Chasing UFOs (2012–…): Season 1, Episode 5 - Abducted in Arizona - full transcript
Since 1993 UFO sightings have haunted some residents of Phoenix, Ariz.
Male: They came back!
Male 2: Wow.
Narrator: This time
on Chasing UFOs...
Male: Whoa.
I'm getting a series
of lights right there.
Narrator: In March, 1997,
thousands watched what some say
was a mysterious craft hovering
in the skies above Phoenix.
Male Voice: What in
the hell is that?
Narrator: A recently discovered
video showing a similar pattern
of lights now has some people
of Arizona wondering if they're
repeatedly being visited.
Female: Are you
guys seeing this?
Narrator: Tracking
down leads,
our team learns of a possible
connection to perhaps the most
bizarre UFO encounter ever.
Guy: Freakin' War
of the Worlds.
Narrator: They meet with a
man who claims he was abducted
on the outskirts of town and
spent days in an alien craft.
Travis Walton: I've never
been back to that place alone.
Narrator: At the
alleged abduction site,
the team travels to new
heights to reveal the truth.
But as their investigation
runs into the night,
the team has a frightening
encounter of their own.
Ben McGee: Back to the camp!
Go, go. James, come on.
Erin Ryder: What the
[expletive] is going on?
So, James you have a lot of UFO
facts about Arizona, don't you?
James Fox: Arizona
is a hotbed.
Arizona has got some of the
most rich history of UFO cases.
The 1997 case, referred to
commonly as the Phoenix Lights.
Jeff Willes: Major
sighting here.
Erin Ryder: What's your
take on the Phoenix Lights?
James Fox: My take on the
Phoenix Lights, honestly,
is that there was a very
massive V craft that,
according to witnesses,
was up to a mile across.
It was witnessed by hundreds,
if not thousands of people.
I've always been very
fascinated by the Phoenix
Lights case.
But recently, which piqued my
curiosity is another video of a
very similar craft taken by
a guy named Terry Connett
Ben McGee: I'm looking at
the Terry Connett video here.
James Fox: Oh, this is one of
the better Triangle videos,
I think, here.
Female: I don't hear
anything, do you?
Male: No, I don't hear anything.
What in the hell is that?
Ben McGee: So it starts out
with one bright object and then
he pans to the moon,
which is really cool.
James Fox: Wow.
Ben McGee: See,
right there, fwoom.
James Fox: Oh, Wow.
Ben McGee: And he pushes
on it, and that's when,
I mean you get a few seconds of
him basically filling the frame
with the thing.
That does look like
an enormous triangle.
James Fox: It looks
like a massive beam!
Erin Ryder: Well I think it's
interesting this was shot
40 miles north of
Phoenix, four years prior to
the Phoenix Lights.
Terry's video footage,
right off the bat,
because the shape looks
kind of triangular,
immediately reminds me
of the Phoenix Lights.
Female: It's
another triangle.
James Fox: This, in my view,
is one of the better boomerang
shaped UFOs I've ever
seen captured on film.
While I can't say definitively
that the Terry Connett video is
the same craft that flew over
Phoenix, Arizona in 1997,
it's very, very similar and
it could very well be
the same object.
Ben McGee: You know to me it
looks like an enormous swept
wing, I mean I think we can all
agree that looks like a very
aerodynamic shape.
James Fox: I have to say, I
think Ben is going to try once
again, you know, and conclude
that this is something
terrestrial.
Ben McGee: Well, you
know, like I always say,
it's incredibly hard to get
a sense of scale, and depth,
against a blank night sky,
or even a blank blue sky.
Not everyone who makes these
reports has been to air shows,
or is used to looking
at aircraft in the sky.
James Fox: I told you so.
Erin Ryder: I'd like
to go check it out.
James Fox: Yeah, I mean for
someone to just, you know, stop,
pull over, grab a camera
and start shooting.
That's got to be something
totally unusual in
the night sky.
Ben, are you sleeping?
Erin Ryder: Thank you so
much for meeting us here, Terry.
Terry Connett: You're
welcome.
Erin Ryder: We're
just reviewing your video again.
Terry Connett: Ok, great.
Ben McGee: What can
you tell us about it?
How did you film it? How did you
come across it? What happened?
Terry Connett: It was a clear
night. Not a cloud in the sky,
Arizona.
We were driving back from the
Grand Canyon and we happened to
see a series of lights
just on the horizon.
So I kept looking at it got out
and I had a little video camera.
And as it approached me, it
became more of a V pattern.
Terry Connett: What
in the hell is that?
Female: It's another triangle.
Terry Connett: I've been
to countless air shows,
I was in the
military around jets.
Had there been sound, I would
have thought they were aircraft.
We have Sky Harbour Airport,
we have Luke Air force Base,
but there was no noise.
Not one sound.
Female: I don't hear
anything, do you?
Terry Connett: No, I
don't hear anything.
Female: There's no sound,
and it's not planes flying in
formation.
Terry Connett: And the
V was all white lights,
no strobe lights,
not amber, not blue,
they were constant white lights.
Ben McGee: Based on your
experience with aviation,
do you think this could have
been what they call airship to
orbit, very high altitude
airships that would have been
very big and V shaped.
Terry Connett: The flying
wing is a wing, it's not a V.
This was a V. I'm talking a V.
Ben McGee: So a much
sharper angle then
Terry Connett: Much
sharper angle, right.
Ben McGee: OK.
James Fox: And then,
correct me if I'm wrong,
it went right over your head.
Terry Connett: Right over.
And as it passed over,
it was massive in width.
Much larger than any
aircraft that we know.
I would say you could probably
put eight or ten B-52s wing tip
to wing tip.
Ben McGee: Wow.
Erin Ryder: And how would you
compare it to the Phoenix Lights
that happened in 1997?
Terry Connett: The Phoenix
Lights were very similar
to what I saw.
In fact, that was eerie.
That resurrected a lot of
thoughts in my mind about ok,
what was this?
If it were military,
if it were top secret,
I can appreciate that
and live with that,
it's just that we don't know.
James Fox: Terry's story
is extremely compelling.
His video is extremely
compelling and it supports
the theory that there are
these massive, silent,
boomerang shaped, triangular
shaped craft flying over
the state of Arizona.
My question is: Who's
flying these things?
Ben McGee: I don't
know about you guys,
but I think Terry's great.
I mean, possibly my favourite
witness interview so far.
He was very methodical.
I mean he said, it
cold have been planes.
It could have been a formation.
But it had very weird
characteristics for that and
he's not sure he buys it.
James Fox: Ben's going
to be a believer.
Ben McGee: James, I
believe in the truth.
James Fox: And the truth is
we're being visited, buddy.
Erin Ryder: You can't
handle the truth!
Ben McGee: I definitely agree
that it's a triangular shaped
object, in the video, however,
that doesn't necessarily mean
it has to be extra-terrestrial.
It could be
experimental military,
it could be
experimental commercial.
It can even maybe be
flares in formation.
Uh, it didn't necessarily
have to come from space.
So, as a scientist,
I'm all about proof.
In order to collect proof,
you got to run tests.
One explanation for these
lights could be military flares
dropped on an exercise.
So, with the help of
the Arizona Skyhawks,
my plan is to see if the light
from flares looks anything like
what people reported seeing.
All right guys, I think
we got a battle plan.
Ben McGee: So we'll have two
observation points toward
the jumpers.
Erin Ryder: I'll radio
you guys from above,
let you know when we're jumping.
You guys take it from there.
James Fox: While Ryder is
going to observe from the air,
Ben and I are going to stay down
on the ground and watch from a
couple different locations.
This test, in my opinion,
should clearly demonstrate that
what was seen and videotaped by
Terry cannot be confused with
flares.
Ben McGee: Now we just
wait until game time.
Erin Ryder: Ryder for Ben
and James. Do you copy?
James Fox: Copy Ryder.
Ben McGee: Go ahead Ryder
Erin Ryder: Hey guys, just
want to let you know we are in
the plane and we are
taxiing now.
James Fox: Copy that.
Ben McGee: Godspeed, Ryder.
Erin Ryder: I'll give
confirmation once we are in
the air.
Ben McGee: That
was pretty cool.
James Fox: All right, I'm
filming. I'm on them right now.
James Fox: Can't believe those
guys are going to free-fall in
the pitch black.
Erin Ryder: OK guys, we are
just five miles from
the jump zone.
James Fox: Here they come.
This is going to be cool.
Erin Ryder: All right
guys, doors are open.
James Fox: Copy that, man.
Rock and roll. Hold on tight.
Erin Ryder: Any last words?
Blackhawk: No, ready to go.
Let's go have fun.
Erin Ryder: Now you go and
be all the UFO
you can be out there.
James Fox: Whoa!
My God, that looks amazing.
Erin Ryder: That's the
coolest thing I've ever seen.
James Fox Oh my God!
Looks like a comet!
Erin Ryder: Are you
guys seeing this?
James Fox: Hell yeah. I'd say
comet, falling star,
but it doesn't look like
any UFO I've heard about.
Ben McGee: It's like
freaking War of the Worlds.
Erin Ryder: How's
that look boys?
James Fox: This looks
nothing like Terry's video.
I've never seen anything
like it ever in my life.
Ben McGee: It looks
pretty awesome, Ryder.
It's a very cool light show.
I don't know if I'd ever
confuse it for a UFO,
but I got to admit, well done.
Well done. Well done indeed.
Erin Ryder: Not at all.
Erin Ryder: After our
test last night, I'm convinced
that these lights that we
saw in the sky weren't flares.
And if they aren't flares,
then maybe they could be UFOs.
So we wanted to meet
with Jeff Willes,
who's not only famous for
all the UFO videos that he's
captured, but also he has one
that's strikingly similar to
the triangular shaped craft
that people are seeing.
You actually shoot most of the
videos here out back, right?
Jeff Willes: Yeah.
Erin Ryder: So which one are
you showing us right here?
Jeff Willes: OK. This is shot
on May 24, 2003.
It's what I
call a side-saucer. There it is.
Erin Ryder: Oh wow. Wow wow wow.
Jeff Willes: This was
shot on 4-20, 2006.
This is just in the
neighbourhood right here.
James Fox: Weird.
Jeff Willes: This one is
shot on May 12th, 2005.
It's going to start
out as four lights.
Whoa, I'm getting a series
of lights right there.
It's moving. You got it Pat?
Dude, I got five lights going
left just like the Josh thing.
James Fox: How do we
know those aren't flares?
Jeff Willes: Well, flares don't
really last more than three or
four minutes.
You know this whole sighting
lasted seven minutes and
we heard no planes, it
was completely silent.
Erin Ryder: What
do you believe?
What do you believe you're
seeing and videotaping?
Jeff Willes: Well, that's the
whole mystery is I don't know
what I'm seeing.
I know it's not normal and I'm
pretty sure it's not government.
To be honest with you, that's
the whole reason that I'm doing
this is to try and find out the
truth and the answers to this.
Ben McGee: James is clearly
drinking all these videos in,
but with my background, it's
going to take a lot more for me
to conclude that these things
are actually unidentifiable.
There are a lot of mundane
objects up in the sky and we're
just not used to
seeing them these days.
We spend most of our time
looking down, not up.
Erin Ryder: Jeff's told us
about a recent sighting that
he had not too far from here
by Thunderbird Mountain,
just a few miles
north of the city.
He's not only agreed
to take us there,
he's going to hook us up with
two expert investigators from
the area to try and track down
what's going on in
the skies here.
Naturally chasing
UFOs is never easy.
So of course, getting there
is going to be a trek.
Erin Ryder: Ok, well it looks
like we have all the gear setup
so James, myself, and Jeff will
head up to the vantage point up
here on Thunderbird Mountain.
You guys stay back here,
monitor all the cameras,
and let us know if you
track anything down.
Ben McGee: Likewise, you guys
radio in if you see something
and we'll swing over
and get it if we can.
Erin Ryder: Absolutely.
James Fox: This guy's
got a good track record.
Alejandro Rojas: Yeah,
he does. James Fox: I'm in.
Alejandro Rojas: Be
careful out there guys.
Erin Ryder OK, we'll
keep in touch via walkie.
Ben McGee: Yup. Good luck.
James Fox: So Jeff, how long
do you usually have to spend
under this night sky before
you usually get something?
Jeff Willes: Well,
it just depends.
I mean, I spend hundreds of
hours sky watching and you spend
a lot of time where you're
not seeing anything.
James Fox: Right.
Jeff Willes: And then
sometimes you get lucky.
James Fox: Cool.
Jeff Willes: But, anywhere
where you can get out in the
desert like this, where you can
get away from the city and you
can pretty much decipher the
difference between a plane or a
UFO but a lot of times planes
look like UFOs until you get a
better look at it.
So it's just misleading.
James Fox: Sometimes UFOs
can look like planes.
Jeff Willes: Exactly. Exactly.
James Fox: Hey, check that
orange light out right there.
Look at that orange light.
See that?
Jeff Willes: Yeah.
James Fox: Is that
the southwest?
James Fox: I lost it.
Jeff Willes: May have
went below the horizon.
I'm going to have to get
to the vantage point.
James Fox: I can...let's
get up there. Quick.
Hurry, we're going
to lose it. There's two of them.
Come on, come on.
Erin Ryder: I'm coming.
I'm coming.
James Fox: Come on.
Jeff Willes: I can see it now.
Yeah, look at that.
Look at that. I got it. Oh, ooh.
James Fox: What the
[expletive] Is that?
Jeff Willes: And that's
the Rainbow valley.
Where they've been
reporting these things.
Erin Ryder: Holy [expletive].
Look at the ones over
there to the right.
James Fox: Woah.
Erin Ryder: You see that?
Jeff Willes: That's real.
That's it. Call em.
Tell em to turn around.
James Fox: Ben, we got something
hot. We got a red orb.
It's off to your east, directly
at about 30 degrees off
the horizon. Get on it
Dark Jacket: I've been
watching this actually.
Ben McGee: Copy that, James.
James Fox: Ben, do
you see this or not?
Jeff Willes: Whoa,
look at this.
Ben McGee: James, I can't be
working the camera and talking
to you at the same time.
James Fox: I'm watching it.
I'm watching it and it's moving.
Don't touch anything.
That's [expletive]
unusual, guys.
Ben McGee: We're looking
at a Chinese Lantern, over.
James Fox: Oh [expletive].
Erin Ryder: Oh, you're
[expletive] kidding me.
James Fox: Really?
Ben McGee: It is amazing, but I
was able to push right in on it.
Over.
James Fox: Copy
that. Oh my God, that was good.
Erin Ryder: We're like watching
someone's like fiesta cantina.
I've honestly never seen
anything like this before.
This is [expletive] crazy.
Ben McGee: I think the last
time I saw a Chinese lantern was
in Karate Kid 2.
Erin Ryder: Sweep
the leg, Ben. Sweep the leg.
Ben McGee: 10-4.
Alejandro Rojas: If everybody
had lenses like this,
you'd reduce the amount of
UFO reports by like 90%.
Ben McGee: Goldmine.
I mean we hit pay
dirt with Jeff Willes.
I think last night was a really
important lesson for us because
it demonstrates in most
cases there really is a more
terrestrial explanation for the
UFOs that people are seeing up
in the sky.
Erin Ryder: So our next step,
we're going to meet up with an
infamous man who alleges he
actually had a close encounter.
His story is so well known, it
was actually made into the 1993
movie "Fire in the Sky" We
are well on our way to see
Mr. Walton.
We're going to meet a
man named Travis Walton,
who claims that in 1975, he was
abducted by aliens while logging
deep in the forest.
James Fox: I love it when
people say it was very unique.
Erin Ryder: Ooh! What's that?
James Fox: Meteor Crater!
Erin Ryder: Exit 133
James Fox: Two miles?
Can we see a meteor crater?
Can we, can we, can
we, can we, can we?
Erin Ryder: Can we see a meteor
crater? Can we, can we, can we?
Ben McGee: No, no. I've been
there, I've been there.
James Fox: I'm
serious, you guys.
We have a geologist.
I'm chomping at the bit.
Ben McGee: : This is one
of the meteor craters.
James Fox: So you're
saying this is real ET.
Ben McGee: Yes.
Erin Ryder: Oh my gosh...
James Fox: Wow. Oh my God.
Ben McGee: This is an
extra-terrestrial impact site.
Confirmed.
You want to talk about ET?
Right there.
Erin Ryder: Where?
Ben McGee: Right there,
you're looking at it.
Erin Ryder: Well, not as
exciting as the crash sites
I want to go to.
Ben McGee: Come on, this?
This is like Michael Bay stuff.
This is cataclysmic.
If Ryder and James want to see
an actual extra-terrestrial
crash site, well I just
brought them to one.
About 50,000 years ago, an
asteroid approximately 100 feet
wide slammed into the
Earth at about 26,
000 miles per hour and carved
out a crater 500 feet deep.
That's an extra-terrestrial
crash site.
It
actually happened here. Proven.
James Fox: All right guys,
let's blow this hole.
Ben McGee: We're
not done, are we?
Erin Ryder: I think we
have about two hours left.
No more pit stops.
James Fox: You know, when
Ryder's at the wheel,
and she suddenly
has this, you know,
idea that she wants to go off
road and take the short cut.
Erin Ryder: You guys ready
to do some off-roading?
James, hold on to Ben.
This is a little
rougher than I expected.
James Fox: Hardcore. Guys,
hopefully we're going to beat
that ditch on the left.
Like, we drop in it, we're done.
Hit that [expletive] gas
pedal and don't let up.
Ben McGee: We got it. We got it.
James Fox: And we hit
the ditch on the left.
This things in
four-wheel drive, right?
Erin Ryder: We don't
have four-wheel drive.
James Fox: You're
kidding me. You're kidding me.
It was like "ok,
and we're stuck".
Erin Ryder: Well you can see
where I was trying to go.
James Fox: Yeah,
hold on, you guys.
It
was chaotic. Don't go backwards.
There was a slim chance the rear
wheel would go up the mound and
then flip the whole
damn thing over.
Ben McGee: So what happens?
James Fox: So now we got to work
out how to get her ass over here
Ben McGee: What if you just
crank the tires and back up up
the hill right here.
James Fox: She's going to
scratch the, you can just,
the whole left.
Erin Ryder: It's a rental.
James Fox: I mean.
Ben McGee: No, no. I'm serious.
Erin Ryder: We got
full coverage, right?
Ben McGee: Like always, it
seems James and I have two
completely opposite
perspectives on this situation.
If we can fill this all the
way up, so we've got a ramp.
James Fox: Then get up
momentum and we'll cut across.
That's not going to work.
Erin Ryder: Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.
Don't you date tell the
geologist which rocks to use.
Ben McGee: Let's
see what it does.
James, get over here.
James Fox: All right, I'll put
$1000 on it, you're dead wrong.
Title: 45 minutes later
Ben McGee: Go go go go go.
James Fox: All
right. Didn't quite make it. Oh!
Hold on a second.
Ben McGee: Turn it,
just a little but more.
Keep it closer to the edge.
That's why I said you need to
straighten it out and pull up a
little bit.
James Fox: From now on,
if we do off-roading,
it needs to be a 4x4.
Erin Ryder: How the
[expletive] did we do that?
Oh my God.
Erin Ryder:
Look at where we were!
Hey lets take the
long way this time.
Ben McGee: I don't want
to get anywhere so fast.
James Fox: Put this
baby in gear, lets roll.
Seriously, for me, you guys,
this is like the equivalent of
Ben, you meeting Neil Armstrong.
This guy is like the top three
close encounters of the 3rd
kind, in my view, in the world.
The Travis Walton case
is one of the best,
alleged alien abduction
cases in existence.
You've got seven witnesses, the
disappearance of a guy for five
days, I can't wait
to talk to him.
So, we were hoping we
could kind of, you know,
kind of go over what
happened back in 1975.
Travis Walton: Well, it
was a sunny, fall workday.
We'd finished up working.
We put in a pretty long day,
so the sun had gone down.
And we were headed out of there.
We hadn't gone too far when
I caught sight of some little
glimmers of light
through the trees.
At first it wasn't
all that alarming.
But the longer I looked, the
more it didn't seem right.
One by one everybody
kind of fell silent.
Boom, there it was, it
was just unmistakable.
It was the most
incredible thing.
Ben McGee: What did it look
like? Can you describe it?
Travis Walton: Well, it looked
like two pie pans put lip to lip
with a little dome on top.
About as tall as this first tree
and about as far away as that
second tree.
And parts of it were metallic
and parts of it were glowing.
You know, I was just
really awestruck.
It's just so smooth and
powerful seeming, you know?
I threw open the door right as
we stopped and I was thinking
that it would be gone
before I got very close.
The guys in the truck, they
were saying "Get the hell out of
there".
This blast of the energy came
down out of the bottom of
that craft.
It was so powerful.
It was like a physical blow.
It hit me in the head and chest.
They immediately start yelling
at each other "he's dead,
it killed him. Let's go. Go."
and they said they just
panicked and took off.
It was just kind of tingling
and sort of numbing at
the same time.
When I woke up, I was in a lot
of pain and I started, you know,
wondering where the heck I was.
I could hear the sounds of
movement around me and I took
that to be medical people.
And so when I first
laid eyes on this being,
And what a shock.
That was probably the thing
that dominated my nightmares.
Next thing I knew I'm waking
up beside the highway.
I've never been back
to that place alone.
Ben
McGee: I know it's difficult.
Would you be willing to come
back with us and help us
perform a physical survey?
Travis Walton: Yeah,
I'll go there with you.
I'm not going by myself.
Ben
McGee: No, of course not. No.
Travis Walton: Yeah,
we could check it out.
James Fox: This is one of the
most amazing cases on record.
I absolutely believe
he was abducted.
No question in my mind.
Ben McGee: I can neither
confirm nor deny Travis' story.
There's just not enough data
to go either way right now.
And in order for me to start
to entertain that this actually
happened, I've got to find
some more physical evidence.
Erin Ryder: Now our quest takes
us to the abduction site and try
to collect any evidence at
all to prove if this was
extra-terrestrial or not.
After our last off-road debacle,
we're not taking any chances as
we travel to this alleged
abduction site so I enlisted
some help.
The Navajo Search
and Rescue Team.
I figure their 6x6 is a little
better than our 2-wheel drive.
Ready to go.
The location of this alleged
abduction is 30 up a logging
road in Sitgreaves
National Forest.
James Fox: Is this the
road where the guys split?
Travis Walton: Yeah,
they took off and left.
James Fox: On this
road right here.
Travis Walton: Yeah.
Erin Ryder: Have there been any
recent sightings in this area?
Travis Walton: I
hear it all the time.
Ben McGee: On the
way to the site,
Travis told us something
really interesting,
which is that he believes in the
area where this was alleged to
have occurred, the trees
experienced some sort of
accelerated growth so that is
something you could definitely
test for.
Travis Walton: This is it.
This is the spot.
James Fox: You guys,
we're at the location.
Travis found it.
Erin Ryder: Let's get coring.
Just by measuring these rings,
we can determine how fast or
slow a tree grew in a
given amount of time.
So what we're going to do is
take some tree samples to help
us determine if there is any
unusual growth patterns in
this area.
Travis Walton: Over here.
James Fox: This is kind
of eerie being here.
Travis Walton: It's past
this uprooted tree here.
James Fox: So the craft
was hovering right here,
that beam of light came down.
It could have affected
theoretically this entire area.
Travis Walton: Yeah.
James Fox: Travis, I think what
we need is a tree core sample
from right here, the center
of the abduction site.
What about this one over here?
Travis Walton: I don't know.
Check it.
James Fox: Timber! Solid.
Wow, look at that.
Travis Walton: It looks like it
was steady state from the time
it grew and then 15 years of
growth spurt that kind of
faded away.
James Fox: While we can't
definitively link this
abnormality with
the UFO encounter,
this certainly raises serious
questions as to what caused this
growth spurt.
Ben McGee: I'm taking a 360
degree panoramic topographical
survey of Travis Walton's site
and what that will enable us to
do is we can mark specifically
the location where we take
samples and if there is any
accelerated growth in the trees
in the area, we're going to be
able to map it and maybe help us
piece this puzzle together.
Erin Ryder: It's important to
collect samples from way up high
so we can test for any evidence
at all that a UFO hovered here.
There's the first branch.
Ben McGee: Oh, Jesus.
Erin
Ryder: No! I can't clip in. No!
I don't
know if I can do it. Oh, my God.
Ben McGee: Watch out!
Ben McGee: Holy crap.
Erin Ryder: Ben! No.
Ben McGee: Ryder,
move your left arm.
Erin Ryder: I'm losing my grip!
Ben
McGee: What can I do from here?
Erin Ryder: Help!
Ben McGee: It's just a little
farther. The other way.
Erin Ryder: Oh my
God. All right. I'm in position.
Ben McGee: It was smooth
sailing from there on out.
Erin Ryder: [Screams] Crap!
Ben McGee: Well, almost.
Erin Ryder: Timber. Oh my
God. I'm going to kill myself.
I hope I'm making
this look really easy.
Ben McGee: You are.
Erin Ryder: Timber. Oh no!
I was born up in that tree.
I think you could tell.
Oh my God.
Horse poop. Crap! Mother effer!
Okay, maybe a few
minor setbacks.
Ben McGee: I got you.
Erin Ryder: Ugh.
Ben McGee: Good job.
Erin Ryder: Thanks.
Ben McGee: Home free.
Erin Ryder: My
hands are shaking.
Ben McGee: Take a break.
James Fox: I've got a really
cool discovery over here
you guys.
Erin Ryder: Please reveal.
James Fox: Check this out.
Travis and I found this tree,
which was present the time of
his sighting, which means
something caused accelerated
growth in this tree
after his experience.
Erin Ryder: Listen, this
man's a logger. I'm not.
But he seems to think that this
verifies his claim that there
was one time a UFO floating
above the forest here.
Maybe there's something to this.
Appreciate all your
help today, Travis.
Travis
Walton: It's been an adventure.
James Fox: Bringing Travis
Walton to the exact location of
this alleged abduction
was traumatic for him.
As night fell, I could see him
getting progressively anxious
and he decided to go home.
With the level of effort it took
for us to get to this location,
and reports of other
strange activity out here,
we'd be fools to leave now.
Erin Ryder: All right, we're
all set for the night, Eric.
We've got to thank you guys
for helping us get up here.
Ben McGee: Yeah.
Erin Ryder: It was such a
relief to know we have a search
and rescue crew standing by.
Eric McKernann:
Thank you very much.
What do you think about
it out here tonight?
Erin Ryder: It's
a little eerie.
Eric McKernann: Well,
I'll tell you what.
I don't like being
out here at night.
Ben McGee: Really?
James Fox: So you're saying
this area in particular is like
a hot spot?
Eric
McKernann: Oh, yeah. Definitely.
I'd say within a 20-mile radius
all around here is very active
with lights in the skies.
Erin Ryder: Like
unidentified flying objects?
Eric McKernann:
Yes. It's out there, man.
Ben McGee: All right.
Erin Ryder: We'll
scream if we need you.
Eric
McKernann: All right. Thanks.
James Fox: Well you guys, I'd
like to go back to the site.
Check it out.
Erin Ryder: We'll do a
perimeter sweep to cover some of
the area that we
didn't walk today.
James Fox: Ok. All right guys.
Ben
McGee: All right, sounds good.
James Fox: Stay in touch.
Erin Ryder: All right,
eyes in the skies.
Erin Ryder: What do you
think of Travis' story now that
we've been out here?
Ben McGee: Like always,
extraordinary claims.
Extraordinary evidence.
Jury is still out for me.
How about you?
Erin Ryder: Have to be honest,
when I interviewed him.
There's something about
the details of the story,
that there were so many, it
almost felt like too many.
Ben McGee: Another
orgy of evidence.
Erin Ryder: That had me
kind of questioning things,
but when we came out here, I
mean, he had a strong reaction
to finding the location and
coming out here.
Erin Ryder: Something happened
out here. That's for sure.
James Fox: Wow.
If I was here, 35 years ago,
I'd see something completely
out of this world.
It's incredible.
I can't believe I'm actually at
one of the most famous abduction
cases ever.
Travis Walton, fire in the sky.
This is approaching the road
where the truck stopped and
he got out.
The UFO would have been hovering
a little bit to the north,
which is this way.
I'm approaching
ground zero right now.
Probably ground zero right here.
Right where the flying
saucer was hovering.
He said it was a
little clearing.
And the road is just
down over there.
Right now, it's covered in snow
and there's some new growth over
the area but this is where
the truck would have
been driving from.
So, I'm standing on a tree stump
here that was cut probably just
before Travis was here.
And I'm going to see if I can
kind of observe the night sky.
Erin Ryder: Ryder for James.
James Fox: Copy
Ryder, I'm here.
I'm hearing something in the
woods that sounds like gunshots.
Did you hear the
same thing I heard?
Erin Ryder: I absolutely heard
the same thing you heard but it
just sounds so close.
James Fox: It does sound close.
Erin Ryder: I hate to say it
but I think it's best for us to
stick together the rest of
the night. Stay put.
Ben and I will make
our way over to you.
James Fox: Copy that.
Erin Ryder: It gets really deep
through here, careful. James?
James Fox: Hey.
Erin Ryder: Is that you?
James Fox: Hey,
what's going on guys?
Ben McGee: Hey.
James Fox: I mapped out the
logging road where the truck
stopped, ground zero, where some
of the trees were most likely
affected according to Travis.
Erin Ryder: Look
over there. Look over there.
Ben McGee: Jesus Christ, what?
Erin Ryder: You guys,
you guys, you guys.
Ben McGee: What?
Erin Ryder: Come on.
Someone saw that!
James Fox: What?
Erin Ryder: I just looked at it.
It looked like one blue light,
spreads out to three, down.
Straight down.
James Fox: I can't see
anything out there right now.
Erin Ryder: James, I thought
you of all people would help me
out here.
James Fox: Hey, I'm doing the
best I can but I can't make a
UFO appear, man.
Erin Ryder:
I don't know. That was weird.
That was really strange. Honest.
Ben McGee: Why don't we set
up a tripod and look in that
general direction a little bit?
Erin Ryder: That's
what I'm doing.
Ben McGee: Yeah.
Erin Ryder: It's highly
doubtful that what I saw is
going to come back, but I'm
going to be ready this time.
Ben McGee: Let's see what
we can see over there.
Erin Ryder: Come on
Arizona, show me something.
Eric McKernann: Back to camp!
Ben McGee: Go. Go.
Basecamp. Go.
Erin Ryder: What?
Ben McGee: James, come on.
James Fox: Dude, I'm
coming, man.
Erin Ryder: What the
[Expletive] is going on?
Ben McGee: Search and Rescue
just screamed "get the
[Expletive] back to basecamp".
Erin Ryder: What
the hell was that?
James Fox: Hey man.
Eric McKernann: Hey guys.
Erin Ryder: What's
going on, Eric?
Eric McKernann: There's a bear
outside the camp here searching
around. I can hear him.
James Fox: Are we talking
about a big, black bear?
Eric McKernann: Yeah.
James Fox: Can
they be aggressive?
Eric McKernann: Yes, they
can. Especially a sow with cubs.
I say let's get packed up and
get out as soon as we can
so we don't disturb her.
Erin Ryder: Holy [Expletive].
You know, I'm kind of a badass.
I would have stuck
it out out there.
Ben and James, not so much.
After a short trip home, we
reconvened to analyze all of our
evidence.
Well yeah, let's
talk about, you know,
the triangle shaped craft or
the boomerang shaped crafts that
people are seeing over
the skies of Arizona.
Ben McGee: Yeah, it clearly
looks like a triangular-shaped
aircraft of some kind.
You know, I don't know that I
could rule out planes flying in
tight formation.
I do think that Terry Connett
captured a triangular shaped
craft on this video.
But that doesn't necessarily
mean it had to be a
extra-terrestrial.
It could have been maybe a B2
or some experimental craft.
I don't think that
we've ruled those out.
Erin Ryder: This is the
skydiver test we did.
This is just a little
bit of the footage.
James Fox: It was awesome, but
yeah, clearly not a real UFO
or what people saw in the
night sky on March of 1997.
Erin Ryder: What we wanted to
show was the descent that
they make.
Flares don't move
horizontal through the sky.
You can't look at the footage
that we shot of the flares and
compare it to what these people
captured and tell me that that's
the same thing.
And Phoenix Lights isn't
the only, you know,
strange occurrence that
happened in Arizona.
Obviously also famed for
the Travis Walton case.
James Fox: So the craft
was hovering right here,
that beam of light came down.
It could have affected
theoretically this entire area.
Travis Walton: Yeah.
James Fox: Travis took core
samples of a tree and right
around, ironically, the
time of the sighting, 1975,
there is a serious change
in the ring growth.
The tree like grows four,
five, six times faster.
Erin Ryder: And what you see
is the difference in sizes,
quite dramatic.
But we haven't ruled out
environmental factors.
Ben McGee: Based on my initial
review of the 360 panoramic
scan, nothing immediately jumped
out at me as demonstrating,
you know, an area of really
accelerated growth at this site.
Erin Ryder: I do think UFOs
are flying around Arizona.
But I don't believe they're
coming from outer space.
Jeff Willes: If everybody
had lenses like this,
you'd reduce the amount of
UFO reports by like 90%.
Ben McGee: I don't think it's a
coincidence that in the desert,
southwest, you have
two space ports.
You've got multiple aircraft
military test ranges.
And I think that the idea
that you've got some sort of
experimental or larger scale
aircraft than something that had
to come from outer space.
Male 2: Wow.
Narrator: This time
on Chasing UFOs...
Male: Whoa.
I'm getting a series
of lights right there.
Narrator: In March, 1997,
thousands watched what some say
was a mysterious craft hovering
in the skies above Phoenix.
Male Voice: What in
the hell is that?
Narrator: A recently discovered
video showing a similar pattern
of lights now has some people
of Arizona wondering if they're
repeatedly being visited.
Female: Are you
guys seeing this?
Narrator: Tracking
down leads,
our team learns of a possible
connection to perhaps the most
bizarre UFO encounter ever.
Guy: Freakin' War
of the Worlds.
Narrator: They meet with a
man who claims he was abducted
on the outskirts of town and
spent days in an alien craft.
Travis Walton: I've never
been back to that place alone.
Narrator: At the
alleged abduction site,
the team travels to new
heights to reveal the truth.
But as their investigation
runs into the night,
the team has a frightening
encounter of their own.
Ben McGee: Back to the camp!
Go, go. James, come on.
Erin Ryder: What the
[expletive] is going on?
So, James you have a lot of UFO
facts about Arizona, don't you?
James Fox: Arizona
is a hotbed.
Arizona has got some of the
most rich history of UFO cases.
The 1997 case, referred to
commonly as the Phoenix Lights.
Jeff Willes: Major
sighting here.
Erin Ryder: What's your
take on the Phoenix Lights?
James Fox: My take on the
Phoenix Lights, honestly,
is that there was a very
massive V craft that,
according to witnesses,
was up to a mile across.
It was witnessed by hundreds,
if not thousands of people.
I've always been very
fascinated by the Phoenix
Lights case.
But recently, which piqued my
curiosity is another video of a
very similar craft taken by
a guy named Terry Connett
Ben McGee: I'm looking at
the Terry Connett video here.
James Fox: Oh, this is one of
the better Triangle videos,
I think, here.
Female: I don't hear
anything, do you?
Male: No, I don't hear anything.
What in the hell is that?
Ben McGee: So it starts out
with one bright object and then
he pans to the moon,
which is really cool.
James Fox: Wow.
Ben McGee: See,
right there, fwoom.
James Fox: Oh, Wow.
Ben McGee: And he pushes
on it, and that's when,
I mean you get a few seconds of
him basically filling the frame
with the thing.
That does look like
an enormous triangle.
James Fox: It looks
like a massive beam!
Erin Ryder: Well I think it's
interesting this was shot
40 miles north of
Phoenix, four years prior to
the Phoenix Lights.
Terry's video footage,
right off the bat,
because the shape looks
kind of triangular,
immediately reminds me
of the Phoenix Lights.
Female: It's
another triangle.
James Fox: This, in my view,
is one of the better boomerang
shaped UFOs I've ever
seen captured on film.
While I can't say definitively
that the Terry Connett video is
the same craft that flew over
Phoenix, Arizona in 1997,
it's very, very similar and
it could very well be
the same object.
Ben McGee: You know to me it
looks like an enormous swept
wing, I mean I think we can all
agree that looks like a very
aerodynamic shape.
James Fox: I have to say, I
think Ben is going to try once
again, you know, and conclude
that this is something
terrestrial.
Ben McGee: Well, you
know, like I always say,
it's incredibly hard to get
a sense of scale, and depth,
against a blank night sky,
or even a blank blue sky.
Not everyone who makes these
reports has been to air shows,
or is used to looking
at aircraft in the sky.
James Fox: I told you so.
Erin Ryder: I'd like
to go check it out.
James Fox: Yeah, I mean for
someone to just, you know, stop,
pull over, grab a camera
and start shooting.
That's got to be something
totally unusual in
the night sky.
Ben, are you sleeping?
Erin Ryder: Thank you so
much for meeting us here, Terry.
Terry Connett: You're
welcome.
Erin Ryder: We're
just reviewing your video again.
Terry Connett: Ok, great.
Ben McGee: What can
you tell us about it?
How did you film it? How did you
come across it? What happened?
Terry Connett: It was a clear
night. Not a cloud in the sky,
Arizona.
We were driving back from the
Grand Canyon and we happened to
see a series of lights
just on the horizon.
So I kept looking at it got out
and I had a little video camera.
And as it approached me, it
became more of a V pattern.
Terry Connett: What
in the hell is that?
Female: It's another triangle.
Terry Connett: I've been
to countless air shows,
I was in the
military around jets.
Had there been sound, I would
have thought they were aircraft.
We have Sky Harbour Airport,
we have Luke Air force Base,
but there was no noise.
Not one sound.
Female: I don't hear
anything, do you?
Terry Connett: No, I
don't hear anything.
Female: There's no sound,
and it's not planes flying in
formation.
Terry Connett: And the
V was all white lights,
no strobe lights,
not amber, not blue,
they were constant white lights.
Ben McGee: Based on your
experience with aviation,
do you think this could have
been what they call airship to
orbit, very high altitude
airships that would have been
very big and V shaped.
Terry Connett: The flying
wing is a wing, it's not a V.
This was a V. I'm talking a V.
Ben McGee: So a much
sharper angle then
Terry Connett: Much
sharper angle, right.
Ben McGee: OK.
James Fox: And then,
correct me if I'm wrong,
it went right over your head.
Terry Connett: Right over.
And as it passed over,
it was massive in width.
Much larger than any
aircraft that we know.
I would say you could probably
put eight or ten B-52s wing tip
to wing tip.
Ben McGee: Wow.
Erin Ryder: And how would you
compare it to the Phoenix Lights
that happened in 1997?
Terry Connett: The Phoenix
Lights were very similar
to what I saw.
In fact, that was eerie.
That resurrected a lot of
thoughts in my mind about ok,
what was this?
If it were military,
if it were top secret,
I can appreciate that
and live with that,
it's just that we don't know.
James Fox: Terry's story
is extremely compelling.
His video is extremely
compelling and it supports
the theory that there are
these massive, silent,
boomerang shaped, triangular
shaped craft flying over
the state of Arizona.
My question is: Who's
flying these things?
Ben McGee: I don't
know about you guys,
but I think Terry's great.
I mean, possibly my favourite
witness interview so far.
He was very methodical.
I mean he said, it
cold have been planes.
It could have been a formation.
But it had very weird
characteristics for that and
he's not sure he buys it.
James Fox: Ben's going
to be a believer.
Ben McGee: James, I
believe in the truth.
James Fox: And the truth is
we're being visited, buddy.
Erin Ryder: You can't
handle the truth!
Ben McGee: I definitely agree
that it's a triangular shaped
object, in the video, however,
that doesn't necessarily mean
it has to be extra-terrestrial.
It could be
experimental military,
it could be
experimental commercial.
It can even maybe be
flares in formation.
Uh, it didn't necessarily
have to come from space.
So, as a scientist,
I'm all about proof.
In order to collect proof,
you got to run tests.
One explanation for these
lights could be military flares
dropped on an exercise.
So, with the help of
the Arizona Skyhawks,
my plan is to see if the light
from flares looks anything like
what people reported seeing.
All right guys, I think
we got a battle plan.
Ben McGee: So we'll have two
observation points toward
the jumpers.
Erin Ryder: I'll radio
you guys from above,
let you know when we're jumping.
You guys take it from there.
James Fox: While Ryder is
going to observe from the air,
Ben and I are going to stay down
on the ground and watch from a
couple different locations.
This test, in my opinion,
should clearly demonstrate that
what was seen and videotaped by
Terry cannot be confused with
flares.
Ben McGee: Now we just
wait until game time.
Erin Ryder: Ryder for Ben
and James. Do you copy?
James Fox: Copy Ryder.
Ben McGee: Go ahead Ryder
Erin Ryder: Hey guys, just
want to let you know we are in
the plane and we are
taxiing now.
James Fox: Copy that.
Ben McGee: Godspeed, Ryder.
Erin Ryder: I'll give
confirmation once we are in
the air.
Ben McGee: That
was pretty cool.
James Fox: All right, I'm
filming. I'm on them right now.
James Fox: Can't believe those
guys are going to free-fall in
the pitch black.
Erin Ryder: OK guys, we are
just five miles from
the jump zone.
James Fox: Here they come.
This is going to be cool.
Erin Ryder: All right
guys, doors are open.
James Fox: Copy that, man.
Rock and roll. Hold on tight.
Erin Ryder: Any last words?
Blackhawk: No, ready to go.
Let's go have fun.
Erin Ryder: Now you go and
be all the UFO
you can be out there.
James Fox: Whoa!
My God, that looks amazing.
Erin Ryder: That's the
coolest thing I've ever seen.
James Fox Oh my God!
Looks like a comet!
Erin Ryder: Are you
guys seeing this?
James Fox: Hell yeah. I'd say
comet, falling star,
but it doesn't look like
any UFO I've heard about.
Ben McGee: It's like
freaking War of the Worlds.
Erin Ryder: How's
that look boys?
James Fox: This looks
nothing like Terry's video.
I've never seen anything
like it ever in my life.
Ben McGee: It looks
pretty awesome, Ryder.
It's a very cool light show.
I don't know if I'd ever
confuse it for a UFO,
but I got to admit, well done.
Well done. Well done indeed.
Erin Ryder: Not at all.
Erin Ryder: After our
test last night, I'm convinced
that these lights that we
saw in the sky weren't flares.
And if they aren't flares,
then maybe they could be UFOs.
So we wanted to meet
with Jeff Willes,
who's not only famous for
all the UFO videos that he's
captured, but also he has one
that's strikingly similar to
the triangular shaped craft
that people are seeing.
You actually shoot most of the
videos here out back, right?
Jeff Willes: Yeah.
Erin Ryder: So which one are
you showing us right here?
Jeff Willes: OK. This is shot
on May 24, 2003.
It's what I
call a side-saucer. There it is.
Erin Ryder: Oh wow. Wow wow wow.
Jeff Willes: This was
shot on 4-20, 2006.
This is just in the
neighbourhood right here.
James Fox: Weird.
Jeff Willes: This one is
shot on May 12th, 2005.
It's going to start
out as four lights.
Whoa, I'm getting a series
of lights right there.
It's moving. You got it Pat?
Dude, I got five lights going
left just like the Josh thing.
James Fox: How do we
know those aren't flares?
Jeff Willes: Well, flares don't
really last more than three or
four minutes.
You know this whole sighting
lasted seven minutes and
we heard no planes, it
was completely silent.
Erin Ryder: What
do you believe?
What do you believe you're
seeing and videotaping?
Jeff Willes: Well, that's the
whole mystery is I don't know
what I'm seeing.
I know it's not normal and I'm
pretty sure it's not government.
To be honest with you, that's
the whole reason that I'm doing
this is to try and find out the
truth and the answers to this.
Ben McGee: James is clearly
drinking all these videos in,
but with my background, it's
going to take a lot more for me
to conclude that these things
are actually unidentifiable.
There are a lot of mundane
objects up in the sky and we're
just not used to
seeing them these days.
We spend most of our time
looking down, not up.
Erin Ryder: Jeff's told us
about a recent sighting that
he had not too far from here
by Thunderbird Mountain,
just a few miles
north of the city.
He's not only agreed
to take us there,
he's going to hook us up with
two expert investigators from
the area to try and track down
what's going on in
the skies here.
Naturally chasing
UFOs is never easy.
So of course, getting there
is going to be a trek.
Erin Ryder: Ok, well it looks
like we have all the gear setup
so James, myself, and Jeff will
head up to the vantage point up
here on Thunderbird Mountain.
You guys stay back here,
monitor all the cameras,
and let us know if you
track anything down.
Ben McGee: Likewise, you guys
radio in if you see something
and we'll swing over
and get it if we can.
Erin Ryder: Absolutely.
James Fox: This guy's
got a good track record.
Alejandro Rojas: Yeah,
he does. James Fox: I'm in.
Alejandro Rojas: Be
careful out there guys.
Erin Ryder OK, we'll
keep in touch via walkie.
Ben McGee: Yup. Good luck.
James Fox: So Jeff, how long
do you usually have to spend
under this night sky before
you usually get something?
Jeff Willes: Well,
it just depends.
I mean, I spend hundreds of
hours sky watching and you spend
a lot of time where you're
not seeing anything.
James Fox: Right.
Jeff Willes: And then
sometimes you get lucky.
James Fox: Cool.
Jeff Willes: But, anywhere
where you can get out in the
desert like this, where you can
get away from the city and you
can pretty much decipher the
difference between a plane or a
UFO but a lot of times planes
look like UFOs until you get a
better look at it.
So it's just misleading.
James Fox: Sometimes UFOs
can look like planes.
Jeff Willes: Exactly. Exactly.
James Fox: Hey, check that
orange light out right there.
Look at that orange light.
See that?
Jeff Willes: Yeah.
James Fox: Is that
the southwest?
James Fox: I lost it.
Jeff Willes: May have
went below the horizon.
I'm going to have to get
to the vantage point.
James Fox: I can...let's
get up there. Quick.
Hurry, we're going
to lose it. There's two of them.
Come on, come on.
Erin Ryder: I'm coming.
I'm coming.
James Fox: Come on.
Jeff Willes: I can see it now.
Yeah, look at that.
Look at that. I got it. Oh, ooh.
James Fox: What the
[expletive] Is that?
Jeff Willes: And that's
the Rainbow valley.
Where they've been
reporting these things.
Erin Ryder: Holy [expletive].
Look at the ones over
there to the right.
James Fox: Woah.
Erin Ryder: You see that?
Jeff Willes: That's real.
That's it. Call em.
Tell em to turn around.
James Fox: Ben, we got something
hot. We got a red orb.
It's off to your east, directly
at about 30 degrees off
the horizon. Get on it
Dark Jacket: I've been
watching this actually.
Ben McGee: Copy that, James.
James Fox: Ben, do
you see this or not?
Jeff Willes: Whoa,
look at this.
Ben McGee: James, I can't be
working the camera and talking
to you at the same time.
James Fox: I'm watching it.
I'm watching it and it's moving.
Don't touch anything.
That's [expletive]
unusual, guys.
Ben McGee: We're looking
at a Chinese Lantern, over.
James Fox: Oh [expletive].
Erin Ryder: Oh, you're
[expletive] kidding me.
James Fox: Really?
Ben McGee: It is amazing, but I
was able to push right in on it.
Over.
James Fox: Copy
that. Oh my God, that was good.
Erin Ryder: We're like watching
someone's like fiesta cantina.
I've honestly never seen
anything like this before.
This is [expletive] crazy.
Ben McGee: I think the last
time I saw a Chinese lantern was
in Karate Kid 2.
Erin Ryder: Sweep
the leg, Ben. Sweep the leg.
Ben McGee: 10-4.
Alejandro Rojas: If everybody
had lenses like this,
you'd reduce the amount of
UFO reports by like 90%.
Ben McGee: Goldmine.
I mean we hit pay
dirt with Jeff Willes.
I think last night was a really
important lesson for us because
it demonstrates in most
cases there really is a more
terrestrial explanation for the
UFOs that people are seeing up
in the sky.
Erin Ryder: So our next step,
we're going to meet up with an
infamous man who alleges he
actually had a close encounter.
His story is so well known, it
was actually made into the 1993
movie "Fire in the Sky" We
are well on our way to see
Mr. Walton.
We're going to meet a
man named Travis Walton,
who claims that in 1975, he was
abducted by aliens while logging
deep in the forest.
James Fox: I love it when
people say it was very unique.
Erin Ryder: Ooh! What's that?
James Fox: Meteor Crater!
Erin Ryder: Exit 133
James Fox: Two miles?
Can we see a meteor crater?
Can we, can we, can
we, can we, can we?
Erin Ryder: Can we see a meteor
crater? Can we, can we, can we?
Ben McGee: No, no. I've been
there, I've been there.
James Fox: I'm
serious, you guys.
We have a geologist.
I'm chomping at the bit.
Ben McGee: : This is one
of the meteor craters.
James Fox: So you're
saying this is real ET.
Ben McGee: Yes.
Erin Ryder: Oh my gosh...
James Fox: Wow. Oh my God.
Ben McGee: This is an
extra-terrestrial impact site.
Confirmed.
You want to talk about ET?
Right there.
Erin Ryder: Where?
Ben McGee: Right there,
you're looking at it.
Erin Ryder: Well, not as
exciting as the crash sites
I want to go to.
Ben McGee: Come on, this?
This is like Michael Bay stuff.
This is cataclysmic.
If Ryder and James want to see
an actual extra-terrestrial
crash site, well I just
brought them to one.
About 50,000 years ago, an
asteroid approximately 100 feet
wide slammed into the
Earth at about 26,
000 miles per hour and carved
out a crater 500 feet deep.
That's an extra-terrestrial
crash site.
It
actually happened here. Proven.
James Fox: All right guys,
let's blow this hole.
Ben McGee: We're
not done, are we?
Erin Ryder: I think we
have about two hours left.
No more pit stops.
James Fox: You know, when
Ryder's at the wheel,
and she suddenly
has this, you know,
idea that she wants to go off
road and take the short cut.
Erin Ryder: You guys ready
to do some off-roading?
James, hold on to Ben.
This is a little
rougher than I expected.
James Fox: Hardcore. Guys,
hopefully we're going to beat
that ditch on the left.
Like, we drop in it, we're done.
Hit that [expletive] gas
pedal and don't let up.
Ben McGee: We got it. We got it.
James Fox: And we hit
the ditch on the left.
This things in
four-wheel drive, right?
Erin Ryder: We don't
have four-wheel drive.
James Fox: You're
kidding me. You're kidding me.
It was like "ok,
and we're stuck".
Erin Ryder: Well you can see
where I was trying to go.
James Fox: Yeah,
hold on, you guys.
It
was chaotic. Don't go backwards.
There was a slim chance the rear
wheel would go up the mound and
then flip the whole
damn thing over.
Ben McGee: So what happens?
James Fox: So now we got to work
out how to get her ass over here
Ben McGee: What if you just
crank the tires and back up up
the hill right here.
James Fox: She's going to
scratch the, you can just,
the whole left.
Erin Ryder: It's a rental.
James Fox: I mean.
Ben McGee: No, no. I'm serious.
Erin Ryder: We got
full coverage, right?
Ben McGee: Like always, it
seems James and I have two
completely opposite
perspectives on this situation.
If we can fill this all the
way up, so we've got a ramp.
James Fox: Then get up
momentum and we'll cut across.
That's not going to work.
Erin Ryder: Whoa. Whoa. Whoa.
Don't you date tell the
geologist which rocks to use.
Ben McGee: Let's
see what it does.
James, get over here.
James Fox: All right, I'll put
$1000 on it, you're dead wrong.
Title: 45 minutes later
Ben McGee: Go go go go go.
James Fox: All
right. Didn't quite make it. Oh!
Hold on a second.
Ben McGee: Turn it,
just a little but more.
Keep it closer to the edge.
That's why I said you need to
straighten it out and pull up a
little bit.
James Fox: From now on,
if we do off-roading,
it needs to be a 4x4.
Erin Ryder: How the
[expletive] did we do that?
Oh my God.
Erin Ryder:
Look at where we were!
Hey lets take the
long way this time.
Ben McGee: I don't want
to get anywhere so fast.
James Fox: Put this
baby in gear, lets roll.
Seriously, for me, you guys,
this is like the equivalent of
Ben, you meeting Neil Armstrong.
This guy is like the top three
close encounters of the 3rd
kind, in my view, in the world.
The Travis Walton case
is one of the best,
alleged alien abduction
cases in existence.
You've got seven witnesses, the
disappearance of a guy for five
days, I can't wait
to talk to him.
So, we were hoping we
could kind of, you know,
kind of go over what
happened back in 1975.
Travis Walton: Well, it
was a sunny, fall workday.
We'd finished up working.
We put in a pretty long day,
so the sun had gone down.
And we were headed out of there.
We hadn't gone too far when
I caught sight of some little
glimmers of light
through the trees.
At first it wasn't
all that alarming.
But the longer I looked, the
more it didn't seem right.
One by one everybody
kind of fell silent.
Boom, there it was, it
was just unmistakable.
It was the most
incredible thing.
Ben McGee: What did it look
like? Can you describe it?
Travis Walton: Well, it looked
like two pie pans put lip to lip
with a little dome on top.
About as tall as this first tree
and about as far away as that
second tree.
And parts of it were metallic
and parts of it were glowing.
You know, I was just
really awestruck.
It's just so smooth and
powerful seeming, you know?
I threw open the door right as
we stopped and I was thinking
that it would be gone
before I got very close.
The guys in the truck, they
were saying "Get the hell out of
there".
This blast of the energy came
down out of the bottom of
that craft.
It was so powerful.
It was like a physical blow.
It hit me in the head and chest.
They immediately start yelling
at each other "he's dead,
it killed him. Let's go. Go."
and they said they just
panicked and took off.
It was just kind of tingling
and sort of numbing at
the same time.
When I woke up, I was in a lot
of pain and I started, you know,
wondering where the heck I was.
I could hear the sounds of
movement around me and I took
that to be medical people.
And so when I first
laid eyes on this being,
And what a shock.
That was probably the thing
that dominated my nightmares.
Next thing I knew I'm waking
up beside the highway.
I've never been back
to that place alone.
Ben
McGee: I know it's difficult.
Would you be willing to come
back with us and help us
perform a physical survey?
Travis Walton: Yeah,
I'll go there with you.
I'm not going by myself.
Ben
McGee: No, of course not. No.
Travis Walton: Yeah,
we could check it out.
James Fox: This is one of the
most amazing cases on record.
I absolutely believe
he was abducted.
No question in my mind.
Ben McGee: I can neither
confirm nor deny Travis' story.
There's just not enough data
to go either way right now.
And in order for me to start
to entertain that this actually
happened, I've got to find
some more physical evidence.
Erin Ryder: Now our quest takes
us to the abduction site and try
to collect any evidence at
all to prove if this was
extra-terrestrial or not.
After our last off-road debacle,
we're not taking any chances as
we travel to this alleged
abduction site so I enlisted
some help.
The Navajo Search
and Rescue Team.
I figure their 6x6 is a little
better than our 2-wheel drive.
Ready to go.
The location of this alleged
abduction is 30 up a logging
road in Sitgreaves
National Forest.
James Fox: Is this the
road where the guys split?
Travis Walton: Yeah,
they took off and left.
James Fox: On this
road right here.
Travis Walton: Yeah.
Erin Ryder: Have there been any
recent sightings in this area?
Travis Walton: I
hear it all the time.
Ben McGee: On the
way to the site,
Travis told us something
really interesting,
which is that he believes in the
area where this was alleged to
have occurred, the trees
experienced some sort of
accelerated growth so that is
something you could definitely
test for.
Travis Walton: This is it.
This is the spot.
James Fox: You guys,
we're at the location.
Travis found it.
Erin Ryder: Let's get coring.
Just by measuring these rings,
we can determine how fast or
slow a tree grew in a
given amount of time.
So what we're going to do is
take some tree samples to help
us determine if there is any
unusual growth patterns in
this area.
Travis Walton: Over here.
James Fox: This is kind
of eerie being here.
Travis Walton: It's past
this uprooted tree here.
James Fox: So the craft
was hovering right here,
that beam of light came down.
It could have affected
theoretically this entire area.
Travis Walton: Yeah.
James Fox: Travis, I think what
we need is a tree core sample
from right here, the center
of the abduction site.
What about this one over here?
Travis Walton: I don't know.
Check it.
James Fox: Timber! Solid.
Wow, look at that.
Travis Walton: It looks like it
was steady state from the time
it grew and then 15 years of
growth spurt that kind of
faded away.
James Fox: While we can't
definitively link this
abnormality with
the UFO encounter,
this certainly raises serious
questions as to what caused this
growth spurt.
Ben McGee: I'm taking a 360
degree panoramic topographical
survey of Travis Walton's site
and what that will enable us to
do is we can mark specifically
the location where we take
samples and if there is any
accelerated growth in the trees
in the area, we're going to be
able to map it and maybe help us
piece this puzzle together.
Erin Ryder: It's important to
collect samples from way up high
so we can test for any evidence
at all that a UFO hovered here.
There's the first branch.
Ben McGee: Oh, Jesus.
Erin
Ryder: No! I can't clip in. No!
I don't
know if I can do it. Oh, my God.
Ben McGee: Watch out!
Ben McGee: Holy crap.
Erin Ryder: Ben! No.
Ben McGee: Ryder,
move your left arm.
Erin Ryder: I'm losing my grip!
Ben
McGee: What can I do from here?
Erin Ryder: Help!
Ben McGee: It's just a little
farther. The other way.
Erin Ryder: Oh my
God. All right. I'm in position.
Ben McGee: It was smooth
sailing from there on out.
Erin Ryder: [Screams] Crap!
Ben McGee: Well, almost.
Erin Ryder: Timber. Oh my
God. I'm going to kill myself.
I hope I'm making
this look really easy.
Ben McGee: You are.
Erin Ryder: Timber. Oh no!
I was born up in that tree.
I think you could tell.
Oh my God.
Horse poop. Crap! Mother effer!
Okay, maybe a few
minor setbacks.
Ben McGee: I got you.
Erin Ryder: Ugh.
Ben McGee: Good job.
Erin Ryder: Thanks.
Ben McGee: Home free.
Erin Ryder: My
hands are shaking.
Ben McGee: Take a break.
James Fox: I've got a really
cool discovery over here
you guys.
Erin Ryder: Please reveal.
James Fox: Check this out.
Travis and I found this tree,
which was present the time of
his sighting, which means
something caused accelerated
growth in this tree
after his experience.
Erin Ryder: Listen, this
man's a logger. I'm not.
But he seems to think that this
verifies his claim that there
was one time a UFO floating
above the forest here.
Maybe there's something to this.
Appreciate all your
help today, Travis.
Travis
Walton: It's been an adventure.
James Fox: Bringing Travis
Walton to the exact location of
this alleged abduction
was traumatic for him.
As night fell, I could see him
getting progressively anxious
and he decided to go home.
With the level of effort it took
for us to get to this location,
and reports of other
strange activity out here,
we'd be fools to leave now.
Erin Ryder: All right, we're
all set for the night, Eric.
We've got to thank you guys
for helping us get up here.
Ben McGee: Yeah.
Erin Ryder: It was such a
relief to know we have a search
and rescue crew standing by.
Eric McKernann:
Thank you very much.
What do you think about
it out here tonight?
Erin Ryder: It's
a little eerie.
Eric McKernann: Well,
I'll tell you what.
I don't like being
out here at night.
Ben McGee: Really?
James Fox: So you're saying
this area in particular is like
a hot spot?
Eric
McKernann: Oh, yeah. Definitely.
I'd say within a 20-mile radius
all around here is very active
with lights in the skies.
Erin Ryder: Like
unidentified flying objects?
Eric McKernann:
Yes. It's out there, man.
Ben McGee: All right.
Erin Ryder: We'll
scream if we need you.
Eric
McKernann: All right. Thanks.
James Fox: Well you guys, I'd
like to go back to the site.
Check it out.
Erin Ryder: We'll do a
perimeter sweep to cover some of
the area that we
didn't walk today.
James Fox: Ok. All right guys.
Ben
McGee: All right, sounds good.
James Fox: Stay in touch.
Erin Ryder: All right,
eyes in the skies.
Erin Ryder: What do you
think of Travis' story now that
we've been out here?
Ben McGee: Like always,
extraordinary claims.
Extraordinary evidence.
Jury is still out for me.
How about you?
Erin Ryder: Have to be honest,
when I interviewed him.
There's something about
the details of the story,
that there were so many, it
almost felt like too many.
Ben McGee: Another
orgy of evidence.
Erin Ryder: That had me
kind of questioning things,
but when we came out here, I
mean, he had a strong reaction
to finding the location and
coming out here.
Erin Ryder: Something happened
out here. That's for sure.
James Fox: Wow.
If I was here, 35 years ago,
I'd see something completely
out of this world.
It's incredible.
I can't believe I'm actually at
one of the most famous abduction
cases ever.
Travis Walton, fire in the sky.
This is approaching the road
where the truck stopped and
he got out.
The UFO would have been hovering
a little bit to the north,
which is this way.
I'm approaching
ground zero right now.
Probably ground zero right here.
Right where the flying
saucer was hovering.
He said it was a
little clearing.
And the road is just
down over there.
Right now, it's covered in snow
and there's some new growth over
the area but this is where
the truck would have
been driving from.
So, I'm standing on a tree stump
here that was cut probably just
before Travis was here.
And I'm going to see if I can
kind of observe the night sky.
Erin Ryder: Ryder for James.
James Fox: Copy
Ryder, I'm here.
I'm hearing something in the
woods that sounds like gunshots.
Did you hear the
same thing I heard?
Erin Ryder: I absolutely heard
the same thing you heard but it
just sounds so close.
James Fox: It does sound close.
Erin Ryder: I hate to say it
but I think it's best for us to
stick together the rest of
the night. Stay put.
Ben and I will make
our way over to you.
James Fox: Copy that.
Erin Ryder: It gets really deep
through here, careful. James?
James Fox: Hey.
Erin Ryder: Is that you?
James Fox: Hey,
what's going on guys?
Ben McGee: Hey.
James Fox: I mapped out the
logging road where the truck
stopped, ground zero, where some
of the trees were most likely
affected according to Travis.
Erin Ryder: Look
over there. Look over there.
Ben McGee: Jesus Christ, what?
Erin Ryder: You guys,
you guys, you guys.
Ben McGee: What?
Erin Ryder: Come on.
Someone saw that!
James Fox: What?
Erin Ryder: I just looked at it.
It looked like one blue light,
spreads out to three, down.
Straight down.
James Fox: I can't see
anything out there right now.
Erin Ryder: James, I thought
you of all people would help me
out here.
James Fox: Hey, I'm doing the
best I can but I can't make a
UFO appear, man.
Erin Ryder:
I don't know. That was weird.
That was really strange. Honest.
Ben McGee: Why don't we set
up a tripod and look in that
general direction a little bit?
Erin Ryder: That's
what I'm doing.
Ben McGee: Yeah.
Erin Ryder: It's highly
doubtful that what I saw is
going to come back, but I'm
going to be ready this time.
Ben McGee: Let's see what
we can see over there.
Erin Ryder: Come on
Arizona, show me something.
Eric McKernann: Back to camp!
Ben McGee: Go. Go.
Basecamp. Go.
Erin Ryder: What?
Ben McGee: James, come on.
James Fox: Dude, I'm
coming, man.
Erin Ryder: What the
[Expletive] is going on?
Ben McGee: Search and Rescue
just screamed "get the
[Expletive] back to basecamp".
Erin Ryder: What
the hell was that?
James Fox: Hey man.
Eric McKernann: Hey guys.
Erin Ryder: What's
going on, Eric?
Eric McKernann: There's a bear
outside the camp here searching
around. I can hear him.
James Fox: Are we talking
about a big, black bear?
Eric McKernann: Yeah.
James Fox: Can
they be aggressive?
Eric McKernann: Yes, they
can. Especially a sow with cubs.
I say let's get packed up and
get out as soon as we can
so we don't disturb her.
Erin Ryder: Holy [Expletive].
You know, I'm kind of a badass.
I would have stuck
it out out there.
Ben and James, not so much.
After a short trip home, we
reconvened to analyze all of our
evidence.
Well yeah, let's
talk about, you know,
the triangle shaped craft or
the boomerang shaped crafts that
people are seeing over
the skies of Arizona.
Ben McGee: Yeah, it clearly
looks like a triangular-shaped
aircraft of some kind.
You know, I don't know that I
could rule out planes flying in
tight formation.
I do think that Terry Connett
captured a triangular shaped
craft on this video.
But that doesn't necessarily
mean it had to be a
extra-terrestrial.
It could have been maybe a B2
or some experimental craft.
I don't think that
we've ruled those out.
Erin Ryder: This is the
skydiver test we did.
This is just a little
bit of the footage.
James Fox: It was awesome, but
yeah, clearly not a real UFO
or what people saw in the
night sky on March of 1997.
Erin Ryder: What we wanted to
show was the descent that
they make.
Flares don't move
horizontal through the sky.
You can't look at the footage
that we shot of the flares and
compare it to what these people
captured and tell me that that's
the same thing.
And Phoenix Lights isn't
the only, you know,
strange occurrence that
happened in Arizona.
Obviously also famed for
the Travis Walton case.
James Fox: So the craft
was hovering right here,
that beam of light came down.
It could have affected
theoretically this entire area.
Travis Walton: Yeah.
James Fox: Travis took core
samples of a tree and right
around, ironically, the
time of the sighting, 1975,
there is a serious change
in the ring growth.
The tree like grows four,
five, six times faster.
Erin Ryder: And what you see
is the difference in sizes,
quite dramatic.
But we haven't ruled out
environmental factors.
Ben McGee: Based on my initial
review of the 360 panoramic
scan, nothing immediately jumped
out at me as demonstrating,
you know, an area of really
accelerated growth at this site.
Erin Ryder: I do think UFOs
are flying around Arizona.
But I don't believe they're
coming from outer space.
Jeff Willes: If everybody
had lenses like this,
you'd reduce the amount of
UFO reports by like 90%.
Ben McGee: I don't think it's a
coincidence that in the desert,
southwest, you have
two space ports.
You've got multiple aircraft
military test ranges.
And I think that the idea
that you've got some sort of
experimental or larger scale
aircraft than something that had
to come from outer space.