- Tonight on "The Proof is out There." (intense music) Is this video proof of aliens underwater? - [Woman] This was a UFO that ended up turning into a unidentified submerged object. - [Tony] Is this photo proof a prehistoric predator still exists? - What severed the shark? How big could that have been? - [Tony] And is this proof a famous shipwreck is still sailing? (exciting music) (light switch clicking) (powerful music) Around the globe are videos. - [Woman] What the heck is this? - [Tony] Photos and sounds that defy explanation. (deep tone) - [Man] Is it some kind of unidentified object? - [Man 2] A plane that was literally frozen in the air. - [Tony] What are they? - [Man 3] Some sort of bizarre mutation.
- Extraordinary claims need extraordinary proof. (ominous music) - 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.
(creature screeching) We'll analyze each one with top experts. (people screaming faintly) - It's a credible case, it's a credible video. - [Tony] And pass a verdict on what it is. - This video was clearly faked.
- The proof starts now. (exciting music) We begin tonight with a UFO over Puerto Rico. Now, there have been countless UFO sightings over the years, but many experts consider this next piece of footage the gold standard. Take a look for yourself. It's just after dark on August 25th, 2013 in Aquadilla, Puerto Rico.
The crew of a United States Customs and Border Patrol plane is taking off for a routine mission when they notice a strange pinkish light approaching from the northwest. They turn on their thermal imaging camera to track the object, and this is what they see. (mysterious music) Let's take a closer look. It appears to be a metallic sphere moving fairly quickly around the airport. Then it heads out over the ocean where it does something truly unexpected. (mysterious music) Did you catch what happened? Let's zoom in.
The object seems to splash down in the water before re-emerging seconds later. Even more bizarre, the object then splits into two separate craft. And people, there is no known Earth technology that can do that. After nearly four minutes, the object disappears from view. (mysterious music) Now, Puerto Rico is the location for several sightings of so-called USOs, unidentified submerged objects. Back in the 1990s, a Navy helicopter pilot allegedly saw an unidentified dark underwater mass during a training exercise.
Another published report describes a similar incident in 1963 during an anti-submarine exercise led by the USS Wasp. - They keep talking about these incidents occurring around their aircraft carriers, Naval ships, Puerto Rico. Long history of interesting sightings, very long history. - What makes this video so special is that it comes straight from a million dollar infrared camera mounted on a government plane.
There's a ton of data to analyze here, so what do our experts think? (mysterious music) - [Richard] It's a credible case, it's a credible video. - [Tony] Richard Hoffman heads the Scientific Coalition for Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon. First question, is the video real? - The telemetry you see on the screen, showing GPS location, identically matched what you had with radar. So there really was an aircraft. - [Tony] Next, Hoffman's team determines the object's temperature to help identify it. They compare the heat signature of the craft to some cows on the ground in this frame at the top of your screen.
- We broke the video into 256 shades from white to black, all different shades of gray, and we were able to match that up with the temperature of the cows to match the temperature of the object. The object was roughly at about 104 degrees. - [Tony] Right away, that eliminates a jet engine, which emits exhaust 15 times hotter. - The thermal signature doesn't match anything that we know now, and there's no sign of any kind of propulsion system on this. - [Tony] Then they figure out the object's size, using this frame, when the object goes behind a light post two pixels wide. - [Richard] Okay, well, the object went behind it and was blanked out.
So doubt, maybe it's two pixels. That's where we come up with it's about three to five feet in diameter. - [Tony] Based on that analysis, Hoffman says the most likely earthly explanations are eliminated.
- We ruled out that it wasn't a balloon, there was about 18 mile an hour winds from the northeast, and this object was going in opposite directions from that. So it's clearly not a balloon. - [Tony] What about a drone? Our aviation expert, Tim McMillan, is skeptical.
- How are you achieving flight without an airfoil, without an angle attack, without wings, to simplify that, you know, how are you doing that? - [Tony] And finally, a bird? - We took a look at thermal signatures of birds and various other objects, and it doesn't match anything like this. And there you go. It's unidentified. It's not from any place here. (mysterious music) - So is it proof or not? Well, you might think it's a bird, a balloon, or a man-made aircraft, but it is hard to explain how this goes in and out of the water and splits. So folks, we're gonna call this a UFO.
You almost never see an object like this going into and out of the water, that's amazing. anet , less than 5% of that area has been explored. That's why what you're about to hear has become one of the great mysteries of the deep.
It began in 1991, when a deep water hydrophone like this first detected a sound emanating from 5,000 miles away, someplace in the Pacific Ocean, roughly halfway between Australia and South America. (mysterious sounds vibrating) Let's listen to it again. The whoop whoop sound ascends at the end.
(mysterious sounds vibrating) That's why it's known as the upsweep. Now, the ocean is a noisy place. There's manmade machines, (submarine sonar beeping) geological events like volcanoes and glaciers, (glacier rumbling) and the sea life is much noisier than previously believed.
(whales singing) With so much left to be discovered down there, journalist Alexis Brooks suggests the upsweep may be caused by some unknown sea beast. (mysterious sounds vibrating) - There are many creatures that roam the sea that people felt were in fact myth until they were actually discovered. For instance, the giant squid.
It is now known that it exists. - [Tony] One thing is certain. The source of the upsweep has to be massive. So let's consider this candidate, the massive prehistoric shark known as the megalodon.
- It's been established that the megalodon actually did exist, albeit 2 1/2 million years ago, with estimates of its length being in excess of 60 feet, and weight upwards of 50 tons. However, there are people who feel that the megalodon still exists. (mysterious music) - [Tony] Could this recent photo be proof the megalodon is still alive? It shows a huge mako shark found by a fisherman off the coast of Australia, bitten in half. - You have to take a deep breath and say, "What on God's green Earth severed the shark? How big could that have been?" (intense music) - So the famous megalodon is one interesting potential source of the upsweep, but there are plenty of other theories about that strange sound. For answers, we turned first to our expert on ocean life.
(mysterious music) Marine biologist Dr. Shea Conger starts by tackling the megalodon theory. - It's unlikely that megalodons are still in our oceans, because of the fact that shark teeth are continually shed through the animal's life. There's never been a current specimen of a megalodon tooth that's ever been found. - [Tony] And as for that chewed-up mako shark.
- If this were attacked by a megalodon, it likely could have been swallowed completely whole. (ominous music) Instead, what you see are several very large semi-circular bite marks, including some teeth rakes. What this tells me is that this animal suffered a number of bite wounds. - [Tony] Likely during a feeding frenzy by other sharks. But something is making that sound, and if it's not the megalodon, what is it? Audio expert Dr. Ben Gottesman is struck by the sound's intensity, focusing on the stunning fact that it was first detected at a distance of 5,000 miles.
- [Ben] That's what it makes me think it's some very large, very intense seismic sound. - [Tony] So let's listen to the sound of an underwater volcano. Note that it trails off at the end.
(underwater volcano droning) Now the upsweep, again, the signature ascension. (mysterious sounds vibrating) This doesn't match anything seismic. So what about a manmade source, like the machinery used for offshore oil drilling? (pile drivers thumping) - Pile drivers or different machines in the ocean have a more mechanically spaced, more stereotypical impulsive sound. That's not what we see here. - [Tony] Because the upsweep varies, Conger says it's likely the sound was made by an animal, but with a catch.
(whales singing) - The upsweep is a sound that we have as yet attributed to any species of marine mammal. The upsweep doesn't currently match any of these profiles. (mysterious sounds vibrating) (mysterious music) - Humpback whale sounds can travel thousands of miles, just like the upsweep, but again, none match its acoustic profile.
So you see why it's remained a mystery for so long. Every possible explanation doesn't quite fit. But we agree with Dr. Conger. Our verdict, a very large unidentified marine mammal, not the megalodon, but something we don't even have a name for yet. its tr. More than 500 ships have wrecked there, and most have never been seen again, or have they? October, 2018, Jason Asselin is giving friends a tour along the shores of Lake Superior near Marquette, Michigan.
- As we're walking along the lake shore, I heard somebody gasp, and I looked over and I saw them pointing out into the water and said, "What is that out there?" - [Tony] Jason pulls out his camera and starts recording. There's what appears to be a tall and large object on the horizon. So let's take a closer look. The object is gray in color, but the shape appears pretty blurry. Jason and his friends think it might be a ship.
- This ship would have had to been hundreds of feet into the air. We never thought that it was a ghost ship at the time, but when I got home and watched the video, that's all I could think of. We just saw a ghost ship. - Since the late 1800s, there have been hundreds and hundreds of shipwrecks that have occurred on Lake Superior. It's definitely a dangerous patch of water that is essential for trade, but very risky to travel on.
- [Tony] From the SS Western Reserve in 1892 to the Hudson in 1901, many large freighters have sunk in bad weather, only to be seen again, allegedly plying the waters long after a tragic wreck. - According to local legend, one of the most famous ships to have gone down is the SS Bannockburn. Locals call it the Flying Dutchman of Lake Superior, and people still claim to see it to this day. - [Tony] That's a reference to the legendary Flying Dutchman, the doomed 17th century ship that's been sighted and spoken of for centuries. Jason can't help but wonder if this is the mysterious phenomenon he's captured on camera. - We just witnessed something out of this world.
- There's a poem about the world's most famous phantom ship, with the line, "They who see the Flying Dutchman never, never reach the shore." But when it comes to getting answers, never say never. Here's what we found. (mysterious music) First, science writer and forensic video analyst Mick West focuses on the shape of the object in Jason's video.
He notes that most famous shipwrecks in Lake Superior are freighters with steam engines. This looks different. - It looks like a sail ship.
I don't know whether they have big sail ships on the Great Lakes, but that's what it looks like, and if that's unexpected, then that's a clue that it's not actually a ship. - [Tony] Next, the team considers another possibility. Physicist Dr. Michio Kaku says it might be a mirage.
- A mirage is caused by temperature inversion, and dense air bends light more than hot air. - [Tony] A temperature inversion can make images below the horizon visible, distorted in the distance. So could the weather be causing this effect? Atmospheric scientist Dr. Deanna Hence looked at the data the day the sighting happened, and sees just such an inversion. - The temperature is decreasing, and it's actually getting closer to zero. So this is that temperature inversion that can lead to that warm air sitting on top of cold air.
This can actually really change how light can propagate through the atmosphere. - [Tony] Then Mick West tries to put the pieces together. Could a temperature inversion have distorted something that is already there? Turns out there's a small island 12 miles offshore in this area that's normally hard to see. - Up above, we have a view of the island.
So this is the direction we're looking from. So I just simply lined up the lighthouse here in the top, with the lighthouse down here. So that lines up perfectly. (mysterious music) - So what is that thing? The key for us was the temperature data and that island. Our verdict, mirage.
A temperature inversion caused an island that's usually a bump on the horizon to look like a phantom ship. p five list of legendary creatures, the Loch Ness monster. Sightings date back to the 6th century. And just when you think the creature and the legend may have died down, some new eyewitness accounts pop up to remind you the story is still very much alive.
(mysterious music) This is Loch Ness, a mist-shrouded Lake in the Scottish Highlands, its waters a murky black ink, dark enough to hide one of the most iconic and elusive beasts of all time. - Thought I'd seen it all in Loch Ness, but this is just something I've seen I can't explain, so. - [Tony] It's July, 2020. Firefighter and lifelong Loch Ness resident Ross Macaulay is overlooking the water from the shore when he records this. (mysterious music) - [Tony] Take another look. The image is hard to see.
So let's zoom in, slow it down, and outline the figure in the water. And Ross' sighting isn't the only recent one of its kind. In September, 2019, Stephen Challice is on vacation when he snaps this unbelievable photo.
(ominous music) - I'm guessing that what I saw was eight foot long, but there might've been a bit more either end of that underneath the water. So you could be talking about a fish that was 10, 12 feet long. (intense music) - Whatever this is, it's massive. - [Tony] Field researcher Ken Gerhard is one of the world's foremost experts on mysterious creatures, and is writing a book on Loch Ness. He has spoken to hundreds of eyewitnesses who swear Nessie exists.
- The descriptions are very consistent, and this leads me to believe that yes, in fact, there is a population of remarkable immense animals in Loch Ness. - So are these just big fish stories or something more? We turned these amazing images over to our team of analysts to see if they would hold up under scrutiny. (mysterious music) Our marine biologist, Dr. Shea Conger, begins her evaluation with the photos taken by Stephen Chalice.
Could we be looking at some kind of fish? Conger says no. - It's emerging pretty prominently from the water, and you don't see any protruding fins. - [Tony] Conger concludes that it must be some sort of massive marine mammal, but upon closer examination, she notices something else that seems a bit fishy. - When I look at this image, I see a couple of red flags. If an object or animal is submerged in water, we would see a series of eddies and ripples around the entirety of this animal, extending out pretty far. Instead, what we see are a series of regular waves surrounding this animal, and a small trailing wake behind it.
- [Tony] Based on those suspicions, we turned the photos over to our forensic video analyst, Michael Primeau. - I performed what's called a smart report of the digital image that was provided, and it reported inconsistencies with the digital information. So in layman's terms, the picture of the alleged Loch Ness monster is not an authentic image. (ominous music) - [Tony] But what about the Macaulay video? We have no reason to believe it's a hoax. - It's a pretty calm day, which means that whatever's on the surface of the water is not a wave or other associated item.
So I can say that there is probably a large object here. - [Tony] So what is it? Conger says she can also rule out a log or any other inanimate object, but she does have a theory. - A recent study utilizing eDNA was able to identify that there are in fact eel species within this lake. It's possible that some of these species could be large, however, they are as of yet undefined.
(ominous music) - So we have a split decision this time. The unbelievable photos of the Loch Ness monster are exactly that, unbelievable. The wave motion of the wake was the decider. As for the video, we think it's real, and we think it's an eel. Still, sociobiologists believe that because of our history as a prey species, humans will always be fascinated by stories of animals big enough to eat us. The legend of the Loch Ness monster is probably here to stay.
And that's our show for tonight. We want your comments and suggestions, so please reach out to us. I'm Tony Harris, reminding you to keep those cameras rolling. (intense music)
2022-11-22