What happened
Late on 25 April 2013, a US Customs and Border Protection aircraft over north-western Puerto Rico recorded about three minutes of infrared video of a small warm object moving low over Aguadilla near Rafael Hernández Airport. On the thermal display the object, which showed no lights, appeared to cross the urban area at low level, at times near tree height, before reaching the coast. It then seemed to plunge into the ocean, re-emerge, swell and split into two pieces that vanished again into the sea. The footage, taken by a Wescam MX-15 camera operating in the mid-wave infrared, leaked online and became one of the most debated UAP videos of the 2010s because it appeared to show an object entering and leaving water, a trait UFO researchers call transmedium. In 2015 a team that later formed the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies published a detailed frame-by-frame analysis arguing that the object could not be explained. In March 2025 the Pentagon's AARO issued its own case resolution.
The official explanation
AARO reconstructed the flight geometry with Systems Tool Kit modelling and concluded the video shows two objects travelling close together, not one object splitting. It found they drifted at about 8 mph, consistent with the wind, and assessed with moderate confidence that they were sky lanterns, which local hotels and resorts release during celebrations. The apparent dives into the ocean were explained as 'thermal crossover', where the objects' heat signature merged with the sea and the sensor lost contrast.
The anomalous case
The Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies analysis, which the authors say was verified by correlating the video's metadata with radar data, concluded the object flew at night without lights through an urban area, sometimes below treetop height, at speeds approaching 100 mph, then entered the water with minimal splash, exited, and divided into two. The team argued that no known aircraft, balloon or natural phenomenon fits that behaviour. The footage comes from a Department of Homeland Security aircraft using a professional sensor, so the raw data is not in doubt; the dispute is entirely over interpretation. Proponents note AARO's lantern finding is rated only 'moderate confidence', and that the earlier independent study reached the opposite conclusion from the same video. For transmedium claims, Aguadilla remains a key test case.
The strongest argument that this was something genuinely unknown or classified, with each claim attributed to the person who made it.
Documents
- AARO Puerto Rico UAP Case Resolution (March 2025, via The Black Vault) official, theblackvault.com
- 2013 Aguadilla Puerto Rico UAP analysis (SCU report) report, doi.org
Sources
- DoD Report Says Aguadilla UFO Was Just Sky Lanterns; Previous Scientific Studies Claim Otherwise The Black Vault
- 2013 Aguadilla Puerto Rico UAP: The detailed analysis of an Unidentified Anomalous Phenomenon captured by the Department of Homeland Security Zenodo (Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies)
Witness reports elsewhere
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