'UFO Witness' to Reopen Case Files of Dr. J. Allen Hynek

Discovery Channel recently announced the upcoming release of its new show UFO Witness, slated to debut on discovery+ this Thursday.

The new show seeks to reexamine historical cases of UFO sightings taken from the files of Dr. J. Allen Hynek, former scientific advisor to the United States Air Force.

According to the press release published to Discovery Channel’s website:

In cooperation with former Project Blue Book investigator Jennie Zeidman, former federal agent and paranormal investigator Ben Hansen reopens case files of some of the most astounding UFO encounters in history, files that have been hidden from the public for decades. In the new series, UFO WITNESS, launching Thursday, January 14 exclusively on discovery+, these findings are finally seeing the light of day.
Zeidman was the last surviving member of the Air Force’s top-secret UFO investigation called Project Blue Book, which looked into sightings from 1952 through 1970. She has broken her silence, speaking publicly for the first time about her decades of research—motivated to share her expertise because she believes we’ve been visited by UFOs before—and fears Earth is under extraterrestrial surveillance. Sadly, Zeidman passed away in April 2020, but she has given discovery+ exclusive access to the files from the chief scientific consultant of Project Blue Book, Dr. J. Allen Hynek, to help continue his investigations.
With unprecedented access to more than 10,000 of Dr. Hynek’s case files, Hansen believes the answers to UFOs in America are hidden in the cases of the past. Also aiding Hansen on his quest is Mark O’Connell—an accomplished UFO investigator, Dr. Hynek biographer and member of J. Allen Hynek’s Center for UFO Studies.

Project Blue Book was a government study on UFOs that ran from 1952 to 1969.

Dr. Hynek was a scientist and UFO investigator who was initially skeptical of the phenomenon when he signed on as a scientific consultant to the United States Air Force's Project Sign in 1948, but his opinion on the quality of evidence in favor of UFOs gradually shifted as he worked on projects like Sign and Blue Book.

He quickly grew frustrated with how flippantly his fellow scientists treated UFOs.

"Ridicule is not part of the scientific method, and people should not be taught that it is," Dr. Hynek wrote in an article for the April 1953 issue of the Journal of the Optical Society of America titled Unusual Aerial Phenomena. "The steady flow of reports, often made in concert by reliable observers, raises questions of scientific obligation and responsibility. Is there...any residue that is worthy of scientific attention? Or, if there isn't, does not an obligation exist to say so to the public—not in words of open ridicule but seriously, to keep faith with the trust the public places in science and scientists?"

Dr. Hynek went on to eventually found the Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) in 1973, and even presented a statement on UFOs to the United Nations General Assembly in 1978.

He remained a leader in the field of ufology until his death in 1986.

Zeidman wrote two books on UFOs, both of which were published through the Center for UFO Studies: The Lumberton Report: UFO Activity in Southern North Carolina, April 3-9, 1975 (1976), and A Helicopter-UFO Encounter Over Ohio (1979).

O’Connell published his biography of Dr. Hynek, The Close Encounters Man, in 2017, after gaining unfettered access to Dr. Hynek’s personal records. It is widely considered to be the definitive work on Dr. Hynek’s life and professional accomplishments.

Ben Hansen is an investigator and TV host perhaps best known for his work on Travel Channel’s Ghosts of Morgan City.

UFO Witness will consist of eight one-hour episodes. The first three episodes will debut on discovery+ on January 14, with the remaining five episodes added weekly on Thursdays beginning January 21.

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