Famous Navy UFO Video Was Actually Camera Glare, Evidence Suggests

A new detailed analysis of the modern poster child for UFO footage makes the case that the object in the video is not anything other than glare on the Navy jet’s gimbal camera system.

The Poster Child of UFO Footage

The footage in question appears to show a UFO defying modern aerodynamics off the coast of San Diego before it appears to vanish into the ocean. The footage was captured in 2004 and was originally leaked in 2017 before it was officially released in 2019.

The video was supposedly never supposed to be made public and has been one of the poster child pieces of the footage used to definitively point to the existence of extraterrestrials. The Pentagon performed a detailed analysis of the footage and found that there was no evidence that it came from a source outside of Earth, but was unable to eliminate the possibility either. This, of course, continued to fuel conspiracy theories about the existence of aliens.

But a new detailed analysis by self-described debunker, skeptic, and UFO investigator Mick West focuses on four aspects of the footage to demonstrate that what is likely being seen is actually a camera artifact. West says his primary focus is investigating the claims of evidence around conspiracy theories and he does so in this recent video using facts and science.

Just Camera Glare

West contends that what is being seen in the video is actually infrared glare that hides a hot object behind it and only rotates in the way it does because the camera rotates when tracking the target from left to right.

He says that his video does not address the object itself as it’s not clear what the object is and there is nothing to say that it isn’t special or exemplary in some way. He just argues that his analysis shows that it isn’t actually exhibiting any incredible behavior and opens the door to other “mundane possibilities” like a distance small jet just flying away and the heat of the engines is what is creating a large glare on the thermal camera.

One of West’s main points is that glare orientation is relative to the camera, which explains why the object in the footage only rotates when the camera gimbal itself rotates.

“So if this isn’t a glare, then we’ve got an object over 10 miles away — probably 30 — that somehow only rotates when the jet rotates so it stays fixed in the camera’s frame. It’s an object that somehow bumps the camera before it rotates, from 10-plus miles away, is an object that somehow projects rotating light patterns that rotate with it, is an object that rotates in a way that matches exactly the amount needed to stay within three degrees of a gimbal system tracking the target while minimizing roll, but just from this one plane, at this pitch, and this bank angle,” he says.

“Or, it’s a glare, rotating because of the gimbal system in a video titled ‘gimbal.'”

As detailed as West’s analysis is, it very likely won’t convince those who have decided that it is footage of a UFO.

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