From: Ed Gehrman <egehrman.nul>
Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 15:42:54 -0700
Fwd Date: Sat, 15 May 2004 14:52:31 -0400
Subject: Re: Mexico UFO The Sceptics Counterattack - Gehrman



http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=5152278§ion=news

Weather May Explain Mexico UFO Stir
Fri 14 May, 2004 23:01

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - A cluster of mysterious objects that
surrounded a Mexican Air Force plane, alarming the pilots and
sparking a UFO scare, could be a weather phenomenon known as
ball lightning, a scientist said on Friday.

The pilots grew nervous during a routine drugs surveillance
flight in March when their radar detected strange objects flying
nearby and an infrared camera showed 11 blobs of light,
invisible to the eye, hovering or darting about their plane.

Mexico's Air Force this week released footage from the infrared
camera that was shown widely on television.

As Mexican and international media published photographs of the
objects, UFO Web sites saw the case as possible evidence of a
new sighting of some form of extraterrestrial life.

But nuclear science researcher Julio Herrera said the blobs of
light may have been nothing more than ball lightning -- glowing
spheres that are little understood but often sighted near the
ground during thunderstorms.

"Just as you have lightning between clouds and ground, you can
also have it within the clouds and sometimes ball lightning can
develop. I feel this is one of these rare events," said Herrera,
based at Mexico's National Autonomous University.

"It's a very rare atmospheric phenomenon and it would be very
interesting to be able to analyze all the information these
pilots obtained," he told Reuters.

UFO follower Jaime Maussan said on Tuesday the objects seemed
"intelligent" after they turned around to surround the plane
chasing them -- but Herrera said electrical discharges in ball
lightning could have been attracted to the plane as a conductor.