taking the UFO part seriously.
Man: She tries to console her son, telling him it's probably just a plane or a trick of the light or something but this only starts to upset him again.
Loreen: He was begging me, just come with me and see.
Ventre: So like when a child is afraid of a monster under his bed, Loreen wants to show her son, there's nothing to be afraid of but then she looks up.
Loreen: It appeared right over the roof.
Man: What appeared? Loreen: It was-- I guess the best way to describe it is a flying saucer.
Ventre: Just as she's assuring her frightened child that there's no such thing as flying saucers, bam, there's one plain as day.
Now, she doesn't know what to say.
Ray: This UFO is shiny and metallic.
There don't appear to be any windows or doors or hatches or even any seams at all.
It's just a perfect disk, quietly levitating over their neighborhood.
Ventre: Now, the mother and her son are just standing there, staring at this UFO.
They don't know what to do.
They're awestruck, but they're both seeing it together.
It's very real.
Ray: They keep watching this thing for almost five minutes, it's not moving, they're not moving.
It's like the whole world had stopped.
But then the mother take a step closer and everything changes.
Narrator: The flying saucer suddenly launches itself upward and disappears into the sky.
The witness described it as not building to acceleration, it was just instantaneous.
Whoosh.
It was gone.
The first thing the mother wants to know is, "Are we the only ones that witnessed this?" This is a mind-blowing but very brief encounter.
No one else was there to see this UFO which means that Loreen's story is not going to make any headlines.
This is the 1970s, there's no internet.
So, how do you confirm this kind of sighting? The mother calls the local news to ask if anyone else has reported seeing a UFO in the area.
And as it turns out, the answer is yes.
Several people reported similar sightings that day.
That night, she tunes into the news but there's no mention of flying saucer reports.
So, this amazing story just remains this family's own secret for decades.
Then in 1990, the mother learns about MUFON, and finally has somewhere to officially report her encounter.
Harzan: Well, some witnesses may wait years to reveal their stories.
Once in a while, a MUFON investigator will be in the right place at the right time and stumble across an amazing case that might never have been reported.
Narrator: Next, a chance discovery uncovers a lost history of terrifying UFO events going back over 50 years.
This has got to be alarming.
Here's this flying saucer and it circling you like an animal, getting ready to pounce.
Narrator: And later, a late night encounter on a lonely highway gives one man an up close look inside a UFO.
When we return.
Narrator: MUFON archives contain thousands of UFO accounts previously unknown to anyone without access to this vault.
Some witnesses wait decades to report UFO encounters and even when they don't come forward, sometimes an investigator will be lucky enough to stumble onto their amazing case.
Narrator: In 1991, MUFON investigator, Davina Ryszka receives a file containing two photos.
They depict a saucer-shaped UFO flying over a wooded area.
Equitz: These pictures were sent to MUFON from an Air Force contact who received them years earlier from a former neighbor.
The neighbor got them from a friend who may or may not have been the original photographer.
Ray: These are not high quality images.
These are black and white Xeroxes of old pictures.
But there's something intriguing about these photos.
This UFO isn't some blur way up in the sky, it's right there in front of the camera hovering just off the ground.
Davina needs to know if these photos are legit but nobody can find the original photographer.
Narrator: After four months of investigative work, Davina Ryszka is finally able to track down the original witness.
It turns out the photographer, a 64-year old widow named Jane was living in Ellsworth.
And over a cup of coffee, Jane reveals that this UFO photos go back almost 30 years.
( explosion sounds ) ( birds chirping ) Narrator: Fall, 1962 Elk Creek, South Dakota, Jane accompanies her husband and son on a rabbit hunting trip.
Ray: Jane had just bought a Polaroid camera and she's eager to try it out.
So she figures this outing will be a great chance to take some nice nature photos.
( birds chirping ) Ventre: The family is enjoying a peaceful afternoon together.
And then all of a sudden, the tranquility is shattered by his piercing mechanical shriek coming from the sky.
Narrator: The high pitched noise drops to a steady rumble that begins to grow louder.
Woman: So tell me what happened next.
Jane: Whatever was making all these noise, it sounded like it was closing in on us.
Equitz: The rumble is everywhere.
She can't tell where it's coming from.
Then Jane turns, and there it is.
( birds chirping ) Narrator: A metallic flying saucer hangs in the air, hovering behind Jane and her husband.
She instinctively raises her camera and start snapping photos.
( camera clicks ) Ray: As soon as Jane starts taking pictures, the UFO begins to move.
But it doesn't fly away.
Instead it keeps hovering just out of reach and begins to slowly move counterclockwise around the group.
Narrator: Jane continues to take photographs as the UFO circles around her.
Woman: Can you describe it? Jane: It was really loud like a--like an old furnace clanking and banging around.
And it was leaving a trail of dark smoke ball through the woods.
This has got to be alarming.
Here's this bizarre, noisy, smoking flying saucer.
And it's circling you like an animal getting ready to pounce.
But Jane's first thought is to make sure she gets this thing on film.
This could be a world changing event.
( camera flashing ) Ray: Jane keeps snapping away until the UFO suddenly flies off in a straight line and vanishes over the horizon.
She looks to her family and they all just shared this absolutely mind-blowing experience, right? Well, they had a different reaction to the encounter.
Ventre: Jane's husband says it's probably just an experimental military aircraft.
Jane can't believe he's being so casual about this.
Equitz: To be fair to Jane's husband, Elk Creek isn't too far from Ellsworth Air Force base.
So it's not unreasonable to assume this UFO might be man-made.
But it's still way more advanced than anything they've ever seen.
Woman: What did you think? Jane: I felt like we had just witnessed something from another world.
But my husband didn't seem to care.
He just wanted to go back to hunting rabbits.
Oftentimes, some witnesses just flat out don't want to acknowledge it.
Ventre: After that trip, anytime Jane brings up the encounter or gets out the photos, her husband laughs at her.
She becomes afraid to speak of her UFO experience and refuses to talk about UFO's for the next three decades.
And that's a shame because when she finally opens up to the MUFON investigator, it turns out, there's a lot more to the story.
Narrator: In 1991, Jane reveals a secret she has never shared with anyone.
( music playing ) At this point, Ray: Jane is elderly and not in the best health.
She's ready to put it all out there.
She confides in the MUFON investigator that following that encounter she woke several times in a paralyzed state and observed shadowy figures standing above her.
On another occasion, small glowing orbs entered her house flying from room to room.
Man: This woman lived with these very unsettling experiences for years.
And felt like she had to suffer in silence for fear of ridicule.
And important questions went unanswered.
Was she chosen based on that first encounter or was she being tracked because she saw something she shouldn't have.
Narrator: Jane is not alone in her reluctance to come forward with an extraordinary story.
Narrator: Next "Hangar 1" reveals another file from deep within their vault of extreme close encounters.
Harzan: We have what seems to be a human directly interacting with a UFO.
Narrator: A flying saucer descends upon a small farm but is it friend or foe? Narrator: MUFON investigators have studied thousands of UFO witness testimonies.
Stories that when otherwise remained unknown to the public.
Including extreme close encounters with ordinary citizens whose lives are forever changed by a UFO experience.
Harzan: Right.
So it's important to MUFON that we get very close encounters reported to us.
'Cause many time, there's interaction between the beings on the craft and the individual witnessing the event.
Something happened, maybe the reality is transformed, space and time are manipulated, things of this nature which are so far beyond what we're normally used to.
That it has a startling effect most cases on the witnesses.
Man: Okay.
We are rolling.
Thank you for doing this.
Man #2: No problem.
No problem.
Narrator: Summer, 1975, William Riley runs a small farm in Grinnell, Iowa.
Riley: I was sleeping on the front porch.
Man: Why the front porch? Riley: It was a really hot night.
We didn't have air conditioning and the porch was cooler than the house.
Narrator: Riley is awakened in the early morning hours as an unusual odor drifts across the front porch.
Equitz: Riley wakes up wondering, "What's this weird smell?" There are a lot of odors on the farm but this is something entirely new.
It's an almost overpowering burning chemical smell.
He gets up to go investigate and that's when the sounds begin.
Riley: This deep like buzzing was moving through the whole farm.
I can feel the ground and everything starting to rumble.
At this point I had no idea what could be happening, but I was worried about what was happening to my farm.
Narrator: Riley follows the sound to his barn and is shocked to discover the source.
And right there in front of it hovering 80 feet of the ground is a giant ball of orange light.
Woman: It's takes a few seconds for his eyes to adjust and he sees that this isn't just a ball of light.
Narrator: The light is coming from a large rectangular craft hovering overhead.
Riley: I had no clue if this one is hanging over me.
But after a few seconds, I took a step closer and this UFO instantly moved back.
Man: Moved back? Riley: Yes, sir.
It backed up the exact same distance I moved forward.
So then I stepped backwards and the thing moved back to its original position.
This is very interesting because we have what seems to be a human directly interacting with a UFO.
Man: There are a lot of encounters on file where a witness becomes burned, sick or otherwise injured after getting too close to a UFO.
So maybe, this dance is actually the UFO trying to protect the witness.
Narrator: Riley continues his tentative interaction with the UFO until the craft makes an unexpected move.
The UFO stops dancing and suddenly launches dozens of burning bright projectiles in every direction.
Riley: I didn't know what was happening.
Was I being attacked here? Was this UFO about to fry me here and my farm? Tittl: He's bracing for the worst, but then he notices these projectiles are just hanging there in the air.
It's actually quite a beautiful light show.
Narrator: The glowing spheres slowly drift towards the ground but completely dissipate before touching the farm soil.
Then just as suddenly as this light show started, it stops.
Riley: The UFO went totally dark.
There was this loud flick like someone just flipped a giant switch.
And then it shot straight up into the sky and disappear.
I never saw it again.
Narrator: William Riley doesn't know where to turn with his story until years later when he learns about MUFON.
Here we have one man who experiences something amazing all alone in the middle of the night.
This case doesn't become front page news, but it's a very fascinating encounter nonetheless.
And with this encounter in the MUFON files, someday, this seemingly random event will provide an important piece to a larger puzzle.
Narrator: Next.
A Long Island teenager's backyard UFO encounter is finally verified three decades later.
After keeping this bottled up for his whole life to the point where maybe he was even doubting his memories, Simon gets this confirmation, "This did happen.
I'm not crazy.
" Narrator: When we return.
Narrator: Thousands of extreme close encounters are archived within Hangar 1, events that have been reported to MUFON by witnesses who are initially hesitant to come forward.
Harzan: Sometimes, a UFO witness will keep their encounter a secret until many years later, they begin to question the details of what happened but on occasion, one of these witnesses will be fortunate enough to get confirmation of their sighting even after several decades of uncertainty.
Narrator: August, 1977.
High school student Simon Quinn enjoys a summer evening outside his family's Long Island home.
Simon is in the backyard with his brother, sister, cousin and his brother's girlfriend.
Simon is distracted by something unusual in the sky.
Narrator: A trio of lights appear in the distance.
There are three separate lights but they seem to be flying in formation holding a triangle pattern in the sky.
Equitz: The kids stopped their game and started watching these lights.
What are they? They're flying too low to be airplanes, they're also moving in a very strange pattern, but the three lights maintained the same distance from each other the whole time.
Narrator: Suddenly, two of the lights vanished in the darkness.
When two of the lights disappear, the third light continues to move directly towards Simon and his family.
Simon's brother wants a better look at this thing so he runs inside the house to retrieve his glasses.
Man: Did anything change about it? Simon: Yeah, in the minute and a half or so that my brother was gone, the light came a lot closer.
They're watching this thing approach, mesmerized and before they know it, the UFO is passing right over.
Simon: At this point, I was like, "Oh, my God.
This is a flying saucer.
" Narrator: Simon describes the craft as disc-shaped with no windows.
The UFO comes to a stop hovering over his neighbor's yard.
The group is terrified about what might happen next.
Then suddenly, the UFO projects an intense cone of light down on the neighbor's yard.
It is so bright that it makes the green grass appear white.
Simon: I remember thinking, "Is this thing here to take us away?" This is petrifying.
For all the kids know, they're about to get abducted, but suddenly, the blinding light cuts out.
Man: Then what happened after? Simon: The UFO started to make this soft whirring sound.
( whirring ) Then it shot off to the horizon.
It was gone in seconds.
Just as the UFO vanishes, Simon's brother finally comes back outside with his glasses but he missed everything.
The kids snapped out of their terror and started screaming.
"What just happened?" Tittl: They all clamber into the house to tell their parents about the unbelievable thing that just happened outside but nobody believes them.
The adults laugh off the story.
Simon: After that night, we didn't talk about it at all.
Mathieson: To see an event like this and then only the very next day to have to completely shut up about it because you're getting laughed at.
It is disappointing to say the least when even very, very intelligent people around you are not willing to admit that there could be something beyond what you've been told all your life is true.
Equitz: Decades later, Simon is speaking with his sister and he finally brings up the UFO.
Equitz: It turns out that she's been keeping the story to herself too.
She recounts the entire event back to Simon just the way he remembers it.
After keeping this bottled up for his whole life to the point where maybe he was even doubting his memories, Simon gets this confirmation, "This did happen.
I'm not crazy.
" Narrator: Simon reaches out to another witness, his brother's ex-girlfriend.
Simon's brother hasn't spoken to her in decades and she's now married, has a family, but they managed to track her down and ask about that night in 1977.
And it's like she's remembering a ghost.
She was very unsettled by the event but she only remembers parts of the story, the approaching lights and then the very bright white light.
For some reason, the rest of her recollection is hazy.
Equitz: It's as if there are holes in her memory.
Did she block them or as many witnesses report, do this close encounters have a way of erasing themselves? Harzan: We have an interesting phenomenon, multiple witnesses with varying degrees of recollection about the event.
Is this simply due to selective memory? Narrator: While some UFO sightings may be buried or erased from witnesses' minds, other encounters are so incredible that those who experience them often question whether or not the event was real.
Next, a Missouri UFO encounter that predates the Roswell crash and could provide a glimpse into our future.
What if this UFO pilot is actually a time traveler? Narrator: When we return.
Equitz: Two years before the Roswell crash put UFOs on the front page, a couple of kids experienced something just as incredible if not more so, the difference that their story only exists in a MUFON case file, but when you start to pull all of these cases together, you discover a pattern of incredible encounters that occur much more often than we realize.
Narrator: 1945, Saint James, Missouri, teenage brothers Andy and Patrick Calhoun are enjoying a Sunday morning on the family farm.
These two kids are sitting around the kitchen table and they're reading the Sunday comics and suddenly the older brother notices something outside the window.
Ray: The older brother bolts out of the house.
The kid brother follows him and finds him standing in front of their garage looking up at the roof.
Narrator: Hovering over the farm's garage is a small flying saucer.
Man: The object sort of swayed in the air like it was very light in weight.
Equitz: As if witnessing a flying saucer isn't enough, the brothers can see into the dome on the UFO and there's a pilot inside.
And he's not what you might expect.
Church: There's a man inside it.
Seemingly oblivious to them, but this UFO pilot doesn't seem too alien at all.
It's a human-looking male.
Blond hair, buzz cut, and he's wearing a nondescript jumpsuit with no patches or insignias.
Equitz: What are they seeing here? A science fiction serial is coming to life on the family farm.
Ray: The saucer is starting to make a lot of noise and the pilot is pre-occupied with the control panel area as though he might be making some type of repairs.
Church: The two brothers are just staring up at the UFO in total astonishment.
This is 1945 and they are witnessing some kind of antigravity motion system.
There are no propellers, no jet engines, nothing.
But this saucer somehow is equipped with a technology to hover above their garage.
Narrator: Soon, the pilot notices he has an audience.
Man: What did this pilot do? Man: As soon as he saw me, he reacted as if he wasn't supposed to be seen.
Ray: The pilot looks down and sees these two farm kids gawking at him.
He's startled, drops whatever he was working on, grab the controls, and the UFO blasts off.
It's gone in an instant.
Patrick and Andy never see the UFO or anything else like it ever again.
Ray: They're still not exactly sure what they saw on the farm that morning or what it means.
Man: I'm inclined to think it was American made.
The pilot certainly looked American.
Equitz: The pilot looked human, but there was no technology like this at the time.
You might make the argument that this was a reverse engineered alien craft, but if Roswell was the dawn of UFO reverse engineering, then how do you explain this craft zipping around two years before Roswell? Man: How would they have got the technology before that time and how long would it take to produce their own version of it? That's the real question.
I can't see that happening in 45 or a few years after.
That's the real problem is trying to track that down.
We have a UFO featuring highly advanced technology that clearly doesn't belong in this time or place.
Could it be that the UFO pilot was actually a time traveler? Schratt: One hypothesis that these beings are us from our future and they're coming back now.
It's difficult to pin that down, but when you talk about ufology, almost all bets off.
Equitz: I don't know if in 1945 these boys were thinking time travel or aliens.
At the end of the day, they didn't know what to say.
So, they didn't say anything.
They keep the experience to themselves until adulthood when one grows up to be an aerospace engineer and the other brother is the mayor of a large Missouri city.
Equitz: Time and again, we have these unbelievable reports.
And what seems to be a pattern in many of them is that there is a reluctance to come forward with the story.
Are these witnesses afraid or maybe they find their own stories difficult to believe? Narrator: From this reported UFO encounter with the seemingly human pilot, MUFON investigates another case of a one man's surprising look inside a UFO, and its extraterrestrial crew.
Mathieson: He looks into this opening and there are figures looking right back at him.
Narrator: When we return.
When you start to search through these lesser known MUFON files, you'll discover these mind-blowing UFO sightings by some highly credible witnesses.
We recently had a man come forward to us with a story that offers an amazing, incredible account of what might be going on inside a UFO.
Man: Okay, we're rolling.
Man #2: I need to tell my story because maybe somebody else will step forward and tell what they saw.
Narrator: Fort Worth, Texas.
A security guard is driving home from his job at a local trucking company.
Man: It was in July of 2007 when I noticed an orange-gold glow coming from the north.
It looked like a beautiful full moon horizon.
But then he realizes, "Wait a second, I'm heading north.
That can't be the moon up ahead.
" Equitz: Ken's trying to figure out what's happening when suddenly this moon starts zipping around the sky.
It's a bright orange-yellow ball, crisscrossing the road and it's getting closer.
I got a full glance of exactly what it was.
Narrator: A massive flying saucer comes into focus above the road.
Ken: I thought to myself, "This cannot be what I think it is.
" Really, that time, I thought, "Okay, it's a hoax.
This can't be real.
" Since there was no real traffic, I slowed down and just observed this thing.
Man: The UFO circles around until it's traveling alongside the highway, right next to Ken's vehicle.
The truck and the UFO are basically cruising down the highway together and he can get a really good look at the strange craft.
He describes it as shaped like two salad bowls joined by a ring of lights.
Ken is trying to take in all the details of this UFO.
But the UFO is apparently trying to do the same thing to him because it suddenly projects a beam of blue light.
This is isn't like a flashlight or laser though.
It's a very strange light.
Schratt: It was almost like a light saber where the light came out slowly and could stop at a certain distance.
I don't know how they would do that.
Narrator: The blue beam extends across the highway and directly into his vehicle.
This beam isn't simply shining through Ken's window, it's actually stretching out into a wide flat shaft of light and penetrating the entire body of his vehicle.
And it's not like it's burning a hole in the metal or anything, the beam just keeps projecting uninterrupted as though nothing is in its way.
Ken: I had no idea what to think about that.
There was no heat.
There was no sound.
There was no vibration.
There was no tingling.
There was nothing.
It did not damage or stop the motor on my vehicle.
It didn't change anything.
It didn't even make a static on the radio.
It was just there.
It did what it did and then it was gone.
He reports that this light seems to pass through both him and his car as though he is being scanned.
He later speculated that perhaps the UFO was assessing his threat level.
Narrator: With the scan completed, the blue beam is retracted back into the UFO.
What happens next is truly amazing.
Narrator: As Ken keeps pace with the flying saucer, he notices movement on the side of the craft.
I look over to the side, I could see that a window or a portal-- it was a great big square opening in the craft.
Ken is trying to understand this bizarre craft and suddenly he's granted an almost perfect view right into the heart of this mystery.
And he's astounded by what he sees.
In the craft, there were five beings, two very tall ones, and three small ones, we know them as the Grays.
The other ones were twice as tall.
They had very thin heads, almond shaped eyes.
The one thing that I did notice, it eased my mind, all of them were holding hands.
The only thing that came to my mind was they care about one another.
So they can't be dangerous.
It was the most wondrous moment in my life.
Imagine it, you're driving home after work and suddenly find yourself in a staring contest with a group of extraterrestrials.
How do you even begin to tell people about this? And who is going to believe you? In cases like these, witness credibility is especially important.
Ventre: He's agreed to a background check.
He's a veteran of 16 years of distinguished military service, no criminal record, and he doesn't want any attention over this encounter.
A lot of these witnesses like Ken, the brothers who saw the UFO pilot in 1945, the teenagers at the missile silo, Jane who photographed a UFO in the woods, they have nothing to gain by coming forward, except the hope that their combined experience might one day help solve the UFO mystery.
Mathieson: These people coming forward, they are seeking some kind of verification and some kind of acknowledgment that what they have said is true.
We want to be accepted as real people and not just people imagining things in our minds.
Narrator: Thousands of similar, undisclosed UFO sightings exist within the files of Hangar 1.
Incredible reports from everyday citizens who struggle to know if what they experienced is real.
Ask your friends and family if they have had any of their own extreme close encounters.
You may be surprised by what you learn.