1
00:00:10,320 --> 00:00:14,160
Speaker 1: On a tiny speck suspended amid the great black abyss

2
00:00:14,160 --> 00:00:18,440
Speaker 1: of space, exists everything we have ever known and possibly

3
00:00:18,560 --> 00:00:23,080
Speaker 1: will ever know, every person that has ever existed, every

4
00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:27,760
Speaker 1: thought that has ever been thought, every love affair, every war,

5
00:00:28,600 --> 00:00:33,800
Speaker 1: every lie, every kiss, every piece of music that has

6
00:00:33,880 --> 00:00:38,080
Speaker 1: ever been written, and every glimmer of a future not

7
00:00:38,200 --> 00:00:43,440
Speaker 1: yet realized. All of it. That tiny speck is, of

8
00:00:43,479 --> 00:00:48,040
Speaker 1: course Earth, home to us and everything that makes us us.

9
00:00:49,120 --> 00:00:52,720
Speaker 1: But it's estimated there are roughly ten thousand stars in

10
00:00:52,760 --> 00:00:56,000
Speaker 1: the universe for every grain of sand found on our

11
00:00:56,080 --> 00:01:00,880
Speaker 1: planet itself, only one of over a bit billion planets

12
00:01:00,920 --> 00:01:05,440
Speaker 1: in our galaxy. That galaxy, the Milky Way, is one

13
00:01:05,440 --> 00:01:10,759
Speaker 1: of two trillion galaxies in the observable universe, an incomprehensibly

14
00:01:10,959 --> 00:01:15,360
Speaker 1: vast space ninety three billion light years from end to end.

15
00:01:16,319 --> 00:01:18,880
Speaker 1: The rest of the universe that we can't yet see

16
00:01:19,000 --> 00:01:21,479
Speaker 1: could be anything from one hundred and fifty to two

17
00:01:21,640 --> 00:01:27,320
Speaker 1: hundred and fifty billion trillion times bigger. In nineteen eighty one,

18
00:01:27,720 --> 00:01:32,280
Speaker 1: Alan Guth of Stamford University proposed the theory of cosmic inflation,

19
00:01:33,280 --> 00:01:36,640
Speaker 1: the idea that the nascent universe passed through a phase

20
00:01:36,640 --> 00:01:41,000
Speaker 1: of exponential expansion and has been continually expanding ever since.

21
00:01:42,040 --> 00:01:46,160
Speaker 1: Is the universe vast but finite with opposite ends, or

22
00:01:46,240 --> 00:01:50,880
Speaker 1: is it something else, some as yet unquantifiable, non Euclidean

23
00:01:50,960 --> 00:01:54,440
Speaker 1: space with wraparound properties, like a game of pac Man,

24
00:01:54,760 --> 00:01:58,400
Speaker 1: where traveling so far in one direction eventually brings you

25
00:01:58,480 --> 00:02:02,720
Speaker 1: back to where you started. Or is the entire universe

26
00:02:02,760 --> 00:02:05,440
Speaker 1: as we know it just the inside of a black

27
00:02:05,520 --> 00:02:09,799
Speaker 1: hole existing inside a whole other universe, or inside an

28
00:02:09,840 --> 00:02:14,600
Speaker 1: infinite number of other possible universes for that matter, Is

29
00:02:14,600 --> 00:02:19,080
Speaker 1: the universe itself infinite in space, never ending no matter

30
00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:23,600
Speaker 1: what direction we travel through it, be that spatially or temporarily,

31
00:02:24,639 --> 00:02:29,760
Speaker 1: we simply don't know. But from astronomers to philosophers to

32
00:02:29,960 --> 00:02:35,200
Speaker 1: stargazing stoners, all of us grapple with this dizzy in conundrum.

33
00:02:35,960 --> 00:02:39,640
Speaker 1: Either way, For most people, far more than wanting to

34
00:02:39,680 --> 00:02:43,400
Speaker 1: know what shape our universe actually takes, what we really

35
00:02:43,440 --> 00:02:47,919
Speaker 1: want to know is are we alone in it? You're

36
00:02:47,960 --> 00:03:00,440
Speaker 1: listening to Unexplained, and I'm Richard McLean Smith the twenty

37
00:03:00,440 --> 00:03:05,440
Speaker 1: seventh of October nineteen fifty four. The early autumnal sun

38
00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:09,440
Speaker 1: is sweet and crisp where it turns the Tuscan Street's gold.

39
00:03:10,400 --> 00:03:13,880
Speaker 1: Shouts of laughter and good natured talk fill the streets

40
00:03:13,919 --> 00:03:17,800
Speaker 1: of Florence, Italy, as crowds of people head towards the

41
00:03:17,880 --> 00:03:22,720
Speaker 1: Stadio Comunale later to be known as the Stadio Artemio Francie.

42
00:03:23,760 --> 00:03:27,000
Speaker 1: Tens of thousands of fans turn out in their drogues

43
00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:31,560
Speaker 1: to watch a highly anticipated local derby, a match between

44
00:03:31,680 --> 00:03:37,880
Speaker 1: home team Fiorentina and their rivals Pistoiese. There's much excitement

45
00:03:38,000 --> 00:03:41,520
Speaker 1: from even the Pistoiese fans at the site of Ardco

46
00:03:41,640 --> 00:03:46,720
Speaker 1: Magnini de Fender, local legend and World Cup star of

47
00:03:46,760 --> 00:03:50,840
Speaker 1: the summer, as he runs out onto the pitch. He

48
00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:54,640
Speaker 1: would become famous in nineteen fifty six for a photograph

49
00:03:54,840 --> 00:03:58,760
Speaker 1: depicting him flying through the air and appearing to roundhouse

50
00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:02,800
Speaker 1: kick a ball, his mouth open in a defiant shout,

51
00:04:03,520 --> 00:04:06,840
Speaker 1: but for now he is taking it easy. It's a

52
00:04:06,880 --> 00:04:11,960
Speaker 1: friendly match and the atmosphere is jovial. The first half

53
00:04:12,200 --> 00:04:16,200
Speaker 1: is much like any football match, people drinking and cheering

54
00:04:16,440 --> 00:04:19,880
Speaker 1: and swearing animatedly at the ref whenever the moment called

55
00:04:19,880 --> 00:04:24,160
Speaker 1: for it. Half time arrives and the teams huddled together

56
00:04:24,360 --> 00:04:29,240
Speaker 1: in intense conversation, patting each other on the back. Fifteen

57
00:04:29,240 --> 00:04:32,880
Speaker 1: minutes later, the crowd roared as one as the players

58
00:04:32,960 --> 00:04:36,520
Speaker 1: fanned out onto the pitch again. It was about twenty

59
00:04:36,560 --> 00:04:39,920
Speaker 1: minutes past two, barely a few minutes into the second half,

60
00:04:40,320 --> 00:04:45,080
Speaker 1: when a sudden, eerie silence fell across the whole stadium,

61
00:04:45,520 --> 00:04:49,280
Speaker 1: like someone had suddenly turned down the volume on a radio.

62
00:04:51,120 --> 00:04:54,720
Speaker 1: From the middle of the pitch, ardco Magnini looked up

63
00:04:54,720 --> 00:04:58,080
Speaker 1: at the crowd, who, as though the radio had been

64
00:04:58,160 --> 00:05:02,320
Speaker 1: suddenly cranked on again, let out a deafening roar and

65
00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:08,279
Speaker 1: pointed to the sky. Magnini followed the many outstretched arms

66
00:05:08,440 --> 00:05:11,679
Speaker 1: to where they were pointing, and his eyes grew wide

67
00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:17,680
Speaker 1: in astonishment. Up above him, a large silver egg like

68
00:05:17,800 --> 00:05:25,200
Speaker 1: shape was moving slowly, slowly, slowly, as Magnini would later

69
00:05:25,320 --> 00:05:31,120
Speaker 1: describe it, right over the stadium. All the players stopped

70
00:05:31,360 --> 00:05:35,880
Speaker 1: to marvel at the bizarre site. Moments later, there was

71
00:05:35,920 --> 00:05:40,160
Speaker 1: a bright sparkling in the air underneath the object, as

72
00:05:40,200 --> 00:05:45,960
Speaker 1: a strange silver glitter began to fall from the sky.

73
00:05:51,480 --> 00:05:54,840
Speaker 1: In the aftermath of the peculiar event at the football match,

74
00:05:55,080 --> 00:05:58,880
Speaker 1: the silver glitter would remain a common denominator in the

75
00:05:58,920 --> 00:06:03,640
Speaker 1: many accounts of the event given by numerous spectators. Some

76
00:06:03,720 --> 00:06:08,600
Speaker 1: described it as being like silvery filaments descending from the heavens,

77
00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:13,719
Speaker 1: while others noted how the sky itself seemed to shimmer

78
00:06:13,800 --> 00:06:19,400
Speaker 1: and glow with random flashes of light. Roberto Pinotti, the

79
00:06:19,440 --> 00:06:24,080
Speaker 1: president of Italy's National UFO Center, recalled the light, sticky

80
00:06:24,120 --> 00:06:29,280
Speaker 1: substance falling from above. In English, they called this angel hair.

81
00:06:29,400 --> 00:06:33,640
Speaker 1: He said, the only problem was after a short period

82
00:06:33,720 --> 00:06:38,880
Speaker 1: of time it disintegrated. But I remember in broad daylight

83
00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:42,680
Speaker 1: seeing the roofs of the houses in Florence covered in

84
00:06:42,760 --> 00:06:47,159
Speaker 1: this white substance for one hour, and like snow, it

85
00:06:47,360 --> 00:06:54,200
Speaker 1: just evaporated. Gigi Bonni, a lifelong Fiorantina fan, remembered many

86
00:06:54,200 --> 00:06:58,200
Speaker 1: objects in the sky that day, describing them as being

87
00:06:58,279 --> 00:07:03,479
Speaker 1: silver and shaped like Cuban cigars and moving unusually fast,

88
00:07:04,400 --> 00:07:09,159
Speaker 1: then stopped over the pitch before dropping the shimmering silver rain.

89
00:07:10,760 --> 00:07:14,040
Speaker 1: In the official match record, it stated that the match

90
00:07:14,200 --> 00:07:19,760
Speaker 1: was suspended due to something in the sky. Others, including

91
00:07:19,800 --> 00:07:26,320
Speaker 1: another player, Romolo Tucci, reported seeing multiple smaller crafts in

92
00:07:26,400 --> 00:07:30,920
Speaker 1: those years. He said, everybody was talking UFOs and we

93
00:07:31,080 --> 00:07:36,960
Speaker 1: had the experience. We saw them directly for real. Tucci

94
00:07:37,120 --> 00:07:41,520
Speaker 1: was not wrong. In those years the nineteen fifties, everyone

95
00:07:41,640 --> 00:07:45,080
Speaker 1: really was talking about aliens. As the governments of the

96
00:07:45,200 --> 00:07:49,680
Speaker 1: US and the Soviet Union invested increasingly heavily in space

97
00:07:49,760 --> 00:07:53,120
Speaker 1: exploration in an effort to prove to the world who

98
00:07:53,240 --> 00:07:57,880
Speaker 1: was the true superpower. Talk of space probes and satellites

99
00:07:58,200 --> 00:08:03,480
Speaker 1: quickly entered the mainstream. In October nineteen fifty one, the

100
00:08:03,520 --> 00:08:08,640
Speaker 1: Soviet engineer Mikhail to Konovoff published an article titled Flight

101
00:08:08,720 --> 00:08:12,680
Speaker 1: to the Moon. In it, he described in evocative detail

102
00:08:13,080 --> 00:08:17,400
Speaker 1: the hypothetical spaceships of the future, laid out the science

103
00:08:17,560 --> 00:08:21,040
Speaker 1: needed to create them, and ended his article with what

104
00:08:21,320 --> 00:08:25,800
Speaker 1: to many imaginative, impressionable minds must have read as a

105
00:08:25,800 --> 00:08:29,360
Speaker 1: call to arms. We do not have long to wait.

106
00:08:29,840 --> 00:08:33,360
Speaker 1: We can assume that the bold dream will be realized

107
00:08:33,440 --> 00:08:38,320
Speaker 1: within the next ten to fifteen years, not to be outdone.

108
00:08:38,679 --> 00:08:42,520
Speaker 1: Over the next three years. The United States Colliers magazine

109
00:08:42,920 --> 00:08:47,679
Speaker 1: responded with a series of seven articles titled man will

110
00:08:47,720 --> 00:08:53,560
Speaker 1: Conquer Space Soon. Then, in nineteen fifty five, Disney screened

111
00:08:53,600 --> 00:08:59,320
Speaker 1: an animated episode of their television series Disneyland titled Man

112
00:08:59,360 --> 00:09:03,240
Speaker 1: in Space. It reached an audience of forty million people

113
00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:06,960
Speaker 1: and was even nominated for an Academy Award for Best

114
00:09:07,080 --> 00:09:11,640
Speaker 1: Documentary Short The space race had not yet begun, but

115
00:09:11,720 --> 00:09:15,000
Speaker 1: the competitors were well and truly at the start line,

116
00:09:15,480 --> 00:09:21,080
Speaker 1: limbering up and poised for the starting pistol. It's no wonder, then,

117
00:09:21,200 --> 00:09:26,520
Speaker 1: that UFO sightings during the early nineteen fifties skyrocketed, with

118
00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:31,680
Speaker 1: reports soon numbering in their thousands across the world. For

119
00:09:31,760 --> 00:09:35,800
Speaker 1: the people of Italy, it was factory worker Bruno Faccini

120
00:09:36,040 --> 00:09:39,640
Speaker 1: who was perhaps more responsible than anyone for kicking off

121
00:09:39,679 --> 00:09:44,120
Speaker 1: that country's own wave of bizarre aerial sightings that would

122
00:09:44,120 --> 00:09:48,920
Speaker 1: eventually peak in nineteen fifty four. On that strange summer

123
00:09:49,000 --> 00:10:03,840
Speaker 1: afternoon in Florence. It was the evening of April twenty fourth,

124
00:10:03,960 --> 00:10:07,520
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty a little after ten p m. On the

125
00:10:07,559 --> 00:10:11,400
Speaker 1: outskirts of the city of Tredate, just north of Milan.

126
00:10:12,520 --> 00:10:15,959
Speaker 1: All day long, the city had been shrouded by thick,

127
00:10:16,080 --> 00:10:20,440
Speaker 1: dark clouds and pummeled with rain. Having waited for the

128
00:10:20,520 --> 00:10:25,240
Speaker 1: latest downpour to stop, Facchini stepped hurriedly from his back door,

129
00:10:25,800 --> 00:10:29,079
Speaker 1: leaving his wife and young son inside as he made

130
00:10:29,120 --> 00:10:32,520
Speaker 1: a dash for their outdoor toilet located at the back

131
00:10:32,559 --> 00:10:38,280
Speaker 1: of the garden. After relieving himself, Faccini stepped outside and

132
00:10:38,320 --> 00:10:42,360
Speaker 1: lit a cigarette, savoring the musty smell of wet grass

133
00:10:42,720 --> 00:10:45,800
Speaker 1: and warm rain on concrete. As he made his way

134
00:10:45,880 --> 00:10:50,120
Speaker 1: back down the garden path toward the house. It was

135
00:10:50,200 --> 00:10:53,880
Speaker 1: then that he noticed the strange flashes of light in

136
00:10:53,960 --> 00:10:58,480
Speaker 1: the dark sky above. Naturally, at first he thought it

137
00:10:58,559 --> 00:11:02,480
Speaker 1: was simply lightning, but the storm clouds had since moved off,

138
00:11:03,000 --> 00:11:06,200
Speaker 1: and in any case, when he looked again, he saw

139
00:11:06,240 --> 00:11:09,840
Speaker 1: the light was in fact coming from a field opposite

140
00:11:09,960 --> 00:11:16,280
Speaker 1: his house, so Facchini went to investigate. As he made

141
00:11:16,320 --> 00:11:20,880
Speaker 1: his way over, the lights continued to flash. He began

142
00:11:20,920 --> 00:11:24,240
Speaker 1: to wonder if maybe it was the electrical spark of

143
00:11:24,240 --> 00:11:28,520
Speaker 1: a broken power line damaged by the storm, but as

144
00:11:28,559 --> 00:11:34,320
Speaker 1: he drew nearer, the flashing light suddenly stopped. He stood

145
00:11:34,360 --> 00:11:38,120
Speaker 1: for a moment in the silence and scanned the field ahead,

146
00:11:38,760 --> 00:11:44,040
Speaker 1: but saw nothing unusual. Perhaps it was just light reflecting

147
00:11:44,080 --> 00:11:48,640
Speaker 1: off some glass, he thought, Feeling a little stupid, He

148
00:11:48,720 --> 00:11:52,400
Speaker 1: felt cold suddenly and pulled his light jacket a little

149
00:11:52,440 --> 00:11:56,960
Speaker 1: tighter together. Turning back to his house, he was just

150
00:11:57,040 --> 00:11:59,719
Speaker 1: about to set off for home when he sensed the

151
00:11:59,800 --> 00:12:04,079
Speaker 1: light flashing again from out the corner of his eye,

152
00:12:04,440 --> 00:12:08,520
Speaker 1: and sure enough, there it was, just where he'd seen

153
00:12:08,559 --> 00:12:14,760
Speaker 1: it before. Once again, he set off toward it, convinced

154
00:12:14,800 --> 00:12:18,480
Speaker 1: it probably was a faulty power line. He was just

155
00:12:18,600 --> 00:12:22,320
Speaker 1: thinking about calling it in to the police when he froze.

156
00:12:22,360 --> 00:12:27,360
Speaker 1: Suddenly there about two hundred yards ahead of him, as

157
00:12:27,400 --> 00:12:31,200
Speaker 1: if it had just suddenly materialized then and there was

158
00:12:31,280 --> 00:12:35,680
Speaker 1: what he later described as a huge, dark shape, like

159
00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:40,400
Speaker 1: a ball, but with a flattened top. He judged the

160
00:12:40,440 --> 00:12:44,560
Speaker 1: object to be about thirty feet high and twenty feet across,

161
00:12:45,360 --> 00:12:48,600
Speaker 1: and as he drew closer he saw it was illuminated

162
00:12:48,960 --> 00:12:54,280
Speaker 1: by an unearthly greenish glow. And then he saw ladders

163
00:12:54,520 --> 00:12:58,080
Speaker 1: stretching down from the underside of it, and at the

164
00:12:58,080 --> 00:13:02,160
Speaker 1: bottom of one of them a man, or at least

165
00:13:02,559 --> 00:13:07,520
Speaker 1: he thought it was a man. The human like figure

166
00:13:08,000 --> 00:13:11,520
Speaker 1: was wearing some kind of thick suit and a large,

167
00:13:11,600 --> 00:13:16,440
Speaker 1: bulbous helmet with a black, sheeny visor down over the eyes.

168
00:13:17,280 --> 00:13:20,040
Speaker 1: Though Facchini didn't quite know how to describe it at

169
00:13:20,040 --> 00:13:22,960
Speaker 1: the time, he would later compare it to the suits

170
00:13:23,080 --> 00:13:27,280
Speaker 1: worn by the Apollo astronauts of the nineteen sixties more

171
00:13:27,320 --> 00:13:37,800
Speaker 1: than a decade later, as Flashes of light continued to

172
00:13:37,840 --> 00:13:41,800
Speaker 1: come from the direction of the object. Bruno Facchini figured

173
00:13:41,840 --> 00:13:45,600
Speaker 1: the man in the suit was welding something, perhaps carrying

174
00:13:45,600 --> 00:13:50,160
Speaker 1: out repairs of some kind. Then a secondary glow emerged

175
00:13:50,200 --> 00:13:54,440
Speaker 1: from the peculiar craft, this time coming from inside it,

176
00:13:54,760 --> 00:13:59,559
Speaker 1: shining out of some kind of hatch. Once the light subsided,

177
00:14:00,040 --> 00:14:04,160
Speaker 1: Facchini claimed he was briefly able to glimpse inside the craft,

178
00:14:04,679 --> 00:14:08,680
Speaker 1: where he apparently saw another ladder leading to a higher level,

179
00:14:09,120 --> 00:14:11,960
Speaker 1: as well as an odd array of items that he

180
00:14:12,040 --> 00:14:16,880
Speaker 1: described as being like bottles connected together in rows, with

181
00:14:17,040 --> 00:14:22,040
Speaker 1: gauges and tubes between them. Stepping in for a closer look,

182
00:14:22,520 --> 00:14:26,000
Speaker 1: he then claimed he could see two other figures moving

183
00:14:26,080 --> 00:14:32,400
Speaker 1: clumsily around inside. Years later, Fackini would again reference the

184
00:14:32,440 --> 00:14:37,120
Speaker 1: Apollo Astronauts to describe the manner in which the figures moved,

185
00:14:37,640 --> 00:14:42,640
Speaker 1: languid and heavy, as if floating in space. He continued

186
00:14:42,760 --> 00:14:47,680
Speaker 1: staring on as the figures apparently passed pipelike objects between

187
00:14:47,720 --> 00:14:52,120
Speaker 1: them and occasionally sent more metallic sparks shooting out all

188
00:14:52,160 --> 00:14:57,320
Speaker 1: around them. Steadily, he noticed more and more strange things.

189
00:14:58,120 --> 00:15:00,400
Speaker 1: What he was seeing was like a polar the Royd

190
00:15:00,440 --> 00:15:05,400
Speaker 1: picture slowly emerging in front of him. He saw dials

191
00:15:05,440 --> 00:15:09,520
Speaker 1: and cylinders along the interior walls, and heard a distinct

192
00:15:09,600 --> 00:15:13,920
Speaker 1: and constant buzzing sound reminiscent of a swarm of bees,

193
00:15:15,520 --> 00:15:20,680
Speaker 1: And all about him, the air grew strangely warmer. Bicckini

194
00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:24,080
Speaker 1: wondered if the men were from the military, operating a

195
00:15:24,120 --> 00:15:27,360
Speaker 1: brand new, state of the art aircraft and had been

196
00:15:27,360 --> 00:15:31,200
Speaker 1: forced to make an emergency landing due to the storm.

197
00:15:32,160 --> 00:15:35,800
Speaker 1: It was only then that he realized the men were speaking,

198
00:15:36,480 --> 00:15:39,760
Speaker 1: but not in any language that he had ever heard before.

199
00:15:41,000 --> 00:15:45,840
Speaker 1: The bizarre guttural utterances they were apparently making caused him

200
00:15:45,840 --> 00:15:50,840
Speaker 1: to realize the men weren't men at all, at least

201
00:15:51,360 --> 00:15:56,040
Speaker 1: not of the human kind. Just then, one of the

202
00:15:56,080 --> 00:16:01,120
Speaker 1: figures on board the craft gestured in his direction. Fear

203
00:16:01,400 --> 00:16:06,680
Speaker 1: sliced through him. He stumbled backwards, suddenly realizing just how

204
00:16:06,720 --> 00:16:11,000
Speaker 1: exposed he was out there, and with that he turned

205
00:16:11,040 --> 00:16:16,160
Speaker 1: and ran, sprinting for his house. Across the field, Vacchini

206
00:16:16,360 --> 00:16:19,800
Speaker 1: saw in his peripheral vision one of the figures point

207
00:16:19,880 --> 00:16:24,520
Speaker 1: something in his direction. A sudden, bright beam of light

208
00:16:24,720 --> 00:16:28,120
Speaker 1: blinded him, and a burning pain split him in two.

209
00:16:29,360 --> 00:16:32,080
Speaker 1: He felt as though he'd been cut in half. Across

210
00:16:32,080 --> 00:16:37,000
Speaker 1: his torso. Looking down, he saw, much to his relief,

211
00:16:37,240 --> 00:16:40,280
Speaker 1: that his body was still intact, but he could no

212
00:16:40,360 --> 00:16:53,040
Speaker 1: longer move. Then he collapsed heavily to the ground in

213
00:16:53,080 --> 00:16:56,240
Speaker 1: the grip of utter panic. Vacchini claimed to have then

214
00:16:56,360 --> 00:17:00,000
Speaker 1: watched the figures, convinced they would chase after him, only

215
00:17:00,280 --> 00:17:03,040
Speaker 1: for them to continue doing what they were doing, as

216
00:17:03,080 --> 00:17:07,240
Speaker 1: though they had merely meant to keep him away. Facchini

217
00:17:07,359 --> 00:17:10,399
Speaker 1: watched wide eyed, trying to keep his face out of

218
00:17:10,480 --> 00:17:14,520
Speaker 1: the dirt, as the figures finished up and returned inside

219
00:17:14,560 --> 00:17:18,879
Speaker 1: the craft. Then the greenish light that had been emanating

220
00:17:18,960 --> 00:17:23,119
Speaker 1: from the vessel throughout began to dim as the hatch

221
00:17:23,200 --> 00:17:27,879
Speaker 1: door was slowly closed. A moment later, with only the

222
00:17:27,960 --> 00:17:32,280
Speaker 1: half light of night, Facchini watched on as that peculiar

223
00:17:32,440 --> 00:17:36,679
Speaker 1: buzzing sound grew louder in intensity, until he heard a

224
00:17:36,720 --> 00:17:40,200
Speaker 1: great whush and felt the rush of the aircraft as

225
00:17:40,240 --> 00:17:46,000
Speaker 1: it shot into the sky and disappeared. Bruno Facchini claimed

226
00:17:46,040 --> 00:17:49,240
Speaker 1: to have remained on the ground for some time until

227
00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:53,399
Speaker 1: he felt it was safe enough to return home. After

228
00:17:53,440 --> 00:17:57,120
Speaker 1: a sleepless night. The next morning, he returned to the sight.

229
00:17:58,240 --> 00:18:03,520
Speaker 1: There he noticed four more distinct circular impressions and noted

230
00:18:03,560 --> 00:18:09,080
Speaker 1: that the grass had considerable burn markings, pieces of scrap

231
00:18:09,200 --> 00:18:13,720
Speaker 1: and melted metal littered the ground, all confirming to him

232
00:18:13,800 --> 00:18:18,680
Speaker 1: that whatever he had seen had genuinely happened. At least

233
00:18:19,080 --> 00:18:23,800
Speaker 1: that's what he reported to the police. Despite their skepticism,

234
00:18:24,160 --> 00:18:27,600
Speaker 1: some officers were sent out to investigate the site and

235
00:18:27,640 --> 00:18:32,760
Speaker 1: collected pieces of the strange metal for analysis. The results

236
00:18:32,760 --> 00:18:37,800
Speaker 1: were mostly inconclusive, but did conclude the fragments were comprised

237
00:18:37,880 --> 00:18:42,080
Speaker 1: of some kind of heat resistant and anti friction material.

238
00:18:43,200 --> 00:18:47,760
Speaker 1: They also stated that the metal would quote be ideal

239
00:18:47,880 --> 00:18:51,680
Speaker 1: in spaceflight to face the burn up as a craft

240
00:18:51,960 --> 00:18:57,600
Speaker 1: entered the Earth's atmosphere. A secondary examination found that the

241
00:18:57,600 --> 00:19:02,200
Speaker 1: metal was comprised of mostly bronze with traces of lead.

242
00:19:03,359 --> 00:19:07,560
Speaker 1: Vacchini later said that a few days after his apparent encounter,

243
00:19:07,960 --> 00:19:12,280
Speaker 1: he was struck down with excruciating back pain. When he

244
00:19:12,359 --> 00:19:14,679
Speaker 1: turned to get a look at his back in the mirror,

245
00:19:15,160 --> 00:19:19,160
Speaker 1: he found there a huge black mark, darker than any

246
00:19:19,200 --> 00:19:23,119
Speaker 1: bruise he'd ever had, stretched across the entirety of it.

247
00:19:33,760 --> 00:19:38,160
Speaker 1: By the October of nineteen fifty four, UFO sightings were

248
00:19:38,160 --> 00:19:43,840
Speaker 1: being reported throughout Europe. In unprecedented numbers. In September nineteen

249
00:19:43,960 --> 00:19:48,360
Speaker 1: fifty four in north just south of Lille in northern France,

250
00:19:49,040 --> 00:19:54,199
Speaker 1: train station guard Marius de Veilde contacted local police with

251
00:19:54,280 --> 00:19:58,439
Speaker 1: an incredible story of his own. It was around ten

252
00:19:58,600 --> 00:20:02,400
Speaker 1: thirty pm on the night to September tenth, as Deveild

253
00:20:02,560 --> 00:20:06,920
Speaker 1: was preparing for bed, that is dark, began barking manically.

254
00:20:07,800 --> 00:20:11,959
Speaker 1: Believing that something outside was distressing her, he grabbed a

255
00:20:12,000 --> 00:20:17,119
Speaker 1: torch and promptly headed out to investigate. In the silence

256
00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:20,040
Speaker 1: of the evening. He walked a few steps along the

257
00:20:20,119 --> 00:20:26,320
Speaker 1: rail tracks when a sudden noise caused him to spin around. There,

258
00:20:26,359 --> 00:20:29,240
Speaker 1: Caught in the beam of his flashlight, as he later

259
00:20:29,320 --> 00:20:34,400
Speaker 1: told police, were two humanoid figures, each no more than

260
00:20:34,400 --> 00:20:38,520
Speaker 1: a meter in height, standing beside some kind of craft.

261
00:20:39,760 --> 00:20:42,919
Speaker 1: When he pointed the light at their heads, it apparently

262
00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:46,920
Speaker 1: reflected bright and silver, as if the figures were wearing

263
00:20:47,119 --> 00:20:53,600
Speaker 1: mirrored helmets. Not unlike Facchini's experience, Devilda is then said

264
00:20:53,680 --> 00:20:56,440
Speaker 1: to have suddenly found himself in the grip of a

265
00:20:56,680 --> 00:21:02,120
Speaker 1: mobilizing beam of light. Unable to move, he simply watched

266
00:21:02,119 --> 00:21:06,440
Speaker 1: as the figures then stepped into the craft. Moments later,

267
00:21:06,840 --> 00:21:11,040
Speaker 1: it shot off into the sky, rippling with effervescent color

268
00:21:11,160 --> 00:21:16,760
Speaker 1: as it went. Officers despatched to investigate first interviewed da

269
00:21:16,800 --> 00:21:20,719
Speaker 1: Vilde's wife and neighbor to see if they could corroborate

270
00:21:20,840 --> 00:21:27,159
Speaker 1: his story, but neither had seen anything. Unimpressed, the officers

271
00:21:27,280 --> 00:21:31,200
Speaker 1: nonetheless agreed to follow Devilda out to the spot where

272
00:21:31,240 --> 00:21:35,440
Speaker 1: he'd apparently seen the strange craft. When they got there,

273
00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:39,760
Speaker 1: they found a six meter depression in the ground. De

274
00:21:39,880 --> 00:21:44,159
Speaker 1: Vilda then cried out suddenly and bent over, seemingly in

275
00:21:44,240 --> 00:21:48,560
Speaker 1: the grip of an intense pain. In that moment, the

276
00:21:48,600 --> 00:21:52,240
Speaker 1: torch he'd been carrying in his hand seemed also to

277
00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:57,439
Speaker 1: suddenly stop working. In one report, it was said that

278
00:21:57,600 --> 00:22:02,640
Speaker 1: three days later, the wilder's dogged guide while Davilda developed

279
00:22:02,720 --> 00:22:08,080
Speaker 1: respiratory problems that he couldn't shake. Three cows were later

280
00:22:08,200 --> 00:22:14,280
Speaker 1: found dead in a neighboring field, all apparently completely drained

281
00:22:14,359 --> 00:22:26,159
Speaker 1: of blood. After Dville's apparent inexplicable encounter, a number of

282
00:22:26,280 --> 00:22:30,240
Speaker 1: similar sightings were reported throughout France over the next few weeks.

283
00:22:30,880 --> 00:22:35,680
Speaker 1: From Brie to Bergerac and Clermont Ferrand, came bizarre tales

284
00:22:35,800 --> 00:22:40,480
Speaker 1: of floating crafts, strange lights, and the sudden onset of

285
00:22:40,600 --> 00:22:47,120
Speaker 1: paralysis inflicting those who reported the sightings. On October eleventh,

286
00:22:47,480 --> 00:22:52,960
Speaker 1: nineteen fifty four, Henri Gaulois and Louis Vigneron were driving

287
00:22:53,080 --> 00:22:56,280
Speaker 1: together in Assier, in the south of France, when they

288
00:22:56,400 --> 00:23:00,240
Speaker 1: suddenly felt as though they'd been struck by something, ending

289
00:23:00,280 --> 00:23:04,560
Speaker 1: an electric shock through their bodies. Both expected the car

290
00:23:04,760 --> 00:23:08,880
Speaker 1: to spin wildly out of control, but instead it came

291
00:23:09,040 --> 00:23:13,080
Speaker 1: to a swift halt, as though someone had simply switched

292
00:23:13,119 --> 00:23:18,840
Speaker 1: it off. As the pair remained paralyzed, the men claimed

293
00:23:19,040 --> 00:23:22,480
Speaker 1: they then spotted what appeared to be some kind of

294
00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:27,359
Speaker 1: machine like object in the distance, being approached by three

295
00:23:27,680 --> 00:23:33,720
Speaker 1: strange creatures. The creatures then disappeared inside the object, and

296
00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:38,520
Speaker 1: moments later it rose into the air, gained rapid speed,

297
00:23:39,240 --> 00:23:44,640
Speaker 1: and vanished. With the peculiar craft gone, the car came

298
00:23:44,760 --> 00:23:50,200
Speaker 1: back to life and their movement returned. Two nights later,

299
00:23:50,760 --> 00:23:53,760
Speaker 1: a near identical event is said to have happened to

300
00:23:53,880 --> 00:23:58,840
Speaker 1: a doctor Henri Robert in Balliolet, seven hundred kilometers to

301
00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:03,800
Speaker 1: the north. Whether it's the rumour that a UFO followed

302
00:24:03,840 --> 00:24:06,440
Speaker 1: the flight path of a plane from New York to

303
00:24:06,560 --> 00:24:10,480
Speaker 1: London in June of nineteen fifty four, or it's the

304
00:24:10,600 --> 00:24:15,040
Speaker 1: sighting of a strange green ball over Madagascar in August

305
00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:19,000
Speaker 1: of nineteen fifty four. That year certainly seemed to be

306
00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:23,960
Speaker 1: a hotbed of apparent UFO related incidents. It was even

307
00:24:24,080 --> 00:24:28,840
Speaker 1: said that an unscheduled dentist trip for America's President Eisenhower

308
00:24:29,200 --> 00:24:32,639
Speaker 1: in February of nineteen fifty four was in fact a

309
00:24:32,760 --> 00:24:44,520
Speaker 1: meeting with multiple alien species. Despite the flurry of supposed

310
00:24:44,680 --> 00:24:48,720
Speaker 1: UFO sightings in nineteen fifty four, not everyone was so

311
00:24:48,960 --> 00:24:55,359
Speaker 1: easily persuaded that something truly otherworldly was taking place. Scientists

312
00:24:55,400 --> 00:24:58,800
Speaker 1: suggested that many of the UFO sightings in Italy and

313
00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:03,240
Speaker 1: France of that year were caused by temperature inversions, which

314
00:25:03,280 --> 00:25:06,280
Speaker 1: occur when a layer of hot air moves over a

315
00:25:06,400 --> 00:25:09,639
Speaker 1: layer of cool, which can bend light rates so that

316
00:25:09,800 --> 00:25:12,760
Speaker 1: it seems an object on the ground is in fact

317
00:25:13,000 --> 00:25:17,639
Speaker 1: hovering somewhere above in the sky. Others advised that the

318
00:25:17,800 --> 00:25:21,760
Speaker 1: silver glitter or angel hair as seen at the Italian

319
00:25:21,840 --> 00:25:27,120
Speaker 1: football match, was likely due to migrating spiders who send long,

320
00:25:27,560 --> 00:25:30,879
Speaker 1: whitish strands of their silk into the air to travel

321
00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:36,639
Speaker 1: by wind. Roberto Pinotti, the president of Italy's National UFO

322
00:25:36,800 --> 00:25:42,760
Speaker 1: Center disagreed, however, stating that the migrating spider's theory is

323
00:25:42,840 --> 00:25:48,280
Speaker 1: an old and stupid hypothesis. According to Pinotti, the chemical

324
00:25:48,320 --> 00:25:53,000
Speaker 1: analysis of the angel hair samples was nothing like spider silk,

325
00:25:53,359 --> 00:25:59,720
Speaker 1: which is a protein, an organic compound containing nitrogen, calcium, hydrogen,

326
00:25:59,760 --> 00:26:04,760
Speaker 1: and oxygen. On the day the apparent UFOs stopped his

327
00:26:04,920 --> 00:26:09,680
Speaker 1: team's football match, Giorgio Battini, a journalist at the Florentine

328
00:26:09,760 --> 00:26:14,440
Speaker 1: newspaper The Nazione, gathered several samples of the angel hair

329
00:26:14,840 --> 00:26:18,359
Speaker 1: and took them to the Institute of Chemical Analysis at

330
00:26:18,400 --> 00:26:23,719
Speaker 1: the University of Florence. After thorough testing, the lab concluded

331
00:26:24,080 --> 00:26:30,840
Speaker 1: it actually contained the elements boron, silicon, calcium, and magnesium,

332
00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:37,920
Speaker 1: not radioactive, but not spider silk either. In fact, not

333
00:26:38,160 --> 00:26:44,159
Speaker 1: like anything they'd ever seen before. Sadly, the samples were

334
00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:49,360
Speaker 1: destroyed by the testing process and their true provenance remains

335
00:26:49,480 --> 00:26:56,800
Speaker 1: a mystery to this day. This episode was written by

336
00:26:56,840 --> 00:27:01,399
Speaker 1: Ella mcleoud and Richard mc lean smith. Unexplained as an

337
00:27:01,440 --> 00:27:05,639
Speaker 1: Avy Club Productions podcast created by Richard mc clain smith.

338
00:27:06,359 --> 00:27:09,600
Speaker 1: All other elements of the podcast, including the music, are

339
00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:14,000
Speaker 1: also produced by me Richard mc lean smith Unexplained. The

340
00:27:14,040 --> 00:27:17,680
Speaker 1: book and audiobook, with stories never before featured on the show,

341
00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:22,200
Speaker 1: is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase from Amazon,

342
00:27:22,520 --> 00:27:27,280
Speaker 1: Barnes and Noble, Waterstones, and other bookstores. Please subscribe to

343
00:27:27,480 --> 00:27:30,560
Speaker 1: and rate the show wherever you get your podcasts, and

344
00:27:30,680 --> 00:27:32,960
Speaker 1: feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or

345
00:27:33,000 --> 00:27:36,760
Speaker 1: ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. Perhaps

346
00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:39,280
Speaker 1: you have an explanation of your own you'd like to share.

347
00:27:39,960 --> 00:27:43,040
Speaker 1: You can find out more at Unexplained podcast dot com

348
00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:47,119
Speaker 1: and reach us online through Twitter at Unexplained Pod and

349
00:27:47,359 --> 00:28:00,159
Speaker 1: Facebook at Facebook dot com, Forward Slash Unexplained Podcast. Ba

350
00:28:02,640 --> 00:28:18,879
Speaker 1: ba ba ba b b b b b b b

351
00:28:19,160 --> 00:28:29,199
Speaker 1: b b b b b b b b ba ba

352
00:28:29,400 --> 00:28:38,480
Speaker 1: ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba

353
00:28:38,680 --> 00:28:53,200
Speaker 1: ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba ba

354
00:28:55,480 --> 00:29:12,920
Speaker 1: ba ba b no no no no, no no no

355
00:29:14,640 --> 00:29:19,800
Speaker 1: no no no no no no no no no no

356
00:29:20,080 --> 00:29:22,800
Speaker 1: no no no no no no