Puerto Rico UAP CR
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UNCLASSIFIED All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) U.S. Department of Defense Case: "The Puerto Rico Object" Case Resolution | 20 March 2025
AARO Assessment and Case Status: AARO assesses with high confidence1 that the objects did not exhibit anomalous behavior or transmedium capabilities. AARO assesses with moderate confidence that the objects were a pair of sky lanterns.
Case Overview On April 26, 2013, an infrared (IR) sensor onboard a U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) De Havilland Canada 8 aircraft flying above Rafael Hernandez Airport near Aguadilla, Puerto Rico captured thermal video footage of two objects drifting at wind speed and direction. The objects appeared to move at a high rate of speed over the airport and surrounding area before separating from one another. The objects seemed to enter, exit, and disappear into the Atlantic Ocean off Puerto Rico's northwestern coast.
During the encounter, the CBP aircraft flew in an arc around the Rafael Hernandez Airport, gaining approximately 1,725 feet in altitude before losing sensor contact with the objects at 3,600 feet. The aircraft entered a layer of scattered clouds as it passed 3,000 feet in altitude. These clouds partially obscured the sensor's view, potentially affecting the objects' sensor return. The range between the aircraft and the objects nearly tripled during the encounter. These factors contribute to the
[STAMP:] Date: Mar 19, 2025 Department of Defense OFFICE OF PREPUBLICATION AND SECURITY REVIEW
Case Synopsis Location: Puerto Rico Date: April 26, 2013 Object Altitude (Reported): N/A Object Altitude (Assessed): [ILLEGIBLE] ft Object Speed (Reported): N/A Object Speed (Assessed): [ILLEGIBLE] mph Object Shape (Reported): N/A Object Shape (Assessed): Indistinct
Reporter: Publicly available…
Report…
Page excerpts
- Page 1 UNCLASSIFIED All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO) U.S. Department of Defense Case: "The Puerto Rico Object" Case Resolution | 20 March 2025 AARO Assessment and Case Status: AARO assesses with…
- Page 2 UNCLASSIFIED video's diminishing quality over time. Figure 1 reconstructs the aircraft's flight path, sensor line-of-sight to the ground, and position relative to the objects. ATLANTIC OCEAN Rafael…
- Page 3 UNCLASSIFIED Performance Characteristics Object Speed: Systems Toolkit (STK) reconstruction determined the objects drifted at approximately 3.6 meters per second (8 mph) in a straight line over land,…
- Page 4 UNCLASSIFIED Figure 2: Stills images of object separation from within the first minute of the video. Figure 3: These stills demonstrate how the changing view angle from the sensor to the objects…
- Page 5 UNCLASSIFIED Observable Characteristics and Attribution Size and Shape: AARO employed pixel analysis to estimate the objects' sizes to be smaller than one meter (three feet). Pixel analysis is a…
- Page 6 UNCLASSIFIED Data Quality and Methodology AARO assesses that the sensor data associated with the encounter provides sufficiently detailed information to resolve this case with high confidence. AARO's…
- Page 7 UNCLASSIFIED makes identification difficult. AARO considered this interpretation unlikely, as the STK reconstruction demonstrates that the objects moved in a straight line at wind speed over land.…