UFO On Phone Cam In Costa Rica
From Phantoms and Monsters via Posthuman Blues:
Malvin Badilla, a Costa Rican construction worker, managed to record a very compelling video of a possible disc-shaped unidentified flying object.
The object appears to spin on its own axis and makes maneuvers in a matter of seconds. The witness states that its apparent size was slightly larger than that of a tractor tire, adding that the time was 3:49 in the afternoon.
Mac Tonnies and cyberpunk author John Shirley opine that this looks like an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle being used for surveillance, and I concur. Unfortunately, the video does not show any maneuvers that would give us any clues to its conventional airworthiness.
During research for my book Project Beta, I was told that testing was conducted at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico in the late 1970s involving unconventional UAVs which may have been mistaken for “real” UFOs. Remember that UAVs have only been in the public eye for the last few years.
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Dec 05 2007 
December 5th, 2007 at 2:20 pm
It does bear a passing resemblance to
the ‘mini’ and a couple of other (roughly) discoid UFO’s-but it also
resembles some of the smaller ‘landed
craft’ sightings that have popped up down the years. The Soccoro sighting is the only one I can recall by name, but I’m thinking of an encounter with a
half-dozen ‘beehive shaped’ craft that
a fellow discovered in one of his fields
(US sighting ) and another where a fairly small discoid left a landing trace…
Granted you’ve got to test these things somewhere if you’ve got ‘em, but why
would anybody conduct surveillance of a
guy sanding a piece of 1×6?
December 5th, 2007 at 2:22 pm
Apologies-in the first sentance above, I meant to say “UAV’s”, not UFO’s…
It is a trifle exasperating not being able to edit these things…
December 5th, 2007 at 3:20 pm
Forgive me for a rambling post(I wonder, this is the only UFO sight I like to make posts on, is it okay to kind of use the comments here as if it were forum or bulletin board???):
I wish these sightings could go through what I would call a “tight epistemological grid”:
-careful vetting of eyewitnesses
-exact measurments of apparent size, time of day, position in the sky, weather
-at least some kind of brief psychological assessment
-report of any other anomalous phenomena(dreams, feelings of receiving thoughts, poltergeist)
-statement validity analysis of witness statements
I like UFO’s for the fun of it, but I’d sure like to at least know the truthiness of witnesses & cases. I just got done with reading Karl Pflock’s ROSWELL, & I am so disgusted with the poor quality of investigation in UFOLOGY. I subcribed to MUFON so I could get there magazine, & the magazine is a bunch of new age fluff with bullshit about a starchild skull & the possibility that some of the 1950’s contactees might have actually been telling the truth after all.
Just a little vent…thanks for listening…..
December 5th, 2007 at 4:23 pm
Mmmm… the news report ended by saying that the video will be sent to Mexico, so it can be reviewed by “experts”. No doubt the experts are none other than the (in)famous Jaime Maussán
misteranderson is right. Without those kinds of information the report leaves us with nothing, since the video is not really that impressive. The witness says the Ufo disappeared, but that’s hard to discern since all the movement of the cel phone doesn’t let us appreciate that.
And also the recreation of the event is puzzling. Looks like the witness wasn’t that far away of his friend who could have confirmed the sighting, I have been in a lot of buildings under construction because of my work, and the sound of a drill is not that loud that it would prevent you from hearing the yelling of a guy that close to you.
But, there could be other events like this in the following months, so we should be attentive.
December 5th, 2007 at 4:39 pm
It seems that in so many of these stories, there’s an element that keeps confirmation from happening(a coworker couldn’t hear because of the drill). These stories are always tantalizing in that way. It keeps these stories in the realm of storytelling or folklore. It’s like a myth masquerading as a piece of investigative journalism. These stories have characterstics closer to urban rumours than anything else. (I am deaf as a post in one of my ears, & if a drill was going on in the background or right next to me, there’s no chance someone could get my attention by yelling at me….so that part could be believable..)
December 6th, 2007 at 12:08 am
Acoording to the post at phantoms, it would seem the part of the video that I took to be a reenactment (that IS a reenactment, with the boy being filmed while filming the UFO, and the closeups of the guy drilling…)is taken to be actual footage? They’re talking about the craft’s noise level, and refer to this scene. The guy’s talking so fast and I can only follow along and translate like every eigth word.
December 7th, 2007 at 2:01 pm
This is one of those videos that would really benefit from that image stabilization technique they used on the Patterson Bigfoot film.
It is possible this is a UAV but, in that case, I doubt it would have been silent. Most of the little ones utilize the Coanda Effect to fly. This takes a lot of energy and usually produces a lot of racket (as in this video):
http://youtube.com/watch?v=DW0cgBoWGVM
The one thing about the Costa Rica video that does not look like a UAV is the way the object banks onto its side before disappearing. UAVs fly with a pretty flat trajectory - they don’t bank to any extreme because they would lose lift.
Atthis point, I still have to lean toward this being a digital artifact of some kind. The video somehow has that quality of being just a little too convenient to be true.
S
December 7th, 2007 at 2:09 pm
Craig,
The Socorro object was described as being “egg-shaped.” Was there some other detail of the sighting that reminded you of the “hockey puck” shape?
December 7th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
misteranderson,
The comments are supposed to be a forum for anything the readers want to discuss (within the subject bounds of the original post.) No need to worry about yours.
I agree with you about the sorry state of UFO research, but most people are tracked to investigate what they are seeking, and not what may have actually happened, unfortunately.
Good on you for including an investigative category about “any other anomalous phenomena(dreams, feelings of receiving thoughts, poltergeist).” This is an important and often ignored facet of UFO sightings/ interaction.
MUFON plays to the audience and their financial base, so it’s not surprising that they would include articles on the “starchild” skull, although I wish I’d written the piece on the contactees!
December 7th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
RPJ,
No hope for the case if Maussán gets a hold of the video, except perhaps to gain more publicity for the subject.
December 7th, 2007 at 2:21 pm
Richelle,
The video and news report seemed designed to fill up news time with a sensationalistic story, but the footage might be good enough to identify the object, which is probably a UAV surveillance craft–at least I think so.