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Famous Mexican UFO video debunked by TV host

In a video posted to YouTube by the National Atomic Testing Museum in Las Vegas (seen above), the resident skeptic of the TV show Chasing UFOs, debunks a famous UFO video that was provided by the Mexican Air Force to Mexican UFO investigator Jaime Maussan.

The video posted today was from a lecture by scientist Ben McGee, a co-host of the show Chasing UFOs, and Ben Hansen, one of the hosts of the TV series Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files. They discussed what it was like doing paranormal investigations on TV. McGee says it was frustrating trying to do a real scientific investigations with very limited time and resources.

One of the investigations Chasing UFOs conducted on the show was of a famous UFO video from Campeche, Mexico. In 2004, the Mexican Air Force sought the help of UFO researcher and journalist Jaime Maussan, and provided him the UFO video. They said the footage came from one of their planes outfitted with a FLIR camera. This is a sophisticated camera that captures heat signatures.

On the footage, several points of light seem to be following, and even surrounding, the military aircraft. It is very compelling video, and has been the source of much debate. Much like that which will likely ensue in the comments below and on our Facebook page when we post this story.

McGee began his investigation of the Campeche video by looking at the recording mechanism. He says of the Mexican Air Force’s camera, it is “very hard to get better than this.”

He elaborated, “The best possible camera that I think humanity could have ever aimed at something unexplained. It gives me everything you could possibly ask for. Its current GPS coordinates, azimuth, meaning which direction from zero to 360 degrees was the camera pointed. Its inclination; how far off the horizon was it pointed. The date time to the second. It’s all there. For me, I was very encouraged. I thought maybe I could actually figure out what this is or this might stand up.”

The next thing McGee looked into was the appearance and the apparent motion of the objects. He noted that they were points of light, and they never broke formation. No matter how much the camera moved around and panned and zoomed in on the objects. They were always in the same sequence.

McGee also found that the leading skeptical hypothesis was that the lights were actually from oil rigs out in the Gulf of Mexico. However, the oil rigs were 100 miles away from the airplane. Ben thought that idea was a stretch, and they tested this theory on an episode of Chasing UFOs.

The crew rented a plane and took up cameras and a FLIR system. They flew a similar path the Mexican Air Force took, but couldn’t see much. They had to get very close to the oil rigs to pick them up with the FLIR. However, the oil rigs did not have flames while they were filming.

Ben’s co-host, Erin Ryder said, “We could barely see the water, let alone these oil rigs. I just don’t see how people can mistake these oil rigs for UFOs.”

A still image of one of the oil rigs as seen by the investigators on Chasing UFOs. (Credit: National Geographic)

A still image of one of the oil rigs as seen by the investigators on Chasing UFOs. (Credit: National Geographic)

The image on the left was captured using the FLIR system by the Chasing UFOs crew. The image on the right is of the same area form the Mexican Air Force. (Credit: National Geographic)

The image on the left was captured using the FLIR system by the Chasing UFOs crew. The image on the right is of the same area captured by the Mexican Air Force. (Credit: National Geographic)

Ben’s other co-host, James Fox, agreed with Erin and said that their test proved that the oil rigs were not what the Mexican Air Force caught on camera. However, Ben disagreed.

On the show Ben said, “Because the atmospheric conditions today were different than they were for the Mexican FLIR footage, and because the military’s camera may have had a different calibration than ours, I don’t think our experiment was conclusive either way.”

In his presentation, he also noted that they were using a less sophisticated FLIR system on the TV show.

Ben decided not to abandon the oil rig theory, but to look at it from a different perspective. He decided to examine the pattern of the lights and compare them to the oil rig towers. He especially noted that there were a couple of groups of three lights. He found that the towers also were often grouped in threes.

Some of the oil rigs possibly caught in video, They are also in groups of three as in this picture. (Credit: Oil Rig Photos)

Some of the oil rigs possibly caught in video. They are often in groups of three as in this picture. (Credit: Oil Rig Photos)

Ben also found an image of two burning vents from the group of oil rigs that looked like two of the lights in the UFO video. So, Ben says he decided to see what pattern the towers would make if somehow conditions were right for the Mexican Air Force FLIR to pick them up. He knew where the plane was, and where the towers were, so he had enough data to make an accurate estimation.

Ben drew site lines from where the plane would have been to the horizon, and his pattern matched exactly what the Mexican Air Force FLIR cameras caught. But Ben says that was not good enough. He also noticed that what would have appeared to have been one light to the FLIR camera was actually two lights, one in front of the other. This being the case, Ben thought he could predict that at some point in the film, that light would separate into two lights, as the angle the plane viewed those lights changed. Sure enough, he found that the light did appear as two lights in part of the Mexican Air Force video.

Ben pointing out the site lines he drew to discover that the oil rigs aligned with the lights in the Campeche UFO video. (Credit: National Atomic Testing Museum)

Ben pointing out the site lines he drew to discover that the oil rigs aligned with the lights in the Campeche UFO video. (Credit: National Atomic Testing Museum)

Ben predicted the first light in the second group of three would separate into two lights as the plane progressed. (Credit: Mexican Air Force)

Ben predicted the first light in the second group of three would separate into two lights as the plane progressed. (Credit: Mexican Air Force)

Soon after the above image was taken in the video, the first light in the second group can be seen separating into two lights as Ben predicted. (Credit: Mexican Air Force)

Soon after the above image was taken in the video, the first light in the second group can be seen separating into two lights as Ben predicted. (Credit: Mexican Air Force)

As for the apparent motion of the lights, Ben says that was due to the plane moving and the clouds in-between the plane and the oil rigs. The clouds appear to go in one direction and the lights in another, but both are stationary.

McGee says, “You got the fact that it matches the light arrangement, so you get the series of 11 lights, and then you get this predicted one light turning into two. I think it actually is the oil complex.”

McGee continued, “I can only conclude, either you had some sort of craft hovering directly over each tower, or it was just the towers.”

See any flaws in Ben’s analysis? Or maybe you think he did one heck of a job getting to the heart of this mystery. Either way, tell us what you think below.

About Alejandro Rojas

Alejandro Rojas is a radio host for Open Minds Radio, editor and contributing writer for Open Minds magazine as well as OpenMinds.tv. For several years Alejandro was the official spokesperson for the Mutual UFO Network as the Director of Public Education. As a UFO/Paranormal researcher and journalist, Alejandro has spent many hours in the field investigating phenomena up close and personal. Alejandro has been interviewed by media organizations around the world, including the largest cable and network news agencies with several appearances on Coast to Coast AM.

19 comments

  1. I’m really impressed by the work he’s done!
    Part of me wished it had been a genuine UFO captured on camera but Mc Gee’s explanation makes total sense.

  2. Wow!
    That’s actually great work!
    I have an idea!
    Let’s spend more money and time debating things that aren’t going to prove a thing.
    Years. For years… I have been watching and listening to the endless ramble of people that think they’re helping. The fact is no one involved in this industry is actually interested in proving anything.
    It is simply about money. To anyone that has actually experienced something profound (I DON’T mean lights in the sky) this rhetoric is disgusting. We look to the investigating bodies for help, and get a debate over lights in the sky (or on the water).
    This has become more about content than answers and relying on videos of lights in the sky and government disclosure is never going to prove a thing.
    I pleading with you all, we must resource our tech to make the discovery here on Earth, before they have minipulated this to a point that will allow them to control how they disclose it and lock us all into another hundred years energy slavery..
    UHG. I know this isn’t getting posted. Just do something.

  3. The objects according to the audio were at an altitude above the planes. The objects outdistanced the planes. The objects were tracked on radar, moving, following the planes. My conclusion, I agree with Erin and James. 🙂

  4. Azimuth is measured 0 to 360 in most cases but looking at the display of this FLIR shows system uses relative azimuths as referenced to the nose of the aircraft. This is supported by the azimuth reading -133.7° and the bar at the bottom shows -180 -90 0 +90 +180 and the little “v” is pointing at -133.7°. So you need to know which direction the aircraft was pointing to know the true azimuth of the objects. Plugging in the latitude and longitude at the start and from 2 minutes later shows they were on course 080°. 133.7° to the left of that is 306° True.

    Here’s a Google Earth file with their positions: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5jR42CSPG00RjlzdUNiYXE5WEU/view?usp=sharing

    And a link to download the oil rig positions: http://msi.nga.mil/MSISiteContent/StaticFiles/Files/MODU_kmz.zip

    This was 10 years ago so they won’t be in same positions.

  5. Words of wisdom from K.Somers 🙂

  6. Don´t get me wrong, I don´t know if this theory is right or not . . . BUT, this video was provided by military personnel that can easily tell if something is a UFO or not considering all the flight experience they have, just like any other pilot.

    The best way to prove those were oil rigs is to take another video with same equipment and conditions.
    I´m pretty sure oil rigs wont go anywhere, either Ben records those exact same lights to make a point or else this can still be called a UFO sighting.

  7. No offense, but I do not see how this is news. This was debunked years ago as the oil rigs, using the EXACT same logic and explanation given here. How is this news for now? Slow news day, gotta repost something covered years ago? And for the other commenter, they were not tracked on radar or moving. Where did you hear that from? It is explicitly stated they were in the exact same formation and position no mater where the camera was in position. They were stationary lights.

  8. I agree with K. Somers, the fact is these skeptics should give it up and focus on the real issues. The evidence is overwhelming that we are not alone. History is wrong( Loyd Pye).

  9. He hasn’t debunked the initial radar UFO that started this event
    see the whole story at

    brumac.8k.com/MexicanDOD5mar04/

  10. I’ve tried watching Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files but since former FBI are on the payroll, I have my doubts that anything they say can be taken as truth. I never agree with any of their conclusions and I think they are full of crap.
    How can the lights have been oil rig lights when the crafts were zooming around the plane? So yet again I disagree with their conclusion. When are they taking that useless program off the air?

  11. About this case, it’s necessary to remember that the first debunking is known at these links:

    – by Alcione.org

    http://www.alcione.org/FAM/FLIR_CONCLUSION.html

    – by Tim Printy

    http://home.comcast.net/~tprinty/UFO/Mexico04a.htm

  12. Glad to see Macabee make an appearance….

  13. Here is the refutation to everything just said. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhK1lJeRZWg

  14. “Despite flights in the area daily, no other reported sighting has ever surfaced.” I believe that is the most important point to keep in mind here, along with the fact that trained military pilots believed they were being trailed by unknown objects. Their calls to the radio tower are the reason the cameras were looking for something in the first place. To say that a trained pilot thought he was being chased by oil rigs is down right ridiculous.

  15. Wow!
    A skeptic knows more than the military minds of a country with a population of 120 million people? The man should be running the United Nations.
    Let’s think about this for a minute.
    ONE person, is more intelligent, than the ‘intelligence’ of a Country.
    The country, whose military (including the Coast Guard – an arm of the Naval High Command), are directly answerable to the President of that country.
    Whose military and scientific minds – well versed in everything to do with aerial travel, who reviewed this account and concluded the origin of these objects indeterminable, and therefore released it to the public are all imbeciles who don’t know their thumb from a tree branch?
    Can anyone make sense of this ludicrous proposition.

  16. karenmo
    Totally agree with you. How they could mistake oil rig fires for moving flying objects is beyond me. I am glad they didn’t use the swamp gass or sunglare or weather balloon bull**** on us. Atleast they came up with something creative this time.

  17. The graphics about ALCIONE SITE dates from 2004

    ALCIONE SERVER ARCHIVES DATES CAPTURE:
    http://www.alcione.org/FAM/___06_45abcccc.jpg

    THE TWIN LIGHTS from 2009
    http://www.alcione.org/FAM/06_45abc.jpg

  18. The graphics about ALCIONE SITE dates from 2004

    ALCIONE SERVER ARCHIVES DATES CAPTURE:
    http://www.alcione.org/FAM/___06_45abcccc.jpg

    THE TWIN LIGHTS from 2009
    http://www.alcione.org/FAM/06_45abc.jpg

    Mexican Air Force FLIR’s video lights are not UFO’s.
    http://www.alcione.org/FAM/FLIR_CONCLUSION.html
    .

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