Koi UFO Video 081: M5 Motorway Jet Chase (UK 2010)
[DEBUNKED] Koi UFO Video 081 appears to show a UFO hovering above some parked trucks alongside a road. Two jets appear to fly passed the UFO.
This video was discussed in articles by The Sun and The Daily Mail newspapers during 2010, as well as in the media in several other countries. One copy of the video on Youtube has nearly 1 million views. Nick Pope told The Sun: ‘This is one of the best videos I’ve seen'
In fact, as discussed below, this video was a hoax created by Youtube user "princessmarije" using the Vue 7 graphics system (i.e. a later edition of the Vue software used by David Nicolas to create the Haiti UFO video and by Damien White to create the "Los Rosques" UFO videos).
Sections below:
2. Stories and claims relating to this video
3. The real background to this video
4. Relevant online discussions
1. The relevant video
This video appears to show a UFO hovering above some parked trucks alongside a road. Two jets appear to fly passed the UFO.
Screen shots from the video are included below for ease of identification:
2. Stories and claims relating to this video
This video was originally uploaded to Youtube (with the title "UFO Febraury 2010 M5 West Midlands" and the video number HvMjrb62UZc) on 7 February 2010 by "PrincessMarije". The video had a caption stating "F16s/Jets buzzing a UFO near M5 Midlands again. Feb 2010."
"PrincessMarije" subsequently (in April 2010) uploaded the slightly longer version of the video shown above, entitled "Jets chase UFO on M5 FULL ORIGINAL VERSION!!".
This video was featured in articles by The Sun and The Daily Mail newspapers, as well as in the media in several other countries. One copy of the video on Youtube has nearly 1 million views.
The Sun article was entitled "Fighter jets chase UFO down the M5". That article referred to a "mystery cameraman" taking footage of "the military aircraft chasing the shiny orb".
The Daily Mail article was entitled "Is this REALLY a UFO being chased down the M5 by RAF fighter jets? 'Video footage' captured at a service station". That article included the following:
"The 30-second clip, thought to be shot from a West Midlands service station park, reveals the saucer-shaped craft zipping over the M5, with the two jets in its wake. Former Ministry of Defence UFO expert Nick Pope told The Sun: ‘This is one of the best videos I’ve seen'."
3. The real background to this video
This video was in fact a hoax created using the Vue 7 graphics system (i.e. a later edition of the Vue software used by David Nicolas to create the Haiti UFO video and by Damien White to create the "Los Rosques" UFO videos).
I rather annoyed the hoaxer in 2010 when I revealed how the hoax was created. I received a rather bad-tempered message from the hoaxer who seemed upset that I had revealed the hoax before the hoaxer was ready to do so.
(I sometimes contact the relevant hoaxer/artist that I think created a hoaxed video. Sometimes they admit a hoax (or art project, advertising campaign or scientific experiment...) and explain how the video was created. Princessmarijie was one of the few that got annoyed).
The hoaxer subsequently put online a video admitting the hoax, basically boasting about how he fooled people around the world. Of course, there is no mention of the fact that many (probably most) people that commented on the video thought it was a pretty poor hoax, nor any mention of the fact that anyone identified the actual 3D computer graphics used in the video - as I had done.
Here are some screen-shots from that video showing the software used.
When considering such videos from anonymous sources, I often find it illuminating to look at what we do know. Apart from the video itself, in 2010 I looked at the Youtube profile of the user that uploaded the video.
I found that, looking at that profile, I could see (apart from the other UFO videos uploaded by that user...) from the section on the bottom left that the relevant user had subscribed to the Youtube channel of several Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) artists, including one that has masses of UFO CGI videos (i.e. Youtube user "Ledrack"). Some of those videos show tips and tricks for creating your own effects. Some of those videos even have a UFO with a fairly similar style to that in the M5 video.
I emailed Youtube user "ledrack", the user that created the "UFO" CGI videos that "princessmarije" had subscribed to. He was kind enough to respond as follows:
"I saw the video, everything that appears in the video is digital. The textures are very clean. The trucks, the tree, the UFO, the jets. Not mine, but it is very good, and is CGI. Is what I think."
Following up on the suggestion that the trucks are CGI, I decided to look for any pre-made 3-D images of the relevant "truck" online.
I then looked at the video for distinguishing features. The P&O container has some serial numbers visible so I set out to track that one down.
I have found a 3-D image of a P&O container available to purchase online from "3dshop.org.uk".
I think it may well be the P&O object used in the "UFO" video.
Pause the video at 3 to 4 seconds, I could see the serial number on the side of the P&O container of OCLU... (with some digits of the number visible in some shots) GB43...
Those are the same serial numbers as on the picture of the rear of the "3dshop.org.uk" P&O product.
Back in 2010, I took screen-shots of the P&O container in the video and compared those with the images of the "truck" on the "3dshop.org.uk" website:
(I also did various few Google Image searches on P&O containers and it seems (contrary to a thought that crossed my mind) that the serial numbers do not all begin with the same numbers/letters - so this seemed to be considerably more than a coincidence).
When I posted these findings demonstrating a hoax online in 2010 and contacted "princessmarijie", I received a rather annoyed response - which was followed by a video by "princessmarijie" admitting the hoax and basically boasting about fooling people around the world.
Dr David Clarke in England had covered this hoax on his blog in 2010 (and in the Fortean Times). His article included the following:
"...investigative UFOlogist Isaac Koi - who has a fantastic new website here - spent an afternoon scrutinising the mystery footage and consulted CGI experts who have posted similar films on YouTube. ... Koi pointed out there is a P&O container in the foreground of the video on which some serial numbers are visible. ... He then traced an online 3D image of a P&O container with a serial number visible, which appears to be the same serial number as the container image online. ... It appears the whole story was a clever exercise in viral marketing - with the tabloids and UFO 'experts' all taken in by their will to believe. Bear in mind that none of the international news outlets - including The Sun and Daily Mail - who ran the original story have told their readers it was a hoax."
4. Relevant online discussions
Relevant discussions on the AboveTopSecret.com forum include the following:
2010 (April) discussion entitled "Fighter Jets Chase UFO Over M5 Motorway in UK"
2010 (April) discussion entitled "Fighter jets chase UFO down the M5"
2010 (April) discussion entitled "UFO tracking RAF Jets (from Daily Mail)"
There were also discussions online in 2012 when a relabelled copy of the video did the rounds again online:
http://ufoupdateslist.com/2012/mar/m03-016.shtml