On September 4, 1971, a National Geographic Institute of Costa Rica aerial survey aircraft photographed a sharp, metallic disc over Lago Cote at 10,000 feet while the automatic mapping camera cycled every 13 seconds. The object appeared in one frame only. Analysts Dr. Richard Haines and Dr. Jacques Vallée examined the original negative and concluded the image was not a double exposure or fabrication.

Photographer Sergio Loaiza and the pilot and navigator were ordered not to discuss the image after film development. The original negative is archived at Costa Rica's Instituto Geografico Nacional. The photo was resurged in a 2021 New Yorker piece on how the Pentagon started taking UFOs seriously. Haines and Vallée's analysis, conducted on the original negative, found no evidence of physical manipulation and the disc's apparent size and altitude-consistent shadow were internally consistent.