What happened
On March 5, 2004, a Mexican Air Force Merlin aircraft was patrolling the skies over Campeche in search of drug smugglers’ light planes. At an altitude of about 3,500 meters (11,500 feet) its radar detected an unidentified target, and the thermal imaging camera recorded first two, then eleven bright points moving near the aircraft. The crew could not see them with the naked eye. In May the Mexican Ministry of Defense handed the recording to journalist Jaime Maussan, who showed it at a press conference, calling it proof of alien visitation. The video made headlines worldwide as a rare example of UFO footage released by a military.
Witnesses
The crew of the Mexican Air Force patrol aircraft.
Explanations and hypotheses
Analyses by independent researchers, including Mexican ones, showed that the direction in which the camera was pointing matched the location of burning gas flares on oil platforms of the Cantarell field in the Bay of Campeche, more than 100 km (60 miles) away. The flares, invisible to the naked eye at that distance, are very bright in infrared. The explanation is widely accepted, although Maussan still rejects it.
Explained The phenomenon has a widely accepted, down-to-earth explanation.
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