Ancient Aliens s19e14 Episode Script
The Top Ten Alien Craft
Mysterious orbs of light
reported all over the world.
Enormous cylindrical objects
hovering high above the Earth.
And massive triangular craft
that appear out of thin air.
Throughout history,
people have witnessed objects
of all shapes and sizes
up in the sky.
Now, we're going
to take a look back
at the top ten examples
of what ancient astronaut
theorists suggest
are, in fact, alien craft
craft that just
may hold the proof
that Earth has been visited
by extraterrestrials.
People love to tell me about
their favorite UFO sightings,
and some of them are
pretty astonishing.
But you may be surprised to hear
that many of the flying craft
that we're seeing today
may have also been seen
thousands of years ago.
This countdown takes a look
at the various types of objects
that have been witnessed
in the sky again and again.
At number ten on our list
of the top ten alien craft
the Flying V.
Kent, New York.
New Year's Eve, 1982.
A group of partygoers spots
a gigantic
V-shaped craft overhead
with red, white,
and green lights.
The colors suddenly vanish,
and then the object
illuminates the ground
with a blinding white light.
Over the next few months,
Hudson Valley authorities are
bombarded with similar reports.
Usually, UFOs just appear
to a small number of people,
and they disappear.
In this case, people were
stopped on the highways.
People were running
out of their houses
watching this enormous object
pass over,
the size of a football field.
It's estimated
that as many as 5,000 people
called in and made reports
of this giant V.
And the witnesses said that
this flying triangle
was completely silent.
And that it was flying
very slowly, if at all,
and was often just hovering
right in place
and then would slowly turn,
and then ultimately fly off
in another direction.
So that these were not some
hoaxers with their airplanes
flying in formation,
but something
completely different.
The sightings of large V-shaped
craft in Upstate New York
made headlines
in The New York Times.
Then, in 1997,
an identical craft was spotted
in Phoenix, Arizona.
It was
a triangular-ish shaped object
seen very reliably by
quite a large number
of witnesses, including
the governor of the state
at the time, Fife Symington,
who was a qualified pilot and in
the Air Force Reserve as well.
As a pilot and a former
Air Force officer,
I can definitively say that
this craft did not resemble
any man-made object
that I'd ever seen.
While the V-shaped craft
flying over the Hudson Valley
and Phoenix are
the most well-documented
mass UFO sightings in history,
they are far from the first.
More than 400 years ago,
in 1561,
the citizens of
the Bavarian city of Nuremberg
reported a commotion in the sky
that was unlike anything
they had ever
experienced before.
People went outside and they saw
what they described as
a celestial battle.
The witnesses observed
seeing hundreds
of these strange-shaped objects.
What were these strange shapes
that they were describing?
The aerial scene,
illustrated in a woodcut,
is described
in the accompanying text
as "a very frightful spectacle."
A large, black, V-shaped object
appeared in the sky
and seemed to launch projectiles
as onlookers below
watched in amazement.
This was actually witnessed
by thousands of people.
Had it been a meteor shower
or something like this,
then the reports
would have been,
"Okay, this happened before
because we've seen this before,"
but that was new.
The witnesses wouldn't
have had a conception of
some kind of
a mechanical spacecraft.
But that seems to be exactly
what they were describing.
And this has to be one of
the greatest mass sightings
of a UFO phenomena
in all of recorded history.
To me, there is no doubt
that the people of Nuremberg
witnessed an alien craft
they just didn't have
the language
to accurately describe
what they saw.
But that should come as
no surprise,
because even today,
strange objects are seen
in our skies
that defy explanation.
Like the number nine entry
on our countdown
Orbs of Light.
U.S. Navy pilots with
the 415th Night Fighter Squadron
report seeing "eight to ten"
"bright orange lights
off the left wing
flying through the air
at high speed."
Neither the radar
operator in the air
nor ground control
could identify
anything in the area
that fit their description.
The strange orbs of light are
observed by hundreds of both
Axis and Ally pilots
all over Europe and Asia
throughout the war and
become known as "foo fighters."
Foo fighters were first seen
in the Second World War
by pilots flying not actually
that high off the ground,
between 800 or 10,000 feet.
Usually pilots were
flying at night
and they reported seeing lights
in formation on the horizon.
They would be
moving together or flashing,
kind of tracking them for a bit,
and then it would disappear
as soon as it came.
They were called "foo fighters"
after French feu,
meaning "fire,"
'cause they were flaming balls.
In 1945,
a B-29 bomber,
over the South Pacific,
saw a foo fighter off its wing.
B-29s were very heavily armed.
It trained its machine guns
on the device,
fired on it,
and the foo fighter blew up
into a million pieces.
That story was covered
in TIME magazine.
Whatever they were
they disappeared
and have now gone into legend.
While reports of encounters
with foo fighters ended
after World War II,
mysterious orbs of light
have been reported
hovering around
military testing sites,
nuclear plants,
and even crop circles.
But what they are
remains a mystery.
Foo fighters exhibited
performance characteristics
beyond any other aircraft
in the skies at the time.
There were pilots that, uh,
reported foo fighters
traveling at
unimaginable speeds.
That were capable of maneuvering
in the air in ways that
no other aircraft could do.
These are hypersonic devices.
They can also zigzag,
and the amount of
zigzagging is so great
that the gravitational forces
inside these objects
as they jerk through
space and time
would crush
any living individual.
In my opinion,
whatever these objects are,
they're guided either
by remote control
or by an autonomous
cybernetic system.
Are the mysterious orbs of light
encountered around the world
a type of
extraterrestrial spacecraft?
Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes,
and suggest further evidence
that alien craft are
visiting our planet
can be found hidden
in the jungles of Mexico.
On January 5, 2000,
dozens of people in Illinois
witnessed a mysterious craft
that didn't show up on radar
and appeared to be cloaked
in some type of camouflage.
Sneaking in at number eight
on our list of alien craft
Stealth UFOs.
St. Clair County, Illinois.
January 5, 2000.
Just after 4:00 a.m.,
three large, triangular objects
flying silently in the night sky
are seen by multiple witnesses,
including police officers.
I looked up in the sky
and observed
this huge, arrow-shaped,
triangular-shaped object.
The flying triangles
are observed
for at least two hours
as they travel
over multiple towns.
This is known as the famous
Southern Illinois
flying triangle.
We have about four
different police officers.
What they describe seeing
are three distinct,
arrowhead-shaped craft.
Officer Craig Stevens was
directly below
one of these triangles.
And he said that
it was trying to cloak
or camouflage itself
against the night sky,
and was projecting
the star field above it
on the bottom surface,
allowing it to effectively
blend in with its background.
The ability of triangular-shaped
objects to hide in plain sight
reminds many observers
of modern stealth technology.
Developed by the U.S. military
in the 1970s and '80s,
stealth technology
can make aircraft
nearly invisible to radar,
sonar, and other
detection methods.
To make
something invisible to radar,
all you have to do is make sure
that the radar doesn't
reflect back to the receiver.
This all comes down to mostly
the shape of the planes.
You want it shaped in a way
so that the radar either
scatters in random directions
or literally just bounces off
in a completely opposite way.
Could the cloaking effect
that witnesses observed
in the Illinois flying triangle
be a type of stealth technology
more advanced than our own?
Curiously,
the U.S. stealth technology
was developed at Area 51
the same secret military base
believed to contain the remains
of a UFO that crashed
in Roswell, New Mexico.
The official Area 51,
now admitted by the government,
is this facility where aircraft
were developed and test flown
The U-2 spy plane,
the SR-71 Blackbird,
and, of course, more recently
stealth technology.
A lot of people say
this is actually something
we've back-engineered from
extraterrestrial technology.
I think there's no question
that we have reverse-engineered
or have looked at
the shapes of these craft
and have tried to create it
for ourselves.
Look at some of
the new stealth jets
that are coming out right now.
They're amazingly close
to what we saw
20 years ago from UFO reports.
One of my favorite places
to explore is Egypt.
On Ancient Aliens,
we've investigated pyramids,
tombs and even evidence
of advanced technology.
But the most important symbol
in Ancient Egypt
is a pyramid-shaped object
that was said to represent
a craft that
descended from the sky.
At number seven on our list
the Benben Stone.
Luxor, Egypt.
The Karnak Temple Complex
is home to the tallest
standing obelisk in Egypt.
The 97-foot-tall monolith
is carved from
a single piece of granite.
And crowning
this remarkable obelisk
is a pyramid-shaped object
called a Benben stone.
The Benben stone
or the pyramid-shaped structure
that is on the top of
an obelisk or a pyramid
it is there
to receive the messages
from the Sun god
and deliver it to its people.
According to Egyptian mythology,
the Benben was a vehicle
which Atum,
the god of all creation,
used to travel back and forth
between the heavens and Earth.
One of the origin stories says
that a Benben stone
descended from the sky,
out of which
the first creator gods emerged
and started
Egyptian civilization.
It was a flying craft.
The Benben stone was not
just symbolizing
a connection to the heavens
it was actually memorializing
an extraterrestrial visitation.
Could the first Egyptians have
witnessed an alien craft
in the shape of a pyramid?
As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,
the argument for this notion
became stronger
in July 2019,
when, just off the coast
of San Diego,
Navy personnel aboard
the USS Russell
recorded an incredible event.
The ship's photographic
interpretation
and Examination
captured an 18-second
night vision video
of several pyramid-shaped
objects hovering in the sky.
The video showed
a pyramid-shaped object,
a literal, 3D,
pyramid-shaped object,
floating above the USS Russell
off the West Coast.
And it wasn't just one pyramid.
There were apparently
swarms of these things,
about 700 feet above
this Navy destroyer,
completely silent,
making no noise
and darting off
at immeasurable speeds.
It's a fascinating idea
that perhaps
extraterrestrials
first arrived in Egypt
in these small,
pyramid-shaped craft,
like we're seeing in this video.
Clearly, what we see
in this footage of today
is three-dimensional pyramid
floating in the sky.
Providing the footage is real,
providing
it is extraterrestrial,
providing
it is extraterrestrial,
then one could argue
that the same visitors
that we've had back then
are showing themselves again.
What's fascinating to me
is that in many
parts of the world,
we can find ancient
illustrations of objects
that people
allegedly saw in the sky
that look identical
to modern spacecraft.
Coming in at number six
on our countdown of
the top ten alien craft
Rocket Ships.
Palenque, Mexico.
Archaeologist
Alberto Ruz Lhuillier discovers
the pyramid tomb of King Pakal,
who ruled the ancient Mayan
city from 615 to 683 AD.
Inside, he discovers
one of the most remarkable
Mayan artifacts ever found:
a highly decorated sarcophagus.
Pakal's sarcophagus lid is
very rich in detail.
It shows what appears to be
a world tree,
and a vision serpent,
as the Mayans refer to it,
that snakes its way up
this tree.
The glyphs that are
attached to it say that
this tree is shimmering
or shining.
It's reflective.
Mainstream scholars believe
the sarcophagus lid
portrays King Pakal
on a journey to Xibalba,
the land of the dead.
But ancient astronaut
theorists suggest
the carving depicts
something very different.
In the center of the frame,
King Pakal is sitting
bending forward
almost like a,
a racing motorcyclist.
He has something like a mask,
an oxygen mask on his nose.
You clearly see his two hands.
He manipulates some control.
He's sitting on a chair,
and outside of the frame,
you see something like a flame.
It looks like an exhaust.
It looks like some sort
of space shuttle.
The idea of King Pakal
sitting at the controls
of a rocket ship might sound
like science fiction.
But ancient astronaut
theorists suggest that
nearly identical carvings
can be found in India.
In Ajanta caves,
there are many carvings
of Buddha inside stupas.
From the front,
it appears as though Buddha is
standing inside
an elaborately carved arch,
but the fact is
what we are seeing
from the front
is a cross section of a stupa
inside of which
Buddha is standing.
And what is a stupa?
It is nothing
but some kind of a vehicle.
A stupa, by definition,
is a vehicle with which to reach
the realm of the gods.
That is the definition
of a stupa.
Well, just change the wording:
"a vehicle
with which to reach space."
These stupas can be seen
for example,
in the Ajanta Cave
with smoke and fire
at the bottom.
If we had one or ten or
even 20 examples like that,
you could be like
"All right, interesting."
But what if I told you there are
millions of the same motif
in India about celestial beings
depicted in something
that could be interpreted
as some type of
a rocket vehicle.
There are countless examples
of ancient artwork depicting
what many think
could be aerial vehicles,
and in some cases,
you can even find figures
wearing what looks like
flying gear
right on their bodies.
At number five
on our countdown
Jet Packs.
La Venta, Mexico.
American archaeologists
Matthew Stirling
and Philip Drucker
begin an excavation of
an ancient pyramid mound.
Over the next two decades,
they unearth
extraordinary statues,
carvings and mosaics from
a previously unknown culture:
the Olmecs,
a civilization that
emerged around 1400 BC.
The discovery is
a major archeological find
and produced a sensational
piece of evidence
for the ancient
astronaut theory.
At the Museum of Natural
History in New York City,
there is an Olmec figurine,
and in my opinion,
it is the smoking gun
of our ancestors having access
to aviation technology
because if you look
at this figurine,
you can tell that this guy is
wearing some sort of a suit,
he has some type of controls
with tubes on his chest,
and on the side you have
six wings coming out of him.
So you have to wonder
what is depicted here.
Now, if you look at
a modern jet pack,
humans are ascending
and descending
in a vertical position.
Now imagine if that was
shown to our ancestors.
How would they react?
The technological frame
of reference of our ancestors
was not the same as
our technological frame
of reference today.
So of course they would have
carved something like this
when they had never
seen a vehicle
with which to go to space.
Could it be that a figurine
made more than 2400 years ago
is a depiction of someone
wearing the equivalent
of a modern-day jet pack?
Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes,
and suggest other figures
have been found
that appear to be wearing
some type of flying apparatus
like the 13-foot-tall statues
at the Temple of Quetzalcoatl
in Tula de Allende, Mexico.
There are figures
on the main pyramid.
And they're some of
the most magnificent statues
that we can find
on planet Earth.
Because it's as if
these guys are standing
inside some pressurized suits,
they have helmets on,
and they have these
jet packs on their chest.
On the opposite side
of the globe,
at the Ellora Caves in India,
is a 1200-year-old carving
of a demon king named
Ravana depicted in a scene
from the ancient Hindu text
called the Ramayana.
In the scene, Ravana is
being attacked by a bird
while ascending into the sky,
and according to the story,
the curious object on his back
is a flying contraption
called a pushpaka vimana.
Ravana does
appear in many Hindu texts
like epics, uh,
Mahabharata, Ramayana,
and many other puranas,
which is Hindu Hindu texts.
We are told that,
you know, he constructed
a pushpaka vimana,
this flying machine.
This pushpaka vimana is
made of gold.
It is like a jet pack
that you could put it on
and you could start flying.
We have jet packs now,
but, interestingly,
almost all these machines
were mentioned
5,000 years ago in Mahabharata.
Is it possible that
the mysterious figures
depicted wearing
what appear to be jet packs
are evidence our ancestors saw
extraterrestrial spacecraft
in the distant past?
Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes,
and suggest further evidence
can be found
in ancient descriptions
of flying chariots.
Some of the best descriptions
of ancient UFOs can be found
in the Sanskrit texts of India.
The sensational stories are
filled with accounts
of celestial beings
and flying chariots.
But the craft described
in these texts
look remarkably similar
to some modern UFO reports.
At number four on our list
Acorn-Shaped Craft.
Kecksburg, Pennsylvania.
December 9, 1965.
Thousands of people watch
as a massive fireball
streaks across the night sky
and crashes into
a nearby forest.
A large object was seen
to come down in a wooded area.
And witnesses actually claimed
that this strange object,
which was the size
of a Volkswagen Beetle,
looked like what
appeared to be a giant acorn.
The phones went off,
and all of the volunteer
fire departments all around,
"We have a plane crash
in the woods of Kecksburg."
Well, there was a man
named Jim Romanski,
and I had a real privilege
to talk with him directly,
in March of 1998
because he was one of
only about ten people
who stood around this object,
in that forest officially,
as a volunteer fireman
walking around
and trying to understand,
"What are we looking at?"
And he said,
"It was like an acorn.
"And at the top,
it was copper-colored.
"And then in the bottom,
it was a darker color.
"And there was a band,
about four inches wide,
"and raised up not carved in
were symbols that went around
a portion of this craft."
Suddenly, the military
entered the area,
cordoned it off,
and the whole thing was
essentially hushed up.
The official report from NASA
stated that
the object was debris
from a Russian satellite,
even though witnesses claimed
it changed direction
several times.
Today, a monument to
the acorn-shaped craft
stands in the town of Kecksburg.
For ancient astronaut theorists,
this UFO event is
particularly intriguing
because the object's
unusual shape
bears a striking resemblance
to flying objects described
in ancient Indian texts.
The craft itself is
an acorn-shaped craft.
Immediately,
that's reminiscent of
what the ancient Indian texts
described as the vimana,
which were acorn-shaped craft.
In the Mahabharata and at
many of the ancient Vedic texts,
they speak about
the so-called "vimanas."
The vimanas were flying vehicles
with which to reach
the celestial realm.
In the ancient
Sanskrit epics of India,
there are highly-detailed
descriptions of the vimana,
which carried the gods
and other important figures
through the sky.
The acorn-shaped craft were
even incorporated
at the very top
of many Hindu temples.
In Hindu texts,
such as the Ramayana
or the Mahabharata,
the vimana is primarily
a flying ship
that God used to travel
back and forth between spaces
in heaven from one planet
to another planet,
from one universe
to another universe,
and also come to Earth.
When we match up
eyewitness accounts
of the acorn-shaped craft
with the ancient vimanas,
we have to be open to seriously
question if these are, in fact,
ancient craft that are now
appearing in our modern world.
Some vimanas are portrayed
as small objects
that could travel
at incredible speeds.
But these weren't
the only flying machines
in Hindu mythology.
The ancient Sanskrit texts
also described ships in the sky
that were simply massive.
Number three on our list
Floating Cities.
To the more than
one billion Hindu faithful,
India's oldest Sanskrit texts,
known as the Vedas,
are accounts given directly
to humans by the gods.
These sensational stories
describe divine beings
arriving from palaces
up in the sky.
All these Vedic texts
speak of a time
when three cities were
orbiting Earth
and from these cities,
smaller vehicles were used
in order to reach
the realm of the Earth.
Even extraterrestrials,
with their advanced technology,
would have to arrive
with a larger mother ship.
And this is why
we have these stories
of palaces up in the sky.
Could it be that
the people of ancient India
witnessed enormous mother ships
that they interpreted as
floating cities or palaces?
Curiously, in modern times,
there have been reports
and even recordings
of what look like actual cities
appearing high up in the sky.
One such event occurred
in Foshan, China,
on October 7, 2015,
when the apparition of
a cityscape
remained in the sky
for several minutes
long enough to be captured
on video.
The video footage was broadcast
on Chinese television
and subsequently disseminated on
social media across the globe.
Numerous people reported seeing
what looked like
skyscraper-type buildings
in the clouds high in the sky.
It was an amazing spectacle.
There's just no other way
to describe it.
Now, just a few days later,
over 800 miles away,
we had another sighting
of this exact same phenomenon.
So it stands to reason
there could in fact have been
some type of a large mother ship
or some craft in the sky.
Is it possible
that the floating city reported
in two locations in China was
a massive alien mother ship?
And if so,
could it be the same craft
described
in ancient Hindu texts?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes and suggest
further evidence that our planet
is being visited by alien craft
further evidence that our planet
is being visited by alien craft
can be found
by examining striking images
captured not on Earth
but in outer space.
One of the most important
factors
to consider when evaluating
a UFO sighting
is the credibility
of the witness.
And perhaps there are
no better experts
on objects in the sky
than the men and women
of the space program.
Which is why our next example
is so exciting,
because they have been seen
not only on Earth
but deep in our solar system.
At number two on our list
of the top ten alien craft
Cigar-Shaped Objects.
Mount Washington,
New Hampshire, 1870.
During a meteorological
expedition in the area,
photographers capture
a strange black object on film
that appears to be floating
among the clouds.
The very first photo
that we have of a UFO is of a,
a huge cylindrical craft
over Mount Washington
in New Hampshire
taken in 1870, right at the
very beginning of photography.
You see this cloud formation
up at Mount Washington
and you see this very obvious
cigar-shaped object.
Is the photograph authentic?
And turns out it is.
Since the Mount Washington
photograph,
cigar-shaped craft
have been reportedly seen
all over the world.
Like in December of 1978,
when two Chilean pilots
on a training mission
at an elevation of
35,000 feet detected
a massive cigar-shaped object
on their radar.
They encountered, visually
and on their airborne radar
an absolutely enormous
object in the sky.
In fact, two separate
ground-based radars
tracked this object.
As the pilots approached
this object,
one of them described it
as an elongated object
swathed in smoke.
As it got to a certain distance,
this thing,
according to their report,
instantly accelerated
to the west,
in the direction of the ocean,
and was just gone.
Over 40 years later,
another cigar-shaped craft
was reported almost
7,000 miles away in Hawaii.
On December 29, 2020,
people could see
a huge, cigar-shaped craft
hovering off the coast
and took photos of it,
and, eventually,
this craft then plunged
into the ocean.
And the Navy went out there
to also look for
possible wreckage of some craft
crashing into the ocean
and found nothing.
Could these strange,
cigar-shaped objects
belong to visitors
from another world?
Ancient astronaut theorists
believe the answer can be found
by examining
a curious radar image
taken more than
130 million miles from Earth.
On March 25, 1989,
a Soviet probe was approaching
the Martian moon Phobos
when it beamed back
an astonishing image to Earth.
As they got closer with Phobos
we see one last frame
that seems to have showed up
a very large,
cigar-elongated shape,
as if it's possibly
a large craft of some kind
hovering above the surface.
We really have to consider
the possibility here
that the Soviets did encounter
genuine, non-human UFO
during that mission.
Is it possible that
the strange cigar-shaped object
photographed by
the Soviet probe was
an extraterrestrial spacecraft?
Incredibly, another massive
cigar-shaped object was spotted
traveling through
our solar system in 2017.
Astronomers discovered that
it came from a distant star,
and gave it
the Hawaiian name "Oumuamua,"
which means "messenger
from the distant past."
Oumuamua doesn't look like
a typical asteroid.
It's more the big cigar-shape
that's seen often.
And there were a lot of
astronomers and scientists
who studied Oumuamua
and it looks like
it could possibly
have been a probe
from some other civilization
outside our solar system.
We're just moments away
from the final
alien craft on our list.
And we've saved
the best for last.
Can you guess what it is?
As we've seen,
throughout history
there have been reports
of unidentified aerial vehicles
of all shapes and sizes.
But for most people,
when they hear the word "UFO,"
the first thing they think of
is the number one entry
on our top ten list of
alien craft
the Flying Saucer.
Private pilot Kenneth Arnold
is on a solo flight
near Mount Rainier.
As he approaches the mountain,
he suddenly spots
a group of nine
silver, disc-shaped objects.
As he was flying
around the mountain,
he suddenly caught sight of
a squadron of
strange-looking objects.
He could not figure out
what they were.
They were flying
at incredible speeds
and performing maneuvers
that essentially would kill
any regular pilot
in a normal aircraft.
He described them as
skipping through the air
like a saucer, he said.
And this is really where
the term "a flying saucer"
arrives in English language,
is from Kenneth Arnold's
description.
Arnold's account became
an international sensation
and his experience emboldened
others to come forward
with their own
unexplainable encounters.
In a few short months,
hundreds of flying saucers were
reported across the country.
When you look at the year 1947,
the statistics are that
there were at least 800 reports
to police, and airports,
of people saying that they were
seeing something in the sky,
they didn't know what it was.
Ufologists may say
that the modern UFO era
began in 1947.
But flying saucers
have been around
ever since the dawn of time.
For example,
in the ninth century, there were
UFOs flying over England.
The Romans saw UFOs.
What's our actual first
major UFO description?
The first one?
It's in the Bible.
According to the Hebrew Bible,
a priest named Ezekiel
received a mysterious visitor
from the heavens.
Ezekiel was by the River Khabur,
and he said a great whirlwind
came toward him.
He described it as
a fire enfolding itself
and out of the fire
was the color of amber,
which is the Hebrew word
which means
"polished specter of metal,"
which implies
that it's metallic.
And that it's spinning,
and it lands in front of him.
And suddenly,
out of this whirlwind
come four creatures.
Ezekiel describes that
the outside of the wheel
doesn't spin.
The inside of the wheel spins.
So he's telling us
that's the engines.
None of this necessarily
has to be magic.
This could all be technology.
By far, the most famous report
of a flying saucer
occurred on July 8, 1947,
when the U.S. Army itself
announced that one crashed
outside Roswell, New Mexico.
July 8 and 9,
the newspaper headlines,
"Army Captures Flying Disc
Outside of Roswell."
How did the newspaper
get that story?
Walter Haut.
He was the official
public information officer
at the Roswell 509th,
who gave the story
to the newspaper.
Within days, the military
walked back the story
and suggested the flying saucer
had an earthly origin.
The initial story was that
the Army recovered
one of these flying disks.
Now, by the next day,
a lot of other major newspapers
came out with the story that,
"Nope, all a mistake.
Just a weather balloon, people."
Did a flying saucer really crash
outside of Roswell, New Mexico?
Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes,
and as evidence,
they point to a sensational file
released by the FBI in 2011.
The document contains
a 1950 briefing
given to FBI Director
J. Edgar Hoover
about three flying saucers
that were recovered
in New Mexico.
So, what's really
happening at Roswell?
Was it
an extraterrestrial craft?
It's a fantastic thought,
but it's possible.
Well, that's the end of our
top ten alien craft countdown.
And while it literally flew by,
we're left with
a burning question:
Why has mankind witnessed
so many mysterious craft
in the sky
for thousands of years?
Perhaps, as we continue
to study these encounters,
the truth will finally
be revealed.
We are not alone.
We have never been alone.
reported all over the world.
Enormous cylindrical objects
hovering high above the Earth.
And massive triangular craft
that appear out of thin air.
Throughout history,
people have witnessed objects
of all shapes and sizes
up in the sky.
Now, we're going
to take a look back
at the top ten examples
of what ancient astronaut
theorists suggest
are, in fact, alien craft
craft that just
may hold the proof
that Earth has been visited
by extraterrestrials.
People love to tell me about
their favorite UFO sightings,
and some of them are
pretty astonishing.
But you may be surprised to hear
that many of the flying craft
that we're seeing today
may have also been seen
thousands of years ago.
This countdown takes a look
at the various types of objects
that have been witnessed
in the sky again and again.
At number ten on our list
of the top ten alien craft
the Flying V.
Kent, New York.
New Year's Eve, 1982.
A group of partygoers spots
a gigantic
V-shaped craft overhead
with red, white,
and green lights.
The colors suddenly vanish,
and then the object
illuminates the ground
with a blinding white light.
Over the next few months,
Hudson Valley authorities are
bombarded with similar reports.
Usually, UFOs just appear
to a small number of people,
and they disappear.
In this case, people were
stopped on the highways.
People were running
out of their houses
watching this enormous object
pass over,
the size of a football field.
It's estimated
that as many as 5,000 people
called in and made reports
of this giant V.
And the witnesses said that
this flying triangle
was completely silent.
And that it was flying
very slowly, if at all,
and was often just hovering
right in place
and then would slowly turn,
and then ultimately fly off
in another direction.
So that these were not some
hoaxers with their airplanes
flying in formation,
but something
completely different.
The sightings of large V-shaped
craft in Upstate New York
made headlines
in The New York Times.
Then, in 1997,
an identical craft was spotted
in Phoenix, Arizona.
It was
a triangular-ish shaped object
seen very reliably by
quite a large number
of witnesses, including
the governor of the state
at the time, Fife Symington,
who was a qualified pilot and in
the Air Force Reserve as well.
As a pilot and a former
Air Force officer,
I can definitively say that
this craft did not resemble
any man-made object
that I'd ever seen.
While the V-shaped craft
flying over the Hudson Valley
and Phoenix are
the most well-documented
mass UFO sightings in history,
they are far from the first.
More than 400 years ago,
in 1561,
the citizens of
the Bavarian city of Nuremberg
reported a commotion in the sky
that was unlike anything
they had ever
experienced before.
People went outside and they saw
what they described as
a celestial battle.
The witnesses observed
seeing hundreds
of these strange-shaped objects.
What were these strange shapes
that they were describing?
The aerial scene,
illustrated in a woodcut,
is described
in the accompanying text
as "a very frightful spectacle."
A large, black, V-shaped object
appeared in the sky
and seemed to launch projectiles
as onlookers below
watched in amazement.
This was actually witnessed
by thousands of people.
Had it been a meteor shower
or something like this,
then the reports
would have been,
"Okay, this happened before
because we've seen this before,"
but that was new.
The witnesses wouldn't
have had a conception of
some kind of
a mechanical spacecraft.
But that seems to be exactly
what they were describing.
And this has to be one of
the greatest mass sightings
of a UFO phenomena
in all of recorded history.
To me, there is no doubt
that the people of Nuremberg
witnessed an alien craft
they just didn't have
the language
to accurately describe
what they saw.
But that should come as
no surprise,
because even today,
strange objects are seen
in our skies
that defy explanation.
Like the number nine entry
on our countdown
Orbs of Light.
U.S. Navy pilots with
the 415th Night Fighter Squadron
report seeing "eight to ten"
"bright orange lights
off the left wing
flying through the air
at high speed."
Neither the radar
operator in the air
nor ground control
could identify
anything in the area
that fit their description.
The strange orbs of light are
observed by hundreds of both
Axis and Ally pilots
all over Europe and Asia
throughout the war and
become known as "foo fighters."
Foo fighters were first seen
in the Second World War
by pilots flying not actually
that high off the ground,
between 800 or 10,000 feet.
Usually pilots were
flying at night
and they reported seeing lights
in formation on the horizon.
They would be
moving together or flashing,
kind of tracking them for a bit,
and then it would disappear
as soon as it came.
They were called "foo fighters"
after French feu,
meaning "fire,"
'cause they were flaming balls.
In 1945,
a B-29 bomber,
over the South Pacific,
saw a foo fighter off its wing.
B-29s were very heavily armed.
It trained its machine guns
on the device,
fired on it,
and the foo fighter blew up
into a million pieces.
That story was covered
in TIME magazine.
Whatever they were
they disappeared
and have now gone into legend.
While reports of encounters
with foo fighters ended
after World War II,
mysterious orbs of light
have been reported
hovering around
military testing sites,
nuclear plants,
and even crop circles.
But what they are
remains a mystery.
Foo fighters exhibited
performance characteristics
beyond any other aircraft
in the skies at the time.
There were pilots that, uh,
reported foo fighters
traveling at
unimaginable speeds.
That were capable of maneuvering
in the air in ways that
no other aircraft could do.
These are hypersonic devices.
They can also zigzag,
and the amount of
zigzagging is so great
that the gravitational forces
inside these objects
as they jerk through
space and time
would crush
any living individual.
In my opinion,
whatever these objects are,
they're guided either
by remote control
or by an autonomous
cybernetic system.
Are the mysterious orbs of light
encountered around the world
a type of
extraterrestrial spacecraft?
Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes,
and suggest further evidence
that alien craft are
visiting our planet
can be found hidden
in the jungles of Mexico.
On January 5, 2000,
dozens of people in Illinois
witnessed a mysterious craft
that didn't show up on radar
and appeared to be cloaked
in some type of camouflage.
Sneaking in at number eight
on our list of alien craft
Stealth UFOs.
St. Clair County, Illinois.
January 5, 2000.
Just after 4:00 a.m.,
three large, triangular objects
flying silently in the night sky
are seen by multiple witnesses,
including police officers.
I looked up in the sky
and observed
this huge, arrow-shaped,
triangular-shaped object.
The flying triangles
are observed
for at least two hours
as they travel
over multiple towns.
This is known as the famous
Southern Illinois
flying triangle.
We have about four
different police officers.
What they describe seeing
are three distinct,
arrowhead-shaped craft.
Officer Craig Stevens was
directly below
one of these triangles.
And he said that
it was trying to cloak
or camouflage itself
against the night sky,
and was projecting
the star field above it
on the bottom surface,
allowing it to effectively
blend in with its background.
The ability of triangular-shaped
objects to hide in plain sight
reminds many observers
of modern stealth technology.
Developed by the U.S. military
in the 1970s and '80s,
stealth technology
can make aircraft
nearly invisible to radar,
sonar, and other
detection methods.
To make
something invisible to radar,
all you have to do is make sure
that the radar doesn't
reflect back to the receiver.
This all comes down to mostly
the shape of the planes.
You want it shaped in a way
so that the radar either
scatters in random directions
or literally just bounces off
in a completely opposite way.
Could the cloaking effect
that witnesses observed
in the Illinois flying triangle
be a type of stealth technology
more advanced than our own?
Curiously,
the U.S. stealth technology
was developed at Area 51
the same secret military base
believed to contain the remains
of a UFO that crashed
in Roswell, New Mexico.
The official Area 51,
now admitted by the government,
is this facility where aircraft
were developed and test flown
The U-2 spy plane,
the SR-71 Blackbird,
and, of course, more recently
stealth technology.
A lot of people say
this is actually something
we've back-engineered from
extraterrestrial technology.
I think there's no question
that we have reverse-engineered
or have looked at
the shapes of these craft
and have tried to create it
for ourselves.
Look at some of
the new stealth jets
that are coming out right now.
They're amazingly close
to what we saw
20 years ago from UFO reports.
One of my favorite places
to explore is Egypt.
On Ancient Aliens,
we've investigated pyramids,
tombs and even evidence
of advanced technology.
But the most important symbol
in Ancient Egypt
is a pyramid-shaped object
that was said to represent
a craft that
descended from the sky.
At number seven on our list
the Benben Stone.
Luxor, Egypt.
The Karnak Temple Complex
is home to the tallest
standing obelisk in Egypt.
The 97-foot-tall monolith
is carved from
a single piece of granite.
And crowning
this remarkable obelisk
is a pyramid-shaped object
called a Benben stone.
The Benben stone
or the pyramid-shaped structure
that is on the top of
an obelisk or a pyramid
it is there
to receive the messages
from the Sun god
and deliver it to its people.
According to Egyptian mythology,
the Benben was a vehicle
which Atum,
the god of all creation,
used to travel back and forth
between the heavens and Earth.
One of the origin stories says
that a Benben stone
descended from the sky,
out of which
the first creator gods emerged
and started
Egyptian civilization.
It was a flying craft.
The Benben stone was not
just symbolizing
a connection to the heavens
it was actually memorializing
an extraterrestrial visitation.
Could the first Egyptians have
witnessed an alien craft
in the shape of a pyramid?
As far as ancient astronaut
theorists are concerned,
the argument for this notion
became stronger
in July 2019,
when, just off the coast
of San Diego,
Navy personnel aboard
the USS Russell
recorded an incredible event.
The ship's photographic
interpretation
and Examination
captured an 18-second
night vision video
of several pyramid-shaped
objects hovering in the sky.
The video showed
a pyramid-shaped object,
a literal, 3D,
pyramid-shaped object,
floating above the USS Russell
off the West Coast.
And it wasn't just one pyramid.
There were apparently
swarms of these things,
about 700 feet above
this Navy destroyer,
completely silent,
making no noise
and darting off
at immeasurable speeds.
It's a fascinating idea
that perhaps
extraterrestrials
first arrived in Egypt
in these small,
pyramid-shaped craft,
like we're seeing in this video.
Clearly, what we see
in this footage of today
is three-dimensional pyramid
floating in the sky.
Providing the footage is real,
providing
it is extraterrestrial,
providing
it is extraterrestrial,
then one could argue
that the same visitors
that we've had back then
are showing themselves again.
What's fascinating to me
is that in many
parts of the world,
we can find ancient
illustrations of objects
that people
allegedly saw in the sky
that look identical
to modern spacecraft.
Coming in at number six
on our countdown of
the top ten alien craft
Rocket Ships.
Palenque, Mexico.
Archaeologist
Alberto Ruz Lhuillier discovers
the pyramid tomb of King Pakal,
who ruled the ancient Mayan
city from 615 to 683 AD.
Inside, he discovers
one of the most remarkable
Mayan artifacts ever found:
a highly decorated sarcophagus.
Pakal's sarcophagus lid is
very rich in detail.
It shows what appears to be
a world tree,
and a vision serpent,
as the Mayans refer to it,
that snakes its way up
this tree.
The glyphs that are
attached to it say that
this tree is shimmering
or shining.
It's reflective.
Mainstream scholars believe
the sarcophagus lid
portrays King Pakal
on a journey to Xibalba,
the land of the dead.
But ancient astronaut
theorists suggest
the carving depicts
something very different.
In the center of the frame,
King Pakal is sitting
bending forward
almost like a,
a racing motorcyclist.
He has something like a mask,
an oxygen mask on his nose.
You clearly see his two hands.
He manipulates some control.
He's sitting on a chair,
and outside of the frame,
you see something like a flame.
It looks like an exhaust.
It looks like some sort
of space shuttle.
The idea of King Pakal
sitting at the controls
of a rocket ship might sound
like science fiction.
But ancient astronaut
theorists suggest that
nearly identical carvings
can be found in India.
In Ajanta caves,
there are many carvings
of Buddha inside stupas.
From the front,
it appears as though Buddha is
standing inside
an elaborately carved arch,
but the fact is
what we are seeing
from the front
is a cross section of a stupa
inside of which
Buddha is standing.
And what is a stupa?
It is nothing
but some kind of a vehicle.
A stupa, by definition,
is a vehicle with which to reach
the realm of the gods.
That is the definition
of a stupa.
Well, just change the wording:
"a vehicle
with which to reach space."
These stupas can be seen
for example,
in the Ajanta Cave
with smoke and fire
at the bottom.
If we had one or ten or
even 20 examples like that,
you could be like
"All right, interesting."
But what if I told you there are
millions of the same motif
in India about celestial beings
depicted in something
that could be interpreted
as some type of
a rocket vehicle.
There are countless examples
of ancient artwork depicting
what many think
could be aerial vehicles,
and in some cases,
you can even find figures
wearing what looks like
flying gear
right on their bodies.
At number five
on our countdown
Jet Packs.
La Venta, Mexico.
American archaeologists
Matthew Stirling
and Philip Drucker
begin an excavation of
an ancient pyramid mound.
Over the next two decades,
they unearth
extraordinary statues,
carvings and mosaics from
a previously unknown culture:
the Olmecs,
a civilization that
emerged around 1400 BC.
The discovery is
a major archeological find
and produced a sensational
piece of evidence
for the ancient
astronaut theory.
At the Museum of Natural
History in New York City,
there is an Olmec figurine,
and in my opinion,
it is the smoking gun
of our ancestors having access
to aviation technology
because if you look
at this figurine,
you can tell that this guy is
wearing some sort of a suit,
he has some type of controls
with tubes on his chest,
and on the side you have
six wings coming out of him.
So you have to wonder
what is depicted here.
Now, if you look at
a modern jet pack,
humans are ascending
and descending
in a vertical position.
Now imagine if that was
shown to our ancestors.
How would they react?
The technological frame
of reference of our ancestors
was not the same as
our technological frame
of reference today.
So of course they would have
carved something like this
when they had never
seen a vehicle
with which to go to space.
Could it be that a figurine
made more than 2400 years ago
is a depiction of someone
wearing the equivalent
of a modern-day jet pack?
Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes,
and suggest other figures
have been found
that appear to be wearing
some type of flying apparatus
like the 13-foot-tall statues
at the Temple of Quetzalcoatl
in Tula de Allende, Mexico.
There are figures
on the main pyramid.
And they're some of
the most magnificent statues
that we can find
on planet Earth.
Because it's as if
these guys are standing
inside some pressurized suits,
they have helmets on,
and they have these
jet packs on their chest.
On the opposite side
of the globe,
at the Ellora Caves in India,
is a 1200-year-old carving
of a demon king named
Ravana depicted in a scene
from the ancient Hindu text
called the Ramayana.
In the scene, Ravana is
being attacked by a bird
while ascending into the sky,
and according to the story,
the curious object on his back
is a flying contraption
called a pushpaka vimana.
Ravana does
appear in many Hindu texts
like epics, uh,
Mahabharata, Ramayana,
and many other puranas,
which is Hindu Hindu texts.
We are told that,
you know, he constructed
a pushpaka vimana,
this flying machine.
This pushpaka vimana is
made of gold.
It is like a jet pack
that you could put it on
and you could start flying.
We have jet packs now,
but, interestingly,
almost all these machines
were mentioned
5,000 years ago in Mahabharata.
Is it possible that
the mysterious figures
depicted wearing
what appear to be jet packs
are evidence our ancestors saw
extraterrestrial spacecraft
in the distant past?
Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes,
and suggest further evidence
can be found
in ancient descriptions
of flying chariots.
Some of the best descriptions
of ancient UFOs can be found
in the Sanskrit texts of India.
The sensational stories are
filled with accounts
of celestial beings
and flying chariots.
But the craft described
in these texts
look remarkably similar
to some modern UFO reports.
At number four on our list
Acorn-Shaped Craft.
Kecksburg, Pennsylvania.
December 9, 1965.
Thousands of people watch
as a massive fireball
streaks across the night sky
and crashes into
a nearby forest.
A large object was seen
to come down in a wooded area.
And witnesses actually claimed
that this strange object,
which was the size
of a Volkswagen Beetle,
looked like what
appeared to be a giant acorn.
The phones went off,
and all of the volunteer
fire departments all around,
"We have a plane crash
in the woods of Kecksburg."
Well, there was a man
named Jim Romanski,
and I had a real privilege
to talk with him directly,
in March of 1998
because he was one of
only about ten people
who stood around this object,
in that forest officially,
as a volunteer fireman
walking around
and trying to understand,
"What are we looking at?"
And he said,
"It was like an acorn.
"And at the top,
it was copper-colored.
"And then in the bottom,
it was a darker color.
"And there was a band,
about four inches wide,
"and raised up not carved in
were symbols that went around
a portion of this craft."
Suddenly, the military
entered the area,
cordoned it off,
and the whole thing was
essentially hushed up.
The official report from NASA
stated that
the object was debris
from a Russian satellite,
even though witnesses claimed
it changed direction
several times.
Today, a monument to
the acorn-shaped craft
stands in the town of Kecksburg.
For ancient astronaut theorists,
this UFO event is
particularly intriguing
because the object's
unusual shape
bears a striking resemblance
to flying objects described
in ancient Indian texts.
The craft itself is
an acorn-shaped craft.
Immediately,
that's reminiscent of
what the ancient Indian texts
described as the vimana,
which were acorn-shaped craft.
In the Mahabharata and at
many of the ancient Vedic texts,
they speak about
the so-called "vimanas."
The vimanas were flying vehicles
with which to reach
the celestial realm.
In the ancient
Sanskrit epics of India,
there are highly-detailed
descriptions of the vimana,
which carried the gods
and other important figures
through the sky.
The acorn-shaped craft were
even incorporated
at the very top
of many Hindu temples.
In Hindu texts,
such as the Ramayana
or the Mahabharata,
the vimana is primarily
a flying ship
that God used to travel
back and forth between spaces
in heaven from one planet
to another planet,
from one universe
to another universe,
and also come to Earth.
When we match up
eyewitness accounts
of the acorn-shaped craft
with the ancient vimanas,
we have to be open to seriously
question if these are, in fact,
ancient craft that are now
appearing in our modern world.
Some vimanas are portrayed
as small objects
that could travel
at incredible speeds.
But these weren't
the only flying machines
in Hindu mythology.
The ancient Sanskrit texts
also described ships in the sky
that were simply massive.
Number three on our list
Floating Cities.
To the more than
one billion Hindu faithful,
India's oldest Sanskrit texts,
known as the Vedas,
are accounts given directly
to humans by the gods.
These sensational stories
describe divine beings
arriving from palaces
up in the sky.
All these Vedic texts
speak of a time
when three cities were
orbiting Earth
and from these cities,
smaller vehicles were used
in order to reach
the realm of the Earth.
Even extraterrestrials,
with their advanced technology,
would have to arrive
with a larger mother ship.
And this is why
we have these stories
of palaces up in the sky.
Could it be that
the people of ancient India
witnessed enormous mother ships
that they interpreted as
floating cities or palaces?
Curiously, in modern times,
there have been reports
and even recordings
of what look like actual cities
appearing high up in the sky.
One such event occurred
in Foshan, China,
on October 7, 2015,
when the apparition of
a cityscape
remained in the sky
for several minutes
long enough to be captured
on video.
The video footage was broadcast
on Chinese television
and subsequently disseminated on
social media across the globe.
Numerous people reported seeing
what looked like
skyscraper-type buildings
in the clouds high in the sky.
It was an amazing spectacle.
There's just no other way
to describe it.
Now, just a few days later,
over 800 miles away,
we had another sighting
of this exact same phenomenon.
So it stands to reason
there could in fact have been
some type of a large mother ship
or some craft in the sky.
Is it possible
that the floating city reported
in two locations in China was
a massive alien mother ship?
And if so,
could it be the same craft
described
in ancient Hindu texts?
Ancient astronaut theorists
say yes and suggest
further evidence that our planet
is being visited by alien craft
further evidence that our planet
is being visited by alien craft
can be found
by examining striking images
captured not on Earth
but in outer space.
One of the most important
factors
to consider when evaluating
a UFO sighting
is the credibility
of the witness.
And perhaps there are
no better experts
on objects in the sky
than the men and women
of the space program.
Which is why our next example
is so exciting,
because they have been seen
not only on Earth
but deep in our solar system.
At number two on our list
of the top ten alien craft
Cigar-Shaped Objects.
Mount Washington,
New Hampshire, 1870.
During a meteorological
expedition in the area,
photographers capture
a strange black object on film
that appears to be floating
among the clouds.
The very first photo
that we have of a UFO is of a,
a huge cylindrical craft
over Mount Washington
in New Hampshire
taken in 1870, right at the
very beginning of photography.
You see this cloud formation
up at Mount Washington
and you see this very obvious
cigar-shaped object.
Is the photograph authentic?
And turns out it is.
Since the Mount Washington
photograph,
cigar-shaped craft
have been reportedly seen
all over the world.
Like in December of 1978,
when two Chilean pilots
on a training mission
at an elevation of
35,000 feet detected
a massive cigar-shaped object
on their radar.
They encountered, visually
and on their airborne radar
an absolutely enormous
object in the sky.
In fact, two separate
ground-based radars
tracked this object.
As the pilots approached
this object,
one of them described it
as an elongated object
swathed in smoke.
As it got to a certain distance,
this thing,
according to their report,
instantly accelerated
to the west,
in the direction of the ocean,
and was just gone.
Over 40 years later,
another cigar-shaped craft
was reported almost
7,000 miles away in Hawaii.
On December 29, 2020,
people could see
a huge, cigar-shaped craft
hovering off the coast
and took photos of it,
and, eventually,
this craft then plunged
into the ocean.
And the Navy went out there
to also look for
possible wreckage of some craft
crashing into the ocean
and found nothing.
Could these strange,
cigar-shaped objects
belong to visitors
from another world?
Ancient astronaut theorists
believe the answer can be found
by examining
a curious radar image
taken more than
130 million miles from Earth.
On March 25, 1989,
a Soviet probe was approaching
the Martian moon Phobos
when it beamed back
an astonishing image to Earth.
As they got closer with Phobos
we see one last frame
that seems to have showed up
a very large,
cigar-elongated shape,
as if it's possibly
a large craft of some kind
hovering above the surface.
We really have to consider
the possibility here
that the Soviets did encounter
genuine, non-human UFO
during that mission.
Is it possible that
the strange cigar-shaped object
photographed by
the Soviet probe was
an extraterrestrial spacecraft?
Incredibly, another massive
cigar-shaped object was spotted
traveling through
our solar system in 2017.
Astronomers discovered that
it came from a distant star,
and gave it
the Hawaiian name "Oumuamua,"
which means "messenger
from the distant past."
Oumuamua doesn't look like
a typical asteroid.
It's more the big cigar-shape
that's seen often.
And there were a lot of
astronomers and scientists
who studied Oumuamua
and it looks like
it could possibly
have been a probe
from some other civilization
outside our solar system.
We're just moments away
from the final
alien craft on our list.
And we've saved
the best for last.
Can you guess what it is?
As we've seen,
throughout history
there have been reports
of unidentified aerial vehicles
of all shapes and sizes.
But for most people,
when they hear the word "UFO,"
the first thing they think of
is the number one entry
on our top ten list of
alien craft
the Flying Saucer.
Private pilot Kenneth Arnold
is on a solo flight
near Mount Rainier.
As he approaches the mountain,
he suddenly spots
a group of nine
silver, disc-shaped objects.
As he was flying
around the mountain,
he suddenly caught sight of
a squadron of
strange-looking objects.
He could not figure out
what they were.
They were flying
at incredible speeds
and performing maneuvers
that essentially would kill
any regular pilot
in a normal aircraft.
He described them as
skipping through the air
like a saucer, he said.
And this is really where
the term "a flying saucer"
arrives in English language,
is from Kenneth Arnold's
description.
Arnold's account became
an international sensation
and his experience emboldened
others to come forward
with their own
unexplainable encounters.
In a few short months,
hundreds of flying saucers were
reported across the country.
When you look at the year 1947,
the statistics are that
there were at least 800 reports
to police, and airports,
of people saying that they were
seeing something in the sky,
they didn't know what it was.
Ufologists may say
that the modern UFO era
began in 1947.
But flying saucers
have been around
ever since the dawn of time.
For example,
in the ninth century, there were
UFOs flying over England.
The Romans saw UFOs.
What's our actual first
major UFO description?
The first one?
It's in the Bible.
According to the Hebrew Bible,
a priest named Ezekiel
received a mysterious visitor
from the heavens.
Ezekiel was by the River Khabur,
and he said a great whirlwind
came toward him.
He described it as
a fire enfolding itself
and out of the fire
was the color of amber,
which is the Hebrew word
which means
"polished specter of metal,"
which implies
that it's metallic.
And that it's spinning,
and it lands in front of him.
And suddenly,
out of this whirlwind
come four creatures.
Ezekiel describes that
the outside of the wheel
doesn't spin.
The inside of the wheel spins.
So he's telling us
that's the engines.
None of this necessarily
has to be magic.
This could all be technology.
By far, the most famous report
of a flying saucer
occurred on July 8, 1947,
when the U.S. Army itself
announced that one crashed
outside Roswell, New Mexico.
July 8 and 9,
the newspaper headlines,
"Army Captures Flying Disc
Outside of Roswell."
How did the newspaper
get that story?
Walter Haut.
He was the official
public information officer
at the Roswell 509th,
who gave the story
to the newspaper.
Within days, the military
walked back the story
and suggested the flying saucer
had an earthly origin.
The initial story was that
the Army recovered
one of these flying disks.
Now, by the next day,
a lot of other major newspapers
came out with the story that,
"Nope, all a mistake.
Just a weather balloon, people."
Did a flying saucer really crash
outside of Roswell, New Mexico?
Ancient astronaut
theorists say yes,
and as evidence,
they point to a sensational file
released by the FBI in 2011.
The document contains
a 1950 briefing
given to FBI Director
J. Edgar Hoover
about three flying saucers
that were recovered
in New Mexico.
So, what's really
happening at Roswell?
Was it
an extraterrestrial craft?
It's a fantastic thought,
but it's possible.
Well, that's the end of our
top ten alien craft countdown.
And while it literally flew by,
we're left with
a burning question:
Why has mankind witnessed
so many mysterious craft
in the sky
for thousands of years?
Perhaps, as we continue
to study these encounters,
the truth will finally
be revealed.
We are not alone.
We have never been alone.