Fof Hovering Humanoid
The footage comes from a UFO group in Mexico, having a scheduled meeting, who spotted the object and began filming. The object looked to me to be something being transported via cable or a zipline setup. But other people see a pointed hat and broom. I can give them a pointed-hat appearance but I see no broom.
Ben, Austin, and Jael head to McKinney, Texas. Austin mentions during the ride that these things have been seen all over the world. Jael adds that they have been seen for decades and that there are petraglyphs that depict flying humans. Petraglyphs signifying decades? Alright.
Austin jumps in about military bases being nearby some of these sightings and how people assume it's the military doing something. In fact one video posted in the original thread on this episode had an Army experimental device that looked somewhat similar to the video we were shown.
The officer, in Mexico, who saw it thought it was a bruha...witch. Anyone see the Valentown episode? Austin continues to refer to skeptics who say it might just be debris floating in the air. Darned skeptics always looking for the easy answer!
Ben finally explains what they are doing in Texas when the event took place in Mexico. They are going to bring Diana Perla Chapa (the woman with the UFO group) into the US to interview her because it's too dangerous to go to Mexico. Wonder how many letters the show gets from the Mexican Board of Tourism over that remark.
The witness interview takes place and consists of asking her to tell them what she saw. Her answer "I still don't know what I saw." Several glances back and forth among the FoFers which probably amounted to "We brought her across the border for THAT?" She then proceeds to say that they all arrived at the spot for the meeting when someone started yelling about something in the sky. She finally makes some key statements that the object never moved from a specific distance to the mountain and that the height and speed was always the same. And, of course, no sound...none of these sightings EVER involve sound, do they?
Now, a key question by Ben which will come into play later. "Was there any wind?" to which she replies, "A LOT of wind." The figure was seen for five and a half minutes. At which point I raised my hand to ask a question, but they wouldn't call on me. I wanted to ask what ultimately happened to the object.
Ben brings up that some people think the video was a hoax either by them or by someone playing a nasty joke on them. Diana replies that that is, "Impossible". Her reasoning being that the current of the air didn't cause it to fly away. Remember that it was windy. Remember this later on down in this review. She ends by reaffirming that she doesn't know what it is except a U-F-O which in the strictest sense, it is. If it's flying and you don't know what it is...
With the interview over, the team try to recreate the video. Since the winds did not affect the flight path of the object (remember this) one of the theories is that this was a self-contained propulsion system. So let's look into jet-packs.
They meet with Kinnie Gibson, a stunt pilot, who has access to a jet pack. After proclaiming their readiness, FoF is shown the jet-pack in a dramatic scene where a 400-foot wide hanger door is slowly lifted. Kinnie gives a brief overview and introduces Dan Schlund who will be the jet-pack pilot for this experiment.
Jael asks how many of these packs exist and is told that there are some enthusiasts out there, including right near Monterrey where the video was supposedly shot.
An ever-prepared Ben heads out onto the field with a fire extinguisher and they get ready to perform the test. Jael will film while Austin measures the sound-level because, remember this thing made no sound.
Ben gives a countdown and commercial as Dan launches. After returning from commercial we get another countdown: 3 - 2 - 1 and then a five-second pause at the end of which Ben FINALLY says "Launch" Dan lifts off and jets across the field and lands. Austin exclaims that "That - Is - Insane" and then to emphasize this, they reshow the flight.
Austin goes over with a "YES!" and his hand up for a high-five. Unfortunately, Dan leaves him hanging for a few seconds before finally slapping his hand. They exclaim how good it looked and then Dan says that if he had 30 minutes of flight time he could simulate the flight exactly, but he is only limited to 30 seconds of flight. I wonder if this restriction applies to all jet-packers?
Jael brings up the noise aspect. If this were in a windy area with the wind blowing AWAY from the camera, I wonder what it would have sounded like? The jet-pack was measured at 146 decibels, though, so it was only slightly softer than the music in these episodes.
The jet-packers are thanked and the FoF crew moves on to the next experiment. They head to Corona, California and, enroute, tell us of another theory that consists of an object or person on a zipline. Pay attention to that theory. Object OR person.
They show up at the Skull Canyon Zipline and set up the test where Austin will ride the zipline, Jael will film, and Ben will amaze us with his skill of being able to count backward from three again. They will then compare the footage.
Austin gives us the basics of operation of the zipline and prepares for his ride. He slides down the line being filmed, but it doesn't look very close. One thing is his position is completely wrong, he appears seated. The path was good but Jael brings up the seated position and also the shine from the pulley. The latter probably wouldn't be an issue depending upon the angle of the shot. Recall that in the original footage, it was after 8pm and shot toward the direction of the sun, thus things are more in silhouette and there would be no glare from the pulley. This is not taken into consideration.
Jael thinks that those two reasons are a bust and that it's time to go onto something a little simpler.
At this point I raised my hand again. I wanted to ask about the other part of the theory. You know, the part about it being an OBJECT. An OBJECT would not appear to be in a seated position. For some reason they wouldn't call on me this time either, so my question as to why they stopped that experiment unfinished remained unanswered.
Simpler experiment. Having watched MonsterQuest, the team decides to try a bunch of balloons wrapped in plastic. Austin is charged with running across the hillside with a bunch of wrapped helium balloons floating above him attached to a string.
As Austin starts running, we break to commercial and have to sit through some tire and vacuum ads before we get to see the results.
Results. Well, the object looked close, but it bobbed up and down too much and changed aspect. I have to agree.
Ben comes up with the idea (or so we assume) that it was a very elaborate hoax and puts together a device under the balloons consisting of the guts from a remote-control helicopter. With this under the balloons, they can control the flight so that it stays at the same altitude and doesn't bob around. Exclamations of how good it looks and we cut back to the Situation Room.
More recap for the other team to kill some time. They detail the problems with each of the experiments, or I should say SOME of the problems because they certainly didn't go all out in making sure to consider all possibilities here.
Finally we get to the last experiment with the remote-control. They take the footage and superimpose it above the ridgeline from the original footage and it's a fairly decent match. Enough for them to consider it a hoax and debunked (but only in this instance)
Now, for a few problems that they don't consider. Recall Diana saying it was windy. Even with a remote control device for guiding it, a pack of balloons like that is going to make a sail that the wind is probably going to carry away. If you force it on path with a really strong motor, the top is still going to be deflected in the direction of the wind, which we don't see. Heavy object suspended from a cable would act this way. However, listen at 53 seconds here to what one of the people on site says:
"le es un globo translated as "it is a balloon" although someone right after that seems to dispute it and talk about demons.
Discussion of this episode is here.
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