MUFON Special Bulletin - Mexico UFO

John Schuessler, MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) - 5/13/2004

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On Tuesday, May 11, 2004 the Mexican Government released a full report about a Mexican Air Force surveillance aircraft encountering 11 UFOs over the southern part of the state of Campeche on March 4, 2004. The March 4 th event is significant for several reasons.

On Tuesday, May 11, 2004 the Mexican Government released a full report about a Mexican Air Force surveillance aircraft encountering 11 UFOs over the southern part of the state of Campeche on March 4, 2004.

The Mexican Secretary of Defense, General Clemente Vega Garcia, and his staff made the unprecedented release of the results of their investigation into this important event. Details and photos may be found on the MUFON website under the heading of UFO Newswire (or by clicking here).

The March 4 th event is significant for several reasons, as follows:

The objects were detected by advanced drug surveillance radar and infrared equipment. The equipment was operated by highly skilled Air Force officers and analyzed by the Department of Defense.

This was a daylight event, happening around 5 pm local time.

The objects were not visible to the aircraft flight crew except by use of the electronic detection equipment. This rules out the possibility of balloons being the cause of the sightings.

It has been reported that U.S. military radars also tracked the objects, believing at first they were drug-carrying aircraft from South America. That concern was later ruled out by the crew of the Mexican Air Force plane.

Throughout the encounter, voice data was sent back to the base from the plane and those tapes were released along with the report.

The Mexican Department of Defense ruled out all mundane explanations for the sightings. The atmospheric conditions were nearly perfect. There was no temperature inversion in the area and winds were light at less than 20 mph. There was a complete absence of lightning, seismic activity, or volcanic activity. Venus was not visible at the time.

The equipment operators on the aircraft were highly qualified to do their job and their equipment was functioning perfectly.

During the incident they first saw one object that quickly left the area. That was followed by two more objects and finally by 11 objects that came in close to the aircraft, causing the pilot to proclaim a “red” alert. Throughout the incident the crew remained calm and relayed the data to their base.

The Mexican Department of Defense thoroughly studied the case before making the results of their investigation public.

No official U.S. Government acknowledgement of the event has been made, even after the Mexican release of information. However, some American personnel that had knowledge of the incident as it was unfolding are talking about it, but off the record.

Scientists in MUFON and other related organizations continue to study the results of this incident. What they are finding are links to numerous other UFO sightings that may have been dismissed simply because the individuals reporting the sightings were not a part of an official government organization, or because the official government organizations failed to release radar and infrared data that could be used to analyze the events. A new look at the older cases, plus heightened attention to future cases may help to create a model of exactly what is going on.

It is interesting to note that the Mexican encounter happened during the March through May time period when we have been seeing a large increase in the number of sightings being reported to MUFON, NUFORC, NIDS, CUFOS, Skywatch International, and many other organizations.

John Schuessler
MUFON International Director