AP 11/05/2004 20h04
 
Des OVNIS repérés dans le ciel mexicain

 Des pilotes de l'armée de l'Air mexicaine ont filmé 11 objets volant non-identifiés (OVNI) dans le ciel de l'Etat de Campêche au mois de mars, a confirmé mardi le département mexicain de la Défense.

Une vidéo largement diffusée par les media mexicains mardi montre des objets clairs - certains ressemblant à de petits points lumineux, d'autres à de larges phares - se mouvoir rapidement dans un ciel de fin d'après-midi.

Ces lumières ont été filmées le 5 mars par des pilotes utilisant des équipements infrarouges. Elles semblent voler à une altitude de 3500 m (11 480 pieds) et entourer un avion de l'armée de l'Air qui procède à un vol routinier de lutte contre le trafic de drogue dans l'Etat de Campêche. Seulement trois des 11 OVNIS ont été détectés par le radar de l'appareil.

«Est-ce que j'ai eu peur? Oui. Un peu, car on faisait face à quelque chose qui ne s'était jamais produit auparavant», a déclaré le préposé au radar, le lieutenant German Marin, dans une interview enregistrée diffusée mardi.

«Je ne pourrais pas dire ce que c'était, mais je pense qu'ils étaient complètement réel», a ajouté le lieutenant Mario Adrian Vazquez, chargé des équipements infrarouges.

Le pilote de l'avion, le major Magdaleno Castanon, a expliqué que des avions de chasse ont pris les OVNIS en chasse, «et je pense qu'ils sentaient qu'on les poursuivait», a-t-il précisé. Quand les avions ont stoppé la poursuite, les lumières ont disparu, a-t-il ajouté.

Un porte-parole du département de la Défense a confirmé mardi que la cassette avait été filmé par des membres de l'armée de l'Air, mais n'a fourni aucun détail supplémentaire.

Mexican air force captures invisible 'UFOs' on film
By Tim Gaynor in Tijuana
13 May 2004


The Mexican air force has released video footage of unidentified flying objects picked up by an infrared camera as they whizzed around a surveillance plane, in scenes eerily reminiscent of a Hollywood alien invasion movie.

The fuzzy images that have entranced Mexican television viewers since Monday show up to 11 bright objects, some sharp points of light and others like large headlights, moving rapidly in loose formation across what appears to be a late-evening sky.

Filmed by air force pilots on a routine patrol for drug smugglers over the eastern coastal state of Campeche in early March, the objects were first picked up on the radar monitor, then captured using an infrared camera slung under the aircraft's fuselage.

Mexico's Defence Ministry released the images to a local journalist, Jaime Maussan, a long-time believer in flying saucers. He told a news conference on Tuesday that the objects were real and that they appeared to be "intelligent", because at one point they changed direction and surrounded the plane chasing them.

"They were invisible to the eye but they were definitely there, there is no doubt about it. They had mass, they had energy and they were moving about," he said, after showing a 15-minute video.

Widely broadcast on Mexican television news bulletins earlier this week, the clip included excited commentary by the clearly shaken pilots. "We are not alone!" shrieked one over the howl of the aircraft's turbines. "This is so weird."

Interviewed by Mr Maussan in another section of the video, the pilots said they grew nervous when the objects, still invisible, turned back during a chase and surrounded the plane, which was cruising at an altitude of 11,500ft. Major Magdaleno Castanon said: "There was a moment when ... the screens showed they were behind us, to the left and in front of us. It was at that point that I felt a bit tense."

The latest sighting recalled a scene from the Hollywood blockbuster Signs, directed by M Night Shyamalan and starring Mel Gibson. In the film, a formation of lights hovers over the capital Mexico City, in a prelude to a doomsday invasion by green aliens.

While Mexico has a long history of fanciful UFO sightings - most of which are dismissed by scientists as space debris, missiles, weather balloons, natural weather phenomena or hoaxes - the latest recordings have gained more serious attention.

After watching the videos carefully on national television news, Gustavo Paez, a retired airline pilot, said they appeared to be "totally real, despite the fact that some people dismiss sightings such as these as fantasies of the disturbed".

"We have to give this credibility as it was spotted by the air force," Mr Paez, who flew for the Mexican airline Taesa during a 22-year career, told The Independent. "They recorded the velocity and the altitude on radar, and the luminosity of the objects. I think it was real and it should be taken seriously."