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Country dossier

UFO sightings in Costa Rica: documented cases, reports, and evidence

Costa Rica has 1 documented UFO/UAP case in this archive, spanning 1971 to 1971. This page groups the national record so readers can compare case dates, evidence types, official context, and representative reports before opening the full dossiers.

Archive profile

Costa Rica

Case count
1
Time span
1971
Main evidence types
Witness reports / Official records / Images and video
Representative cases
1971 Lake Cote Costa Rica UAP PhotographAt 08:25 local time on 4 September 1971, an automated aerial-mapping camera recorded frame 300 over Lake Cote during a Costa Rican Instituto Geográfico Nacional survey flight. The four people aboard reported no unusual sight at the time. The frame contains a bright oval form against the lake; frames 299 and 301, exposed about twenty seconds before and after, do not. Richard Haines and Jacques Vallée first analyzed a second-generation negative, then reported examining the connected original-film frames in 1990. They rejected several processing and hoax mechanisms, while the referee to their 1989 paper argued that the image could be a pressure mark. Neither side established distance, scale, motion or physical identity. Costa Rica's National Archive now catalogs three related IGN images. The local display image is a later digital derivative of an 8-by-10-inch copy negative, not the original aerial negative. The photographic record is genuine; the oval form remains disputed.

Complete case list

Costa Rica

1 of 1 cases
1971 Lake Cote Costa Rica UAP PhotographAt 08:25 local time on 4 September 1971, an automated aerial-mapping camera recorded frame 300 over Lake Cote during a Costa Rican Instituto Geográfico Nacional survey flight. The four people aboard reported no unusual sight at the time. The frame contains a bright oval form against the lake; frames 299 and 301, exposed about twenty seconds before and after, do not. Richard Haines and Jacques Vallée first analyzed a second-generation negative, then reported examining the connected original-film frames in 1990. They rejected several processing and hoax mechanisms, while the referee to their 1989 paper argued that the image could be a pressure mark. Neither side established distance, scale, motion or physical identity. Costa Rica's National Archive now catalogs three related IGN images. The local display image is a later digital derivative of an 8-by-10-inch copy negative, not the original aerial negative. The photographic record is genuine; the oval form remains disputed.Costa RicaGrade B / DISPUTED