IncidentMexican Air Force FLIR Video (5 March 2004)

aka Mexican Air Force FLIR Video (5 March 2004)

A Mexican Air Force Merlin C26A surveillance aircraft conducting a drug-interdiction patrol over Campeche detected eleven objects on FLIR (forward-looking infrared) thermal imagery; the aircraft's radar painted them but the crew could not see them with the unaided eye.

disputed-optical-artifact The eleven FLIR contacts correlate in bearing with the Cantarell oil-field burn-off flares; the corpus treats the optical identification as substantially resolved.

status history (1)

2026-06-09 · unannotated → disputed-optical-artifact — initial annotation sweep (Epic J.F4)

On the afternoon of 5 March 2004, a Mexican Air Force (Fuerza Aérea Mexicana) Merlin C26A turboprop fitted with FLIR and primary surveillance radar was conducting a routine counter-narcotics patrol over Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche, at an altitude of approximately 11,500 feet. The crew of Maj. Magdaleno Castañón and his radar/FLIR operators detected, over approximately 13 minutes, eleven discrete objects on FLIR thermal imagery moving in a loose formation around their aircraft. The aircraft’s primary radar painted the same objects. The crew turned off their aircraft’s exterior lights and attempted to obtain visual contact with the unaided eye; they could not. The FLIR footage was reviewed up the chain of command; on 11 May 2004 Mexican Secretary of National Defense Gen. Ricardo Vega García authorized the formal release of the footage, making it the first government-authorized release of UAP thermal-imagery video by any North American military authority. The release was made through journalist Jaime Maussán. Subsequent analyses — most prominently by Alejandro Franz and Bruce Maccabee — have attributed at least some of the FLIR returns to oil-rig flares at the Cantarell field in the Bay of Campeche, where flare-stack heat plumes can produce FLIR signatures consistent with the recorded thermal patterns. The radar paint of moving objects at the aircraft’s altitude — invisible to the unaided eye — has not been fully accounted for by the flare-stack hypothesis.

Notable & intriguing

On 11 May 2004, Mexican Secretary of National Defense Gen. Ricardo Vega García personally authorized the public release of the FLIR footage through journalist Jaime Maussán; the release was the first government-authorized public release of UAP thermal-imagery video by any North American military authority.

Mexican Secretariat of National Defense (SEDENA) authorization, 11 May 2004; Jaime Maussán press conference, Mexico City, 11 May 2004
Maj. Magdaleno Castañón, mission commander, stated in subsequent interviews: ‘I am a pilot. I do not believe in UFOs. But I have to admit we were afraid.’ The crew reported turning off all exterior lights in an attempt to obtain visual contact with the unaided eye; they could not see the objects that their FLIR and primary radar were both painting.

Maj. Magdaleno Castañón, interview with Jaime Maussán, Gran Misterio, May 2004; SEDENA crew debrief, 5 March 2004
Skeptical analysis by Mexican investigators Alejandro Franz (UAPSG-Mexico) and U.S. optical-physicist Bruce Maccabee attributed at least some of the FLIR returns to flare-stack heat plumes at the Cantarell oil field in the Bay of Campeche, ~70 nautical miles from the aircraft. The flare-stack hypothesis accounts for the FLIR returns but does not fully account for the simultaneous primary-radar paint at the aircraft’s altitude.

Alejandro Franz, UAPSG-Mexico analysis, 2004; Bruce Maccabee, ‘The Mexican Military UFO,’ MUFON Journal, August 2004

Public-record items already documented about this subject. Folklore is labelled. Sources cited where the specificity warrants it.

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