SEDENA Campeche FLIR Footage — March 5, 2004 Mexican Air Force Recording

Brief

On March 5, 2004, a Mexican Air Force Merlin C-26A on a counter-narcotics patrol above Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche, at altitudes exceeding 11,500 feet, captured 11 unidentified objects on both its FLIR system and onboard radar concurrently; the targets held pace with the aircraft for several minutes before departing in formation. Rather than retain the footage for internal review, SEDENA transferred the sole copy to journalist Jaime Maussan in April 2004 under authorization from General Ricardo Clément. The footage reached the public at a May 11-12, 2004 press conference, at which the Mexican Defense Ministry formally confirmed the recording's authenticity to international media — an unusually direct institutional endorsement.

Metadata

Agency

SEDENA (Secretaría de la Defensa Nacional) / Fuerza Aérea Mexicana

Release

2004-05-12

Type

VIDEO • .mp4

Length

5.7 M

Tags

11-object formation, FLIR thermal, radar corroboration, pacing behavior, formation departure, Ciudad del Carmen, Campeche, 2004, counter-narcotics patrol, Merlin C-26A

Key points

• 11 distinct infrared targets were recorded simultaneously on FLIR camera and onboard radar, providing independent dual-sensor corroboration of the objects' presence.
• The encounter occurred at altitude above 11,500 feet during an active counter-narcotics patrol, ruling out low-altitude atmospheric artifacts as a ready explanation.
• The unidentified objects paced the C-26A for several minutes before departing in formation — a sustained, apparently structured flight behavior.
• SEDENA released the only copy of the recording externally, to journalist Jaime Maussan, rather than retaining it for classified military analysis.
• The release was personally authorized by General Ricardo Clément of the Mexican Armed Forces — a flag-officer-level decision.
• The Mexican Defense Ministry publicly and formally confirmed the recording's authenticity at the May 11-12, 2004 press conference, making this one of the few UAP cases with an on-record ministerial authentication.
• The footage was made public on May 12, 2004 — approximately ten weeks after the incident — suggesting a deliberate, coordinated disclosure decision rather than an accidental leak.

Most interesting

• SEDENA handed over the sole copy of the FLIR footage to a civilian journalist rather than duplicating or archiving it internally first — an unusual chain-of-custody decision for military sensor data.
• The objects' behavior — holding formation with a military aircraft for minutes, then peeling away together — mirrors structured responses described in other multi-sensor UAP cases.
• Dual-sensor lock (FLIR + radar on the same targets simultaneously) is the same corroboration standard cited in the U.S. Navy Nimitz encounter two years later, lending the Campeche case methodological weight often overlooked in English-language coverage.
• General Ricardo Clément's authorization places the disclosure decision at the most senior operational level of the Mexican Armed Forces — a bureaucratic fingerprint that distinguishes this from lower-level leaks.
• The Mexican Defense Ministry's on-record authentication to international media remains one of the clearest formal government acknowledgments of a UAP recording by any national military institution to date.
• The C-26A Merlin is a twin-turboprop surveillance platform purpose-built for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions — its sensor suite was operational-grade, not experimental.