Weather May Explain Mexico UFO Stir

Monday, May 17, 2004

(10:15 AM ET) (14:15 GMT)

Reuters

"Just as you have lightning between clouds and ground, you can also have it within the clouds and sometimes ball lightning can develop. I feel this is one of these rare events. It's a very rare atmospheric phenomenon and it would be very interesting to be able to analyze all the information these pilots obtained."

MEXICO CITY -- Reuters
A cluster of mysterious objects that surrounded a Mexican Air Force plane, alarming the pilots and sparking a UFO scare, could be a weather phenomenon known as ball lightning, a scientist said on Friday.

The pilots grew nervous during a routine drugs surveillance flight in March when their radar detected strange objects flying nearby and an infrared camera showed 11 blobs of light, invisible to the eye, hovering or darting about their plane.

Mexico's Air Force this week released footage from the infrared camera that was shown widely on television.

As Mexican and international media published photographs of the objects, UFO Web sites saw the case as possible evidence of a new sighting of some form of extraterrestrial life.

(More: CNN.com / Science & Space)

2004 © Reuters. Ltd.

Dan