UFO HUNTERS(TM)On The History Channel(R)

UFO HUNTERS(TM)On The History Channel(R)

For centuries, people have reported encounters with extraterrestrial beings. Is it ... Hoax or History?

New HD series premieres Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT

NEW YORK, Jan. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- Are we alone in the universe? The question has always haunted humankind. Incidents involving UFOs and extraterrestrial life have been reported throughout history. UFO HUNTERS(TM), a new series on The History Channel, follows a group of experts as they subject some of history's most intriguing UFO accounts, and the evidence surrounding them, to exhaustive scrutiny in an effort to uncover the actual facts. The series is a spinoff from the network's hit program "UFO HUNTERS" which premiered in 2005. The new HD series UFO HUNTERS premieres Wednesday, February 6th, 2008 at 10:00 p.m. ET/PT on The History Channel(R).

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20051031/HISTORYLOGO )

UFO Hunters Bill Birnes, Pat Uskert, Dr. Ted Acworth, and Jeff Tomlinson are passionate about separating fact from fallacy when it comes to UFO incidents. Each brings a different background and perspective: Bill Birnes is publisher of UFO Magazine, home to one of the world's largest collections of documentation on UFO incidents. Also from UFO Magazine is investigator Pat Uskert, who became intrigued with the UFO phenomenon after he witnessed a strange metallic object floating over Venice, California. Jeff Tomlinson is the scientific intern with the UFO HUNTERS team. They are joined by Dr. Ted Acworth of MIT, a mechanical engineer and researcher who previously worked for NASA and brings the discipline of hard science to the team, assisting in the investigations of reported UFO incidents to determine if they are real.

Each week, this group travels to the site of a well-known UFO encounter to explore the event and uncover what really happened. In the course of their investigations, the UFO Hunters examine evidence such as videotapes, audiotapes, witness interviews, and files newly opened under the Freedom of Information Act, then go on location and to the lab to interview, re-construct the events, and investigate. Their journeys take them across North America and Europe in search of the truth about these UFO sightings.

The premiere episode of the new HD series UFO HUNTERS examines an incident that took place two weeks before the now-famous report of a UFO crash in Roswell, New Mexico. UFO HUNTERS: THE UFO BEFORE ROSWELL travels back to June 21st, 1947, when Harold Dahl was boating with crew and dog off the coast of Maury Island, Washington, in Puget Sound. They noticed several odd-shaped aircraft dotting the sky. One suddenly began spewing white-hot fragments over the water and onto the beach. The fiery falling debris killed Dahl's dog and broke his son's arm. He told the harbor patrol, who in turn reported the incident to the military. A few weeks later, two Air Force intelligence officers from Hamilton Field, California arrived in Tacoma. After conducting interviews, and collecting most of the remaining wreckage, the officers departed McChord Field in the early hours of August 1st. Shortly afterward, the airplane lost communication, and people reported seeing flames in the sky. Two people died in the crash, two others made their way through the darkness to a farmhouse. UFO HUNTERS has located the crash scene and along with an archeologist, comb the debris field, gathering and analyzing the evidence. UFO HUNTERS: THE UFO BEFORE ROSWELL premieres Wed., Feb. 6th at 10:00pm ET/PT.

The following incidents reported by individuals are investigated in the series:

-- June 1947 - A group of people out boating notice odd-shaped aircraft in
the sky overhead -- when fiery debris from the objects suddenly rains
down on them. U.S. military sent in later to collect evidence are
involved in a plane crash. Not long after the boating incident, an
unusual aircraft accident is reported in Roswell, New Mexico, raising
further questions.
-- September 1961 - A couple driving on a rural New Hampshire road allege
they were abducted, examined, and returned to their car by their
captors. Under hypnosis they reveal details of their abduction and the
woman draws a map of an unknown solar system. Years later, astronomers
discover a solar system closely matching it.
-- 1980 - A pilot flying his small plane spots an object just below the
surface of the water off Catalina Island. He reports that a bright
light emanating from the object enveloped his plane and froze his
controls, after which he lost consciousness.
-- August 2007 - Two sleepy villages in eastern Mexico, Valles and
Xilitla, report debris falling from the sky, and a 10-foot-diameter
fireball was seen to fly back and forth through the sky as if being
maneuvered, before crashing to the ground.
-- Since the 1980s, over 7,000 sightings of strange objects in the sky
have been reported in the Hudson Valley region of upstate New York, and
the source of a powerful beam of light emanating from the center of a
local cemetery has yet to be determined.

Other episodes of UFO HUNTERS will investigate reports of man-made aircraft and spacecraft encountering UFOs while flying, incidents of police encounters with UFOs, various stone formations around the world, such as Stonehenge, that many experts feel are powerful clues into the extraterrestrial world, and a look at the efforts of modern organizations like SETI and NASA, and what they are doing to investigate the presence of extraterrestrial life in the universe

The official minisite, www.history.com/ufohunters will include videos of reported UFO sightings as well as an ongoing web series. Viewers can share their own encounters on the UFO HUNTERS Sightings Map Experience, an interactive application utilizing Google Map technology, to pinpoint personal experiences around the globe. Viewers will be able to browse world-wide encounters as well as add their own stories, photos and videos for others to view and rate. Experts from the series will participate in online chats, and the site will serve as a forum for UFO discussions.

The new HD series UFO HUNTERS is produced by Motion Picture Production, Incorporated, for The History Channel. Executive Producer for The History Channel is Dolores Gavin. Executive producer is Jon Alon Walz. Co-executive producers are Alan LaGarde and Jeff Tober. Supervising producers are Dave Pavoni and Tracy Chaplin. Producers are Autumn Humphreys and Chad Horning.

The History Channel(R) is a leading cable television network featuring compelling original, non-fiction specials and series that bring history to life in a powerful and entertaining manner across multiple platforms. The network provides an inviting place where people experience history in new and exciting ways enabling them to connect their lives today to the great lives and events of the past that provide a blueprint for the future. The History Channel has earned four Peabody Awards, three Primetime Emmy(R) Awards, ten News & Documentary Emmy(R) Awards and received the prestigious Governor's Award from the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for the network's Save Our History(R) campaign dedicated to historic preservation and history education. The History Channel reaches more than 95 million Nielsen subscribers. The website is located at www.History.com.

Photo: NewsCom:
http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20051031/HISTORYLOGO
AP Archive:

http://photoarchive.ap.org/
PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com
Source: The History Channel

CONTACT: Kathie Gordon, +1-212-210-1320, Kathie.Gordon@aetn.com, or
Catherine Mirra, +1-212-210-9760, Catherine.Mirra@aetn.com, both for The
History Channel

Web site:

http://www.history.com/ufohunters
http://www.history.com/

NOTE TO EDITORS: For more information and photography, please visit us on the web at www.historychannelpress.com.

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