Photo: Getty Images
UFO sightings are not a new thing and it turns out, one of the best pictures of what could be a flying saucer was taken back in 1971. That year, a small plane flew over Costa Rica, photographing the terrain as part of a study by the country's National Geographic Institute. A 100-pound camera took dozens of photos at 20 second intervals from 10,000 feet in the air and one of them captured something very strange - a UFO.
When the pictures were developed, aerial photographer Sergio Loaiza noticed a shiny, round, metal, saucer-like object flying between the plane and a lake below. Neither he nor the others on the plane saw anything strange during the flight but based on altitude, the UFO is believed to be between 120 and 220 feet wide.
Photo: Instituto Geográfico Nacional de Costa Rica
Sergio's bosses at the National Geographic Institute asked him and his colleagues not to discuss what they captured, but eventually they did and the image has since been studied and analyzed by experts, who have all concluded that the object in the picture looks real and was not caused by trick photography or a double exposure.
The photo was discussed in the recent New Yorker article "How the Pentagon Started Taking UFOs Seriously," and in the piece, New York Times reporter Leslie Kean is quoted as saying, "This photograph of a UFO may be the most extraordinary one ever released by government officials."
UFO research group UAP Media got a high-resolution version of the photograph that was produced from the negative and tweeted it out to show the object in more detail.
UFO experts are impressed with the image. One said, "It's a really intriguing photograph, and one which totally captures the imagination. I'm always impressed as to how 'right' it looks. As to its veracity, though, I can't say, but I'd love it to be true," while another stated, "In this instance we have an undoubtedly clear image - perhaps the clearest to date," and one other noted, "The fact that after 50 years it still hasn’t been conclusively proven or debunked is very interesting."
As yet, there is no explanation for what appears in the photo.