Close Encounters

Part 1: BIG WOODS, BRIGHT LIGHTS: DECEMBER 11, 1996: Two cousins, Billy and John Smith, are driving in separate cars along the Klondike Highway when they encounter a massive "mothership" three times the size of a football stadium. Their description matches at least 30 other witnesses who see the same object in the sky that night around Fox Lake and the village of Pelly Crossing. It is one of the most extensively documented and researched UFO sightings in Northern Canada. Part 2: MISSILE MALFUNCTION: MARCH 24, 1967: Deputy Commander Robert Salas receives an mergency call from guards at the Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana who have spotted an unidentified object overhead. In the 1960's, the base is the largest nuclear weapons complex in the world and is home to an arsenal of Minuteman Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles. As the object passes over the base, "all hell breaks loose" when the ten minuteman missiles suddenly go off line.

Part 1: BELL OF FIRE: DECEMBER 9, 1965: It's early evening in rural Pennsylvania when several dozen witnesses report seeing a fiery object falling through the sky and landing in nearby woods. Volunteer Firefighter, Jim Romansky, is called to the scene to investigate what they think is a crashed plane. As Romansky combs the woods near Kecksburg, he spots a glowing acornshaped metallic object. As he moves in to investigate the strange craft, the military orders Romansky and any other civilians to leave the area. The military denies ever finding a craft in the woods that night. Part 2: NOT QUITE A COMET: MARCH 13, 1997: Thousands of people in Phoenix, Arizona are stargazing in search of the Hale-Bopp comet, which is supposed to be visible in the night sky. Instead, hundreds of witnesses report seeing strange lights flying in a formation, while hundreds more report boomerang- and triangular-shaped crafts the size of three football fields flying low and soundlessly over their homes. The U.S. Air Force immediately denies anything unusual in the airspace that night.

Part 1: SECOND COMING: DECEMBER 29, 1980: Betty Cash, Vickie Landrum and her grandson Colby are driving home after visiting a bingo hall in Dayton, Texas. On a country road, they encounter a large, diamond-shaped craft shooting fire out of its base. The heat is so intense it melts the vinyl of their vehicle's dashboard. They report seeing at least a dozen military helicopters in pursuit of the object. All three suffer physical symptoms similar to radiation poisoning and spend a decade pressing the U.S. government for answers. Part 2: SPACE ROCK: MAY 20, 1967: Stephen Michalak is an amateur geologist in search of quartz in Falcon Lake, Manitoba. When he arrives at his prospecting site, Michalak encounters a discshaped metallic object, which lands metres away from him. He thinks he hears voices inside the craft, so he moves closer, assuming it is a secret military test vehicle. As Michalak touches the craft, it suddenly blasts off, burning his shirt and leaving permanent marks on his chest. Despite investigations by the U.S. and Canadian governments, no one could ever explain Stefan Michalak's extraordinary encounter.

Part 1: SKY HIGH: NOVEMBER 17, 1986 - A Japanese airline crew is en route from Paris to Tokyo with a cargo load of Beaujolais wine. As Captain Terauchi and his crew are crossing Alaska, they encounter blindingly bright lights flying in their airspace. These lights illuminate the cockpit and seem to be keeping pace with the Boeing 747. Captain Terauchi then reports seeing two unidentified crafts, one the size of a 'mothership'. The UFO is tracked by both ground and airborne radar, though its origins remain unknown. Part 2: CRASH COURSE: AUGUST 27, 1979 - Deputy Sheriff Val Johnson is on patrol near Stephen, Minnesota in the early morning hours when he sees a beam of light shining down on the road ahead. As he continues to drive, the beam of light engulfs his car. Johnson briefly loses consciousness and wakes up to discover that he had skidded off the road and he's suffering eye damage similar to welder's burns. Both his wristwatch and the car clock have stopped for exactly 14 minutes.

Part 1: SCHOOL'S OUT: APRIL 6, 1966 - It's 11am at the Westall School in Melbourne, Australia when a classroom of students playing outside see a saucer-shaped object in an adjacent field. Word quickly spreads and hundreds of students and teachers observe the strange craft as it touches down, metres away. One student jumps the fence and tries to make contact when it suddenly takes off. The incident lasts for 20 minutes. The children are told never to speak of the incident, and it is kept a secret for over 30 years. Part 2: CHRISTMAS LIGHTS: NOVEMBER 25, 2009 -- On a short drive home from his work near Port Jervis, New York, John Hudson is singing along to Christmas carols when he notices strange lights in the sky. He describes a cigar-shaped object, 200 feet in length, with five multi-coloured lights. As the object passes over his car, his car dies and so does his cell phone. When it finally disappears, his car and cell phone start up again. Investigators believe the effects on his vehicle and cellphone were due to some kind of electromagnetic interference.

Episode 1: BLIND DATE: NOVEMBER 2, 1971 - 16-year-old Ron Johnson is feeding the family sheep when he suddenly sees a mushroomshaped object appearing in the field. As he moves in to get a closer look, he is blinded by the glowing light emitted from the object. After he regains his vision, Ron races back to his family house to alert his Mother and Father, Erma and Durel. They see the object as it disappears and then discover a glowing ring on the ground. Erma Johnson touches the substance and her fingers immediately go numb. She would experience numbness in her fingers for the rest of her life. Part 2: FLYING HOUSE: JANUARY 5, 2000 - Three police officers from a number of small towns in southern Illinois track an unknown object flying in the sky. As they maintain radio contact with each other, they describe the object being as large as a house, triangular in shape and travelling at treetop level at varying speeds. Dozens of other witnesses come forward and report seeing the same object in the sky that night.

Part 1: TRIANGLES IN THE FOREST: DECEMBER 25-27, 1980 - Strange lights are reported by security patrol near the East Gate of RAF Woodbridge, a U.S. Air Force base on England's east coast. Just after midnight on December 26, eyewitnesses and radar screens follow an unidentified flying object as it vanishes into the forest. Soldiers are dispatched to the site where they encounter a luminous triangular-shaped craft, ten feet wide and eight feet high. The soldiers chase it into a field when it shoots upward, shining bright lights. The following evening, other soldiers report strange, dancing red lights in the Rendelsham forest. Part 2: HIGH TIDE: OCTOBER 4, 1967: 18-year-old Norm Smith is driving back from a dance at a local community centre, when he and his friend see an object falling from the sky near the small fishing village. At first, they think it is an airplane about to crash. When they arrive at Shag Harbour, a dozen witnesses report seeing a metallic object hovering over the water and then crashing. A search and rescue team is assembled, and nothing is found but an eerie, yellow glittery foam floating where the object was spotted. An extensive underwater investigation finds nothing strange on the sea floor where the object is last seen.

Part 1: NUCLEAR REACTION: OCTOBER 27-28, 1975: Over two nights, a silent, orange football-shaped object is spotted near the nuclear weapons storage site at Loring Air Force Base in Maine. Airmen describe the object as having no doors or windows and with no visible propellers or engines. The object's proximity to the Base's nuclear weapons arsenal causes grave concern. The control tower makes numerous attempts to contact the aircraft, but there is no response. Its identity remains a mystery to this day. Part 2: GHOST ROCKET: JULY 19, 1946 - Farmer Knut Lindback is out working his fields on the shores of Lake Kolmjarv in Northern Sweden when he sees a massive rocket-shaped object heading towards the Lake. It crashes, causing a deafening explosion and sending a column of water and debris into the air. The military scours the shallow lakebed for any evidence of unusual debris, but nothing is ever found. The government names the mysterious object a 'ghost rocket'.

Part 1: SAUCERFUL OF SECRETS: JANUARY 19, 1966 - At 9am, 28-yearold Australian banana farmer, George Pedley, is driving his vehicle near a lagoon on his neighbor's property when he hears a loud hissing sound. Suddenly, an object rises out of the swamp, which Pedley describes as a grey, saucer-shaped object about 25-feet wide. When Pedley returns to the lagoon with his neighbor, Albert Pennisi, they discover an unusual circular mass of green reeds spinning clockwise in the water. The outside edges of the mass of reeds are angled down, similar to the shape of a saucer. Part 2: LIGHTS OUT: APRIL 4, 1966 - Australian businessman Ron Sullivan is travelling a country road in central Victoria when he observes an unusual light in a field. He suspects it is a farmer plowing his field at night. As he gets closer, his car headlights suddenly appear to be pointing off to the right towards the light, instead of the road ahead. The bent front headlight is extremely disorienting for Sullivan, causing him to veer off the road. He later observes the white light morph into a strange, tubular multicoloured light display.

Part 1: MEN IN BLACK: APRIL 24, 1964 - Policeman Lonnie Zamora is on patrol in Socorro, New Mexico when he suddenly hears a loud roar in the distance and sees a bluish, orange flame rising into the air. As Zamora drives to the location of the rising smoke and flame, he notices a shiny object about 200 metres away. He initially assumes it is an overturned vehicle that has caught fire. But as he gets closer, he discovers an oval-shaped object without windows or doors. Zamora immediately radios the Sheriff's office to report the incident. Soon afterwards, he hears a loud roar and sees the object lift off the ground. As other officers and investigators arrive, they discover deep landing burned brush in several places where Zamora reports seeing the object. Part 2: ROOM WITH A VIEW: MAY 21, 1994 - A 39-year-old postal worker is watching TV in the city of Plauen, 250 km east of Frankfurt, Germany when she notices a bright light out her apartment window. As she steps onto her balcony, she sees an aura of light surrounding a small oak tree, while the other trees remain in darkness. The light is accompanied with a strong wind. She then spots a large, luminous object approximately 100 meters away, hovering 30 metres above the building. She notifies her friend in the adjacent apartment building who witnesses the exact same object.

Part 1: WATER PROOF: SEPTEMBER 30, 1980 - An Australian rancher in Rosedale, Victoria is wakened by the sound of frightened animals in the early morning hours. He immediately thinks it is cattle rustlers, so rushes out to the field where his animals are. That's when he sees an object hovering above a large water tank. He hears a loud, piercing sound as a black tube-like object comes out of the ship. When the object speeds away, the farmhand discovers that the 10,000-gallon water tank is empty. Part 2: FRENCH CONNECTION: OCTOBER 21, 1982 - A biologist is working in his garden in the town of Nancy, France during the daylight hours. He spots a small saucer-shaped craft in the distance, which he initially assumes is a plane. As it descends, he runs for shelter as it heads straight for his garden and hovers about a metre off the ground. He observes the craft for 20 minutes. When it leaves, he discovers that all of his amaranth plants have wilted as if affected by an electromagnetic field.

Part 1: HOLY SHIP: AUGUST 11, 1972 - A number of Christian youth have assembled for a retreat on a hillside in Taize, France when they see what they think is a falling star. But the 'star' lands on a hill opposite them, and is making a vibration sound when it lights up. It appears to emit solid beams of light for over two hours. Some of the teenagers walk closer to the object and shine their flashlights, but the beams of their flashlights bend as though they are being repelled by the object. Part 2: BELGIAN BALLS: NOVEMBER 29, 1989 - Two Belgian police officers are on routine patrol close to the German border when they see an empty field lit up by intensely bright lights. At first, they think it is a helicopter. But as they get closer, they see a large triangular-shaped craft moving slowly across the field. As it moves away, they decide to chase it. They follow the craft to a lake where it hovers and shoots out what appear to be red balls of light. Thirty different groups of witnesses, including three separate teams of police officers report seeing this low flying object in the sky that night. It becomes the first of many sightings between 1989-1990 throughout Belgium.

Part 1: CROP CIRCLES: SEPTEMBER 30, 1974 - Saskatchewan farmer, Edwin Fuhr is harvesting rapeseed when he spots a stainless steel metal object in his field. As first, he assumes it is a duck blind. He gets off his tractor to inspect and then sees a symmetrical bun-shaped object hovering about a foot off the ground. He sees that the grass underneath is swirling in a clockwise motion. When he returns to his tractor, he sees four other identical objects. After 15 minutes, all five objects simultaneously move straight up and fly away. An investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police discovers circular swirls of grass for each UFO position reported by Edward Fuhr. Part 2: BOOMERANG, JULY 12, 1984 - Fire Chief Dave Athens was talking with a police officer in a Danbury Connneticut parking lot when they observe six or seven bright lights arranged in a circular pattern. When the bright lights go out, they see a new group of red lights 'underneath' in what appears to be a triangular-shaped object. Dozens of bystanders also see the object that they describe as being about 300 feet wide and approximately 500 yards above their heads. It is part of a 'wave' of sightings in the Hudson Valley area outside of New York City, where over 5000 similar sightings are reported between 1983-1986.