Strange Evidence (2017–…): Season 3, Episode 5 - Doomsday Volcano NYC - full transcript

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Worldwide, 6 billion
cameras are watching us...

On our streets, at work, and in our homes.

Theyapture things that seem impossible.

It defies the laws of physics.

Man: This is unbelievable, man.

Narrator: Experts carry out analysis

of these unusual events.

I want to know what I'm looking at.

There has to be some sort of explanation.

What else is going on here?



[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Coming up, a manhattan volcano...

People running, panic spreading.

My first thought is, "are we under attack?"

narrator: ...Time and
space go weird in illinois...

What is happening to the sky?

Narrator: ...A corn-belt quantum leap...

Whoa. Wait a minute.

That's not the way it's supposed to be.

Narrator: ...And the sole
train on the subway of doom.

There's no other way
to put it. It's a ghost train.

Narrator: Bizarre phenomenon.

Whoa.

Narrator: Mysteries caught on camera.



Now, that's an explosion.

What is the truth behind
this strange evidence?

[ cameras whirring ]

[ explosion ]

now in manhattan, a massive
explosion rocks the island.

This must be some sort
of catastrophic event.

Something has gone
terribly wrong in new york city.

Narrator: New yorkers
fear another atrocity.

My heart almost seized up
because it's so reminiscent

of what we saw on September 11th.

Narrator: But this blast
isn't like past terrorist attacks.

It's not what an explosion normally does.

What is actually the cause
of this energy release?

♪

Narrator: New york... one
of the world's greatest cities.

If there's a movie

with a supersized monster on the rampage

or some other giant disaster,

this is where it's set.

This is a city, they say,
where anything can happen.

July 18, 2007... evening rush hour.

Without warning, a volcanic-like eruption

tears through the streets of manhattan.

[ rumbling ]

people running, panic
spreading, big explosion.

It's sending up clouds of debris

almost as high as the
skyscrapers around it.

When you see a cloud rising
up taller than a skyscraper,

when you hear a deafening roar,

this is not something
that happens every day.

My heart almost seized up
because it's so reminiscent

of what we saw on September 11th.

[ sirens wailing ]

narrator: New rk, in the eyes of the world,

symbolizes america and
everything it stands for,

so for evil regimes and
organizations around the world,

it's a prime target.

Since the horror of 9/11,

there have been more than
10 additional terrorist attacks

in the city.

The cia's lindsay moran
analyzes the location of the blast

at lexington and 41st street.

This is taking place very
close to grand central terminal.

Transportation hubs are obvious targets

for anyone seeking to
attack the united states.

[ sirens wailing ]

narrator: Within seconds of the
eruption, police are at the scene.

There are 46 casualties.

One woman is dead.

This is clearly a terrible event unfolding.

Narrator: Randy rocca
witnesses the explosion

from the bus he is driving.

I pulled up, opened the door,
people got in, people got off,

and I was ready to take off.

All of a sudden, ch-ch-ch-ch,

and the windshield and
everything was going crazy.

You know, I don't know
what the hell was going on.

Narrator: Just ahead of him,
the street is blown into the sky.

It erupted. It exploded.

It was like old faithful
with rocks and glass,

and the ground is, like, opening up.

Lawyer andrew frankle
flees his 23rd-floor office

overlooking the site of the blast.

We didn't waste any time.
We all evacuated our building.

Narrator: But as he reaches the sidewalk,

he realizes this can't be an ordinary bomb.

It sounded like a rumbling thunder.

But unlike thunder, this didn't stop.

It just kept on going.

Narrator: If this is an attack,

it's unlike anything the
authorities are prepared for.

If this was a terrorist attack,
we'd really expect a big boom,

and then the effect would be over.

But this just keeps going and
going like a sustained reaction.

So what could be causing that?

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Geologist bill
menke analyzes the footage.

There's something about
the eruption that isn't right.

Different kinds of explosions

leave different shapes of smoke plume,

but none he can think of look like this.

The pillar of cloud that
went high up into the sky

was bright white in color,

and it seemed to be evaporating at the top.

As a scientist, I was
thinking this was steam.

By the end of the
video, I would ask myself,

"where is the steam coming from?"

narrator: Steam can often be seen

wafting up from new
york's manholes and drains,

but not like this.

Steam has powered this city since 1882.

By the 1920s and '30s,

it was being used to heat new
york's towering skyscrapers,

and it still is today.

Very few cities have steam systems.

New york is home to the
world's biggest steam system.

Narrator: Steam was chosen
to avoid the choking smoke

from coal-powered heating.

Today, there are still over 100
miles of pipes under manhattan,

pumping over 24 billion
pounds of steam a year.

[ steam hisses ]

[ camera whirs ]

geophysicist sian proctor
and science writer steve potvin

sets up an experiment

to find out if new york city's steam system

could generate an explosive force

like the one seen in the footage.

When you're transferring water to steam,

you're actually transferring energy.

Alright, that's set.
Let's go get our barrel.

We need some water in
here, and then we'll light it up.

When water gets converted to steam,

it actually takes up a much larger volume,

actually 1,000 times bigger space.

Alright, that's good. Good.

Whoo! Alright.

So, we're gonna let this turn to steam.

Yeah, it's already turning to steam.

We need to set up our ice bath
so that we can cool this down.

Yes. Yes.

Let's get the ice.

Narrator: Almost all the air
inside has been replaced by steam,

which is now condensing back into water,

putting the container under stress.

Are you ready? Yep.

Alright, let's do it.

[ hissing ] oh, listen to that.

Alright, let's put this...

[ clanging ]

oh, we can already hear it. Whoo!

Ohh! Whoo! Oh, my god!

That happened quicker
than I could ever imagine.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Coming up, an unexpected
arrival in moscow's subway of terror...

This is truly bizarre.

I don't know how this was captured.

Narrator: ...A sea monster that time forgot

big enough to eat a great white shark...

You see some type of fin or
tail just pop out of the water

and then go back under,
never to be seen again.

...And the ticking time
bomb in times square.

Walking through new york city,

I've often had the thought,
"what if one of those explodes?"

♪

Narrator: Captured on camera,

death and destruction in midtown manhattan,

it looks like a volcanic event.

To see what the link might
be to new york's steam system,

geophysicist sian proctor
is conducting an experiment.

Proctor: When you take steam
and you convert it back into a liquid,

you're reducing the volume.

Now, if you do that in a sealed container,

you will actually create a vacuum.

That vacuum sets up a pressure difference

that can rip things apart.

The power of steam is absolutely amazing.

I can now easily see

how this could be the force
of breaking pipes underground.

Narrator: The new york steam
system pushes steam through its pipes

at over 75 miles an hour

with a pressure value of 1,000 kilopascals.

That's 50 times the pressure
produced by 10 pounds of tnt.

They have enormous pressure
built up in those steam pipes...

I mean enormous.

And again, that's very unique to new york.

These steam hammer
events have the potential

to be quite catastrophic.

Not only can they blow a
section of the tubing out,

releasing the steam,

but it can also blow open an
entire street worth of asphalt.

Narrator: Steam-pipe explosions
are rare, but they do happen.

Since 1987, there have
been 12 in manhattan.

Walking through new york city,

I'm very aware of the steam tunnels,

and I've often had the thought,
"what if one those explodes?"

I don't like walking over
them or near them at all.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: It takes more than two hours

for the eruption on
lexington avenue to subside.

Among the wreckage
are ruptured steam pipes.

The race is now on to replace
new york's aging steam system

before the next pipe blows.

Rocca: Got to say a prayer
for the lady who passed away

because you never know, you know,

so you got to be alert.

[ rumbling ]

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Now... Man: What the hell?

Narrator: ...Footage captured of
weird twitching lights in the sky.

What is happening to the sky?

Narrator: This is no fake,

and at the same time 100 miles away,

exactly the same phenomenon is recorded.

This looks like a glitch in reality.

Narrator: Something
strange is happening here,

and whatever is causing it is not human.

Whoa. Wait a minute.

That's not the way it's supposed to be.

Narrator: Is this evidence
of a quantum leap

that overturns einstein's
theory of how reality works?

Well, einstein was wrong.

You change something
here, it changes there instantly.

What? What?

How do you get your mind around that?

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Shelbyville, illinois.

Population 5,000.

The middle of america's corn belt.

Friday, June 12, 2015.

Farm equipment engineer
joe mercer and friends

head to town to catch a movie.

But as they're driving,
they see a light in the sky.

It was right up here
where we started to see it.

Narrator: The light is moving in
a way they've never seen before.

It was like a halo above
a cloud or something,

and then it would move
around and come back,

and it was, like, kind of disappearing.

Narrator: The light is behaving in
a way that does not look natural,

but it's also unlike anything man-made.

I didn't want to really
be near it, that close.

It's unexplainable.

It looks both big and
fast, almost instantaneous.

It's just switching from
one condition to the other.

Narrator: The mystery deepens

when, 140 miles away in greenwood, indiana,

a traveler films an identical
light display in the clouds,

baffling experts,

including meteorologist angela fritz.

This isn't something that's gonna show up

on a weather report, you know?

You can have clouds. You can have rain.

You can have lightning.

You can't have a glitch in
the matrix on a weather report.

It's not happening.

[ camera whirs ]

[ camera shutter clicks ]

narrator: Tony mcmahon
looks for any historic reports

of similar sightings.

He finds one which sounds almost identical.

It took place over 100 years ago.

There's an event that happens in 1917

which is called the
miracle of the sun at fatima.

Narrator: On October 13, 1917,

70,000 people gather
in a field in portugal.

This huge multitude turns up

on a rainy, cloudy day on a hillside

because these three peasant
children convince them

that there was going to be
some kind of incredible apparition

from the heavens.

Narrator: Reporters and
photographers are in the crowd.

They all look at the sky and wait.

Everybody stares up at the sun.

They saw the sun dancing
unnaturally in the heavens.

Others say that they saw a ball of light

whizzing into the skies,

but undoubtedly, many people there

claim that they saw something
very odd happen to the sun.

Narrator: Whatever they witness,
solar activity isn't the cause.

Mcmahon: One glaring problem
with the accounts of the children

and those who were there...

There were already
observatories around the world.

There were already people
monitoring the sun's movement.

Nobody else outside of fatima
saw any such thing that day.

Narrator: But the catholic church
declares the event a miracle,

and a shrine is placed at fatima.

It remains a site of pilgrimage today.

[ camera whirs ]

physicist chad orzel wonders if
what's been captured on footage

is a different kind of miracle,

an event scientists call
quantum entanglement.

Quantum entanglement is
probably the single weirdest thing

that comes out of modern physics.

Narrator: Imagine a man in
illinois and a man in moscow.

Imagine that every single
thing the man in illinois does

is done at exactly the same time

in exactly the same way
by the man in moscow.

This is quantum entanglement

except, instead of men,

they are two particles that transmit light,

known as photons.

Normal known physics,

everything happens at
the speed of light or slower,

but entanglement violates that.

You change something
here, it changes there instantly,

and it can be miles apart.

It can be light-years apart
and have this still happen.

How that happens, we just
don't know, but it does happen.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Coming up, a fleet of ghost ships

packed with grisly corpses...

These are literally vessels with bodies,

sometimes badly decayed,
even skeletons onboard.

Who exactly are these people?

Narrator: ...And crazy
quantum leaps in illinois.

If you have a quantum computer,

you can crack any code on the planet earth.

♪

Man: What the hell?

Narrator: Weird lights flicker
in the clouds simultaneously

140 miles apart.

Is this a weird event that
seems like science fiction

but that scientists have
proved really happens?

This is a very real phenomenon

that's been measured countless times

in experiments in labs on earth.

Narrator: They call it
quantum entanglement...

Two events happening in exactly
the same way at the same time

in different parts of the universe.

It's so freaky, history's greatest minds

have had trouble believing it's true.

Now, einstein hated this idea.

"what? What? Faster
than the speed of light?"

and, in fact, einstein said "aha!

Nothing can go faster
than the speed of light.

Therefore, quantum
entanglement is impossible."

well, einstein was wrong.

It turns out that if you
jiggle one electron,

its twin can sense it faster
than the speed of light.

Narrator: If these particles

that magically interact
faster than the speed of light

can be built into a computer chip,

the possibilities are mind-blowing.

Now, what can you do
with a quantum computer?

You can do calculations that
would defy ordinary computers.

Narrator: And it's not just the speed.

Today's computers are made up

of billions of tiny electric switches.

They're either on or off,

represented by a one
or zero in computer code.

But a quantum switch, weirdly,

could be on and off at the same time.

These would be computers
beyond our imagination.

A single quantum computer
might be more powerful

than all of today's computers combined.

The cia wants to crack it.

The cia even had a paper
on quantum computers

that was leaked out, so we know for sure

that the nsa are looking
into quantum computers.

Narrator: A quantum computer
could be a force for good,

or it could be a weapon more powerful

than anything we can imagine today.

The chinese government
is spending $10 billion

on a laboratory for quantum sciences

due to open in 2020.

If you have a quantum computer,

you can crack any code on the planet earth.

All the secrets of all nations
are yours for the taking.

Narrator: Is this strange light in illinois

evidence of a quantum experiment?

Theoretical physicist
michio kaku doubts that it is.

Kaku: The weirdness of the quantum world

takes place at the subatomic level.

We're talking about tiny transistors

and tiny laser photons,

and so we're not talking about
gigantic atmospheric anomalies,

and that's why I doubt
that it's quantum mechanics

that's behind what's
happening there in the cloud.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Meteorologist angela
fritz re-examines the footage.

In the rest of the sky,
she notices something.

It does look like a
thunderstorm is heading our way.

So lightning is a result of this
electromagnetism in the cloud.

You've got lightning as the electric side,

but you've also got the flip side,

which is kind of a magnet

that could be altering the shape,

direction of things in the storm.

[ thunder crashes ]

narrator: Electrical engineer
bill beaty tests fritz's theory

by recreating storm conditions in his lab.

I have my tank full of water.

This is the atmosphere
at the top of the cloud.

And using, rather than ice crystals,

tiny, tiny flakes of
nickel, which is magnetic.

And let's introduce it into the atmosphere

and add some sunlight.

Narrator: Beaty uses magnets

to simulate the electric field
produced by a thunderstorm

and puts the theory to the test.

Beaty: If there was a thunderstorm,
it would polarize the crystals,

and if lightning strikes, it goes "boom"

and jumps to a different position.

Narrator: Beaty's experiment demonstrates

how magnetic fluctuations in a storm

could alter the polarity
in ice crystals in the cloud,

changing the way they reflect light

as seen in the footage.

Thunderstorms can range
over hundreds of miles,

so the same effect could be
observed over great distances.

Nature can play some tricks.

You know, it's definitely got
a lot of things up its sleeve.

Narrator: But eyewitness
joe mercer is convinced

something else is going on.

Mercer: Like pure energy, pure power.

I still don't know to this day what it was.

It'll make you wonder.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Now rising from
the waves, caught on camera,

something scientists still can't explain.

You see some type of fin or
tail just pop out of the water

and then go back under,
never to be seen again.

Narrator: If this is a
fin, it is terrifyingly huge

as scale analysis indicates.

15 feet... that's much
larger than any sea creature

that we know that exists today.

Narrator: Creatures of this
size are normally associated

with much earlier geological periods.

This could be the first sighting
of a live prehistoric creature.

[ roars ]

[ camera whirring ]

narrator: The fishing port of
miyako in northeastern japan,

March 11, 2011.

A normal spring day turns deadly

when a magnitude-9 earthquake erupts.

One man starts filming
the effects of the quake,

and as he does, he accidentally captures

something strange rising from the sea.

Washington: It's far
away, so it's hard to see,

but from the looks of
it, it could be very big.

Lovell: You can see, like,
almost, like, a periscope

or a fin of a sea creature
appearing out of nowhere.

Has this unleashed a sea creature

that we've just never seen before?

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: For previous accounts
of large beasts active in these seas,

marine biologist danni washington

turns to mariners' folklore.

Japanese folklore talks about monsters.

These monsters were named yokai,

and they spanned in
different areas of the world,

but one particular monster, the ikuchi,

was a sea monster that
would terrorize fisherman.

Narrator: It was said this
monstrous sea serpent

could grow several miles long,

and japanese sailors lived in
fear of being attacked by one.

It's said to exude this weird,
sticky oil that can drown ships.

Many believe that this was a
manifestation of lost souls...

Dead people who had drowned at sea.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Image analyst ben
radford analyzes the footage.

This inlet suddenly has
this strange, dark limb

or pointy thing coming up out of the water.

It's certainly something large and unusual.

Narrator: Great white
sharks roam these waters,

but their fins are around 3 feet long.

Whatever is jutting out from
the water here is 15 feet...

Many times bigger than a shark's fin.

[ camera whirs ]

science writer jayde lovell

finds a sea creature that
might fit the description,

but it's supposed to have
died out 34 million years ago.

Basilosaurus was over 75 feet,

and something like that could be the size

of the object we're seeing in the video.

So it was often described

as almost a whale crossed with a snake

because of how long and sinuous it was.

Narrator: It was from these seas
that fisherman hauled a carcass

that is believed to resemble
a prehistoric plesiosaur.

It was long thought extinct,

but in 1977, a japanese trawler
caught a large sea creature

that many believed may have
been a prehistoric predator.

Narrator: South of here,
off the coast of australia,

an incident occurred
which has fueled speculation

about the existence of a
very large sea predator.

To study their behavior,

researchers had been
tagging great white sharks.

When one of the tags showed up on a beach,

scientists were shocked by
the information it contained.

This tagged shark had been dragged

down to the astonishing
depth of 2,000 feet.

The temperature recording of the tag

increased to 78 degrees
fahrenheit for 8 days...

A sure sign that the great
white shark had been eaten by

and was sitting in the digestive system

of a much bigger unknown creature.

Is this some unknown creature

that exists in all the world's oceans?

Swimming around, and one of these things

intact and alive is in there,

I think you'd be a little worried.

Narrator: But ben radford considers

the depth of the water in the harbor.

Radford: It's not
something that is too big,

and here's how we know.

This area in the foreground
was essentially shallow.

You can see in the foreground here

there's almost no water there.

And so we know that it can't
be something that's too large.

Otherwise, it would be
sticking out of the water.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Historian tony
mcmahon looks at the footage

and wonders if the object
might be part of a shipwreck.

To me, I have to say,
looking at that footage,

that appears to be a large piece of wood.

Narrator: The locals here have been plagued

by a series of terrifying
vessels from the sea.

It's unsurprising maybe
that japanese people

have become very wary of these shipwrecks,

especially because, in recent history,

so many of them have
been populated by the dead.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Coming up,
the train ride to terror

from the underground to the underworld...

When people talk about
the commute from hell,

this is what they're talkinabout.

Narrator: ...And is this one of
japan's real-life ghost ships?

And these are literally
vessels with bodies,

sometimes badly decayed,
even skeletons onboard.

♪

Narrator: In a fishing
port in eastern japan,

a mysterious object shows up in the water.

Is it a sea monster

or a shipwreck coming to the surface?

In recent years along the
coastline of western japan,

there's been this quite
horrific series of incidents

where so-called ghost ships have washed up.

Narrator: "ghost ship" is a nickname

given to vessels found
with no living crew aboard.

In 2015, over 40 wooden
ghost ships were washed ashore.

They contained the
decaying bodies of 22 people.

Two bodies were headless.

On one of the ghost ships was
found six skulls with no bodies.

The most plausible theory as
to where these boats come from

and who these poor people are

is that they come from north korea.

They are people who've been forced into,

out of starvation or
by orders, into fishing,

and they're not very good at it, clearly,

and they've ended up
catching a bad current,

and they've ended up hitting
the shores of japan alive or dead.

Narrator: Whatever appeared
that day rising from the waves,

it has not been identified,
and it was never seen again.

The ocean itself is filled
with so many secrets.

[ cameras whirring ]

narrator: Now, when is a train not a train?

When it's an apparition.

[ laughing ] whoa.

You can see through the train.

You're wondering where on
earth this thing's come from.

Narrator: The history of moscow's railways

is one of injustice, unspeakable torture,

and the state murder of
countless innocent people.

There were deeper trains
that ran even under the kremlin

to move people and items
around the area very quickly

without anybody noting.

Narrator: Is this a train
of angry, vengeful souls?

There's no other way
to put it. It's a ghost train.

[ train clattering ]

narrator: Moscow, russia.

The ornate underground
railway that runs beneath the city

was planned by the czars,
but built under the communists.

It runs under the kremlin and the lubyanka,

the headquarters of the
ruthless soviet secret police.

Within days of the underground opening,

its trains were carrying
some of the one million people

butchered in stalin's purges.

Polezhayevskaya station, fall 2013.

A security camera monitoring the line

films a ghostly train
pulling into the station.

This is truly bizarre.

I don't know how this was captured.

Narrator: Moscow underground cameras

have never filmed such a thing before.

Folta: Here it is... sort of. [ chuckles ]

wow. You can see right through it.

You can still see the tracks

even though you can see the train.

That's really strange.

Narrator: Investigation
and analysis of the film

shows that this is not a hoax,

nor is this the result of video ghosting

when videotapes are reused several times.

This camera is digital.

There is no actual tape.

We know of trains as being solid objects,

so definitely something
funny is happening here.

Narrator: As professor
kevin folta observes,

russia's railway system
under the communists

is an instrument of terror.

Folta: Stalin didn't just have the metro.

He had the metro-2,
which is one layer deeper.

There were deeper trains
that ran even under the kremlin

to move people and items
around the area very quickly

without anybody noting.

Narrator: Stalin's secret subway

struck fear into the
hearts of ordinary russians.

It is not known how many
tens of millions were tortured

and murdered by russia's communists,

but trains carried many to their death

in the lubyanka and beyond, in the gulags.

Stalin's subway was no ordinary railway.

It was a subterranean
warren of torture and murder.

Along these lines ran trains from hell.

Coming up, to the russian
mafia, it's a drop in the ocean...

Russia's the perfect place

to smuggle it through to get to europe.

Narrator: ...And a spooky soul
train haunts stalin's secret subway.

They're not ghost
trains. They're real trains.

It's just that the public
are not aware of them.

♪

Narrator: In the moscow subway system,

a camera captures an eerie arrival.

Pulls in, but it's sort of transparent.

Narrator: Historian tony mcmahon

recalls how moscow's subway system

was used by joseph stalin.

[ crowd cheering ]

this parallel metros is
referred to as metro-2

although it's believed
the kgb called it d-6.

And essentially, it links the kremlin,

it links the federal security bureau,

and also, there's a line

that goes unsurprisingly to the airport.

Narrator: A new generation
of russians are setting out

to expose the awful crimes
of the previous generation

and to fully excavate
stalin's secret subway.

Urban explorers are searching the city

for secret underground
passages and chambers,

but russian authorities seem intent

on forgetting the moscow
underground's dark past.

Mcmahon: A russian explorer claimed

that he found the entrance to metro-2.

However, when he went back,

the entrance that he'd
found and other entrances

had been mysteriously covered up.

Narrator: Science journalist
dave farina tries to imagine

what kind of technical
glitch could do this.

Might this be a real train

but running on a line that
is not supposed to exist?

When you have multiple cameras

operating in the same security system,

the signals can interfere,
which is called crosstalk.

And certain aspects of
the image from one feed

can show up on the other.

Maybe some of the footage
that's cropped up through cctv

is a result of some kind
of technical interference

on the recognized metro system

is picking up activity on metro-2.

They're not ghost
trains. They're real trains.

It's just that the public
are not aware of them.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Image analyst ben radford

considers if a simple trick of the light

could explain the ghost train.

An image like this, there's
only a couple possibilities.

One is that it is somehow
a reflection of another train.

Narrator: A piece of
glass in front of the camera

at just the right angle

might reflect light from a real
train elsewhere in the station.

Radford: The way this
could be a reflection would be

if there was a parallel track

that is being seen
through a piece of glass.

So if you're looking through a window

and there's something behind you

that's being reflected in the window,

then it could create an image like this.

Narrator: But dave farina
dismisses this theory.

It doesn't seem very
likely, because if we look

at how perfectly aligned
the train is with the platform,

it's just very statistically improbable

that it could line up that way by chance.

Narrator: Whatever the
cause of this ghostly apparition,

one thing is not in doubt
...stalin's subways of terror

once echoed with the
cries of countless russians.

When people talk about
the commute from hell,

this is what they're talking about.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Now a giant plane moments
before a hideous tragic disaster.

Oh, my god. It looks
like it's going to crash.

Narrator: This is no seaplane.

It's plummeting helplessly
to a watery grave.

What is this plane doing?

The only way it's gonna end is badly.

Narrator: But incredibly,
the plane lands on water.

This plane is breaking the laws of physics.

This is unbelievable.

I've never seen anything like this.

Narrator: How did an ordinary
jet manage to do this, and why?

Is this some kind of crime caper?

We're talking about the russian mafia,

and they are literally
dealing in billions of dollars.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Taganrog on the sea of azov...

A military-industrial coastal town,

once the playground of aristocrats.

It still attracts russian tourists.

Fall 2013... ordinary
russians relaxing on the beach

witness a large jet airliner attempting

an apparently suicidal
crash landing on the sea.

This is a last resort.

This is an act of desperation.

You have a pilot that might
be having suicidal ideation.

Narrator: This is no seaplane,
but to their astonishment,

it seems to land safely on the water.

It seems unbelievable that
this could even be happening.

That can't be right.

The passengers are lucky
to have even survived at all.

Narrator: There are planes
designed to land on water,

but this doesn't look like one of them.

There aren't any pontoons

or anything that we might see
on another type of seaplane.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: This is what normally happens

when an airliner tries to land on water.

November 23, 1996, addis ababa.

Ethiopian airlines flight
961 departs for nairobi.

Onboard, three hijackers
force their way into the cockpit.

The armed men demand

the aircraft change course for australia

and refuse to believe that
the plane has insufficient fuel

to reach their new destination.

The pilot is forced to make a crash landing

in the indian ocean.

The result is disaster.

Kagele: Of the 175
passengers, 125 lost their lives.

Commercial aircraft,
large aircraft of this size

are not built to land on the water.

There are a lot of complications,

and most of the time,
it does not go smoothly

because it's very
difficult to keep the plane

perfectly level to land on the water.

You could tip a wing.

You know, there's a lot of
things that can go wrong.

Narrator: Whatever
forced this plane to land,

there's no visual sign
of technical failure.

When you look at this, it
doesn't seem like an accident.

You don't see any obvious
signs of smoke or fire,

so it suggests that the pilot
was in control all the way down,

so it probably would be a hijacking.

Narrator: But science
journalist steve potvin

remains unconvinced.

Potvin: If this were a hijacking,

emergency vehicles
would've been on the scene

even before the plane had landed.

We don't see any emergency vehicles.

This probably is not a hijacking.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: It's extraordinary
enough for a large aircraft

to land on water like this,

but what happens next is incredible.

What is this plane doing?

Folta: Hold on. It's actually taking off.

It's actually... this is unbelievable.

Narrator: To land close to shore

and then take off again so quickly,

journalist kevin folta wonders

if this is some kind of
drug-smuggling operation.

Folta: If you could land a plane,

a pseudo military plane, on the water,

deliver the drugs, and get out of there,

that would be a fantastic
way to be able to do it.

This is the new face of drug smuggling.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Coming up, marna
kagele tries to figure out

how this bizarre plane

can land on and take off from water.

It looks like there's a
structure above the wings.

♪

Narrator: In russia,

a huge jet plane plunges to
its doom in the sea of azov

only to land and then
almost immediately take off.

If this is drug smuggling,
it's on an impressive scale.

Mcmahon: It may seem
incredible that drugs runners

could use this kind of
cutting-edge aviation technology,

but then we're talking
about the russian mafia,

and they are literally
dealing in billions of dollars.

Narrator: Bratva, the brotherhood,

is the most powerful criminal
organization on the planet.

It has a global revenue of $8.5 billion,

and its 9,000 members are
marked by symbolic tattoos.

This outfit is led by a man

described as the russian
mafia's boss of bosses,

semion mogilevich.

What's incredible about this de facto

head of the russian mafia

is that he seems to
enjoy complete immunity.

He operates without any
fear for his own safety.

Narrator: Mogilevich, who
is known as "the brainy don"

because of his business acumen,

lives freely and openly
with his family in moscow.

But his evil empire
extends around the world.

Fbi investigations show his operation

is quasi-military in scale,

relying on drugs as its
number-one business.

Russia itself isn't a
producer of these drugs,

but it's effectively a funneling hub

for all these narcotics
into western markets.

Heroine is produced

in uzbekistan, turkmenistan,
and afghanistan,

and russia is the perfect place

to smuggle it through to get to europe.

Narrator: One of the most
established bratva trafficking routes

is from tajikistan to
rostov-on-don, russia...

Less than 25 miles from
where the plane lands.

This can't be a coincidence.

Narrator: But one detail

makes stacy ramkisoon
doubt this explanation.

So, drug smuggling is
pretty unlikely in this situation

because you'd want
to be doing it in private

rather than in front of a
bunch of tourists on a beach,

so it must be something else.

[ camera whirs ]

narrator: Aerospace expert
marna kagele returns to the image.

She realizes it has a key feature

that distinguishes it from
other airliners of this size.

It looks like there's a
structure above the wings.

The structures we're
seeing on top of the wings

are actually the engines.

This evidence points to a plane

that has been specifically designed

for water landing and takeoff,

and that's the beriev be-200.

Narrator: The beriev be-200
plane is a very rare aircraft.

Its job... firefighting.

It's able to hold an
incredible 12 tons of water,

which it scoops up by
skimming water surfaces

at up to 100 miles per hour.

This is the only plane that I know of

that can do these kinds of maneuvers...

That can land on the water,

pick up the water this
quickly, and take off.

This airplane is amazing.

Folta: It's brilliant innovation
and brilliant engineering.

This truly is an amazing, amazing aircraft.

When it comes to that kind of ingenuity,

you can never underestimate the russians.