File 155 · 5 March 2004
Mexican Air Force infrared
Campeche, over the Gulf, Mexico
Opened 9/4/2026
Ledger illustration of the file — not a photograph of the object. Ledger illustration of the report. Gulf night off Campeche. — Night Ledger illustration of the file
Standing
Unidentified
On the public record, and still open. A claim, paper, or film — not a finding that it was ours, and not a finding that it was not.
Mexican Air Force infrared, Campeche 2004
Fuerza Aérea Mexicana tape as circulated in the public record. Later flare identification is on the file.
Original tape · heard in Spanish
English writing · from Spanish
English of the Mexican news copy of the 2004 Campeche tape. The original voiceover is Spanish. A Merlin C-26A on a counter-narcotics patrol records several infrared sources. The Defence Ministry confirmed the Air Force made the recording. Independent analysis later tied the hot spots to flares at the Cantarell oil field. The military tape is real. The unidentified reading is not the last word on the file.
What was claimed
A Mexican Air Force Merlin recorded multiple infrared sources during a 2004 patrol over Campeche. The tape was presented as unidentified lights.
What is on the record
The Defence Ministry confirmed Air Force personnel made the recording. Later analysis tied the infrared sources to Cantarell oil-platform flares. The military tape is real; the unidentified reading is not the last word on the paper.
A Mexican Air Force Merlin C-26, using a FLIR ball on a night patrol over Campeche, recorded eleven bright objects that seemed to follow and then outpace the aircraft. Radar was not always in agreement. Defense Secretary Clemente Vega released the footage — a rare official drop from Latin America.
Journalist Jaime Maussan promoted the tape as unknown. Astronomer José de la Herrán and others argued the FLIR was seeing burn-off flares from oil platforms in the Campeche Sound, with the “motion” a product of the tracking camera. The ministry’s willingness to publish is why the file is here. The lights may be industry. The tape is still the tape.
Could this have been ours?
The known sky, that night.
The station was flying. Starlink was not. A string of orbs in this year is usually not a train.
1998 —
International Space Station
A bright, steady moving star. A few minutes to cross. No strobe. Occupied since 2000. NASA publishes the pass times. Not unidentified.
Always
Venus and the bright planets
A fixed brilliant point. Does not streak. Does not hover over a street then leave. Often the first misread light in a rural report.
Always
Aircraft, balloons, meteors
Landing lights, flares, lanterns, reentries, fireballs. They are on the known sky. They do not close a file by themselves — they are what a serious look has to hold the claim against.
Orbit · Space — the desks for lights that are already named.
Sources
- SEDENA / Mexican Air Force tape as publicly shown
- Mexican Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional
Related files
Same craft, same place, same years. A neighbor in the catalogue — not a conclusion.
Same place · Same year · March 5, 2004
Mexican Air Force FLIR Incident
Campeche · Mexico
Unidentified
Mexican Air Force Merlin C-26 aircraft using infrared camera and radar detected and filmed up to 11 thermal sources invisible to the naked eye during a counter-narcotics patrol.
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Same craft · 6 September 2026, noon
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