# Everybody Thought He's Insane Until He Landed The Plane ![[images/Everybody-Thought-Hes-Insane-Until-He-Landed-The-Plane.webp]] **Creator:** [Unspoken Stories](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw-MBuELWSS_DTydGnXtILQ) (@UnspokenStories9) · **Published:** 2026-09-29 · **Length:** 2:53 · **Views at capture:** about 10.6 million · [Watch on YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg) > Caption source: YouTube blocked the box for yt-dlp (bot check on every client) and youtube-transcript-api (IP block), and no audio could be downloaded for Whisper, so the transcript is the English auto-caption track fetched through TubeAlfred (~640 words, with "[music]" markers removed). Screenshots are frames from YouTube's low-resolution storyboard (about 101×180 px, upscaled), so they are small and soft. Official thumbnail used as cover. The video description is empty. Added from the user's "Summarize" playlist. > Source note: the channel does not credit the original show. The narration matches, nearly word for word, a story told by MrBallen on the *MrBallen Podcast* episode "Storytime with MrBallen | Tom Segura," as quoted in published episode notes (pod.wave.co, podpulse.ai). The storyteller and the bald, bearded listener on screen are consistent with that, but the clip itself never names them. The cutaways (plane, ocean, fuel gauge, men in suits, psychologist, controller) look like stock or generated illustrations. ## Outline ### First solo flight goes wrong ([0:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=0s) to 0:38) - [0:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=0s) "There's this 23-year-old kid named Rafael Perez." He is training to be a pilot, and on a day in June he flies solo for the first time. - [0:07](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=7s) He takes off at 9:15 a.m. and it is very foggy. From his instruments he realizes he is off course and lost. - [0:17](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=17s) He tries to bank left; the plane does not respond. He radios that he can't do anything with the plane, but no one answers. - [0:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=27s) "Plane is climbing on its own." Unable to see or reach anyone, he feels "this overwhelming tiredness" and passes out. ![[images/Everybody-Thought-Hes-Insane-Until-He-Landed-The-Plane-t00000.webp|200]] *Opening frame: the storyteller, with the caption "They thought he's insane"* ![[images/Everybody-Thought-Hes-Insane-Until-He-Landed-The-Plane-t00007.webp|200]] *Illustration cutaway: "He takes off"* ### Waking over the ocean ([0:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=38s) to 1:18) - [0:38](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=38s) He wakes in the cockpit, shocked he did not crash. The plane is still flying, back down at 7,000 ft. - [0:49](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=49s) Below him is open ocean, yet he took off from an airport "3 hours inland from the coast." - [0:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=57s) His clock reads 11:30, 2 hours 15 minutes after takeoff: not enough time to reach any body of water. - [1:09](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=69s) The fuel gauge reads three-quarters full, far too high, and he would not have had enough fuel to reach the coast anyway. ![[images/Everybody-Thought-Hes-Insane-Until-He-Landed-The-Plane-t00049.webp|200]] *"He also looks out the window and it's actually just the open ocean."* ![[images/Everybody-Thought-Hes-Insane-Until-He-Landed-The-Plane-t00070.webp|200]] *Fuel-gauge cutaway at three-quarters* ### Carlos and the landing at Acapulco ([1:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=78s) to 2:04) - [1:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=78s) A voice on the radio: "Hey, hey, are you there?" Rafael answers that he fell asleep and doesn't know where he is. - [1:27](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=87s) After a pause the man introduces himself cautiously: "Hey, this is Carlos. Are you alone in your airplane?" - [1:35](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=95s) Carlos tells him he is just off the coast of Acapulco and has been flying over the water for the last hour, and to come in to the airport. - [1:43](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=103s) He lands at Acapulco; people in suits detain him without explanation and drive him to a hospital. - [1:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=115s) A drug test comes back clean ("He's sober"), and a psychologist profiles him and finds him sane. ![[images/Everybody-Thought-Hes-Insane-Until-He-Landed-The-Plane-t00106.webp|200]] *"There's these people in suits that are there to meet him."* ![[images/Everybody-Thought-Hes-Insane-Until-He-Landed-The-Plane-t00117.webp|200]] *Psychologist cutaway* ### The recording ([2:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=124s) to end) - [2:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=124s) They explain that when he appeared off Acapulco he showed up on Carlos's radar; Carlos, the air traffic controller, talked with him for an hour over the water, and it was recorded. - [2:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=138s) The first thing "Rafael" said: "The pilot is speaking, but not of his own free will. We are using him as a microphone." - [2:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=144s) "Your equipment is too primitive. It is not important who we are or where we come from, only that we are inhabitants of the same universe." - [2:30](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=150s) For the next 30 to 45 minutes the voice described humanity as the only intelligent species in the universe that uses warfare and violence on each other, poised for a nuclear holocaust and possibly to be exterminated "if this continues." - [2:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=164s) Kicker: the Mexican government buried the story, "and now you can only access it in this obscure library in Mexico." ![[images/Everybody-Thought-Hes-Insane-Until-He-Landed-The-Plane-t00143.webp|200]] *The listener as the message is read: "too primitive"* ![[images/Everybody-Thought-Hes-Insane-Until-He-Landed-The-Plane-t00157.webp|200]] *Cutaway illustrating "violence on each other"* ## Key quotes - "Plane is climbing on its own." ([0:28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=28s)) - "Hey, this is Carlos. Are you alone in your airplane?" ([1:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=91s)) - "The pilot is speaking, but not of his own free will. We are using him as a microphone." ([2:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=138s)) - "Your equipment is too primitive. It is not important who we are or where we come from, only that we are inhabitants of the same universe." ([2:24](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=144s)) ## Things mentioned ### Books - None named in the video. - Further reading (not mentioned in the clip): *UFOs Over Mexico* by Carlos Guzmán and Alfonso Salazar (Spanish edition 2001), which The UFO Library calls the most detailed English-language treatment of the case. ### People - **Rafael Perez**: the student pilot (in written retellings, Rafael Pacheco Pérez) - **Carlos**: the air traffic controller at Acapulco (named in some retellings as Carlos de Kretschy) - An unnamed female psychologist and unnamed men in suits ### Places and organizations - Acapulco, Mexico (airport and coast); an unnamed inland airport "3 hours" from the coast; the Mexican government; "this obscure library in Mexico" ## Biographies - **Unspoken Stories** (@UnspokenStories9): a YouTube channel of about 133K subscribers at capture that posts short vertical clips of strange stories. This upload gives no description, credits or source; no owner information was found. - **MrBallen** (likely storyteller, per the matching podcast notes above): John Allen, a former U.S. Navy SEAL who became known for "strange, dark and mysterious" stories on TikTok and YouTube and hosts the *MrBallen Podcast*. Not named in the clip. - **Tom Segura** (likely listener, per the same notes): American stand-up comedian and co-host of the *YMH* (Your Mom's House) podcast. Not named in the clip. - **Rafael Pacheco Pérez** (the story's subject): per The UFO Library and Mexico Unexplained, a student of about 20 at the Escuela de Aviación México who flew a Cessna 150 (registration XB-ZOX per México Desconocido) on 21 June 1976. Nothing about his later life is documented in those sources. ## Claims check | Claim | Timestamp | Verdict | Notes | |---|---|---|---| | A student pilot named Rafael Perez, 23, flew solo in June and ended up off Acapulco | [0:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=0s) | Matches the legend, details differ | Written retellings name Rafael Pacheco Pérez, about 20, on 21 June 1976, in a Cessna 150 from the Mexico City area (The UFO Library, Mexico Unexplained, México Desconocido). | | He reached the coast far faster than possible, with three-quarters of a tank | [0:57](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=57s) | Unverified | Retellings say he was off radar about an hour and reappeared more than 250 km away, a trip said to take about three hours. No flight or radar records are publicly available. The clip's own timeline (2h15m elapsed, "the last hour" over water) is also loose. | | A controller named Carlos recorded an hour-long exchange carrying an alien message | [2:04](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=124s) | Unverified | The "microphone" line is the core of every retelling; The UFO Library notes the case "rests almost entirely on testimony" with no verifiable recordings or official reports. | | He was drug-tested and judged sane by a psychologist | [1:55](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=115s) | Unverified | Appears only in retellings; no documents cited. | | The Mexican government buried the story; it survives only in an obscure library | [2:44](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qci7aa2biOg&t=164s) | Unsupported | No evidence of suppression was found. The earliest print source identified by researchers is an undated *Contactos Extraterrestres* article by ufologist Fernando J. (the magazine began in 1977), with little else before the 1990s, per a podcast that traced it (Buzzsprout transcript). | **Bottom line:** an entertaining retelling of a well-known Mexican UFO legend. It is told as fact, but the case has no verifiable primary records. ## Related - [[Unspoken Stories]] (channel TOC)