Aguadilla infrared video

A US Customs and Border Protection aircraft recorded several minutes of infrared video of a small warm object crossing the airport area at night, appearing to dip into the sea and re-emerge, at times seeming to split in two. The Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies (2015) estimated speeds around 100 mph and argued it travelled underwater without a splash. Mick West and other analysts reconstructed the geometry as two sky lanterns drifting with the wind, with apparent speed from the aircraft's own motion, and AARO's case resolution of 20 March 2025 reached the same conclusion (two small objects, most likely lanterns, about 8 mph at about 600 feet). The SCU still rejects the lanterns.

Two wind-borne sky lanterns

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  UFO Skeptic Mick West Challenged To A DebateWatch from 2:52:36 on YouTube

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  Kevin Knuth on The Physics of UAPWatch from 24:35 on YouTube

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  UAP Evidence & Analysis | Mick WestWatch from 43:49 on YouTube

• Contested2:52:36Mick WestOfficial document

  The 2013 Aguadilla, Puerto Rico video is resolved: independent analyses (including West's) and later AARO converge on two tied-together Chinese/wedding sky lanterns as the explanation, and von Rennenkampff fully agrees with this conclusion.

  This was all confirmed basically by Arrow analyzing this and coming to the same conclusion.

  Our check AARO's official March 20, 2025 case-resolution report does conclude the 2013 Aguadilla, Puerto Rico video shows two small warm objects (not one splitting), most likely sky lanterns drifting with the wind at roughly 8 mph and 600 feet altitude, with the apparent high speed explained by parallax from the surveillance aircraft's own motion -- matching the claim's description of AARO's conclusion. However, the claim that this is fully 'resolved' overstates the consensus: the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies has specifically rejected Ruben Lianza's tied-lanterns hypothesis, arguing the required wind speed is too high for lanterns to stay airborne, that lanterns would appear as two separate objects earlier in the footage, and that the lantern theory does not explain the object's disappearance behind trees and into the water. The claim's assertion that 'von Rennenkampff fully agrees' with AARO could not be independently verified.

  Sources aaro.mil, explorescu.org, theblackvault.com

  Said in UFO Skeptic Mick West Challenged To A Debate

• Unverified24:35Kevin KnuthSingle sensor

  Video from Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, analyzed by SCU (the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies), shows an object entering the ocean at roughly 100 mph without a splash and continuing underwater at about 85 mph, at points accelerating.

  the UFO dips into the water, doesn't make a splash... as the UFO hits the water at about 100 miles an hour it continues traveling... it only drops down to about 85 miles an hour

  Said in Kevin Knuth on The Physics of UAP

• Supported43:49Mick WestOfficial document

  AARO has released conclusions on some cases (e.g., the Aguadilla, Puerto Rico case) without releasing the full underlying analysis, partly perhaps due to classified content; the Aguadilla case is one where AARO reached the same explanation West and others had already reached independently.

  they come to the same conclusion that I did... it certainly wasn't me and I wasn't the first... they kind of release the results rather than release the actual full analysis.

  Our check AARO's 'Puerto Rico Object' case resolution (20 March 2025, 7 pages) assesses with high confidence that the 26 April 2013 objects showed no anomalous or transmedium behaviour, and with moderate confidence that they were 'a pair of sky lanterns' drifting at about 8 mph at about 656 ft. That matches Metabunk's earlier conclusion ('Probably Hot Air Wedding Lanterns'), which West helped reach years before. AARO publishes summary cards rather than full analyses, as West says; his guess that classified content is the reason is speculation.

  Sources theblackvault.com, metabunk.org

  Said in UAP Evidence & Analysis | Mick West

• All-domain Anomaly Resolution Officeaaro.mil
• Metabunk (West's reconstruction)metabunk.org