MEXICO CITY (AP) -- Mexican air force pilots filmed 11 unidentified flying objects in the skies over southern Campeche state, a Defence Department spokesman have confirmed.
A videotape made widely available to the news media shows the bright objects, some sharp points of light and others like large headlights, moving rapidly in what appears to be a late-evening sky.
The lights were filmed March 5 by pilots using infrared equipment. They appeared to be flying at an altitude of about 3,500 metres and allegedly surrounded the air force jet as it conducted routine anti-drug trafficking vigilance in Campeche. Only three of the objects showed up on the plane's radar.
"Was I afraid? Yes," said radar operator Lieut. German Marin in a taped interview made public.
"A little afraid because we were facing something that had never happened before."
"I couldn't say what it was...but I think they're completely real," added Lieut. Mario Adrian Vazquez, the infrared equipment operator.
Vazquez insisted there was no way to alter the recorded images.
The plane's captain, Maj. Magdaleno Castanon, said the military jets chased the lights "and I believe they could feel we were pursuing them."
When the jets stopped following the objects, they disappeared, he said.
A Defence Department spokesman confirmed the videotape was filmed by members of the Mexican air force. The spokesman declined to comment further and spoke on customary condition of anonymity.
The video was first aired on national television Monday night then again at a news conference Tuesday by Jaime Maussan, a Mexican investigator who has dedicated the last 10 years to studying UFOs.
"This is historic news," Maussan said.
"Hundreds of videos (of UFOs) exist, but none had the backing of the armed forces of any country...The armed forces don't perpetuate frauds."
Maussan said Secretary of Defence Gen. Ricardo Vega Garcia gave him the video April 22.
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