Mexican Air Force UFO affair

Case dossier

The flight and instrument record: The Merlin C-26A was conducting a routine surveillance mission over southern Mexico, not a UFO intercept. Its Star SAFIRE II worked in the 3–5 micron infrared band and the distributed recording shows bright, unresolved sources. Infrared brightness establishes radiance contrast, not an object's size, distance or altitude. The reviewed tape does not preserve the sensor sensitivity settings or a laser range, so claims that the points flew beside the aircraft are crew interpretation rather than measured geometry.

Radar was a different evidence stream: Contemporary reports said several contacts appeared on the APS-143 radar before the infrared sequence. Sheaffer's review states that their number and direction did not match the recorded lights, that no radar data were saved, and that ground radar at Ciudad del Carmen showed no unknown targets. A later map reconstruction suggested some moving returns were compatible with highway traffic. The public record therefore does not establish eleven objects simultaneously tracked by radar and FLIR.

Why fixed flares fit: During the main sequence the sensor azimuth remained near 134 degrees behind and left of an aircraft flying roughly east. Plotted from the recorded route, that sightline points over water toward the Cantarell platform complex. Medium zoom shows two main clusters; extreme electronic zoom resolves more bright points, consistent with multiple flare stacks. Their apparent drift against nearer clouds follows parallax from the moving aircraft while the source bearings remain almost fixed.

Independent checks strengthened the identification: Alejandro Franz, a pilot familiar with the region, associated the geometry with Cantarell in May 2004. In 2005 the Infraspection Institute said its review for National Geographic concluded that the hot sources were offshore flare stacks and that two-dimensional video created the impression of flight. NASA later imaged oil rigs and active gas flaring in the same Bahía de Campeche, while Pemex records Cantarell reaching peak production in 2004. Those later sources verify the industrial context; NASA's 2017 image is not evidence of conditions at the exact 2004 minute.

Release chronology and present conclusion: Maussan's 11 May press conference preceded global reporting on 12 May. Early proposals included balloons, atmospheric electricity, ball lightning and meteors; none explained the fixed platform-aligned geometry as well as flares. SEDENA's later transparency reply preserved a narrower position—authentic military observation, unknown nature, no recovered extraterrestrial material. The archive classifies the case as explained because the infrared sequence has a strong conventional identification, while retaining the ministry's historical uncertainty and the missing raw-data limitations.