INVASION EARTH (PLANET UFO)

Crossing the mysterious Bass Strait, a young Australian pilot disappears mid-flight over the sea after reporting a strange craft dancing around his light aircraft.

A fireball streaks across the sky and crashes in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania. These events will put the little town on the map, and change the lives of its residents forever.

In Victoria, Australia, a young driver is killed on an empty stretch of road late at night. It then comes to light that someone else reported seeing a UFO in the same place just days before.

In this episode, witnesses in Texas claim their confusing physical illnesses are the result of a massive, fiery, diamond-shaped object; a mass sighting in Arizona of lights gliding across the sky prompts accusations of a government cover-up by some; and in the skies above Brazil, jet fighters play a high stakes game of cat and mouse with unknown lights.

In this episode we go on board with a Japanese Airlines cargo plane over north-eastern Alaska, as it is seemingly followed by UFOs at 35,000 feet. The incident sparks an FAA investigation and claims of secret involvement by the FBI and CIA. We also travel to Westall, a town on the outskirts of Melbourne, Australia. In April 1966, this unassuming suburb was home to a mass daylight sighting of a UFO. Finally, we explore a bizarre series of UFO sightings in a remote town in northern Peru. The incidents, caught on video by a local photographer, spark off an investigation by a newly formed government department.

Deep in the Arctic Circle, in the winter of 2009, the skies of Northern Norway are lit up by an incredible but seemingly inexplicable light display. In 2006 one of the world's busiest airports is enveloped by UFO reports that come from the staff of a major US airline. Lastly we go back to the early years of the UFO phenomena and re-live the public scare of the great Washington UFO flap of 1952. Are there rational, scientific explanations for these fantastic events? Subject the scrutiny of investigative journalists and academic experts why do suspicions of conspiracy and cover-ups remain? Will the truth ever be revealed? Invasion Earth endeavours to expose the truth.

Invasion earth brings extraordinary and baffling cases of unidentified flying objects to life through powerful eyewitness testimony, graphics, drama reconstruction and original archive. In Kaikoura, New Zealand strange lights are witnessed by pilots and confirmed on radar. The story turns global when a film crew capture the phenomena on film and the Government is forced to investigate. Deep in the jungle of Vietnam a group of US paratroopers have an extraordinary encounter. A bright light rises up from the forest floor and disappears into space. Both American and Viet Cong soldiers are terrified and the following day the paratroopers find the enemy have fled. And hundreds of UFO sightings sweep across the UK. The mysterious spheres of fire are caught on camera and one nearly collides with a police helicopter. Finally, one young couple come forward claiming to be responsible.

Many UFO sightings have been dismissed as the products of unreliable witnesses or hoaxes. But a few are harder to explain. INVASION EARTH retells and reconstructs incidents from all over the world. With the help of a panel of experts, all the evidence is tested. In this episode, Canadian villagers see a string of lights crash into the ocean, sparking a major investigation. In New Zealand, a mysterious object streaks across the country in broad daylight - but what is it? And in Iran, jets are scrambled to deal with a brightly coloured UFO, leading to an astonishing dogfight.