Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files (2010) s02e17 Episode Script

Battleship Ghost & Scouting UFO

Tonight on "Fact or Faked:".
.
- Whoa! - No way.
- Whoa.
- Is that a face? "Paranormal files".
.
- Whoa! - Look at that.
- Oh my God.
- Launch drone! They have been testing experimental military aircraft developed from alien technology.
Man: Pilot is in the air ready to go.
What leads you to believe that this was evidence of the paranormal? It was definitely something that wasn't supposed to be in the photo.
Things are starting to get really weird really fast.
Someone or something in here with me.
- Look at that! - Oh, that's awesome! Whoa! Whoa! - Guys, come here.
Come here.
Come here.
- Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! Oh, my God.
There's a flying saucer.
I'm getting a series of lights right there.
So, you're seeing what I'm seeing? What the heck is happening? [ Indistinct conversations .]
Hey.
Hello.
Hello.
Have a seat, everyone.
- It's time to look at more videos, guys.
- Devin: Absolutely.
- I have a great one for you.
- Wow.
In 2007, Mike Roberts and his team of investigators went to the battleship U.
S.
S.
North Carolina.
I actually know Mike Roberts, and I find him to be a very credible source.
This is what he captured.
Look over here in the left corner.
Whoa.
Is that a face, like a skeletal face? You've got this anomalous figure, almost like something is pointing.
- You see, with a finger.
- Lanisha: Yeah, I see that.
- Oh.
- You have a face and kind of a cloaked robe of some sort.
That's really spooky.
Look at that.
Now, the same night, they also recorded an interesting video in the mess hall.
Is anybody down there? Now, it's a little bit difficult to see, but if you look right here.
.
There's a shadow that's gonna move from the left to the right, and then it's gonna come back the other way.
Who's that down there? Is anybody down there? - Devin: Whoa, that's crazy.
- I see it.
- Lanisha: Uh-huh.
- Jael: Oh, wow.
This video is obviously very dark, so who's to say there's not just a person down there at the end of the hall walking in front of the camera? If it was just a person, then the I.
R.
light on the camera would have illuminated them.
I'm pretty confident of that.
Plus, the investigator claims that she was the only one in the mess hall.
Bill: I'm quite familiar with the U.
S.
S.
North Carolina because of its reported haunted history.
The story that resonates the most with me is the one that involves Tommy Thompson.
Now, Tommy worked on the ship, and he was climbing a ladder when he tragically fell to his death.
Ooh.
Well, it turns out that the ladder is just to the left of the video camera here.
- It's near the mess hall area.
- Oh.
And some researchers believe that what you're seeing in this video is his spirit, his shadow walking back and forth.
Devin: I mean, you guys have two pieces of evidence from a very credible source.
It makes this a very strong case.
Did I mention it's on a battleship? Because that's awesome.
[ Laughter .]
I think this one is going to be my choice, but I want to hold off and see what else we have before we lock that in.
Uh, why don't we move on and see what else we have? I have a clip that comes from Warren, Michigan.
And it shows what appears to be an illuminated craft that's hovering over a construction site while it's actually scanning the ground below it.
Take a look.
[ All gasp .]
- Devin: Whoa.
Look at that! - Lanisha: Wait a minute.
Are you kidding me? Look at the scale of that thing.
Wow.
I've never seen a UFO like this.
What's the back story behind this clip? Alright so, it was 2012, and the videographer, David, was actually just driving home around 10:00 P.
M.
When he noticed something strange in the sky.
He pulled over, got out, and was actually able to film this.
This is pretty amazing.
Is there anything special about this construction site? The site itself is actually just a sand and rock quarry.
It's been open since the '40s, but locals, I mean, they've been reporting to see strange objects in the skies for years.
Over the construction site? Yes.
Now, Warren is outside of Detroit, which is the location where they reportedly have been testing the TR-3B, an experimental military aircraft developed from back-engineered alien technology.
I've heard of the TR-3B.
Now, this craft is said to generate a magnetic vortex field for propulsion.
And the Air Force has never been able to master that technology, although they've tried for years.
Looking at the way that this craft moves might be how the TR-3B moves because it would be very fast, very quiet, very smooth.
- Yeah.
- Well, you know, David did say that he heard absolutely nothing when he captured this video.
- That's interesting.
- Ben: I agree.
It's very intriguing, it's got a great back story, and I can think of some tests we can do with it.
- All right, well, who's up? - Well, guys, I have another UFO video.
This one's of a mysterious Delta-shaped UFO.
.
That was captured on a camera phone on August 3rd of 2008 near Dunboyne, Ireland.
And the video caused a lot of buzz when it was shown to over 70 delegates at the 5th annual Irish International UFO Convention.
- Check it out.
- Bill: Wow.
Devin: No way.
What? Look at that.
This was shot on a camera phone? Yeah.
Well, I mean, there's certain similarities between this craft and the other craft that we just saw, having a point of light on each corner.
Yeah, I agree with you.
I think the other one was just at a different angle.
Yeah.
Ben: I'm remembering this video now.
This video was actually part of a UFO contest held in North Carolina.
Someone by the name of Jeff Wilson took first prize for this model.
I don't think he meant it to be taken to a conference in Ireland.
Man, Ben holding out on us again.
Well, that's pretty interesting information.
I mean, it fooled a whole conference of experts.
Well, it's great attention to detail, but in the end, it's a model.
- All right.
Well, who's up? - All right, guys.
I have a really intense video that I want you guys to see.
Now, a team of paranormal investigators was called in to check out this house that was once the scene of a grisly ax murder.
They captured this shadowy figure in the basement where this deranged father supposedly chopped up his entire family.
- Whoa.
- Yeah.
Check this out, guys.
- Oh! - I see it! Bill: Oh, yeah.
- It's going from the right to the left.
- Exactly.
Paranormal researchers believe the shadow they captured there is actually the spirit of the deranged father.
Wow.
One word.
.
Scary.
Why couldn't this just be maybe like a shadow from one of the investigators? I'm gonna have to go with Austin on this.
I mean, I think the story is certainly compelling, but I don't think this is a defined video.
It could just be simply shadows.
Devin: I don't know.
I disagree.
I think this is a compelling video, you guys.
It's playing with the focus of the camera.
I think it's good.
But with all the claims, I would like to see more evidence.
I'd like to see more video footage of something going on there.
Lanisha: Okay.
Although the history of this place is very tragic, I think we need a little bit more evidence before we actually go do a full investigation.
So, if you keep digging, maybe we can find something in addition to this video.
Okay.
Yeah, I agree.
Okay, guys, well, we've seen it all.
What do we chose? Bill: I definitely want to investigate the Michigan UFO case.
And if there's a connection to the secret TR-3B project, I find that to be fascinating.
Ben, I would absolutely love to go to Wilmington, North Carolina, and visit that battleship.
Devin: It's hard for me to say "no" to that battleship with so much evidence and history.
I want to go there.
Well, I really do like my basement-ghost video, but the Michigan UFO, I think I'm in for that one.
Austin: I'm with Lanisha on that one.
I mean, I brought the case, and I want to find out what is in the sky over that construction site.
Okay.
I will take Devin and Jael.
We'll do the battleship North Carolina, and, Lanisha, Bill, and Austin, why don't you go to Michigan and find out if this is really an experimental craft, UFO, or what it is? - All right.
- Devin: We shall.
Okay.
Devin: Welcome to Wilmington, North Carolina.
Now, as you guys know, we're here to investigate possible paranormal activity on the U.
S.
S.
North Carolina.
You guys, the U.
S.
S.
North Carolina is one of the most decorated battleships in U.
S.
Navy history.
On September 15, 1942, it took a direct hit from a torpedo.
It struck the fuel compartment, which exploded, and it trapped five people.
Then they burned to death.
Paranormal investigators and visitors alike all claim to hear banging sounds from the lower decks or see shadows roaming the ship, even full-bodied apparitions.
And one of the pieces of evidence that we're here investigating is a video that was shot and captured in the mess hall.
It shows some shadowy figure.
And the second was a still of a skeletal figure on the upper deck.
Mike Roberts is willing to meet with us.
He's gonna show us where he captured this amazing evidence.
Guys, I don't know if it's just me, but it does have a very ghostly feel.
All right, we're here.
Look at that thing.
It's huge.
- Mike, it's good to see you again.
- What's going on? - How's it going? - This is Jael and Devin.
- How you doing, guys? - Jael: Nice to meet you, Mike.
So, Mike, where was the photo taken? It was actually taken right over here.
All right.
So, it was about right here.
Right here? Yeah.
When you're actually looking at the photo, you'll see these two square objects which are actually up here along the side of the gun.
Were you hand held, or did you have it on a tripod? We actually went hand held.
- Gotcha.
- Jael: And what leads you to believe that this was evidence of the paranormal? Looking here, there's nothing that should be off to my left-hand side like in the photo.
So, I mean, it was definitely something that wasn't supposed to be in the photo.
Now, the mess hall is where you captured the video.
Do you mind taking us there? - Yeah, sure.
- Okay.
- It was pretty much right in this area.
- Okay.
One of my investigators had come through, and we heard her yelling about something.
So we came down to check, and she said, "I just caught something on camera.
" "It looked like a pair of legs walking across.
" Woman: Who's that down there? Is anybody down there? It looks like a shadow that moves one direction and then completely starts moving across in another direction.
Where were you when the video was documented? On the other side of the mess hall here about one room down.
You know, a lot of people think that this shadow man who's spotted here is connected to Tommy Thompson's death.
The area that he died is actually in this corner in the frame of our video.
It could be a possibility.
Is it all right if we borrow your camera and use it for our experiments? - Absolutely.
- Great.
Now, Mike, I have to ask, were you involved in any type of hoax regarding this video? - Absolutely not.
- Devin: Thank you very much for your time.
- Yeah, man.
- You've given us a lot to think about here.
I can't wait to get a closer look.
- Well, let's get started.
- Yeah.
Let's go.
Now that we've gotten our firsthand account from Mike Roberts, we're gonna see if we can find a natural explanation for the shadow figure that was seen in the original footage.
I think the first thing that we should do is replicate how the original video was, which was completely dark.
- So, why don't we go green? - Lights out.
Ben: What if this shadow culprit was something just as simple as somebody walking from the room next door this way, and it was, like, silhouetted by the ambient light? Right.
The investigator that was here just thought she was alone, but one of the other investigators was actually walking through.
It's a great natural explanation.
I'm gonna go down there, and we'll see what it looks like.
- Okay, let's do it.
- Okay.
I'm just gonna walk straight that way.
There he goes.
It really just looks like there's a person walking by.
- So it's too defined.
- It's too defined.
What's next? I mean, what if it was just, let's say, some kind of rogue light? What if there's a light source actually coming from where Mike said that the investigators were? If they're over there and they're investigating that other room, what if one of them did happen to have a flashlight? Why don't we replicate that by putting two of us down there, one with a flashlight and the other one actually walking across and blocking the flashlight beam and see how that looks? Okay.
I'll man the camera.
Why don't you guys go ahead and head down there? And I'll let you know what it's looking like.
All right.
Okay, so, we're definitely looking.
.
We want to go around to the right in that doorway, straight, exit all the way out.
[ Crash .]
Whoa! Whoa! Guys, come here.
- Come here.
Come here.
Come here.
- Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! What was that? Jael: We're gonna see if we can find a natural explanation for the shadow figure that was seen in the original footage.
Devin: Okay, so, we're definitely looking.
.
We want to go around to the right in that doorway, straight, exit all the way out.
[ Crash .]
Whoa! Whoa! Guys, come here.
- Come here.
Come here.
Come here.
- Go! Go! Go! Go! Go! What was that? It was over here? Hey.
Hey.
Hey.
Look at this.
Jael, is this your camera? This is your camera from our evidence kit.
- Holy cow.
- The lens is all smashed in.
It's cracked.
- Was it up here? - I don't know.
I mean.
.
If was here and it bounced, that would be the sound.
- Oh, my God.
It hit this.
- Yeah, but how could it be here? Look at this lip.
Look at this lip.
I mean, that's, I mean.
.
What does it, just jump? Devin: I mean, that's why they put these lips in here, because when the ship weeble-wobbles, things don't slide off.
We haven't even started a night investigation and stuff is starting to happen.
This is our digital SLR camera.
It's dented.
We tried turning it on.
It's inoperable.
And none of us know how this happened.
We're going to continue with our experiments, but things are starting to get really weird really fast.
Devin: Guys, be careful.
Watch your step.
One of you, cast your light across the hallway.
The other one walk in front of it, and make sure you go back, because the apparition goes back and forth.
Okay.
Okay, recording.
Okay.
Ben: That definitely creates a shadow from our end.
Jael: Are you seeing that, Devin? I'm seeing everything in the doorway, but not where we see it in the original video.
Okay.
You know, why don't you guys come on back? So, here's what I was seeing, you guys.
You were passing through the doorway, and the doorway frame was lighting up.
And I was seeing shadow play there, but I was not seeing it in this, kind of, mess hall area.
So, it wasn't in the right spot.
It just wasn't matching.
Jael: You know, I don't even think that what we're looking at here is a shadowy figure.
There's so many reflective surfaces here.
You know, if you shine a flashlight, it's possible that it'll bounce off.
Look at this.
Look at this, you guys.
If you notice in the beginning of the video when the light first passes, the ceiling lights up.
That means that whatever light source it is is coming from behind the camera, not from that other room.
What if someone was, like, over in this area, and someone's shining their lights and they're looking.
They're investigating.
And our videographer doesn't notice when a ray of light passes in the hallway.
- Because she's looking in the viewfinder.
- Right.
What do we have that's reflective in here? How can we make it.
.
Oh! Oh! Keep shining at the ceiling.
Like, tha.
.
That actually looks really good, guys.
- I think we might have our answer.
- Well, let's take a look.
It's just about the same size.
Devin: Oh, my gosh! It's like everyone was focused on the negative part of the image, the black part of the image, like it was a shadow, when, in actuality, it's the warped metal that's creating a reflection.
It's the light part.
You guys, I think that's it.
This is just a flashlight reflection misidentified.
Ben: What do you say we pack up and go to the upper deck? - I'm in.
- Sounds good.
All right.
Good job, guys.
That was great.
Ben: Now, we've come very close to replicating that video of the shadowy figure in the mess hall.
So, we're gonna move on.
We're gonna now tackle that photo that was captured of that skeletal phantom.
Devin: You know, if you do look here, you can see that there's some sort of motion blur or double image.
And Mike did say when he took the photo that he was hand held.
Okay, so, we're gonna have to adjust for that when we take the photo - and kind of move it just a little bit.
- Great.
The ghost does have kind of like a misty quality to it, and we are on a ship on water.
So what if it's just fog? I think this is a very feasible explanation.
All right, well, let's do it, guys.
I like it.
I'm gonna go take care of the fog machine.
All right.
Now, what we have here is a hose line with holes drilled in it attached to a fogger.
Now, hopefully, this would evenly disperse the fog throughout the ship's deck and will create a ghostly apparition.
Okay, Devin.
Are you ready? Yeah.
Fogger's ready.
Okay.
Let's do this.
All right.
Foggy ghost in 3.
.
Oh, okay.
Here he goes.
There you go.
There you go.
Perfect.
Perfect.
Keep it coming.
Shoot it straight up in the air.
That's what I call fog.
Okay.
I think this is as good as we're gonna get, Dev.
Why don't you shut her off and come over here? [ Grunts .]
How's it look? Oh, wow.
Look at that.
Okay, we've got our motion blur going on.
You can see from the plate itself.
We've got that wispy texture.
We've definitely created an effect here and captured some mist, but there's something about this photo that's not quite right.
I'm definitely not seeing a skeletal figure there.
No.
If what we're lacking is the skeletal frame and shape, then maybe we should try photographing a skeleton.
And that would mean that Mike knew what he was photographing at the time.
But I still think we should test it and see if it's even possible.
- Okay.
I like it.
Let's do it.
- Alright.
- Yeah.
Let's go for it.
- Okay.
Devin: This next test is gonna give us a lot of control.
Once we assemble the skeleton, we're gonna use wires to put his arm in place and get that creepy pointing hand.
Then we'll cloak him, and hopefully, that will resemble the original photo.
Ben: All right, guys.
Let's snap this photo.
- Jael, you're framed up? - I'm framed up.
We're all ready to go in 3.
.
Fire away.
All right, let's take a look at this.
Let's check these out.
Devin: Whoa, look at that.
You can see the hand.
You can see the face.
It definitely has that skeletal shape to it now.
I'm still a little concerned about the bottom half of him, though.
It looks more transparent than what we're seeing in ours.
And then the other concern I have is that in the original photo, the skull almost looks like it's disembodied, like it's floating away from the body.
Well, you know, you guys, I don't know how realistic this is for an answer to our ghostly apparition, but with all the paranormal lore here on the battleship, we can't stop here.
No, I don't think so.
Look what happened just earlier tonight.
- Absolutely.
- I mean, the camera being busted.
I think we have to stay here and do a night investigation.
- Yeah, sounds good.
- Let's strike the skeleton and get ready.
Yeah.
Wait a minute.
You guys? Ben: Yeah? I think there might be something we're missing about this photo.
Jael, can you take that gun and point it to the left? What are you thinking? I need to see the back of that.
Keep going.
Keep going.
Twice as far.
Ben, come back around here and look at this.
Keep turning that.
Right there.
[ Chuckling .]
Oh, my gosh.
You guys, you got to see this.
- Jael: What's up? - What? Oh, my gosh! Lanisha: In 2012, when footage showing huge eruptions emanating from the sun's surface hit the web, they were seen by subscribers to the 2012 Mayan Earth prophecies as evidence that catastrophic Earth changes would soon begin.
But is this footage Fact or Faked? The answer coming up.
Lanisha: When this recent footage of huge, violent solar eruptions went viral, it had believers in the Mayan prophecies proclaiming the end of the world.
But are these images Fact or Faked? Fact.
.
The footage is authentic, but instead of portending the end of the world, it reveals a common solar feature known as a coronal mass ejection.
While indeed massive, the actual event takes days to occur, not the mere seconds time-lapsed here.
Wait a minute.
- You guys? - Ben: Yeah? Strike the skeleton.
Okay.
I think there might be something we're missing about this photo.
Jael, can you take that gun and point it to the left? What are you thinking? I need to see the back of that.
Keep going.
Keep going.
Twice as far.
Ben, come back around here and look at this.
Keep turning that.
Right there.
[ Chuckling .]
Oh, my gosh.
You guys, you got to see this.
- Jael: What's up? - What? I think that pareidolia has completely taken over.
Look, this black line that makes it look like the skeleton's head is completely disembodied is actually the second gun.
Look.
Look.
This is where we thought the skeleton was, but behind me is our second gun.
Okay, this black line, that's what's breaking the neck of the skeleton.
This here is where the body - of the skeleton is.
- Oh! This is the legs.
Why didn't we see this before? Look.
See that gray little circle with the hole in it? - Look at that.
That's that right there.
- Yeah.
Look, guys.
This is your skeleton head here.
Yes, that is why it looks so disembodied! [ Laughs .]
- It's so clear to me now.
- Devin, this is a great find.
What do you say we just snap one or two photos? I want to see what it looks like.
- Okay.
- Fire when ready.
Got it? Let's take a look at that.
- That's it! - Devin: [ Chuckling .]
Oh, my God.
Guys, how did we not see this before? The ghost is actually just a - Unbelievable.
- Ben: And, guys, Mike wasn't involved in any hoax, nothing like that.
He just misidentified it.
I think this is an amazing find.
But that doesn't explain what flung our camera.
I think we would be remiss if we did not stay and do a full investigation tonight.
Absolutely.
Let's go, guys.
- I'll go run some cable.
- All right, well done.
Even though we were able to get an exact match of our photo and find the culprit behind the skeletal phantom, there have been years of paranormal history and eyewitness accounts aboard the U.
S.
S.
North Carolina battleship.
So, it only makes sense for the team and I to go start a night investigation to see what we can turn up.
So, Dev, what do we got here? Devin: We have four infrared cameras set up all over this ship.
The first one is on the main deck down where the photo was taken of the battleship phantom.
Now, the second infrared camera's on deck two in the mess hall right here.
The third infrared camera is set up right in front of the hatch where the torpedo hit the hull.
The fourth infrared camera is in the infirmary where a lot of sailors died.
Alongside the cameras, we've also got motion detectors.
If anything moves, I'll get a signal here and I will let you guys know.
I'd like to take the FLIR camera.
That way, I can capture any anomalous heat signatures.
We have a huge area to cover.
We've got motion detectors.
We have our cameras set up.
Let's get to it! - Let's go green.
- Going green.
[ Metal creaking .]
Well, that's an eerie sound.
Devin, I'm just starting my sweep, headed to the infirmary now.
We got a motion sensor alarm set up down there, so watch your step.
Ben: Devin, do you copy? Go for Devin.
I'm standing over the well where Tommy fell to his death.
I think what I'm gonna try to do is to lower one of our cameras down into the hole with an audio recorder and see if I can pick anything up in an EVP session.
Copy that.
Ben: [ Strained .]
There it is.
Okay.
Why is the doorknob red? Come in, Devin.
Go for Devin.
It's a little strange, actually.
I'm noticing the whole hall is coming up as cold on the FLIR, but then, for some reason, it's like the doorknobs are warm.
There may be someone or something in here with me.
I want to see what I can find.
Okay.
I think that's as far as I safely dare go.
If there's somebody here.
.
My name's Ben.
Can you respond in some way to let me know you're here? You can try to interact with my camera or audio recorder down there.
A camera that we had was either thrown or dropped, and it's damaged now.
It's broken.
Did you do that? What in the.
.
Is somebody running upstairs? Is there somebody running on the upper deck? Devin: I've been here the whole time, Ben.
I don't see anybody on the end of this deck.
- I'm gonna go check it out.
- Copy that.
Jael, we've got a motion sensor alarm going off in the infirmary.
I'm headed over there now.
Okay, I don't see anything on the camera.
Ben: Is there someone here? Devin, when we set these motion detectors, they were sitting upright, and this one is now on its side.
No, that's impossible.
Those motion sensors were set upright.
There's definitely some stuff going on in here that is completely unexplainable.
[ Crash .]
What?! Devin, come in! Devin, come in! Jael, we've got a motion sensor alarm going off in the infirmary.
I'm headed over there now.
Okay, I don't see anything on the camera.
Copy that, Devin.
I'm on my way.
Is there someone here? Devin, when we set these motion detectors, they were sitting upright, and this one is now on its side.
This is weird, weird, weird, weird.
Can you do something for me to let me know that you're still here? [ Crash .]
[ Gasps .]
Now, even though we were able to find explanations for both pieces of evidence that Mike and his team had captured, we had had our own crazy experiences out there.
So we felt that a full nighttime investigation was mandatory.
And before we get into the night investigation, I have to tell you about something that happened.
So, in the mess hall, as we were setting up, we hear this crash.
We found our DSLR still camera.
It was on the ground.
Guys, the camera was broken.
None of us know how it happened.
Completely mysterious.
Take a look at this.
This is the lens of the camera.
You see how smashed in it is there? Lanisha: Those cameras are pretty sturdy, so to have that kind of damage on there, it's pretty significant.
Now, we went on and we set up the night investigation by having Devin man the base camp while Jael and I went patrolling the rest of the ship.
That's right.
I conducted an EVP session at the ladder where Tommy Thompson fell to his death.
I thought.
.
"Why don't I rig up an I.
R.
camera with an audio recorder," and I'll lower it down with a rope?" When I went back and listened to the audio recorder, I didn't hear anything anomalous.
However, at the exact point in the session where I asked if Tommy was the one who caused damage to our video recorder, this is what happens on the video.
Ben: Was that you who destroyed our camera earlier? Bill: What? Whoa.
Devin: Seriously? It's like somebody physically turned the camera - in response to your question.
- Yeah.
I wasn't touching the rope.
There's no wind down there.
All the areas down below are sealed off.
After that, Devin radioed me.
He said that there was some motion happening in the infirmary in front of the motion detector.
So I ran over to check it, and when I looked, this thing had been moved from where it was before.
- What? - This is fascinating.
I mean, this appears to be an attempt at some sort of paranormal communication.
Right.
I mean, this is really significant.
This is one of those cases where we went there and replicated all the evidence given to us and then came home with evidence of our own.
You guys did a really great job.
The U.
S.
S.
North Carolina, I believe, haunted.
Between the motion detector and our camera being just destroyed, that's enough for me to say there is definitely paranormal activity on the U.
S.
S.
North Carolina.
- Good work, team.
- Mm-hmm.
[ Chuckles .]
So, tell us about Michigan and this object that was videotaped.
Well, as you know, we went to Warren, Michigan, to investigate the case of this UFO that seems to hover and then scan the area below it.
Now, here we are outside of Warren, Michigan, which is near Detroit to investigate that really odd UFO video that was shot January Austin: Right.
Well, David, who's the videographer, said he was just driving home when he noticed these two pulsating lights with a centralized spotlight that appeared to be almost probing the construction site.
So, he immediately pulled over and started filming.
Now, some people are tying David's video to the TR-3B project which, supposedly, is a top-secret experiment that's being based just outside of the Detroit area.
Now, here's where it gets really unusual.
Theorists are claiming that the TR-3B is using reverse-engineered alien technology.
Lanisha: David's convinced he captured something unknown, whether it be TR-3B project or alien in nature.
Well, we're almost to the construction site now.
I'm looking forward to meeting with David and finding out what he thinks he saw the night that he shot this video.
- David? - Yes.
Hey, how you doing? Bill.
- Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, as well.
What do you think it is that you captured on video that night? I really have no idea.
I've never seen anything like it.
To tell you the truth, I was very intimidated, and I just don't have explanation.
Did you hear anything? That was the scariest part.
There was no sound whatsoever.
Can you say with 100% honesty that there was no hoax involved in creating this video? I know what I saw, and if you want to tell me that I created it, that's fine.
That's your opinion.
If you don't want to believe it, then that's fine.
Lanisha: I'm curious.
Why did you have your camera that night? Do you normally travel with your camera? Yes, I do have my camera on me.
I've seen a couple of things and I wish I'd had the camera, so this time, I was kind of prepared.
It was all luck, actually, to tell you the truth.
What kind of camera were you using? Uh, it was an older version of the Sony Z7U.
Um, the filter was set to something weird.
That's why it appeared a little bit grainy.
- And would this happen to be it here? - Yes.
Okay, do you mind if we use it for our - experiments? - Oh, absolutely.
Please, feel free.
Thank you for your time.
- Thank you.
- We really appreciate it.
- We'll see you.
- Thank you, David.
All right.
Well, David gave us some good information.
Let's go start packing up, getting everything ready.
- Okay.
- Okay.
Let me get the camera out.
You know what? Let's take another look at this video here.
There's some important flight characteristics to look at here.
I mean, the UFO's slow movement from left to right, as well as the upper climb towards the end of the clip.
Another thing, it seemed pretty foggy that night, but right now, - we've got, like, no fog at all.
- Yeah.
When I first looked at it, I instantly thought, "mistaken craft.
" Maybe a helicopter? Thinking more than likely a plane, though.
Think about it.
Fixed-wing aircraft's are quite often equipped with three lights.
.
One on each wing and a centralized landing light.
Exactly.
Maybe that's what David was seeing.
You know, let's take it to the next level.
I mean, we're at a construction site.
- Right? - Mm-hmm.
They often use crop-dusting planes to spray down construction sites so there's not so much dust in the air.
So, what if some of that spray is diffusing the light? I initially thought it was an aircraft, so I actually arranged to have one to use just in case.
We just got to go get it.
What do you think? - I like that.
- Let's do that.
Lanisha: Let's see this bad boy.
[ Chuckling .]
Oh, yeah! Wow.
This is a 1984 Air Tractor AT-400 fixed-wing airplane.
Check this out.
This is the mechanism they actually use to spray all the water out onto the fields.
Of course, it's fixed with two lights, one on each wing, and we have landing lights in the center.
I mean, this could work.
If you notice, the craft in the original clip never really seems to change the size.
You know, I think we're dealing with the motion parallax effect there.
It's like a principle of depth perception where objects appear to be moving a lot faster the closer they get to you.
Kind of like when you're driving and you look out the window, and the trees you see right outside look like they're just whipping by, but the trees that are far off in the distance really appear stationary.
Exactly.
If this plane is about a mile away, it's traveling speed would appear much slower and also its movements a lot more gradual.
So, you know what? The best way to replicate the original video is to have the plane fly towards the camera's point of view and then start to drift horizontally while maintaining a constant altitude.
Then, at the part of the clip where the craft seems to rise, we can just have the pilot pull up to increase his elevation.
- There we go.
- So, I say let's get to it.
All right, let's get set.
Our plane is fueled up and ready to go.
If the combination of mist, light, and plane movement replicate the original video, then we have our answer.
[ Airplane engine humming .]
Pilot, are you in position? Man: Pilot is ready to go.
- You see him? - Yeah, I do.
Why don't you go ahead and tell him to go ahead and start the spray? - Pilot, make it rain.
- Copy.
Lanisha: Here we go.
I think I see him, guys.
Oh, I see him, too.
Have him just raise a little bit of altitude.
Copy that.
Pilot, I'm gonna need you to go ahead and slowly increase your altitude.
Okay, awesome.
Have him start to drift.
Go ahead and begin your drift left now.
Man: Left drift going now.
Pull up in 3.
.
Pulling up.
- Yes! - [ Chuckles .]
Whoa! Lanisha: Our plane is fueled up and ready to go.
Austin and Bill are gonna coordinate the flight path with the pilot, and I'm gonna be looking through the viewfinder to make sure the plane is in the proper position in the sky.
And if this combination of mist, light, and plane movement replicate the original video, then we have our answer.
Pull up in 3.
.
Man: Pulling up.
- Yes! - Whoa! - Look at that! - Oh, that's awesome! [ Chuckles .]
[ Airplane engine humming .]
Oh, that looks awesome, guys.
It really does look like it's basically hovering.
But there's only one problem.
The closer it gets, the bigger it gets, the faster it goes.
And the shape just doesn't match.
We don't have that lateral motion.
You know what else I'm noticing? We don't have that spotlight like it's looking for something on the ground like we're seeing in the original video.
- True.
- The parallax theory.
.
It worked for us, and it kind of worked against us, because as it got closer, that speed got exaggerated.
All of a sudden, it just, like, zoomed by.
So, a craft moving towards us isn't gonna work.
- Right.
- We need to get something that can hover, yet remain fully controllable from the ground.
An aerial camera drone should work perfectly.
That's actually a really good call.
I mean, we used those drones before.
They're built to accept that camera right in the middle, which we can control with a servo motor.
But for this test, instead of putting a camera in there we'll mount a light instead.
- Okay.
- I like it.
We can control the light in the center via remote, and that should replicate the searchlight effect.
- Mm-hmm.
- This could work.
You know, this test would suggest that either David misidentified what he saw or maybe he was in on a hoax.
Well, let's build a drone and find out if this is the answer.
All right.
All right, guys.
Let's get this set up.
Austin: While Lanisha and Bill are setting up the drone, I'm gonna slide in the flight stabilizers and enter in our GPS coordinates.
I just have to tell it where to go, and I also can control the servo, which is what moves the light in the center of our drone which should give us that sweeping effect, like it's a spotlight.
Austin: [ Chuckling .]
Nice.
We're in business, guys.
- We are.
- All right.
Initializing flight stabilization.
System is a go.
All right.
I'm all framed up.
Launch drone! Hey, excellent.
Over the ridge.
[ Chuckles .]
Wow, that's actually looking really good! Lower it just a little bit? Copy that.
Dropping altitude.
And stop right there.
Drift to the right.
Starting drift.
That looks awesome.
Go ahead and rise up.
Rise up.
Rising now.
- Nice.
- Oh, perfect.
Yes, we got it, guys.
- And.
.
- Nice.
- Nice landing.
- Let's see how that looked.
All right, guys.
Check it out.
Bill: You know, I think that's pretty spot on.
Austin: It looks great.
I think we framed it up well.
We have three distinct lights.
I'm seeing a big issue, though.
I'm seeing the searchlight from our drone, but it's not nearly as powerful as the searchlight in the original video.
And it's a little too close.
It's a little too clear.
If the drone would have been any further away, it would have appeared miniscule.
Which is leading me to believe it is something bigger and farther back.
- Yeah.
- Well, then, you know what? For the next test, we need to do something that gives the same degree of control, but on a much larger scale.
Now, we've explored natural and hoax theories.
I say we conduct a new experiment, this time combining elements of both.
- Okay.
- What if what David saw that night was a crane moving a load with lights on it and just conveniently framed out the boom? Construction workers will light these heavy loads all the time to alert other workers of a possible danger.
Maybe the combination of wind and the crane movement could create that spotlight effect we're seeing.
Now, we're gonna need a second crane to act as our stand-in for the landmark crane that we see in David's clip.
All right, well, you guys, we're at a construction site.
We have full access to all the equipment here.
I'm gonna go ahead and get us another crane.
When it's in position, I'll radio you guys and let you know.
All right.
Sounds good.
All right.
Bill, how's that look? It's in a good position from here.
Why don't you go ahead and raise the boom? Go ahead and extend the boom! There it goes.
There it goes.
All right.
We're good.
Bill, why don't you and Lanisha go ahead and head up here? We'll start building our truss.
Crane's in place.
You got the equipment? Yeah.
Why don't you give me a hand with this light, please? First things first.
We got to get this thing cabled up.
We're good.
All right, guys.
Let's go ahead and get these lights up now.
Austin: Suspended by our crane, we have a 30-foot truss.
It's equipped with one and we have an articulating 700-watt bulb that Bill is gonna be able to manipulate via his control panel.
I control the intensity of my as well as the intensity of my articulating spot in the middle.
You know what? I think we got this dialed in.
We're ready.
Yeah, it looks pretty good.
But I've noticed one thing.
Okay, when we're mounting these lights, because it's being suspended, you barely touch it.
.
And it starts to drift.
Now, this could be a bit of a problem.
We get this thing 50-feet up in the air and it starts to rotate, we're never gonna see all three lights at the same time.
I think that's an easy fix.
What if we just attach rope to both sides and I can literally hold it like reins? - I should be able to control it.
- All right.
All right, well, then, you know, let's do this.
Let me head back to the vantage point and get the camera framed up, all right? Austin, I'll give you a hand.
Bill: Right now, we're about to conduct our lights-on-a-truss experiment.
Austin's gonna be stabilizing the truss with these two lines, and Lanisha's gonna be directing the action from the camera's vantage point.
Let's see if this explains David's video.
Bill: Bill for Lanisha.
Lanisha: Go for Lanisha.
Do you have us framed up in the camera? I do, but, you know what? Your lights are looking a little dim.
Can you brighten them up a little bit? Absolutely.
- How's that looking? - Bill, that's perfect.
Copy that.
Standing by, waiting on you.
All right, guys.
We're officially rolling.
Go ahead and drop the crane in 3.
.
Go! Operator, drop the crane! Yeah! [ Chuckles .]
Bill: Right now, we're about to conduct our lights-on-a-truss experiment.
Austin's gonna be stabilizing the truss with these two lines, and Lanisha's gonna be directing the action from the camera's vantage point.
Let's see if this explains David's video.
Lanisha: All right, guys.
We're officially rolling.
Go ahead and drop the crane in 3.
.
Go! Operator, drop the crane! Start the movement from left to right.
Go ahead and lift it up.
Begin the lift! Guys, that looks awesome! Yeah! [ Chuckles .]
Austin: So, Lanisha was at the vantage point, Bill operated the lights and was in communication with the crane operator.
And I was actually holding on the two ropes that were attached to the truss in order to keep it stable.
Check out how it looked.
Devin: Wow.
Look at that.
Lanisha: It's pretty impressive, right? Oh, my gosh.
That looks awesome.
That's a crane? Bill: That's an aluminum truss with flood lights on either side and an articulating spotlight mounted in the middle.
Jael: That's really good, you guys.
I mean, you'd have me fooled.
That looks like an aircraft.
Devin: The only thing I notice is that on occasion, the lights tend to beam upward, and that's not a match.
- Mm-hmm.
- [ Sighs .]
Yeah.
So, with all of the control that you guys had, you never had that 100% match.
Our thought was that the eyewitness, David, conveniently framed out what he didn't want us to see.
Austin: This would suggest that David knew exactly what he was looking at.
And there also could be some computer graphics at work here.
You know, that was kind of my feeling that that was a possibility.
I think it's a great candidate for C.
G.
Bill: The bottom line is, we really weren't able to replicate the UFO footage perfectly, but it was close enough where we began to question David's testimony.
So, we subjected his interview to layered voice analysis.
We asked him straight up, "did you hoax us?" And this is the response we got.
All right.
David: I know what I saw, and if you want to tell me that I created it, that's fine.
That's your opinion.
If you don't want to believe it, then that's fine.
Wow.
- Lanisha: Yeah.
- Jael: Ha.
He did not answer your question directly at all.
- No.
- Did he ever say.
.
"I did not create a hoax"? Um, he seemed to be kind of skirting the issue.
- Exactly.
- So, what do you think? What's the result? Austin: We felt like under the perfect storm scenario, the truss could be it.
But more than likely, it's fake.
Considering the fact that we weren't able to perfectly replicate the original video and the results of the layered voice analysis, I'm gonna have to go with mistaken identity or maybe this video being a fake.
I'm gonna have to say faked on this one.
I think you guys have more evidence pointing towards fake than you do fact.
Ben: I agree.
Really, I think that the tipping point for me was the way he handled himself in the interviews, and plus the L.
V.
A.
I would say this is faked.
Yeah.
Nice job, guys.
Great work.
Great work.
All right!
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