# The Heat Signature over Aguadilla [View on uap.fun]() CASE FILE 016 · 2013 A federal surveillance camera followed a dark heat signature across Aguadilla. It seemed to race over rooftops, vanish into the Atlantic, return, and divide—until a later reconstruction moved the entire mystery back over land. ![Black-hot infrared frame from the official Customs and Border Protection video, showing Aguadilla terrain, sensor telemetry, a tracking box, and a small dark unresolved target near the center.]() Authentic CBP infrared-video frame; the target’s identity and distance cannot be determined from this still alone. Maintained by uap.fun · Last updated at September 17, 2026 at 1:20 PM CDT. Sources reviewed September 17, 2026 · Reviewed annually or when AARO, CBP, SCU, sensor, weather, radar, or flight-path records emerge. ## AT A GLANCE - **DATE:** April 25–26, 2013 (the public sources disagree on the local calendar date) - **LOCATION:** Rafael Hernández Airport and the northwestern coast near Aguadilla, Puerto Rico - **REPORT TYPE:** Airborne infrared recording and disputed transmedium interpretation - **RECORD STATUS:** Resolved by AARO as probable sky lanterns; exact identity not certain ## The story ### A warm light approaches the old bomber field Rafael Hernández Airport occupies the immense runway of the former Ramey Air Force Base on Puerto Rico’s northwestern shoulder. Late on an April night in 2013, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection De Havilland Canada Dash 8 was climbing and turning around that airfield. According to the later SCU account, supplied through an unnamed source rather than a published crew statement, the aviators first noticed a pinkish-red light approaching from the ocean. The tower could not identify it. As the visible glow faded near shore, the aircraft’s infrared operator acquired a small hot target. Sources: [2013 Aguadilla Puerto Rico UAP: detailed analysis]() · [The Puerto Rico Object: case resolution]() · [Rafael Hernández Airport]() ### One night, two dates The camera overlay bears the UTC date April 26. SCU converted the beginning of the recording to about 9:22 p.m. Atlantic Standard Time on April 25; AARO’s 2025 report instead calls it 9:22 p.m. local time on April 26. The official DVIDS catalog also uses April 26. No public acquisition log settles whether the disagreement is a time-zone conversion, a metadata convention, or a later dating error, so this archive preserves both dates rather than forcing an exact one. Sources: [Puerto Rico Objects: official infrared video]() · [2013 Aguadilla Puerto Rico UAP: detailed analysis]() · [The Puerto Rico Object: case resolution]() ### The little black shape in the box For three minutes and fifty-four seconds, the public video holds a tiny black-hot signature near its tracking box while monochrome roads, trees, buildings, fields, and coastline slide underneath. It has no resolved wings, rotor, exhaust, or navigational lights. The target sharpens, blurs, flickers, and occasionally seems to disappear. Because the sensor magnifies a small patch of ground from a moving, turning aircraft, the sequence offers a powerful sensation of speed without giving an ordinary viewer a reliable sense of range. Sources: [Puerto Rico Objects: official infrared video]() · [The Puerto Rico Object: case resolution]() · [Alleged UFO captured by infrared camera over Aguadilla]() [Watch the complete official infrared recording]() U.S. Customs and Border Protection infrared footage, published by DVIDS in 2024. The video is an authentic government sensor record; labels about speed, water entry, and identity are interpretations added from later analysis. [Video source]() ### The moment Aguadilla became a transmedium legend Near the end, the target crosses a water-toned background and repeatedly loses contrast. To viewers following its apparent path, it seems to descend into the Atlantic, continue beneath the surface without a splash, rise again, and then become two equal dark signatures. That sequence gave Aguadilla its special place in modern lore: not merely a light or a distant shape, but what appeared to be continuous government footage of an object passing from air to sea and duplicating itself. Sources: [Puerto Rico Objects: official infrared video]() · [2013 Aguadilla Puerto Rico UAP: detailed analysis]() · [The Puerto Rico Object: case resolution]() ### The 161-page extraordinary reading A six-author Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies team broke the recording into frames, compared the sensor telemetry with maps and radar material, and published its report in 2015. Its preferred reconstruction put the object at roughly three to five feet long, generally moving around forty to one hundred twenty miles per hour, with a median near eighty. The team read brief disappearances over land as occlusion by trees, then extended that near-surface geometry toward the coast. It concluded that the target entered the water with little disturbance, emerged, enlarged, and divided into two objects. Sources: [2013 Aguadilla Puerto Rico UAP: detailed analysis]() · [Aguadilla incident report and alternative-hypothesis responses]() · [Puerto Rico Objects: official infrared video]() ### A pair of lanterns enters the argument Retired Argentine Air Force commodore Rubén Lianza reached the opposite reading. He argued that the apparent dash across the landscape came from parallax, that the flickering thermal shape resembled two heart-shaped hot-air lanterns traveling together, and that east-northeasterly wind could carry them from the resort side of the airport. In his geometry the targets remained several nautical miles from the camera and over land even while water filled the background. The romantic detail—a paired wedding-lantern release—was vivid, but no wedding party or launch was independently documented. Sources: [Alleged UFO captured by infrared camera over Aguadilla]() · [Aguadilla infrared footage: windborne-lantern analysis and debate]() · [Aguadilla incident report and alternative-hypothesis responses]() ### The Pentagon rebuilds the flight AARO revisited the video with aircraft position, sensor azimuth, elevation, slant angle, and a Systems Toolkit reconstruction. Its model placed two objects near the airport’s northeastern side at about 656 feet, moving southwest in a straight line at approximately eight miles per hour. Recorded wind was about 9.8 miles per hour from the east-northeast. The Dash 8, meanwhile, climbed roughly 1,725 feet in an arc, and its range to the targets nearly tripled. In that reconstruction, motion parallax—not a low-level sprint—creates the spectacular ground speed. Sources: [The Puerto Rico Object: case resolution]() · [2013 Puerto Rico Object Reconstruction]() · [Puerto Rico Objects: official infrared video]() ### It never reached the ocean The most consequential line in AARO’s solution is geographic: its projected sight lines keep the objects over land throughout the recording, ending above the airport’s central parking apron. The ocean appears behind them because the airborne camera looks across the coastline. Frames once interpreted as a target passing behind a utility pole were subjected to pixel analysis; AARO said the signatures did not cross behind it. Without that foreground anchor, the low altitude, high speed, and water entry no longer follow from the pixels. Sources: [The Puerto Rico Object: case resolution]() · [2013 Puerto Rico Object Reconstruction]() · [Alleged UFO captured by infrared camera over Aguadilla]() ### Two objects hiding as one AARO identified separations at about 29.56, 40.76, and 47 seconds—well before the famous late split. It concluded that two small objects traveled close together from the beginning, repeatedly blending into one unresolved thermal blob. As the aircraft climbed, the viewing angle changed from shallow and side-on to steeper and more top-down, making their separation increasingly obvious. What looked like replication became a lesson in how sub-pixel targets can merge and part on a long-range infrared display. Sources: [The Puerto Rico Object: case resolution]() · [Puerto Rico Objects: official infrared video]() · [2013 Puerto Rico Object Reconstruction]() ### Why the targets vanish The fading signatures also have an instrument-level explanation. AARO cites thermal crossover—the period after sunset when an object and its background can approach the same infrared temperature—along with increasing distance and scattered cloud near 3,000 feet. The recording began within two hours of sunset, the targets were smaller than three feet in AARO’s estimate, and the camera-to-target range grew substantially. Under those conditions a warm object may flicker out against land or water without entering either one. Sources: [The Puerto Rico Object: case resolution]() · [Puerto Rico Objects: official infrared video]() · [Alleged UFO captured by infrared camera over Aguadilla]() ### From leaked mystery to official case study For years the clip circulated through investigators and internet archives without an official public release, accumulating the reputation of a government video too strange to explain. DVIDS finally published the original sequence in November 2024, and AARO issued its resolution and animated reconstruction in March 2025. Aguadilla’s cultural afterlife now contains both stories at once: the celebrated transmedium passage built from SCU’s geometry, and the official two-lantern solution built from a different reconstruction of the same black-and-white frames. Sources: [Puerto Rico Objects: official infrared video]() · [The Puerto Rico Object: case resolution]() · [2013 Aguadilla Puerto Rico UAP: detailed analysis]() ## The evidence ### What the recording securely establishes The 3:54 sequence is authentic U.S. Customs and Border Protection infrared footage from a Dash 8 operating near Rafael Hernández Airport. Embedded telemetry records the aircraft and sensor state, and the landscape can be compared with the airport. The camera followed one or more unresolved thermal targets. Authentic provenance does not, by itself, fix their distance, speed, altitude, identity, or relationship to the water behind them. Sources: [Puerto Rico Objects: official infrared video]() · [The Puerto Rico Object: case resolution]() · [2013 Aguadilla Puerto Rico UAP: detailed analysis]() ### The missing firsthand record The public file does not include named crew interviews, a contemporaneous incident report, control-tower audio, a preserved tower log, or an original visual-observation statement. The pinkish-red light, tower confirmation, delayed commercial departure, and crew reaction enter the story through SCU’s unnamed source. Those details may be accurate, but they cannot be checked with the same confidence as the pixels and telemetry in the released video. Sources: [2013 Aguadilla Puerto Rico UAP: detailed analysis]() · [Aguadilla infrared footage: windborne-lantern analysis and debate]() · [The Puerto Rico Object: case resolution]() ### Two reconstructions, one decisive unknown SCU’s anomalous trajectory and AARO’s windborne trajectory depend on where the targets are placed along the camera’s changing line of sight. SCU used apparent occlusion by foreground objects to argue for a low, fast track. AARO rejected the key pole occlusion and integrated the aircraft and sensor angles into a farther, slower path. The public video contains no independent laser range to the targets, so geometry—not a direct range measurement—carries the dispute. Sources: [2013 Aguadilla Puerto Rico UAP: detailed analysis]() · [The Puerto Rico Object: case resolution]() · [Alleged UFO captured by infrared camera over Aguadilla]() ### The official resolution and its limit AARO assesses with high confidence that no anomalous speed or transmedium behavior occurred, and with moderate confidence that the targets were two sky lanterns. It cites their sub-meter size, wind-matched path, variable heat signature, and information from local hospitality vendors that lantern releases were common. Moderate confidence matters: AARO resolved the extraordinary performance, but it did not produce a launch record, owner, recovered lantern, or categorical identification. Sources: [The Puerto Rico Object: case resolution]() · [2013 Puerto Rico Object Reconstruction]() · [Alleged UFO captured by infrared camera over Aguadilla]() ### Classification This file is classified as an identified-performance case with an uncertain exact object. The government video is genuine; the apparent rush across the airport, split, and ocean entry are not supported by AARO’s reconstructed flight path. Two windborne lanterns currently provide the strongest developed explanation. The case remains valuable because it preserves the full illusion: a tiny warm target, a moving sensor, changing zoom, fading contrast, and a coastline can manufacture a sequence that looks like impossible machinery without a single fabricated frame. Sources: [The Puerto Rico Object: case resolution]() · [Puerto Rico Objects: official infrared video]() · [SCU announcement on the AARO investigation of the Aguadilla video]() ## Timeline - **25–26 APR 2013 · ABOUT 9:22 PM AST:** A CBP Dash 8 near Aguadilla acquires one or more thermal targets. SCU dates the local evening to April 25; AARO and DVIDS use April 26. - **NEXT 3 MINUTES 54 SECONDS:** The infrared operator tracks a flickering black-hot signature as the aircraft climbs and arcs around Rafael Hernández Airport. - **LATE IN THE RECORDING:** The signature fades against a water-toned background and resolves into two, creating the enduring appearance of submersion, re-emergence, and division. - **6 AUG 2015:** SCU publishes version 2 of its long technical report, arguing for a small fast object with apparent transmedium behavior. - **2017–2018:** Rubén Lianza’s paired-lantern analysis and SCU’s rebuttal sharpen the dispute over parallax, wind, occlusion, and infrared fading. - **19 NOV 2024:** DVIDS publishes the complete official video while AARO presents its over-land, wind-speed interpretation publicly. - **20 MAR 2025:** AARO releases its seven-page resolution and Systems Toolkit visualization: two objects, eight miles per hour, over land, probably sky lanterns. - **2025:** SCU requests underlying coordinates, uncertainty bounds, radar material, cloud-source data, and pixel-analysis details before completing its response. ## Sources & interviews - [The Puerto Rico Object: case resolution]() — All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office · U.S. Department of Defense · March 20, 2025 - [Puerto Rico Objects: official infrared video]() — U.S. Customs and Border Protection footage · Defense Visual Information Distribution Service · Public-domain federal work · 3 minutes 54 seconds (video) - [2013 Puerto Rico Object Reconstruction]() — All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office · Systems Toolkit visualization · March 20, 2025 (video) - [2013 Aguadilla Puerto Rico UAP: detailed analysis]() — Robert M. Powell et al. · Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies · Version 2 · August 6, 2015 · Zenodo - [Aguadilla incident report and alternative-hypothesis responses]() — Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies · Updated May 23, 2024 - [Alleged UFO captured by infrared camera over Aguadilla]() — Rubén Lianza · IPACO expert report · Windborne-lantern analysis - [Aguadilla infrared footage: windborne-lantern analysis and debate]() — Metabunk · Includes Rubén Lianza’s report, counteranalysis, simulations, and discussion - [SCU announcement on the AARO investigation of the Aguadilla video]() — Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies · Methodology questions and review status · 2025 - [Rafael Hernández Airport]() — Wikipedia · Airport history and orientation · Consulted September 17, 2026 ## Connected files - [The Nimitz Encounter]() — Another government infrared record whose drama depends on what the sensor can—and cannot—supply about range, motion, and shape. - [The Lights Beside Flight 1628]() — A civilian-airport investigation built from professional aviation witnesses, changing geometries, radar questions, and an archive that resists a single first impression. - [The Disc over O’Hare]() — An airport mystery with the opposite evidentiary profile: many reported eyes and official calls, but no authenticated image of the object itself. ## A NOTE ON EVIDENCE Unidentified describes a limit of the available information. It doesn’t identify an origin. [NEXT CASE FILE: The Fleet Behind the Gimbal]()