UFO HUNTERS: UFO Surveillance

History Channel - Original Air Date: 5/20/09

Are military and other facilities being watched by UFOs?  One man claims to have video showing strange lights over Long Island.  Because the man, Mark, has been diligent about recording his shooting times and locations, his films are good subjects for scientific analysis.  Sight-line analysis shows that 6 out of the 7 sightlines are consistent with local airports.  The one remaining film shows lights moving in ways the analyst says is not consisetent with conventional air traffic.  A woman reports a strange flash in the sky on the same night as a reported UFO craft near Brookhaven National Laboratory.  As usual, Bill and Pat seem ready to believe; Kevin seems skeptical.  The team goes to investigate the site (from 1992) which seems to be in the same sightline as the previous films.  MUFON claims that the fire department put out a fire from the crash, and the military took two days to haul the debris away. They have fuzzy video, purporting to be from the crash sight, but -- with all the mylar flashing around -- it looks like conventional air/space objects to me, if not an outright  hoax.  The team talks to local responders and a scientist at Brookhaven, but turn up no real clues; the scientist says he has seen no sign of UFOs, though he admits the accellerator's energy could be detected from space, if anyone had equipment to do so.  The Brookhaven Fire Chief says that his squad did not respond to a fire on the night in question.

The team takes a forensic archeologist back to the supposed crash site to look for evidence (17 years later).  There is some evidence of road clearing, and some evidence of damage to tree tops of the right age, but nothing more.  Did soemthing fall through the trees in Southaven?  With no solid evidence, the team turns their efforts to possible UFOs over Lawrence Livermore on the west coast.  There, they hear more stories from UFO researchers, and more speculations about what might be spotted from space.  Bill tries to tie together sightings in the sky and a nearby tire fire, which burns for two years.  Bill also asserts the Feds covered up at both scenes; as usual, lack of actual evidence doesn't slow him down.  They take some night-vision footage of a triangular light formation to an expert for analysis.  He says he thinks it's not one solid object -- but Pat hastily concludes the lights could be watching Livermore.  The team takes their own high-tech surveillance truck out to see if they can get footage of their own.  Even with this array of gear (including a FLIR IR rig), airplanes still look like discs.  When they don't see anything, Bill says that an advanced ET would know how to avoid being spotted.  Kevin notes that statistically, some sightings are bound to match up with strange occurances -- like tire fires -- on the ground.  Pat says the government could cover up evidence, but not accounts.  He thinks UFOs are watching us.  Bill says there is a conspiracy covering up ailen surveillance.

Rumor has it that this show may be cancelled.  And after what essentially amounts to a two-year snipe hunt, I'm not surprised.  (Though I did sign a petition to save it.)  If UFO Hunters gets another chance, I'd avise them to go for newer cases and more solid evidence.