The UFO Phenomenon is a feature-length investigative documentary produced by Seven Network (7NEWS) and broadcast on 2021-09-06 as part of the 7NEWS Spotlight strand. Presented and reported by Ross Coulthart, the documentary covers Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) across three broad areas: the shift in official United States government posture, a cluster of sightings concentrated around Australia, Western Australia, Exmouth, and two major Australian historical incidents. The documentary was produced at a moment when Coulthart reported that a formal UAP report was due before United States Congress within weeks,1 and when, in his assessment, the US military was for the first time since the Second World War openly admitting it faced an unexplained aerial mystery.2 Coulthart also disclosed that the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force (UAP Task Force) had been operating secretly inside the Pentagon for years.3
The documentary draws on interviews with several prominent figures from the United States national security and intelligence communities. David Marler, a researcher based near USA, New Mexico, Roswell, states that for decades the US Air Force, FBI, and CIA maintained a policy of denial and debunking towards UFOs,4 a posture he characterises as having shifted with the leaking of infrared videos from the United States Department of Defense (DoD) in 2017.5 Luis Elizondo, identified as a former intelligence officer who was placed in charge of the secretive Pentagon unit known as the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP),6 describes the observed technology as exhibiting instantaneous acceleration,7 hypersonic velocities,8 transmedium travel,9 and anti-gravity propulsion.10 Christopher Mellon, identified as a former deputy assistant secretary in the United States Department of Defense (DoD) during the Clinton and Bush administrations, and Leslie Kean also appear as interviewees. The documentary covers the 2004 USS Nimitz UAP encounter in some detail: on 2004-11-14, the USS Nimitz was conducting drills off USA, California, Southern California,11 with Kevin Day manning the radar aboard the USS Princeton.12 Day observed on radar that an unidentified object descended from approximately 8,500 metres to the surface of the ocean in 0.78 seconds.13 The combat air patrol rendezvous point to which the object subsequently relocated was approximately 97 kilometres distant and known only to a handful of Navy personnel and pilots.14 David Fravor, identified as a Top Gun Naval Flight School-trained pilot flying an F/A-18 Super Hornet, was ordered to intercept the object; Elizondo states the object took evasive manoeuvres to maintain distance with no difficulty. Elizondo further describes the object as having no wings, no rudders, no control surfaces, no cockpit, and no rivets.15 The documentary also references The three Department of Defense UAP videos and the 2017 New York Times disclosure of Pentagon UFO videos, with Kean describing her involvement in that disclosure and a prior meeting in Washington DC USA with Mellon and Elizondo.
A substantial portion of the documentary focuses on sightings in and around Exmouth, described in the film as comparable to USA, New Mexico, Roswell in popular reference.16 The town hosts the Australia, Western Australia, Harold Holt Naval Communications Station, which, Coulthart states, was used during the Cold War to communicate with American nuclear submarines.17 The primary Exmouth witness is Annie Farinaccio, who describes a 1991 encounter occurring at approximately 8 p.m. while travelling by cab towards the Harold Holt base, located approximately five kilometres from town.18 Farinaccio describes observing a diamond-shaped craft with lights at the bottom hovering directly above the vehicle,19 two to three cars in length, making no sound, and coloured a deep grey.20 In the days following the 1991 Exmouth UFO sighting (Annie Farinaccio), Farinaccio was taken to the top-security section of the base for questioning,21 and she and two officers from the Australian Federal Police who had been present were cross-examined by American personnel.22 Farinaccio states she was instructed to tell people she had seen a weather balloon.23 The documentary also presents accounts from Nikolai Gordevich, whose 2015 Exmouth UFO light sighting (Nikolai Gordevich) occurred in February 2015, and Adrian Arnold, whose 1973 Exmouth drive-in UFO sighting (Adrian Arnold) occurred in 1973 when he was 12 years old. Some sighting reports from the Northwest Cape area are, Coulthart notes, held in the National Archives of Australia. The Australian Department of Defence required the 7NEWS film team to withdraw from around the base to a position approximately 10 kilometres distant.
The documentary devotes a segment to the 1967 Malmstrom nuclear missile UFO incident, drawing on testimony from Robert Salas, identified as a retired US Air Force weapons operator. On 1967-03-24, Salas was underground at a missile launch facility in Montana USA when a guard reported an orange-red pulsating light hovering above the front gate of the facility.24 Salas states that klaxons then sounded and the nuclear missiles went down one by one across the board.25 Salas expresses the opinion that the unidentified objects are focused on US nuclear weapons and are aware of how nuclear systems function. The correlation between nuclear sites and UAP activity is also raised by Marler, and Salas additionally notes that the unidentified craft have shown the ability to disrupt communications, which could affect the Australia, Western Australia, Harold Holt Naval Communications Station.
The Westall UFO sighting 1966 forms a further major segment. Westall High School is described as a college of approximately 600 pupils in Australia, Victoria, Melbourne’s south-east.26 Science teacher Andrew Greenwood, who was present, describes the object as a grey, almost cylindrical or cigar-shaped object moving with precision in the sky.27 Witness Terry Peck states that during the sighting he saw one of the objects on the ground in front of him,28 and that within 40 minutes Air Force and Army personnel had arrived at the scene.29 Witness Colin Kelly states he later found a circular area of trampled grass with guards and personnel with equipment present. Two weeks after the incident, two officials – one in plain clothes and one a senior Air Force officer – visited Greenwood at his home and suggested he would be ill-advised to continue speaking about what he had seen.30 James MacDonald, identified as officially working for the United States Navy, subsequently visited Australia to interview Greenwood and other witnesses, comparing Australian reports with American ones to assess whether the phenomenon was global in character. Approximately 12 months after the sighting, Greenwood states, officials from the Office of the President of the United States contacted him to arrange MacDonald’s interview. The sighting is characterised in the documentary as the largest group UFO sighting in the Southern Hemisphere, witnessed by over 200 people.31 Coulthart states that a Australian Department of Supply report on the event exists but has not been made available. The documentary also references In Plain Sight (Ross Coulthart book) in the context of Coulthart’s broader research into these matters.
The documentary also examines the 1948 Aztec New Mexico alleged UFO crash, drawing on testimony from researchers Scott Ramsey and Suzanne Ramsey, who state that on 1948-03-25 oil workers discovered a lenticular craft in USA, New Mexico, Aztec.32 The object was reported to be approximately 5.5 metres tall and just short of 30 metres across.33 Ramsey expresses the opinion that the recovered craft was taken to the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Separately, the documentary covers cattle mutilation in Australia, Queensland, North Queensland, featuring Mick Cook and Judy Cook, who run a 14,000 hectare cattle station in an isolated part of North Queensland with a single access road.34 Since the first incident on their property, 15 of their cattle have died in similar circumstances.35 Coulthart states that the FBI disclosed to him there are 10,000 unsolved cattle mutilation cases across the United States.36 The final segment features television presenter Grant Denyer, who describes the Grant Denyer Narre Warren UFO sighting he experienced at approximately 19 years of age in Australia, Victoria, Narre Warren: about five bright dots sat motionless in groups in the sky, after which one left its group and moved at supersonic speed to join the other group before stopping instantaneously,37 with both groups subsequently departing together.