01x04 - Citizens Take Charge

[bunniefuu]

♪ ♪

(radio chatter).

FOX: It's 1986 over Alaska,
Japan Airlines encountered

something truly
inexplicable in the night sky.

POWELL: These guys were
flying from Paris to Tokyo.

They noticed a
very bright light.

And it's following them.

FOX: The pilot,
Kenju Terauchi had described it

as being several times larger

than his airplane, and his
airplane had an elevator in it.

KEAN: It was huge and
Captain Terauchi was open about

the fact that he was
afraid during this event.

But the Japanese Airline
incident was hardly unique.

PILOT (over radio):
We just had something go
right over the top of us.

PILOT 2 (over radio):
It's a definite UFO or

something like that.

KEAN: Incidences like
this was much more widespread

than anybody realized.

PILOT (over radio): I
have no idea what that is.

It just flew right over me.

PILOT 2 (over radio):
The length is unbelievable.

PILOT 3 (over radio):
Looks like a...

UFO.

KEAN: UFOs
definitely represented
an aviation safety hazard.

There were many cases
documented that showed that.

And yet, the
government didn't seem to care.

REPORTER (over TV): In
tonight's special report,

Mary Murphy finds that
while the US government has

closed its eyes on the matter.

The public hasn't
stopped seeing or believing.

RODEGHIER: The U.S.
Government closed its

formal study of
UFOs in late 1969.

KEAN: The cases that
required investigation,

none of that went away.

And so people stepped
in to fill that void.

NUFORC (over phone):
UFO Reporting Center...

MAN (over phone): We got a call

he saw five distinct lights
in a triangular pattern.

MELLON: Thankfully
these events were recorded
by civilian researchers.

It showed that the
phenomenon was continuing and

it was extensive,
that it was widespread.

KEAN: I mean look what
these people are saying,

look what they've documented.

This is real, and
it's a safety hazard.

MAN: We get reports every night.

MAN 2: I don't know
what the hell it is.

(radio chatter)

MAN: I'd like to report a UFO.

(theme music playing)

HYNEK: UFOlogy today is in the
state I would say chemistry was

when chemistry was alchemy.

A mixture of superstition,
wild ideas, unproved claims.

And yet out of that whole mess,

finally the very first class
science of chemistry evolved.

What we need in UFOlogy
is to make it professional.

KEAN: J. Allen Hynek
was a great advocate

for civilians to
be researching UFOs.

He felt that the subject
deserved scientific scrutiny.

REPORTER (over TV):
Doctor Hynek's been
studying UFOs for 30 years.

His files contained unexplained
sightings from 140 countries.

KEAN: After Hynek died in 1986,
his work was carried on by

a handful of
national UFO research groups.

Even though the government
wasn't paying attention,

the civilians were.

REPORTER (over TV):
Phil Imbrogno of
Greenwich, Connecticut

has recorded more than
300 hours of conversations

with people who have
reported UFO sightings.

REPORTER 2 (over TV):
Larry Faucet, a police officer
in Coventry, Connecticut.

He helped establish
Citizens Against UFO Secrecy.

NUFORC (over phone):
UFO reporting center...

MAN (over phone): I
have never been a believer
of UFOs in my entire life,

and I've just seen
a minimum of 9:00 this morning

with my own eyes and,
I mean, I am a believer!

KEAN: My goal in writing
about UFOs has been mainly to

bring information
forward to the public.

But, beyond that, it's
to motivate the official
world to pay attention.

Once I realized that there was
enough data to show that these

things are real and the
possibility that there are

other civilizations
visiting us here,

I was just hooked.

And I realized that I
needed information that could be

verified and documented and
cases that were irrefutable.

I turned to the most
credible civilian researchers

because they were
the ones doing the work.

The National
Aviation Reporting Center on
Anomalous Phenomena, NARCAP,

was founded by
Doctor Richard Haines who

was a former
chief scientist for NASA.

Hey d*ck, can you hear me?

HAINES (over computer):
I sure can.

KEAN: Sure is good to see you!

What is your
reflection on, you know,

looking back at NARCAP, like,

why you started it?

HAINES (over computer):
Well, I'd spend quite a
number of years, as a hobby, uh

studying this phenomenon.

And I finally came to the
understanding that Ufology,

the study of UFOs
or UAPs these days,

is not gonna
progress until there's
some practical benefit from it.

And so, I came up with this ide
let's look at aviation safety.

KEAN: The FAA did not want to
receive any reports from any of

their personnel
about UFO events.

It was actually written in
their manual that if anyone saw

a UFO they were to
report it to a civilian group.

HAINES: NARCAP is a
reporting center for pilots and

air traffic controllers who
would like to make a report of

their sightings in a
completely confidential manner.

We are looking carefully at
events that are happening in

our skies, all the time, where
flight safety could be impacted.

Our objective is
to make flying safer.

KEAN: The work I
did with NARCAP,

and really getting familiar with
the aviation safety hazards,

I became more focused on
that as an important component

of this whole issue.

The second story that I ever
published on UFOs in 2001 was

based on a 100-page
report that NARCAP produced.

There were cases where the pilot
would have to make a very fast

turn or he'd have to
dive to avoid hitting a UFO.

Cases where passengers were
actually injured by maneuvers

the airplane had to make.

If you have commercial pilots
that are somehow in danger.

I just thought as a journalist
this is really important,

I mean, how could the
aviation world ignore this?

One of the most fascinating
cases in the report was

the Japan Airlines case, 1986.

ATC (over radio): Spinner
1628 heavy, roger sir.

FOX: What was really
compelling about this case is

that you've got the radar data,

and then you've got the
testimony of the pilot,

talking to ground control.

KEAN: There are these amazing
tapes in Richard Haines' archive

of calls he made.

And the pilots
will give him detailed
accounts of what they saw.

One of the recordings was
with Captain Terauchi from

the Japan Airlines case.

POWELL: As they're
approaching Anchorage,

they again radio the FAA.

And they had the
plane do a couple of turns

to see if the object
continues to follow it.

HAINES: Captain Terauchi
was very surprised to realize

that the object was still
beside him throughout that turn.

HAINES: How is
it able to do that?

Why would it do that?

HAINES (over computer):
The phenomenon acts with
what I would call curiosity.

To me, that's,
that's intelligence.

HAINES: It raises some
fundamental questions about
the nature of the phenomenon.

Would it constitute a
threat to flight safety?

And the answer is clearly...

Yes.

♪ ♪

RODEGHIER: The
Japan Airlines event was

fairly lengthy as
far as UFO sightings go.

MELLON: They watched it for
perhaps a half hour or more.

It moved in different
positions around the aircraft.

Eventually, as they descended
and approached the airport,

it disappeared.

RODEGHIER: But, the
real import of the case is

what happens after the sighting.

KEAN: Captain Terauchi,
spoke to the American press

about this event.

And Japan Airlines, took him
off the job for like a year.

It just shows that
professional pilots,

cannot report an
actual event that happened,

that might even be a
hazard to their aircraft,

without facing repercussions.

KING: Now on the phone
with us from Anchorage is

Paul Stueke who is
public affairs officer

for the FAA in
the Alaska Region.

What, Paul, does
the FAA say this is?

STUEKE (over phone):
Well, we've got some possible
evidence of confirmation,

but it is not real
strong and the military is,

is totally unable to confirm
whether this object was real by

its radar and
neither are we actually.

KEAN: Publicly, the FAA said
that the object on radar was

an unexplained split
image of the Japanese 747

and not a separate object.

But there was more
going on with this case than

what the FAA had
to say publicly.

When John Callahan, who
was the head of accidents and

investigations at FAA,
first heard about this event,

he ordered that all
the data be sent to him
immediately on this case.

CALLAHAN: I said to
the, uh, software people,

I want a briefing
in the, uh, the next room.

I want to see on a chart, uh,
every place where the, uh,

Japanese guy was, and I want to
see all the targets around him.

I, uh, watched on radar, I
took a video tape of it and

the next day came back
to Washington headquarters.

This is where it first starts.

It starts at 19 after the hour.

You see that little dot?

That's the UFO.

KEAN: He studied all
this data, and then,

according to Callahan,
he was called to a meeting

at the Washington headquarters.

And that meeting involved
a team of representatives

from the White House.

It included CIA representatives.

RODEGHIER: That's strange.

These things are not
typically investigated by

the FBI, not the CIA.

CALLAHAN: I played
the tapes for 'em,

I show 'em all
the paperwork we got.

I give them the whole tale.

And they were all
excited about it.

So, I'm, I'm standing next
to this, uh, this little guy,

and he says, "Okay,
we were never here.

We're confiscating
all this data and

you're all sworn to secrecy."

So I said, "What
do you think it is?"

I'm still thinking
it's the stealth b*mber.

He says, "Well, it's a UFO."

RODEGHIER: So, the US Government
doesn't take UFOs seriously and

yet they do this?

So what's going on here?

Well, of course, we don't know
because they disappeared into

the black maw of the government.

KEAN: My story about pilot
encounters with UFOs got a lot

of play and it was picked
up all across the country.

But the culture
as a whole didn't
really take UFOs seriously.

It was still considered fringe.

And I, I felt kind of
determined to fight that.

WOMAN: Have you ever wondered
why there wasn't more coverage

in the mainstream media
about the subject of UFOs?

We are very pleased today to
have an investigative journalist

who has pushed through
that barrier, Leslie Kean.

Thank you so
much for joining us!

KEAN: When I started
out reporting on UFOs.

I mean I felt like I was risking
my career as a journalist,

I did feel that way.

I was sort of an anomaly.

I mean, there was nobody
doing this in the mainstream.

I was really nervous
about being ridiculed because

the attitudes of people
were mainly that it was a joke.

If I would go to a party and
people said, "What do you do?"

I would have to say, "Well,
I'm a journalist," and then I...

The next question was always,
"Well, what do you write about?"

And I was
dreading that question;

I did not want to have
to say what I wrote about

because it was embarrassing.

But the fact that there
was so much opposition to it,

the fact that it was ridiculed
actually kind of fueled my fire.

And I felt so clear that there
was something to it that I just

was willing to take that risk.

And then I realized that there
were others who are out there

researching this, taking it
out of the fringe who took it

upon themselves to do what
the government wasn't doing,

which was to investigate cases.

KING: Your new documentary,
James, I Know What I Saw,

assembles accounts
from various UFO witnesses

from around the world.

What do you believe James?

FOX: I believe that
there are structured craft of

unknown origin whizzing
around in our airspace whose

flight characteristics are

so beyond anything we've had.

My name is James Fox.

I have been working
on UFO films, for,

coming up on my third decade.

I was never out to
prove that ET has landed.

My primary objective is
to say there is some really

compelling evidence that
needs further investigation.

I stuck with it despite the
level of ridicule for decades

because I had gone to locations,
I'd met with the witnesses,

I'd looked up the documents
from government files because

I wanted to create a body of
evidence that I could present to

mainstream and say, "Look.
There's something to it."

KEAN: Over the years,
James Fox and I had a kind
of cooperative relationship,

and we shared a
frustration about the lack of

government investigation,
the lack of transparency,

this sort of blasé
attitude that it didn't matter.

James had experienced this
frustration for a long time in

so many cases
that he investigated,

one of them being the
Phoenix Lights of 1997.

MAN (over radio): We're visitin
with James Fox filmmaker in

town doing research on the,
the UFOs and interviews, uh...

FOX: What makes the
Phoenix Lights UFO case

so compelling is the sheer
volume of eyewitness testimony.

KEAN: Hundreds of witnesses
saw something gliding over

the state of Arizona for
over an hour and a half.

MAN: It was Thursday night,
March 13th 1997.

MAN 2: Nice calm
evening, about 8:30.

WOMAN: My daughter, Monica,
came running in the house and

said you've gotta come outside.

MAN: As I closed both windows
and I looked to the north,

I saw a large black
craft coming towards us.

And I told my
wife at that time that

son of a b*tch is a mile long.

FOX: I was working on a
film at the time on UFOs,

and so I saw the progression
of this whole story unfold.

WATSON: 'Cause it
barely missed that mountain!

FOX: Really?
WATSON: Yeah.

Came floating
over that mountain.

FOX: The witnesses described
this boomerang shaped object

that was over a mile across
from wing tip to wing tip.

MAN: It's coming across
the sky and as it's moving.

It's blocking and
unblocking the stars.

There's actually a shape.

WOMAN: I mean, we
were just in awe of it.

I mean, no fear or
anything just kind of like,

"Oh, this is the
coolest thing I've ever seen."

MAN: I thought I
was going to pass out
because I stopped breathing.

I was so enthralled
and looking at this thing.

REPORTER (over TV): The
Phoenix lights event in March

is being talked about
now all over the world.

REPORTER 2 (over TV):
The buzz is very big in
the desert southwest after

some weird happenings in
the skies over Phoenix recently

KEAN: The objects in the sky
over Arizona were probably seen

by more witnesses than
any other single UFO event

in American history...

FOX: So many
people wanted answers,

that the
governor had to respond.

KEAN: The governor
had said he was gonna
provide answers for people.

They built up this
hope and expectation,

"There's been an
investigation and

we're gonna get something here."

SYMINGTON: I
believe that a serious
offense for anyone, human,

space alien or otherwise
to engage in mysterious activity

in our nighttime skies.

That is why I will personally
ask that the perpetrator be

prosecuted to the
fullest for the havoc

wrought on our entire community.

Don't get him too close
to me, please, it's, you know...

(laughter).

This just goes to show that you
guys are entirely too serious.

(cheering).

FOX: He had one of his aides
dressed up in an alien suit and

he made a mockery
of the whole thing.

And I was in touch
with the witnesses,

and they were just furious.

SYMINGTON: Thank you! Thank you!

(applause)

FOX: That case is, I think,
pretty much representative of

how the US government
treats the phenomenon.

KEAN: Even this mass sighting,

which involved
hundreds of witnesses,

and lots of concern
in the state of Arizona,

even that was not enough
to get government involvement

and to get
government accountability.

♪ ♪

KEAN: The lack of transparency
within the American government

on this topic
was so frustrating.

But James and I have both
discovered that there are other

countries that
really take this seriously.

FOX: As a filmmaker,

I was able to have a
level of participation from

foreign governments and
military personnel that

I didn't see in
the United States.

KEAN: James and I went to France
together to the headquarters of

the French agency
that studies UFOs,

situated within the
equivalent of NASA in France,

in the Space Studies Center.

France sees it as a
scientific problem.

They had access to specialists
from all over the country,

who would contribute
to investigations.

So if they needed
a weather specialist

or a soil expert,

psychologists who would
interview the witnesses,

all these different areas of
expertise that all have a role

to play in an investigation.

FOX: I'd meet with military
people in China and in Russia

and in Africa and
Australia and South America...

There were similar things
happening all around the world.

There was a very
compelling incident that
happened in Tehran, Iran

in 1976 that involved the pilot
trying to sh**t down a UFO.

The pilot's name
was Parvis Jafari,

and he described
this whole cat and
mouse thing with this object.

He said it could literally go
from this point in the sky to

this point in the sky
in the blink of an eye.

And he said that was miles.

JAFARI: I was looking
here at about 70 miles out and

he jumped all of a
sudden ten degrees to my right.

And I was wondering what is it?

FOX: And at one point, I
think he felt threatened

and decided to sh**t it.

That turned out to be
not such a good idea.

His whole
control panel froze up.

He was thinking he might have
to eject from the airplane.

KEAN: Jafari made a very
important contribution by

speaking out about this.

And in Iran none of
it was kept secret.

It was a big event
in that country.

Countries in South America,
also took reports from pilots

a lot more seriously.

The government of Chile sees
it as mainly an aviation issue.

KEAN: Costa Rica also
does not keep things secret.

They had what I think may be

the best photograph
of a UFO ever released.

That was taken by a
government mapping plane.

That photograph was made public.

It was studied by scientists.

We don't know what our
government actually possesses

in terms of
photographs or videos,

because they've
been kept classified.

In America, UFOs became really
prevalent during the Cold w*r.

And during the Cold w*r we did
not want to disclose anything.

So that's sort of when we got in
the groove of keeping it secret.

It just sort of became
ingrained in our system

to see this as a
national security issue which

therefore needs
to be classified.

Some of these other governments,

they look at it as an aviation
safety problem, perhaps,

or a scientific problem.

To me, this is the way
things should be done.

After returning from these
explorations of other countries,

I brought that
information to a very
important government insider,

who I'd met in 2001, who was all
about government transparency.

John Podesta was
President Clinton's

Chief of Staff.

And under Clinton he was partly
responsible for the release

of many, many documents through
the Freedom of Information Act.

This has been really great,
I appreciate your...

PODESTA: I came
into this really as an
advocate of open government,

more than I had thought
a lot about UFOs or UAPs.

They were a
curiosity for me really,

but the two interests
kind of married in 2001

when I met Leslie Kean.

Uh, I think it's time to open
the books on the question of,

of government
investigations of, of UFOs.

It's time to find
out what, what the truth
really is that's out there.

I think there has been fear
that if the government ever

tipped their hand to say,
"Well, we have some phenomena

and we don't know what it is,"
the public would just freak out.

(laughs).

And, I think quite the contrary,

I think the, the
public can handle the truth.

KEAN: I was wondering if you'd
like to see a photograph...

I would go to these
countries and then I,

I put together information about
how these agencies worked into

a dossier and I
gave it to John Podesta.

You know, until the
United States government joins

and has their
own official agency,

like the French,
like the British,

like the people in Chile,

people in Peru, it kind of
holds back the whole world.

In that dossier were
two letters to John Podesta,

specifically to him,
one written by the head of

the Chilean government
agency studying UFOs and

one written by the
head of the French agency

explaining why they
thought that it was

absolutely crucial that the
United States be involved if

we're gonna make
any progress with this.

PODESTA: I think it's important
for investigative journalists

like Leslie Kean to
keep pressing for answers.

So, I put my
credibility on the line.

And I supported her efforts to
open this space for politicians

to say, "It may be a
question of national security.

It is a question
of aviation safety."

KEAN: It seemed like what we
really needed was some kind of

major UFO event, a
major case with lots of data,

with great witnesses, that
would galvanize the country,

that would be in the media,

and that would force
government involvement.

♪ ♪

HAINES: November 7th, 2006.

Something happened
over O'Hare Airport.

An event that once again,

suggests a problem
with aviation safety.

This time over one of the
country's busiest airports.

POWELL: You had workers
on the tarmac and the pilots.

And these guys look
up at around 1,000 feet,

they see a disk shaped
object above them.

REPORTER (over TV): And
you don't believe this was

possibly your imagination?

JOE (over TV): It was
definitely not my imagination.

REPORTER (over TV): Joe was a
mechanic for United Airlines.

While taxiing a
jumbo jet to the hangar,

he and another mechanic...

JOE (over TV): Noticed an
object up in the sky sitting

above the terminal complex.

POWELL: It had a metallic
grayish appearance to it.

It appeared to be
30 to 40 feet in diameter.

It's not moving at all.

I mean there's no motion.

And this goes on for a
few minutes until suddenly

the object just
goes straight up.

And in doing so, burns a
hole through the clouds.

HILKEVITCH: My name
is John Hilkevitch.

I was a transportation
reporter at Chicago Tribune

for roughly 18 years.

A few days after
the alleged sighting,

I got a phone call
from an official with

the National UFO
Reporting Center.

And I think he assumed that
I had heard about this and

he wanted to know was
I working on a story?

I cover transportation, uh.

UFO was not part
of the beat at all.

So, you know, I had my
healthy reporter's skepticism

about this, but this
is highly restricted airspace.

You don't want something up
there that doesn't belong there.

So, I took that
information and contacted

the FAA and United Airlines and

they both denied any knowledge
of this alleged sighting.

They were sort of
amused by it, like,

"Are you okay, John?"

You know, "You're, you're
asking these weird questions."

I spent the next couple of weeks
interviewing as many people as

I could about the sighting.

These were all trained
aviation professionals.

Pilots who were
taxiing on the ground,

ramp workers who were
pushing back planes.

Given the pushback from the FAA,
I submitted a FOIA request for

the logs at O'Hare tower
for that day, November 7th.

HILKEVITCH: When I
heard the recordings,

it was clear that
this alleged sighting
was logged in O'Hare tower,

that United Airlines
was told about this

by numerous employees.

There was just an abundance
of radio chatter between

O'Hare tower and various
people on the airfield.

HILKEVITCH: United, uh,
despite their, uh, insistence to

me that they had no
knowledge of this and

they took no action
was first to backtrack,

to say that, "Yes, they
had received reports of this."

And then the FAA said
that upon further review,

"Yes, they had
received calls saying
that something was up there."

RICKI: Is it
standard that the FAA,

if you ask them a
straightforward question,

would lie essentially?

HILKEVITCH: Well,
I mean, there was,

there's nothing
standard about this story.

(laughs).

This story ran on page one
of the Chicago Tribune on

January 1st, 2007.

And the reaction to
it was unbelievable.

REPORTER (over TV): John,
the response has been, well,

out of this world, hasn't it?

HILKEVITCH (over TV): I mean,
just the last two days,

this is my email.

REPORTER 2 (over TV):
Several pilots apparently at

Chicago's O'Hare
swear they saw one.

A UFO!

JOE (over TV): And it looked
like literally someone had

poked a hole in the clouds.

KEAN: It got more hits on the
Chicago Tribune website than

any story they had
ever written in the past.

But there was still a very
strong taboo against this so

there were some skeptics that
were called on these various

shows who kind of debunked it.

OLBERMAN (over TV): We
turn to the chief astronomer

for the Franklin Institute,

Derrick Pitts.

Derrick, thanks for
being with us again.

PITTS (over TV):
My pleasure, Keith.

OLBERMAN (over TV):
All right, let's start with
the UFO sighting at O'Hare.

When it's pilots sayingG
this do we have to listen?

And then what is it
they could have seen but

not been able to identify?

PITTS (over TV):
Well, that's a really
difficult question to answer

because there are all kinds
of sky phenomena that could

have manifested themselves.

But that doesn't necessarily
mean they are alien spacecraft.

PITTS: I was intrigued that
so many people had seen this.

But we can't just suggest
that here's a spacecraft from

another planet that
defies the laws of physics.

So, for me, I go to those things
that seem much more likely,

much more reasonable,
much more possible.

KEAN: When I read the
Chicago Tribune's story,

I was really shocked by
the FAA efforts to try and

explain this away.

First of all, they
said it was airport lights

reflecting off the clouds.

And it turned out that the
airport lights had not even been

turned on yet when
the event occurred.

So, that
explanation didn't work.

REPORTER (over TV): The FAA
adds that the sighting may have

been caused by a
weather phenomenon.

KEAN: The next explanation
they provided was that

it was a weather phenomenon.

I knew what that probably
meant was this phenomenon called

a hole punch cloud.

It's very rare, where
ice crystals fall from

one cloud above
to a lower cloud and

they melt a hole in the cloud.

I called a bunch
of cloud experts,

asked what the conditions
were that would be required

for a hole punch cloud to form.

I learned that the temperature
would have to be below freezing,

which it was not at
that day at O'Hare.

It was around 50 degrees.

So, I was able to
completely dispatch

the FAA's explanation
of a weather phenomenon.

For the FAA and the government,

it's just 'come up with
something' to make it go away.

No matter how ludicrous it is.

No matter how inaccurate it is.

This was an
aviation safety hazard.

This thing was
floating over an airport.

It made me feel inspired
to really want to do more.

Because this just
can't keep going like this.

♪ ♪

FOX: In 2006, we had that
very compelling case that

happened at O'Hare Airport.

That got a lot
of media coverage.

We were coming up on the
ten-year anniversary for

the Phoenix Lights case.

That was getting
a lot of coverage.

And there seemed to be a
whole new wave of interest in

the media on the phenomenon.

And I decided to kind of
strike while the iron was hot.

Ever since the
Phoenix Lights case,

I was meeting with the witnesses
and I heard their frustration

with how the governor
treated their testimony,

by making a
mockery and ridiculing...

So, in 2006, I managed to
get a hold of Fife Symington,

who was no longer
governor of Arizona.

He responded immediately and

accepted my
invitation for an interview.

And, it ended up
being one of those aha
moments for me as a reporter.

PRODUCER: If you had
to do it over again would

you have done it
any differently?

SYMINGTON: Ah, y'know, I think
it was a legitimate, uh, uh,

occurrence of unknown origin,

probably one of the major
sightings in, you know,

in modern history
in the country.

'Cause a lot of people
saw it in Maricopa County,

and I saw it too. So, I...

FOX: "And I saw it too."

(laughs).

Did I just hear that straight?

Did the former
governor of Arizona,

who made fun of one of the
most significant modern day

mass sightings, just admit
that he too was a witness?

SYMINGTON: At least
I have the opportunity
now to correct the record.

And that's important.

FOX: I knew I had
captured lightning in a bottle.

I really knew this
was going to be big.

So, I reached out to
Leslie Kean and I said,

"Hey, you're not
going to believe this."

KEAN: I could not believe it.

And my immediate response was,
"I wanna break this story!"

(laughs).

FOX: Leslie helped
get that story out,

and we got a lot
of news coverage.

SYMINGTON: If you'd
been here ten years ago,

standing out here and
looking up there up the, um,

at the lights and the view, um,
you would have been astounded.

You would have been amazed.

And I suspect that,
uh, unless, uh, uh,

the Defense Department
proves us otherwise that

it was probably, uh, some
form of an alien spacecraft.

KEAN: There was momentum
that started to build.

And it was sort of a
catalyst for us to feel,

"Look at what's going on,
let's do something really big

that will draw
attention to this."

I joined forces with James Fox
and we decided to bring together

a panel of the very most
credible witnesses from all over

the world, to a
major event in Washington,

which would draw a new level
of attention to incidences

like the O'Hare event.

FOX: We had
scientists, generals, pilots

both military and civilian,
from multiple countries.

KEAN: Among them
was Parviz Jafari,

the Iranian pilot who had
tried to sh**t down a UFO,

John Callahan from the
Japan Airlines case...

FOX: And the
moderator of the event

was former governor of,
of Arizona, Fife Symington.

KEAN: He recognized that
if there had been an agency

in place when this
event happened in 1997,

everything would
have been different.

FOX: Leslie and I had wanted
to see if we could set up

a new government agency, a
modern day Project Blue Book.

SYMINGTON: I'd like to welcome
you all, uh, here today.

And I don't think there's
ever been a more high-level

or distinguished, uh, group.

KEAN: This event was the
culmination of all the work

I had done previously to
bring everybody together

in one room like that.

DUBOC: Ladies and
gentlemen, good morning.

My name is Jean-Charles Duboc.

I am a retired
Air France captain.

BRAVO: I am
Rodrigo Bravo Captain
and pilot of Chilean Army.

CALLAHAN: What I'm to tell you,

is about an event
that never happened.

KEAN: The power of this was
that you had all these people

in one room telling their
stories one after the other.

MARIA: Ladies and gentlemen,
I'm Oscar Santa Maria Huerta,

official pilot of
the Peruvian Air Force,

currently retired.

KEAN: Oscar Santa Maria
encountered a UFO over

an air base in Peru.

And he was instructed to
go up and sh**t it down.

MARIA: My unit commander
ordered me to take off in

my Sukhoi-22 jet to sh**t
down this spherical object.

FOX: He said he
unleashed all of his firepower,

direct target hit, and it
just absorbed his b*ll*ts.

MARIA: The cone-shaped wall
of fire that I sent out would

normally obliterate
anything in its path.

KEAN: We also had Parviz Jafari,

who talked about
what happened to him.

JAFARI: I tried to launch
a heat-seeker m*ssile to it,

but my m*ssile panel went out.

KEAN: The momentum
just kept building and
building and building.

DE BROUWER: Hundreds of people
saw a majestic triangle craft.

HALT: I have no idea
what we saw that night,

but I do know with
great certainty it was

under intelligent control.

FOX: There's something
very pragmatic about pilots,

particularly military pilots.

When you hear enough of those
cases from around the world,

I felt like the
government had to pay attention.

♪ ♪

SYMINGTON: We want the
United States government to

stop perpetuating the myth that
all UFOs can be explained away

in down-to-earth
and conventional terms.

Instead, our
country needs to reopen its

official investigation
that it shut down in 1969.

KEAN: We made the appeal
at that press conference for

a government
agency to be set up.

CALLAHAN: Do I look all right?

Because my wife will
yell at me if I don't.

(laughter).

SYMINGTON: When it comes
to events of this nature,

dealing with the
great unknown, we deserve,

I believe, more openness
and a serious pursuit of

the facts by our government.

Thank you very much.

(applause).

FOX: That press conference
was a moment for all of us,

all of us who had been in the
trenches for all those decades.

It was a really
satisfying moment.

And we got some very
mainstream coverage.

BLITZER (over TV): A group
gathering here in Washington to

talk about their UFO sightings,

but this apparently is
no crackpot convention.

Former high level government
and military officials are amon

those sharing what
they've seen in the skies.

KEAN: The press conference felt
like a moment of huge success.

But I had this fantasy,

"Well, maybe this will lead to
some kind of hearings on this."

Nothing.

Nobody in the
government batted an eyelash.

It didn't accomplish
what we'd hoped for,

which was to get our
government engaging with it.

I thought that the
five minute presentations

that these witnesses made
simply weren't long enough to

really get across
what happened to them.

So I was inspired to
bring these people into a book.

And they reported on
their cases in their own words.

They wrote their own chapters.

I don't think all people at that
level had ever come together

under one umbrella before.

And it had a lot
of authority to it,

not because of me,
but because of the people

I brought to the book.

When it became a
New York Times bestseller,

I think it brought heightened
credibility to the topic.

REPORTER (over TV):
Our next guest calling for

a formal investigation of
unidentified flying objects,

Leslie Kean...

REPORTER 2 (over TV): And
here to talk about UFO's,

Leslie Kean.

COLBERT: Please
welcome Leslie Kean!

Real generals?

KEAN: Real Generals.

COLBERT: Or, like
Captain Crunch? Like, real...

KEAN: Real...
COLBERT: Real...

KEAN: Honest to
goodness generals.

COLBERT: What generals think
that there are aliens out there?

KEAN: They don't
think there are aliens,

and that's one of the points
they all make in this book is

we don't know what they are.

COLBERT: All right.
KEAN: Thank you.

COLBERT: Thank you so much.

Leslie Kean!

PITTS: When I first read
Leslie Kean's book I thought

her investigation of
this was exactly the kind of

real science investigation that
we should be thinking about

starting around
unidentified flying objects.

In fact, I had Leslie as a guest
here at The Franklin Institute,

to give a
presentation about her book.

We're about real science,
we are not about speculation,

and I felt that the work that
Leslie demonstrated in her book

was a responsible
way to go about this.

PODESTA: I wrote the
forward to her book,

which at the time people
thought was just something to go

on the shelf with the
other UFOlogies, uh...

But, uh,
was really, I think, uh,

a serious effort to try to
document what pilots had seen,

what other military senior
leaders had documented.

KEAN: The success of
the book brought so much
credibility to this topic,

and it drew people into my life
that hadn't been there before,

insiders who had been involved
with this thing for a long time,

some of them with
security clearances.

And they trusted me.

That's what led to my
being invited to a meeting,

years later, where I was handed
the biggest scoop of my career.

REPORTER (over TV): Leslie Kean

one of the investigative
reporters who broke this story.

This report is stunning.

REPORTER 2 (over TV):
The New York Times breaking

the news that the Pentagon
has been secretly researching

the existence of UFOs.

Apparently, the
Department of Defense launched

the program in 2007.

KEAN: 2007, the same year that
we gave our press conference.

It just so happened that
this Government program was

already being set up.

We didn't know
about that at the time,

of course, but it
was actually happening.

FOX: The article
was a huge moment,

a moment I'll never forget.

I had friends and family from
all around the world going,

(gasps)

"Oh my God,
maybe you we're right.

Maybe you, maybe you're not
as crazy as I thought you were."

You know?

It was, it was a good feeling.

I was really proud of Leslie
because the rest of the world

was paying attention.

That maybe, maybe there is
really something going on here.

KEAN: That article was
really just the beginning.

It opened the door to all these
questions that arose after that

about what this program
actually had learned about UFOs.

Is it going to release
information to the public?

All these questions that
people wanna know about UFOs.

Well, if there's a program,
what do they know?

Imagine just how wonderful
it would be to have those

questions asked on
behalf of the American people.

CARSON: Today we will bring that
organization out of the shadows.

I think for, for far
too long people have said,

"Oh, the public isn't ready
to know about these things,

but I think the public is ready,

now more than ever."

GRAVES: We were seeing
things off the coast every day.

MAN: The pilots know
what they are seeing.

They are not crazy.

NOLAN: You just have to realize

that it's using a kind of

technology that we

don't understand.

LOEB: One of these
objects happen

to be from another civilization.

That would change

the future of humanity.