Chilean Navy UAP — Two-Year Official Investigation, No Explanation (2014)

On November 11, 2014, a Chilean Navy helicopter conducting a routine coastal patrol captured approximately 10 minutes of infrared (FLIR) video of an unidentified object. The footage shows an object moving at a steady speed, leaving a thermal trail, and at two points ejecting a large plume of an unknown material — behavior inconsistent with any known aircraft or natural phenomenon. THE INVESTIGATION: Chile's official UAP investigation agency, CEFAA (Comité de Estudios de Fenómenos Aéreos Anómalos), conducted a two-year investigation that included analysis by: nuclear chemists at the Chilean Nuclear Energy Commission, image analysts, aeronautical engineers, meteorologists, and astrophysicists. The investigation also ruled out: all known aircraft (military and civilian), drones, weather phenomena, atmospheric effects, and satellite re-entry. THE FINDINGS: After two years of expert analysis, CEFAA concluded the object could not be identified as any known phenomenon. The thermal signature was confirmed as real. The object was not visible to the naked eye, only to the infrared camera — suggesting it was operating outside the visible spectrum. The material ejections remained unexplained. THE RELEASE: In January 2017, CEFAA officially released the footage through journalist Leslie Kean, who had worked with the Chilean government on UAP transparency. Chile is one of the few countries with an official, transparent UAP investigation program — alongside France (GEIPAN) and Brazil. THE SIGNIFICANCE: A NATO-aligned nation's navy captured infrared footage of an unexplained object, spent two years analyzing it with the country's top scientists and military analysts, could not explain it, and then publicly released the footage and their findings. This is the model for how UAP investigation should work: detect, analyze, and publish — the opposite of the US approach of detect, classify, and deny.