Lake Erie UFOs Are Stars on YouTube

Waves of UFO sightings over the waters of Lake Erie are earning the great lake a reputation as a UFO hot spot. But the lake's new popularity may have more to do with a string of popular videos on YouTube than sightings of little green men.

"It's a hot spot," declares local ufologist Aaron Clark about the beaches of Lake Erie near Cleveland, Ohio. "Some believe there's a UFO base on the bottom of the lake."

While not yet rivaling UFO hot spots like Mexico City or Phoenix, Lake Erie has generated enough buzz that news and documentary filmmakers are taking notice. Several Lake Erie UFO videos have made the national news, and The History Channel is airing a segment on Lake Erie UFOs, due to air in February.

There have been more than 20 credible UFO sightings in the area in the last two years, according to Clark, a spokesman for the Cleveland Ufology Project, one of the oldest UFO-spotting groups in the country.

"There's a pattern here," says Sam Phillips, a musician who filmed a UFO hovering over downtown Cleveland in March 2007, which was shown nationwide by CBS News. "There's a riddle here. And I want answers. I want an explanation."

Phillips' video is one of a dozen-plus amateur videos posted on YouTube tagged "Lake Erie Lights" and "Lake Erie UFOs."

One YouTube video shows several pulsating lights materializing under an orange-red crescent moon.

Another clip, viewed more than 600,000 times, appears to show two UFOs hovering, then merging above the lake.

"There's a huge story unfolding here," says Michael Lee Hill, a musician and the person who shot the "merging UFOs" video. "I think they're absolutely sending us a message. I believe they are here to help us become a galactic society."

Hill is responsible for most of the Lake Erie videos on YouTube, and has sold clips to news and documentary shows. His video of "merging UFOs" was shown by FOX News and used by ufologist David Sereda in two documentaries, Dan Aykroyd Unplugged on UFOs and From Here to Andromeda. Hill, an accomplished guitarist, also produced the music for Andromeda. He will also appear on an episode of UFO Hunters, which premieres on The History Channel in February.

But skeptics question whether Hill is pulling an elaborate hoax, like the notorious "UFO Haiti" video on YouTube, which has been viewed millions of times but was debunked when a professional animator admitted to the Los Angeles Times that he created the hoax using a suite of 3-D animation software.

After Hill posted his "merging UFOs" video to Abovetopsecret.com, a popular paranormal discussion board, the thread took on a skeptical slant. Hill claimed he pointed his camera directly north, toward Canada. But with the help of a flight-tracking map, one skeptic claims Hill's camera is more likely pointing to the west and is probably filming the incoming flight path of two distant planes in an S-shaped landing pattern. AboveTopSecret.com has labeled Hill's video a hoax.

Hill denied the video is a hoax. "It can't be an airplane because there's no blinking lights," he said. "It's one solid light (and) the lights are also flying in two different directions." The Federal Aviation Administration requires that planes flying at night turn on blinking or pulsating lights.

An official from Cleveland Hopkins International Airport said the airport went to a "near simultaneous" take-off and landing plan in 2003, which sent planes in flight patterns over Lake Erie.

After adopting the new system, people began calling the airport saying they witnessed a near-air collision, but it is an optical illusion: The planes look like they are on top of each other, but are actually miles apart, said the official. In addition, Hopkins runs a smaller airport near the lake, not far from where Hill films. Both airports share the same northerly flight paths.

Ben Radford, a paranormal investigator and managing editor of the Skeptical Inquirer, said YouTube is fueling a UFO frenzy.

"The problem is anyone can post anything and call it a UFO, a ghost, but there's no filter," he says. "You don't know if that person has a history of hoaxes or mental illness. What happens is a real case is drowned out by a sea of hoaxes, mistakes or misidentifications."