Mexico's defense secretary says military has formed no conclusions about flying objects filmed by Air Force

Associated Press - 5/12/2004

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Mexican Defense Secretary Ricardo Vega Garcia said Wednesday the military had made no conclusions about a series of brightly lit, rapidly moving objects filmed by Air Force pilots earlier this year.

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexican Defense Secretary Ricardo Vega Garcia said Wednesday the military had made no conclusions about a series of brightly lit, rapidly moving objects filmed by Air Force pilots earlier this year.

But Vega said neither had the military concluded that the objects, visible only with infrared equipment, were flying saucers as UFO investigator Jaime Maussan insisted during a news conference Tuesday.

"This is Maussan's point of view, for that reason he was given (the video) so that he could draw his own conclusions" Vega told W Radio. "But that is his version"

On March 5, Mexican Air Force pilots videotaped the series of brilliant objects flying at more than 3,500 meters (11,480 feet) over southern Campeche state using a video camera equipped with an infrared lens. Infrared equipment can only detect heat emanating from objects; it is unable to provide an image of the objects' exact form.

In the videotape, first aired publicly on national television Monday night, the objects appear to accelerate rapidly and change course suddenly. At least one crew member testified in a videotaped interview that the objects surrounded the Air Force jet when they were at least two miles (three kilometers) away.

The pilots sighted the objects as they conducted a routine drug-surveillance mission.

Vega said he initially believed the objects were drug trafficking planes, "but when I began to see that they had those lights ... I realized they couldn't be such aircraft"

Maussan said the videotape was evidence of the existence of UFOs. "This is historic news" he told reporters Tuesday. "Hundreds of videos (of UFOs) exist, but none had the backing of the armed forces of any country. ... The armed forces don't perpetuate frauds"

But Vega said he had warned those under his command to refrain from talking about "flying saucers" and UFOS when discussing the video "because that just provokes doubts and jokes"

Vega also insisted that the military had not released the tape to distract the nation from other issues, as some news commentators suggested.

Vega said he decided to release the videotape because it seemed pointless to guard it as a military secret and he did not see it as a threat to national security. He said copies are available for further revision by the scientific community.