News show episode · Reality Check · 19 October 2026
Reality Check Rewind: 'UFOs Underwater', from Catalina to the Baltic
A Reality Check Rewind, reposted 19 October 2026, of Ross Coulthart's 2025 'UFOs Underwater' special with Ben Hansen. It features Dana Point boat captain Thor Liesen's 2021 video of orange orbs off Catalina and his night over 'stadium lights' rising from the deep, Hansen's survey flight where GPS and a particle detector failed in one area, Tim Gallaudet on Redondo Canyon, Richard Dolan on a possible base near Catalina, and Dennis Åsberg on the Baltic Sea anomaly.
Overview
- Named, firsthand: Liesen's 2021 orbs (video, prosaic checks done) and lights beaming up from below his boat; Hansen's GPS and particle-detector failures near Laguna Beach.
- Anonymous: an air traffic controller on jets scrambled after a light 'the size of a city' under the water.
- Hypotheses: Gallaudet's Redondo Canyon 'monorail route'; Dolan's possible base near Catalina.
Leads to follow
- The Baltic Sea anomaly (Åsberg, Ocean X): lead only, not a case.
- Szydagis's cosmic-watch data from the Laguna Beach flight.
Notes
- Rewind repost of 19 Oct 2026; original 2025 (to confirm).
- The Burchett segment repeats the Burchett interview (see episode/reality-check-2025-burchett-underwater).
Timeline
On the recordWitness testimonyAlleged / one person's word
The claims, checked
Witness testimony (6)
On 13 Sep 2021 off Catalina he filmed three orange orbs in a triangle that changed colour, merged into one, split, vanished and came back, looked like 'miniature galaxies', dropped to just above the water and came toward his boat, then seemed to go into the sea; about 10 minutes in all.firsthandThor Liesen (Dana Point sport-fishing captain)Captain Liesen's orbs off Catalina (California, 2021)
A friend on shore saw the lights from Catalina and phoned to ask whether he was firing flares in distress.secondhandThor Liesen (Dana Point sport-fishing captain)his friend (unnamed) → Thor Liesen → told itCaptain Liesen's orbs off Catalina (California, 2021)
Discovery Channel investigators found no emergency flares in the Marine Casualty Database and no night drills at Camp Pendleton; a Vandenberg Starlink launch 155 miles north, 25 minutes earlier, does not fit the trajectory or timing. 'One of the most compelling cases that we've seen.'The launch was proposed and rejected by the investigators themselves.analysisDiscovery Channel investigators (as reported on Reality Check)Captain Liesen's orbs off Catalina (California, 2021)
A large Navy exercise off the coast had ended a month before the sighting.analysisBen Hansen's team (via contacts)Captain Liesen's orbs off Catalina (California, 2021)
5-7 miles off Avalon, over about 1,300 ft of water, around midnight, as his boat passed over something, white 'baseball stadium lights' beamed up all around the boat for about 50 yards across; he sat up the rest of the night with a gun. It was not phosphorescence, which he knows well and which glows green.Date not given.firsthandThor Liesen (Dana Point sport-fishing captain)Captain Liesen's orbs off Catalina (California, 2021)
On Ben Hansen's survey flight near Laguna Beach the plane's GPS/ADS-B kept dropping out only inside one area and returned on leaving; a cosmic-ray particle detector lent by Matthew Szydagis climbed faster than altitude explains, then stopped logging in a failure mode he could not reproduce in tests: 'more evidence that there is something strange in the Catalina area.'Szydagis: 'we don't have sufficient evidence' of a portal. Hansen calls GPS dropouts 'not too uncommon'.firsthandBen Hansen and Matthew Szydagis (named on air; captions garble the name)Catalina Island reports, 1949-1955
Alleged / one person's word (4)
An air traffic controller told him jets were scrambled between the coast and Catalina after a pilot saw a light under the water 'the size of a city'.anonymousThor Liesen (Dana Point sport-fishing captain)unnamed pilot → unnamed air traffic controller → Thor Liesen → told itCaptain Liesen's orbs off Catalina (California, 2021)
Redondo Canyon runs like 'a monorail route' from the Santa Monica Basin and Catalina Channel, where Navy ships see UAP, to near the Redondo Beach pier, and turbidity flows would hide any movement. A Navy pilot told him: 'I don't know what it is, but I sure would like to fly it.'His hypothesis, on the 2025 'UFOs Underwater' special.speculationCaptain Liesen's orbs off Catalina (California, 2021)Catalina Island reports, 1949-1955
Catalina has 'an inordinate number' of UAP and USO cases, and a non-human base nearby is 'a real possibility'.speculationRichard Dolan (author and investigator)Catalina Island reports, 1949-1955
At the Baltic Sea anomaly site the ROV, cameras, lights and compass failed, and phantom ships showed on radar.Lead only: a well-known pop-culture seabed formation, not made a case.firsthandDennis Åsberg (Ocean X)