You may have already seen this video circulating around, but perhaps you don’t know the story behind the footage. From time to time, it resurfaces, generating divergent viewpoints and heated debates. Some are absolutely convinced that it is a CGI creation, a hoax. Others, however, believe in its authenticity.
Also known as the Pordenone UFO, the Aviano UFO video has an interesting history. It began circulating online around 2006/2007 and, since then, has been constantly recycled and debated. The story goes as follows:
The video was allegedly filmed in 2003, as indicated in an anonymous letter accompanying the VHS tape sent to the renowned Italian ufologist Antonio Chiumiento in 2004. The tape was also sent to other Italian ufologists in the following months. In the letter, there was the statement: “Ho paura” (“I am afraid,” in Italian).
However, the video only became public in 2005, as Chiumiento chose to keep it confidential initially for more detailed analyses.
The footage was presented to the public by Italian journalist and ufologist Paola Harris during the 36th MUFON Symposium in July 2005, in Denver, Colorado, and at the International UFO Congress in Laughlin, Nevada. The versions that later appeared on YouTube were, for the most part, copies of the DVD from her presentation at the MUFON symposium. According to Harris, the video was given to her by an anonymous source, not by someone from the military, as was initially speculated.
Due to doubts raised about the credibility of the tape, Paola Harris responded years ago, publishing a statement to clarify the situation:
“This old video, which I have been showing for three years, was not provided to us, Italian researchers, by the Air Force. It is not one of our technologies. I had the tape analyzed in Hollywood by my friends Rob and Rebecca Gordon, who had the contacts and financial means to do so. This is a seventh-generation cassette tape. It was given to us without explanation. It is a real object that we see in the film. It was shown in my presentations at MUFON and in Laughlin, and then someone uploaded it to YouTube and Google. The video was filmed in the Veneto region, in Italy, in a place called Ponte di Giulio, near the NATO airbase in Aviano. It is a dry riverbed where the military was conducting maneuvers, and the cameraman had set up a tripod and was waiting for the object to emerge from the forest. I doubt that aliens appeared in that location.”
From there, several investigations and digital analyses were conducted to verify the authenticity of the footage. One of these investigations was carried out by researchers and ufologists Antonio Pischiutti and Stefano Saccavino, who visited the exact location on the left bank of the Cellina River, near the Ponte di Giulio, in Montereale Valcellina.
They published their findings online regarding the authenticity of the video, detailing observations about the environment and the characteristics of the alleged flying object. Although the original images from their investigations are compromised due to time, it is possible to access the complete report of the investigation on WebArchive (clicking here).
Pischiutti and Saccavino’s analyses corroborate the identification of the location described in the video, confirming that the footage was allegedly recorded near the SS 251 highway, in an area with archaeological and military significance, including proximity to the Aviano Air Base. They estimated that the object, with dimensions between 6 and 8 meters, followed a trajectory from north-northwest to south-southeast, disappearing quickly, which, if real, raises questions about its nature. However, the limitations of the video’s quality hindered definitive conclusions.
In parallel, Giuseppe Garofalo, from the SIRIO Nucleus, analyzed three versions of the video available online, pointing out anomalies such as transparency effects and shape changes, suggesting possible digital manipulation or the use of a physical model combined with computer graphics. He questioned the reliability of the third video, which has better quality but contains elements like a timer that raise doubts about its authenticity. Nevertheless, Garofalo acknowledges that the object’s complex movements would be difficult to simulate solely with CGI, keeping open the possibility of a physical artifact.
One of the most intriguing pieces of evidence of fraud was pointed out by “onthefence” on OpenMindsForum (unfortunately, it was not possible to find their complete analysis, even on WebArchive).
According to him, the alleged UFO exhibits a blur that is significantly different from the background. Although it has been reasonably suggested that this was the result of poor rendering of a 3D model on a computer, “I believe it has more to do with the simple difference in contrast between the flying saucer and the background in the original footage. Since the video versions initially available on YouTube are of such low quality, I don’t think this ‘pulsing’ blur artifact from a quick rendering of the 3D model would show up. You can barely discern details on the craft. Either way, it’s clear evidence that the flying saucer and the background are two very different things. One is real, the other is not.”
Meanwhile, the Italian-American researcher Paola Harris, who presented the video in 2005 at the MUFON Symposium in Denver, argued that the object was a “remotely controlled military prototype.” According to her, it was analyzed in Boulder, Colorado, as a physical object, not CGI. The 3D reconstruction by Alberto Forgione further reinforced the object’s complexity, with movable triangular thrusters, suggesting an advanced design.
In 2004, the television channel Antenna Tre Nordest, a regional Italian broadcaster based in Treviso, in the Veneto region (northeast Italy), aired a report covering the footage.
One of the oldest copies of the footage that can be found online is the one below, published on YouTube 18 years ago.
There are several enhanced and stabilized versions, one of which you can see below.
In 2019, a Swiss YouTube channel that features reports of sightings presented an alleged witness to the Aviano UFO case. The witness, an Austrian named Stefan, explained that he was on a tour through Europe with his wife and son when he and his son reportedly saw the Aviano UFO at the same time it was filmed from the riverbed. He confirmed that the video was real.
I believe it’s not possible to definitively confirm this testimony, whether he is telling the truth or not; we simply don’t know. Likewise, we cannot say with one hundred percent certainty whether the Aviano UFO footage is a hoax or not.
As mentioned at the beginning of the report, some are absolutely convinced of its fraudulent nature, while others are not. The material, as well as the investigations, seems to be scarce, making a final confirmation truly impossible. Regardless of one’s official opinion, the story of this footage, as well as the footage itself, is quite fascinating to learn about.
