On March 5, 2004, a Mexican Air Force plane using infrared equipment to search for drug-smuggling aircraft over southern Campeche recorded 11 bright objects that the crew could not see with their own eyes.
In May, Mexico's Defence Department released the infrared footage with a press statement, an unusual step for any government. The video shows bright, moving lights at around 11,500 feet.
Mexican ufologist Jaime Maussan called it proof of alien visitation. Sceptics noted that witness accounts grew with each retelling, and most experts concluded the lights were burn-off flares on offshore oil platforms in the Gulf of Mexico, seen over the horizon by the infrared camera.