03x08 - Hook Island Monster, Skydiver's Plane Stall, and Somalia Freighter Phantom

[bunniefuu]

- Tonight on "The
Proof Is Out There,"

a triangle UFO in Italy, and
this isn't the first time.

- Some people believe Mussolini

had a secret UFO
hunting program.

Look at
this famous photo.

Is it proof of an
ancient monster?

- Perhaps we're
looking at a mosasaur,

which lived from between 82
and 66 million years ago.

A spectral
image recorded

on a freighter ship at sea.

Is it proof of a sailor's ghost?

- This is hands down shocking.

And do these
ancient cave paintings

portray alien sky people?

- Possibly, these
extraterrestrials

were telepathic.

Around the
globe are videos.

What
the heck is this?

It's moving.

Photos and sounds
that defy explanation.

Is it some kind
of unidentified object?

What's exciting is
nobody really knows.

What are they?

Some sort of
bizarre mutation.

- Extraordinary claims
need extraordinary proof.

- I'm Tony Harris,

and as a journalist
for more than 30 years,

I've followed the facts
where they take me.

Now I'm bringing that
spirit of investigation

to the world's strangest
sounds and images.

We'll analyze each
one with top experts.

- It's a credible case,
it's a credible video.

And pass a
verdict on what it is.

- This video was clearly faked.

- The proof starts now.

Good evening and welcome to
"The Proof Is Out There."

When it comes to UFO sightings,

the classic saucer shape
from the 1950s and '60s

has long become passe,

and instead it's often bright
orbs and cylindrical objects,

which are reported more
and more frequently.

Recently, however,

we've been adding another
shape to that list, triangles.

But why and what does it mean?

Well, maybe this next
video can shed some light.

November, 2021.

A passenger on a train

speeding through the
Italian countryside,

notices something strange
outside his window

and starts recording.

Three orange lights in
a triangular formation

floating in the air
above the horizon.

Let's zoom in.

The lights not only
appear to be orbs,

but they're also glowing.

The video is uploaded
to social media

and quickly becomes a sensation.

- A lot of the
comments on the video

obviously linked
this light pattern

to the typical triangular UFO,

making claims that this was
some sort of alien spacecraft.

Journalist MJ Banias

says that kind of reaction
shouldn't be surprising.

- Italy has a fairly
rich UFO history.

In the early 1950s,

an entire soccer game

was actually stopped
in the city of Florence

when a crowd of 10,000 people
in the stadium looked up

and saw a handful

of strange oval shaped
UFOs fly over them.

Even before
then, A UFO crash in 1933

allegedly became the
catalyst for a secret program

led by one of Italy's
most notorious figures.

- Some people believe
that Mussolini,

the famed Italian dictator,

had a secret UFO
hunting program.

The idea was that in 1933,

a UFO crashed in Italy,

and Mussolini allegedly
hired famed radio pioneer

Guglielmo Marconi to figure out

what this technology was and
whether it could be weaponized.

- The Italian Center
for UFO Studies

documented almost 10,000
cases over a 50 year period

and we reported on some of them,

including this anomalous event
we investigated last year.

Could this triangle
be something related?

We ask for our experts' opinion.

We begin with forensic video
analyst, Michael Primeau.

Our first question,

has the footage been
manipulated in any way?

- The lights appear to be real,

at least to my naked eye when
analyzing it frame by frame.

But what the encoder is saying
using macro block analysis,

is that this information in
this green color is different

than this information
in this green color.

So it's a possibility that
some use of CGI was added

to this recording based on
the the macro block analysis,

but no definitive conclusions
can be drawn at this time.

Acknowledging
that red flag,

we take the video to astronomer
and video effects designer,

Marc D'Antonio, to see if
this could be a plane.

- I don't think that this
one here is an aircraft

because an airplane light,

this brightness would
be the landing lights

and airplanes generally
have two landing lights,

if not just one, in
some cases, not three.

Now you could say, well,

is this a stack of aircraft
one farther from the other,

making a logical triangle
from this perspective?

But these lights look
all the same brightness,

and if you stack up
planes like that,

the furthest plane away

is gonna be more,
several miles behind

the first plane in the lines,
will look a little bit dimmer

and smaller than the
one in the front.

D'Antonio rules out

any commercial or
military aircraft,

but he does believe
there is a clue

to the mystery in the video.

- If you also look carefully
when this train is moving,

it passes a sign along the way.

The sign is being
held up by two legs

and this object passes in
front of one of those legs.

The lights
don't disappear

when the train passes
the sign outside.

D'Antonio thinks it's because
this mysterious object

isn't actually in front
of a photographer.

- I think that this
is a light fixture

reflected in the window

from one of the
adjacent train seats.

But when we asked
science writer Mick West

to study the video,
he disagrees.

- I don't think this
is a reflection.

For one thing,

it's the only light being
reflected that you can see.

If it was a train
with lots of people,

you would expect to see more.

And when the person filming
it is moving the camera,

you see these bits of dirt
on the window move around.

But when they're moving around,

there's no movement at
all with this object,

which means that it's
not a reflection.

By zooming in,

Mick sees the lights are
not staying in one place.

- I took the video

and I tried stabilizing
the lights on the screen

so they all stay in
exactly the same position

and you can see that it's not
like a single solid object.

They seem to be moving
somewhat independently.

Another thing that you notice

is that the distance
between the lights

and the tree line
gradually decreases.

So we
have orange objects

that appear to be
slowly drifting down.

West believes there's an orange
light that fits the bill,

military flares.

- They're attached to
little parachutes,

so they just basically
sink down fairly slowly

and they burn for
about a minute or two

and then they'll usually drop.

- Our verdict,
this is a toss up.

We can't explain why the lights
don't pass behind the sign,

but we can't call it
a reflection either.

We can't even say
for sure it's real.

The military flare
theory feels right,

but our experts
aren't unanimous.

Until we know more,

we have to say this
remains unidentified.

Now it's time for a classic,

one of those decades
old incidents

that still inspires head
scratching to this day.

As we say in the business,

this story has legs even
though the alleged creature

you're about to see does not.

It's December 12th, 1965.

Robert Le Serrec
is on a motorboat

with his family near Hook
Island in Queensland, Australia.

While crossing the bay,

Robert's wife notices
a strange object

from the bottom of the lagoon.

The family starts
snapping pictures.

The photo shows what appears
to be a massive sea creature

that resembles a
terrifyingly large tadpole.

The serpentine creature
is dark black in color

and can be easily seen

beneath the clear
waters of the lagoon.

It looks to be at
least 30 feet long

based on the proportional size

of the boater in the background,

and it seems to be coiled
in the shape of an S.

The Serrecs say they
weren't terrified,

they were fascinated.

- They decided to
jump in the water

and get a closer look at
whatever this thing was.

It wasn't moving, so they
assumed that it was dead.

Journalists
Erin McCarthy tells us

that serpents like this

are a popular feature of
the local Australian lore.

- There's a creature
from the mythology

of Australia's
indigenous peoples

called the rainbow serpent.

When you see a rainbow
in the sky in Australia,

that's said to be
the rainbow serpent

traveling from one
water hole to another.

So is the rainbow
serpent more than a myth?

Could the myth
have been inspired

by something rare but real?

- So one theory that
has been floated

is that perhaps we're looking
at a prehistoric creature,

specifically a mosasaur,

which lived in oceans
around the world

from between 82 and
66 million years ago.

Technically,
mosasaurs weren't dinosaurs,

they're more closely related
to lizards and snakes.

As such, they were able
to unhinge their jaws

to eat prey nearly the
size of their bodies.

It seems ridiculous to
think an extinct sea species

could still be swimming, but
McCarthy doesn't think so.

- There was a particular
type of fish, coelacanth,

that was thought to be extinct

that was then
rediscovered in the 1930s,

so it's not unheard
of for science

to believe that a
creature has gone extinct

and for it to pop back up.

So we could be looking
at maybe a new species

or maybe a creature that
we thought was extinct

but actually isn't.

- The people on the
boat later surmised

that the creature
may have been wounded

by a ship's propeller
in deeper water

and had decided to take refuge

in the shallow
lagoon to recover.

They said it had eyes
with slit shaped pupils

on the top of its head

and its whole body was smooth
with no fins or spines.

But what will our experts see?

First off, could the
photo have been doctored?

- So from the EXIF analysis,

no signatures of Photoshopping

or any third party
editing software

was detected of this
particular image.

Now whether or not
the print photography

was manipulated prior to
production of this image,

I can't say with certainty,

but digitally, nothing has
occurred to these images.

So then what is it?

We turn to marine
biologist, Shea Conger,

who's pretty sure this
is not a mosasaur.

- Mosasaurs were very
dynamic predators.

They were probably very fast.

They had four flippers
that you would see here

and they had a
bit of a long neck

and a smaller head with
really sharp teeth.

Also, mosasaurs
were typically known

to be deeper sea animals.

They didn't spend
any time on land

and so they probably wouldn't
be in shallow water like this.

So I don't think
this is some kind of

a living predatory animal that
we think of as prehistoric.

So could it
possibly be a large eel?

- Eels are definitely
dark in color.

They can be very large,

but their bodies are much
more tubular in shape

and they wouldn't have such
distinct large head on them.

In addition, to have an eel
like this up in the surf

where you couldn't define
any facial features

would be very unusual as well.

An eel would have really
distinct eyes and nostrils

that we'd probably
be able to see here.

So I would probably deduce
that this is not an eel.

Also, you don't actually
see any disturbance

or other signs of movement.

So if this were a
dynamic object or animal,

you would see probably bubbles
or some ripples on the water

and you really
don't see anything,

especially for how
shallow this water is.

Could it be something

that was never even
alive in the first place?

If I had to guess
as to what we're looking at,

I think this looks like a
really two dimensional object

like black plastic that has
been placed on the bottom

of wherever this was taken.

One problem
there though,

some maintain that the figure
in the water is so clear

we'd be able to identify
a piece of plastic

if that's really what this was.

- It's a very clear image and
the fun thing about it is,

your brain can't
quite make it out.

It's hard to tell
what you're looking at

and that's where a lot
of the mystery comes from

in the Hook Island
sea monster image.

- We're going to call this
an unexplained object.

The evidence still
begets the question,

is this a real sea monster

lurking off the
coast of Australia

or just another convincing fake?

But this is hardly the
only suspected creature

off Australia's shores.

The country even has its
own Loch Ness Monster

called the Hawkesbury Monster,

which is believed to be
between 23 and 79 feet long.

So if you're ever in
the waters off the coast

of the land down
under, keep an eye out.

- Regular viewers
will have caught

some of our previous stories

about strange incidents
involving airplanes

like this alleged near miss,
but I've gotta tell you,

this next video was right up
there with the best of them.

Put your seats in the
upright position and hang on.

It's October, 2021 in
Mossel Bay, South Africa.

A team of 14 stunt sky
divers is flying at altitude

and preparing to jump.

Nine members of the team,
including their videographer,

are coming out onto
the side of the plane

or waiting just
inside when suddenly

their adventure takes
a nose dive, literally.

The plane slips once, twice,

and then falls out of the sky

just as the
videographer lets go,

followed by the other
waiting jumpers.

The camera keeps rolling as
the plane sails past them,

heading down rapidly
toward the earth.

Another person
jumps from the plane

as it starts to level off and
disappear into the clouds.

This video is so incredible

that I think we
need another look.

Here's where the plane
flips upside down

and goes into a barrel roll
before beginning to nosedive.

Even stranger, after
the near disaster,

the skydivers proceed
with their planned jump.

Journalist Amy Teitel
says she can't imagine

what must have been going
through their minds.

- It's really incredible

that this plane completely
missed the skydivers

and they seem to go right
back on with their jump,

getting in formation.

They don't seem phased

by the fact they almost
just got hit by a plane.

The pilot also looks like
they're very competent.

The plane isn't
flying at an angle

where it would naturally stall
the instant that it does.

So are we looking at
something that's CGI?

Something that has fake
elements to a real video?

- In the past, we've shown you
videos like the 747 near miss

that went viral but
turned out to be fake.

So is this real?

And if so, how is the pilot able

to recover control of
the aircraft so quickly?

The standard altitude
at which skydivers jump

is 10,000 to 13,000 feet

while the plane moves
at 100 miles per hour.

But by the time this
plane was in free fall

from a height of 16,000 feet,

it was moving much faster

than the skydivers' terminal
velocity of 120 miles per hour.

So, is a smooth recovery

under these challenging
conditions actually possible?

Let's consult our experts.

Our pixel man, Michael Primeau,

runs macro block analysis to
determine if this is even real.

- As we watch this plane
travel towards the clouds,

we see kind of a a glowing shape

and the macro blocks begin
to become more compressed.

There's video
compression artifacting

that's making it look like

it's kind of glitching
in and out of the clouds.

That could be misinterpreted
as manipulation

or misinterpreted as CGI or
something was placed over,

but we didn't detect
any evidence of that.

Although it has been
re-encoded at least twice,

the video is authentic.

Theoretical physicist,
Dr. Michio Kaku concurs.

- It's very difficult to
to fake the trajectory

of nine falling people plus
an airplane that is spinning.

Everything I saw on
the screen, I think,

is consistent with the
known laws of physics.

So if the
footage is real,

then how and why did
the plane just stall?

Normally in skydiving, people
jump out one at a time,

but since this was synchronized,

they all jumped at the same time

and Kaku thinks that is the key.

- When we had nine sky divers

jump out of the airplane
at the same time,

that created a torque

which caused the back part
of the airplane to swerve.

But aviation
expert Tim McMillan

thinks this happened because
the pilot slowed the plane down

by cutting power to the left
engine to make it easier

for the skydivers
to get in position.

- The pilot has really
brought the plane down

to a slow speed,

may very well have idled the
engine, so it's gliding.

After the final jumper jumped,

when the pilot throttled
the aircraft back up,

one of the engines spooled
up faster than the other,

bringing up the higher angle
of attack on the right wing

and the left is
trying to catch up.

The air flow was hitting
that left wing at an angle

that it was more on top of
the wing, forcing it down.

That is why we're gonna start
seeing that corkscrew turn

going towards the left side.

So the nosedive
could have been caused

by a few factors,

but how did the plane manage
to miraculously recover

from this death spiral?

McMillan says pilots train
for this exact scenario.

- The pilot is trying
to regain his aircraft

into what's called a
critical angle of attack,

where the wind hits the
wings of the aircraft,

that generate lift
and keep it in flight.

And so even though it's
dipping down here,

the pilot at this point

is likely controlling
the yoke forward

to try to get the nose back up

to where the wind that's
pushing over the wings

is now generating lift again
and they're staying in flight.

- Our verdict,

this is a rare but real
life aviation incident

likely set off by
too many jumpers

exiting at the same time.

The pilot is flying
with asymmetrical power

and the jumpers are
blocking airflow

to the left
horizontal stabilizer,

which McMillan says brings
up the higher angle of attack

on the right wing and
leads to the spin.

Amazingly, no one was injured,

and the plane returned
safely to the runway.

- Imagine being
woken up before dawn

to a strange sound from outside,

but when you go to check on it,
you see absolutely nothing.

That's just what happened
with our next clip

and the mystery lit
up the internet.

Take a listen.

In September 2017 in the
city of Albacete, Spain,

Noel Riggs, a Canadian man

who runs an English
language academy in the city,

is sound asleep at 6:30 AM.

Suddenly, he's jolted wide
awake by a loud noise.

Noel goes out on his balcony

and as the thunderous sound
continues, he starts recording.

From the
footage, we can see

that the streets down below

and the skies up above
are completely empty,

but the metallic sounds
keep coming in waves.

- There was construction
in the area.

My brain was saying
construction noise,

then I realized it was 6:30
in the morning on a Saturday

and I thought, no,
that's not right.

That's not normal.

I think it's even
against the law.

Noel looks for answers
online and a debate ensues.

Journalist Erin McCarthy
says a few claim

they've heard a
similar sound before.

- There's a theory
that these sounds

are something what's
called sky trumpets.

These are strange, trumpet-like
noises emanating from the sky

that have occurred
all over the world.

When people hear
these sky trumpets,

their minds automatically go
to the Book of Revelation,

which says that there
are seven angels

that will blow seven trumpets

that bring about a series
of apocalyptic events.

The Bible
says the Israelites

heard very loud trumpet blasts

that cause them to tremble
when God was giving Moses

the 10 commandments
on Mount Sinai,

and many centuries later
in Colonial America,

the settlers reported hearing

mysterious loud
noises from the sky

that the Iroquois told
them where the sounds

of the great spirit
continuing to shape the earth.

Several other
physical explanations

have been proposed
for sky trumpets,

everything from tectonic
plates grinding to tidal waves.

But since this event takes
place in an urban setting,

that might offer some
clues to its source.

Let's sound off
with our experts.

Since Noel had mentioned
construction in the area,

physicist Matthew Szydagis runs
a Fourier transform analysis

to see if that
could be the cause.

- A Fourier transform is a
mathematical tool to take waves

to determine what frequencies
are in that sound.

Typically, heavy machinery
has some frequencies

that occur at 500
to 700,000 hertz.

The frequencies do
appear to match.

What makes it unusual

is that it doesn't seem
to be a time of day

where you could have
construction or heavy machinery.

Noel confirms
there was no work

going on at the construction
site that morning.

So meteorologist Juan
Hernandez checks to see

if a bizarre weather
event could be to blame.

- It is typical to see
a thermal inversion

in these parts of of
the country in Spain.

A thermal inversion occurs

when you have cold or
cool air near the surface

and then you have
warmer air aloft.

Oftentimes that acts as a wall
to bounce off any sound waves

that may have come
from faraway places.

This means a
sound dozens of miles away

could deflect off the
clouds at an angle.

If that's what's happening,

sound ecologist, Dr.
Ben Gottesman thinks

it could come from, get this,

a shipyard 100 miles away.

- So here we can
hear a few things,

the motors of
different vehicles,

maybe as they're moving things
to and fro at this shipyard,

but these impulsive
sounds are not similar

to the more droned
out metallic sounds

that we were hearing in
the Spanish metal noise.

But
Gottesman does concede

that with the sound traveling
such a far distance,

there's a chance it
could have been warped.

- As it's bouncing and
traveling farther than normal,

its frequency
response can change

because certain frequencies

are able to reflect
better than others

and that can lead to what was
a very common sounding sound

turning much more
bizarre and strange

because its frequency
response is altered.

Yet Szydagis has still
one more sneaking suspicion.

- Unfortunately, the
waters have been muddied

by how easy it is
to hoax a sound.

I did a Fourier analysis of
some scary fictional noises.

While
this sound effect,

which is almost identical
to the one used

for the smoke monster
in the TV show "Lost",

is suspiciously similar,
it's not an exact match.

Our verdict,

the source of the strange
metal sound remains unknown.

Yes, there's a chance

it could have traveled
from a far distance

and been altered due to a
temperature inversion layer.

It's also possible
the video was staged

and the audio was added later.

But Noel's an English teacher,
not a known prankster,

and he's always
stuck by his story.

As with many things,

this one comes down to
whom you choose to believe.

- The high seas are full
of unexplained occurrences,

which makes them a hotbed for
reports of ghostly sightings.

So when we heard of
a possible apparition

being captured on camera below
deck on a freighter ship,

we naturally asked to see
the video and here it is.

September 2021.

A freighter is sailing
in the Indian Ocean

off the coast of Somalia,

a lawless stretch of ocean
notorious for pirates.

So the crew is ordered
to their quarters

and all lights are
turned off, so as

not to attract any unwanted
attention from marauders.

The ship's security
cameras are rolling

in a cargo hold below
decks when they catch this.

A bright orb of light
floats through the hall

leaving a vapor
trail in its wake.

Moments later, a black
mist travels back

in the opposite
direction of the orb

before manifesting as what
appears to be a human figure.

Look closely as we zoom in.

The mysterious
figure is standing

in the corner of the room.

Then as miraculously as
the apparition arrived,

it dematerializes back into
black vapor and vanishes.

- There is a theory
amongst paranormal experts

that violent deaths leave a mark

and that the spirits
of the people

who have been violently m*rder*d

will return to those areas
to continue to haunt them.

So in waters
known for piracy,

could this be the spirit
of a pirate's victim

or is this shape from elsewhere?

Physicists speak of worm holes,

anomalies that act as portals

connecting one far
off place to another.

Could this figure be some
extraterrestrial traveler

from a far off galaxy?

We've analyzed
videos of ghost ships

and other nautical
anomalies before.

For instance, this
floating ship we examined

turned out to be a
mirage caused by the sky

reflecting off the calm
sea in the distance.

So, is this new,
uncanny seafaring image

explainable or not?

Our experts will get
to the bottom of it.

Professor Michio Kaku considers,

could this be proof of an alien
traveling through a wormhole?

- Wormholes were
first introduced

through Lewis Carroll, who
wrote "Alice in Wonderland."

It is basically a mirror.

If you put your hand
through the mirror,

you go from one
universe to Wonderland.

And who was the first one

to mathematically
rigorize this idea?

Albert Einstein.

He took two black holes,
stuck them back to back,

so that if you fell
through one black hole,

you got blown off the
other end as a white hole.

In 2019, a supermassive
black hole's shadow

was captured on camera
for the first time

by the Event Horizon telescope.

But you probably won't see one
on a ship's security camera.

- Why don't we see
wormholes everywhere?

Well, there's a catch

and that is that the energy
necessary to create a wormhole

is the energy of a star

maybe 10 to 50 times more
massive than our sun.

But this is far beyond

anything that we can
muster on the planet Earth.

And as for the
ghost pirate theory.

- Ghosts are supernatural.

They involve things
that seem to be outside

the usual bounds of physics,

unless of course,
you edit the tape.

Science writer and
video forensics analyst,

Mick West goes even further,
demonstrating how one

could fake phenomena
like this on camera.

- When cameras don't
have enough light,

they need to boost what they're
getting from the sensor.

So the camera might have
to take multiple frames

and kind of add them all
together to get the image.

This is the issue.

In a darkroom, the shutter
needs to stay open longer

in order to receive
enough information.

This is called a long exposure

and the camera ends up combining

multiple frames into one image.

- And that's gonna
leave trails like this

with very bright objects

and with a dimmer
object like a person,

it will leave a trail,
but much fainter.

Something like the mist that
we see when the guy disappears.

So I thought, if this
is what's going on,

could I actually
duplicate this effect?

West shares
a homemade video

that illustrates how
to doctor footage

to create the effects
we see in the freighter.

- You can simulate what's
going on in the camera

by taking the exact same
video and adding together

30 frames at a time
to create a new image.

And now we get a
much cleaner image.

We can see everything that's
going on in my garage,

but when I actually
walk into the shot,

you just see me come in as
a ghostly mistly effect,

and I stand there,

because I'm standing in the
same position for a long time.

My image stays there and
then I kind of fade out

exactly the same as we
saw in the ship video.

- Our compass points
toward a hoax on this one.

At the end of this voyage,

given the cargo load
of evidence laid out,

we think it was
trick video editing,

not a ghost or a time traveler.

And by the way, we think
the light in the video

was caused by a
sailor's flashlight.

- Prehistoric cave paintings

have been discovered
all around the world,

but deep in the
Australian Outback,

we found some images that
appear to be so unusual,

some people question if they
are from our world at all.

Instead, could they be
ancient alien astronauts?

In the Kimberly Region
of Western Australia,

the Aboriginal people

left intriguing
paintings on cave walls.

They are called the Wandjina,

incredible beings Aboriginals
said created the world.

Take a closer look.

Do you see the round heads
and the circular eyes?

According to George Haas,

founder of the
Cydonia Institute,

the Wandjina could be out
of this world evidence.

- They have radiating feathers
that come off the head.

Some believe that when
you first look at these,

they scream alien.

And the absence of mouths
suggests that possibly

these extraterrestrials
were telepathic.

Wait a minute,
did he say aliens?

It's an intriguing theory.

What we do know is that
Australian Aboriginal culture

goes back 65,000 years

and holds that humans were
created by the Wandjina.

These unique paintings are
a record of that period,

which they call Dreamtime.

- You don't see
these type of images

in other cave paintings done
by Neanderthals and early man,

which mostly deal with hunting
and animals, deer, bison.

But these paintings that
we're seeing in Australia

are totally unique.

In some tales,

the Wandjina are
referred to as sky beings

or spirits from the clouds who
came down from the Milky Way

and created the
Earth and its people.

- Some believe that these
portraits of the Wandjina

certainly blur the line

between extraterrestrial
and spiritual world.

They seem to have
aspects of both.

- When it comes to our origins,

some speculate that ancient
extraterrestrial visitors

engineered the creation
of modern humans

through DNA manipulation
or some other means.

The paintings are intriguing.

Look closely at the
lines going across,

creating sections on
the body, here and here.

Could this be the pattern
of an ancient space suit?

We asked our experts.

We begin with
anthropologist Kathy Strain,

who notes that if the paintings
are an elaborate hoax,

someone must have thought
of it over a century ago.

- They were documented
by anthropologists

more than a hundred years ago.

And outside the fact that
you're adding some paint

to keep the color alive,
they haven't changed.

These are not a hoax.

So if the pictures
are real, are they of aliens?

We asked archeologist
Ed Barnhart.

- There are people who envision

that it's helmets on their
heads and suits on their bodies,

but this is a very
plodding looking helmet.

The kind of helmet that you
see in 1950s aliens movies.

It's kind of
ridiculous to believe

that an advanced civilization
came here in suits

that in our current
technology are archaic.

And the idea
that these designs

on the bodies are space suits?

- You're gonna see
an image like this

and envision suits
on their bodies.

But we do see today in
Aboriginal ceremonies,

people typically paint their
bodies completely white,

their faces, their hair,

and then they'll put some
kind of decoration over that.

So I think that it is clearly
connected to Aboriginal people

who today paint their bodies
in a very similar fashion.

In fact, Kathy Strain
sees a clue in one image

that convinces her these
are strictly human bodies.

It is pretty rare

to see genitalia of
a male in rock art,

and based on things
that witnesses say

that space aliens
don't have genitalia,

that that's not
how they reproduce.

These look like human genitalia.

So what are we seeing?

- The halo around the head,

I don't believe that they
intended it to be interpreted

as anything other than it's
the process of transforming

and that's your head
kind of extending

and above itself and
continuing to carry out.

The halo has been used

in many different cultures
throughout history

to represent spiritual
transformation,

including the
Aboriginal Australians.

- These images around the
heads are some kind of symbol

of the expansion of
their minds and spirits.

- So our verdict, these
were likely humans.

In fairness, you do have to ask,

do the Aboriginal traditions
of body decorations stem from

a time when strange
beings were observed?

It's impossible to
completely discount,

but if these particular
paintings were aliens,

well then, let's just say they
were endowed in a human way.

- We've all dreamt of the
day we could press a button

and have our cars take flight,

especially when
stuck in traffic.

But does this next video prove

the era of flying
cars has arrived?

It's late October
2007 in Hong Kong.

A company called Gear
Factory is filming

what appears to be a
groundbreaking demonstration.

As the camera rolls
in the parking lot

of a typical residential
neighborhood,

the front axle of a
silver Vauxhall sedan

slowly lifts off the ground.

The rear axle soon follows,

and suddenly the car
is hovering in mid air

over the parking lot.

You can hear what sounds
like an engine whirring,

but the only propellers

appear to be tiny and
attached to the doors.

After a short one minute flight,

it comes back down to
rest on the ground.

The company posts
the video online

and the internet goes wild at
the prospect of a flying car.

Journalist Eric Grundhauser
says the flying car

has long been the unicorn
of automotive engineering.

- Since the early 20th century,

there have been a
number of potential

flying car technologies
that have been promised

to roll out to the
general public.

In the '60s was a car
that the government

was almost going to roll out.

Even in 2006,

a company was promising
to release a flying car.

Arguably,

the first flying car
prototype called the Avrocar

was designed nearly 50 years ago

as a secret military
project during the Cold w*r.

Resembling a flying saucer,

it would've taken off
and landed vertically

before it was
ultimately scrapped.

Yet Grundhauser says there
are various potential models

for how flying cars could
work in real world scenarios.

- If you look at something
like a helicopter,

you could simply
take off vertically,

like technology known as eVTOL,

which stands for electric
takeoff and landing.

This technology
would allow vehicles

to be much more maneuverable.

We see the propellers
on the side of the Vauxhall.

So is that what's
giving the car its lift?

Helicopters use rotor blades
that accelerate the air

that passes over the top as
they spin to create lift.

But these are complex
flying machines

that require hundreds of
hours of practice to master.

So have we finally
cracked the code for a car

everyone can learn to
drive and also fly?

Let's let the experts
take the wheel.

The video seems so unbelievable,

we had to pay another
visit to Michael Primeau.

- You can see the glare
from the reflection,

assuming that it's
coming in this direction

and we've got a shadow
that is produced.

Now we know that these shadows
can be produced artificially,

but to this scale of an object
in this type of environment,

to manipulate that information
would be very difficult,

especially when this
car begins to spin.

I would say that
this is less likely

to be something that was
artificially produced.

So if the footage
isn't digitally manipulated,

could this car
actually be flying

like a plane or a helicopter?

Physicist, Dr. Matthew Szydagis
looks into the science.

- Rotors that will
give you an upward lift

countering the downward
force of gravity

require large enough blades
that produce enough moving air

to produce enough force to
counteract the force of gravity.

So Szydagis
crunches the numbers

on the required force for
this car to go airborne.

- The force of
gravity on this car

is equal to mass times the
acceleration of gravity.

That will be a lot
of pounds of force

that you would need
to counteract gravity.

And these puny little blades

are just not gonna
make it possible.

So if a heavy car
model like this can't really fly

with those little propellers,

then is it actually
a real car at all?

- This doesn't seem to
be a natural reflection.

In fact, you sometimes see

what looked like bumpiness
on the reflection.

You don't have
bumpiness on glass,

but you do have
bumpiness on a balloon.

We tracked down
Gear Factor's owner,

German entrepreneur, Murti Jung,

and he confirms
that his flying car

is in fact a high tech balloon.

- We are producing
flying objects,

flying solutions for
shows and events.

I never had the intention
to fool anybody.

It was basically
doing some marketing

with something exciting.

- Our verdict,

this is a promotional
flying balloon

that looks remarkably
like a real car.

It's part of a staged event
run by Murti's company,

which is known for its
innovative flying concepts.

So sure you could say the age
of the flying car has arrived,

but this one's too flimsy to
transport anything but helium.

And that's our show for tonight.

Send us your videos
of the unexplained

and we'll give them "The
Proof Is Out There" treatment.

And remember to keep
those cameras rolling.