Mexican Air Force UFO Video? [Oil Rigs]

[Wizard]

update

Multiple debunks for this one exist dating back to 2004

http://www.openminds.tv/famous-mexican-ufo-video-debunked-tv-host/30276

https://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/04-07-24/

https://skepticalinquirer.org/2004/09/the_campeche_mexico_infrared_ufo_video/

https://web.archive.org/web/20150316185752/http://www.alcione.org/FAM/REFERENCE_DATA.html


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub-mSV0FW7w

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I'm loving the analysis of these videos. Thank you Mick!

Has anyone come across this one from 2004? It has similar objects and it could use some debunking. To me they are not moving at any special velocity, with no sudden changes in direction which would indicate anti-grav/advanced propulsion. Besides the DoD videos, I believe this is the only other FLIR-type camera recording of supposed UFOs.


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F43g3pLd_Nc

 

[Mick West]

I've not look at that one for a while.

I feel like we've gone over it before, but maybe elsewhere. Anyway, it's an interesting case because of the large amount of information in the display, and the length.

Here's a shot of a river, for reference.

Lat/Lon 18° 15.68, -91° 15.06,
Az -6.1, El -20°

 

[deirdre]

where are the UFOs? those little lightning bug looking flashes throughout are supposed to be the UFOs?

 

[Mick West]

The altitude seems uncertain, the YouTube description says "3,500m", but to get the shot of that river from that location, I had to set it to 4,500m

GE file attached

 

[Mick West]

This seems like a reasonable explanation, oil rigs:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub-mSV0FW7w


I'll try to check this later, just putting it out there for now. There seems to be some dissent in the comments, as always.

 

[Wizard]

This seems like a reasonable explanation, oil rigs:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ub-mSV0FW7w


I'll try to check this later, just putting it out there for now. There seems to be some dissent in the comments, as always.

Looks like quite a few oil rigs and other infrastructure out in the same geographical area.

 

[Sagittarius]

Yes, explained years ago as oil rigs in the Gulf:

http://www.openminds.tv/famous-mexican-ufo-video-debunked-tv-host/30276

https://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/04-07-24/

https://skepticalinquirer.org/2004/09/the_campeche_mexico_infrared_ufo_video/

https://web.archive.org/web/20150316185752/http://www.alcione.org/FAM/REFERENCE_DATA.html

 

[jarlrmai]

This video is now the top post on r/ufos with 4.5k upvotes. The oil rigs debunk is buried somewhere in the comments. I expect we'll see all the old cases doing the rounds now for a while.

 

[Ravi]

This video is now the top post on r/ufos with 4.5k upvotes. THe oil rigs debunk is buried somewhere in the comments. I expect we'll see all the old cases doing the rounds now for a while.

Correct. The "rinse and repeat" is happening constantly. I suspect that the posters are aware of debunks, but post it anyway as they know most ufo enthousiasts are lazy and don't research.

Selffulfilling prophecy.

 

[jarlrmai]

Correct. The "rinse and repeat" is happening constantly. I suspect that the posters are aware of debunks, but post it anyway as they know most ufo enthousiasts are lazy and don't research.

Selffulfilling prophecy.

Reddit UFOs sub is odd, sometimes you can get ahead of the groupthink and post a debunk and it gets locked down other times it just goes ballistic, the Chilean one just got posted. I posted the Metabunk thread, but they've managed to poison the names Metabunk and poor Mick so effectively it doesn't matter.

 

[flarkey]

Reddit UFOs sub is odd, sometimes you can get ahead of the groupthink and post a debunk and it gets locked down other times it just goes ballistic, the Chilean one just got posted. I posted the Metabunk thread, but they've managed to poison the names Metabunk and poor Mick so effectively it doesn't matter.

I saw your recent 'discussion' on there with the guy who didnt like Metabunk. I had an earlier 'discussion' with him regarding Aguadilla. I gave up in the end.

 

[jarlrmai]

I saw your recent 'discussion' on there with the guy who didnt like Metabunk. I had an earlier 'discussion' with him regarding Aguadilla. I gave up in the end.

Metabunk/Mick West have been truly poisoned over there. I hope with polite firm discourse against ad hominems and appeals to authority we at least get through to some of the lurkers.

The level of interest in this is very high at the moment, some of the posts feel a bit like Q Anon stuff.

 

[flarkey]

The level of interest in this is very high at the moment, some of the posts feel a bit like Q Anon stuff.

I'm seeing more of a similarity with religion at the moment. There's a lot of 'the prophets have spoken!' with the recent media news. And similarly, using bad & unverifiable evidence to support a claim, the unshakable 'faith' of the UFO believers, the aggressive dismissal of any rational counter argument, and the parallel between 'we can't comprehend this advanced technology' and 'god moves in mysterious ways'.

Maybe this comparison deserves a thread of its own.

 

[Mick West]

Metabunk/Mick West have been truly poisoned over there.

Not entirely, there's usually quite a few more reasonable people who comment on those thread. But the angry people tend to leap in first.

 

[RTM]

I'm seeing more of a similarity with religion at the moment. There's a lot of 'the prophets have spoken!' with the recent media news. And similarly, using bad & unverifiable evidence to support a claim, the unshakable 'faith' of the UFO believers, the aggressive dismissal of any rational counter argument, and the parallel between 'we can't comprehend this advanced technology' and 'god moves in mysterious ways'.

Maybe this comparison deserves a thread of its own.

Jason Colavito has mentioned something like this a few times in his blog posts (also has an an article for The New Republic on the recent UFO news), basically that the need for ET life in the form of UFOs or of the ancient alien variety is a substitute for religion.

 

[flarkey]

Just adding some info that was discovered in this thread: https://www.metabunk.org/threads/reddit-video-27mar22-airline-crew-uap-sighting.12361/

User @Vattic used the NASA FIRMS website to check for heat sources in the Bay of Campeche on 5 March 2004. The image below confirms that there were heat sources (fires) in the Cantarell Area, which suggest that the rigs were actually flaring that day.

 

[Mick West]

Nice find!

This seems like it would be another good case for the Sitrec tool

 

[flarkey]

I found this video on the Way back machine, and thought I should upload it to YouTube for easy access. It shows a flight near where the original video was recorded, and is filmed with an two-mode camera - IR & colour - and shows how the oil rigs would have looked. It speaks for itself really...

Original link:
https://web.archive.org/web/2015060...one.org/FAM/cantarell_experiment_04_14_05.wmv


Source: https://youtu.be/IqglgPaKlKQ

 

[Mendel]

View attachment 37841

Original link:
https://web.archive.org/web/2015060...one.org/FAM/cantarell_experiment_04_14_05.wmv

The exact geometry would depend on the viewing angle, and on which flares were burning at the time, but the similarity in the groupings in striking.

The "Cantarell Experiment" video does not demonstrate the parallax effects that cause the apparent motion in the original video, otherwise I'd have labelled it a "winner".

 

[flarkey]

The exact geometry would depend on the viewing angle, and on which flares were burning at the time, but the similarity in the groupings in striking.

100% agree on this. But even still the correlation between the two videos is very close:

 

[Mendel]

100% agree on this. But even still the correlation between the two videos is very close:

Is there a reason for the distance between the rigs to have changed? (Apologies if this has been mentioned, I'm not caught up.)

 

[flarkey]

Is there a reason for the distance between the rigs to have changed? (Apologies if this has been mentioned, I'm not caught up.)

It is just a matter of perspective. The original investigation by Alcione (only available on the wayback machine) has lots of info, charts and analysis on this. There's not much more to be done,

https://web.archive.org/web/20150316185752/http://www.alcione.org/FAM/REFERENCE_DATA.html

https://web.archive.org/web/20150401184726/http://www.alcione.org/FAM/FLIR_CONCLUSION.html

This image shows the perspictive of the video compared with a satellite photo of the rigs.

This compares the original video with the experiment video I posted earlier...

 

[Mendel]

It is just a matter of perspective.

High-powered military telescopic optics, large distance, shallow angle. Got it.

Edit: the shallow angle "compresses" the distance in the direction the optics is looking (compresses depth) while preserving the perpendicular distances (preserves width). The rigs appear to be closer together in the military footage due to that depth compression.

 

[Giddierone]

This seems like it would be another good case for the Sitrec tool

Do you know if anyone has done this yet?

 

[jarlrmai]

Do we have accurate locations of the platforms?

 

[flarkey]

Do we have accurate locations of the platforms?

This website has the aircraft location & time already extracted from the video:

https://web.archive.org/web/20150316185752/http://www.alcione.org/FAM/REFERENCE_DATA.html

I've used chatGPT to extract the data and create a pseudo-ADSB exchange file.


Platform Complex Coords are given in this diagram, but not individual platforms themselves, or more importantly - venting pipes.

In GE:

 

[flarkey]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/375569964986

Slightly more resolution on the map showing each of the platform locations.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150401184726/http://www.alcione.org/FAM/FLIR_CONCLUSION.html

 

[flarkey]

Another thing I've found is that each rig is easily visible in the Copurnicus Browser imagery. This is probably the best bet for producing an accurate position of each flare as they are mostly visible at high zoom. The layout of the rigs still matches the data used in the original Alcione analysis.

https://browser.dataspace.copernicus.eu/?zoom=13&lat=19.42418&lng=-92.04088&themeId=DEFAULT-THEME&visualizationUrl=U2FsdGVkX19KrIXmVzArBG/UsMo+bmnQz36IG4Ic5zO7tnOPsWvDh0A04OMw1WF5hU96PgxvfeCk8D2uGOb63Wjie2I1MpZEDNtaqjdytbvYcRpw9pOVWdHt20IepZGz&datasetId=S2_L2A_CDAS

 

[Giddierone]

User @Vattic used the NASA FIRMS website to check for heat sources in the Bay of Campeche on 5 March 2004. The image below confirms that there were heat sources (fires) in the Cantarell Area, which suggest that the rigs were actually flaring that day.

There are Landsat 7 images near the the date of the video. I don't think there is one for 5 March, but this image (left) is from 16:17 on 7 March 2004 and you can make out the flares.

 

[jarlrmai]

Yeah the reason is this so complex to recreate with accuracy is

The field location -> Rig location -> flaring outlet location -> specific flaring outputs in use at that time

 

[flarkey]

The initial data from the Alcione WebArchive kinda works (with simple GE blocks for flares) , but its a matter of how much effort to put into it to get it looking exact and for what benefit?

https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?custom=https://sitrec.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/15857/Mexico Oil Rigs/20250905_111107.js

 

[Mick West]

Here's the track in a format Sitrec can ingest, so you can see it with a moving camera.

I put the time as UTC (Z), but I think it might be local time.

 

[Mick West]

Here's a sitch using that track and @flarkey's polygon platfroms with some "flow orbs" simulating clouds. The orbs are all stationary. The camera is centered on a target point on the shoreline.

https://www.metabunk.org/sitrec/?custom=https://sitrec.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/1/Mexican AF with flow orbs/20250905_201136.js

It's going to be quite fiddly to improve on that in Sitrec. It would probably be best to do it in Blender or similar so you could script the camera movements (althought you could do it manually)