Rafael Hernandez Airport UFO Sighting (April 26, 2013) — AARO Records
A 2013 US Customs and Border Protection aircraft recorded infrared video of an object over Puerto Rico that appeared to split before entering the water.
Historical Context and Documentation
On April 26, 2013, an aerial encounter occurred near the Rafael Hernandez Airport in Puerto Rico, an event now preserved within the archives of the All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office (AARO). This specific case is documented within AARO’s 2024-2025 publications and appears in the consolidated annual reports provided to Congress. The records are part of the declassified materials released through the reporting cycles of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Defense. As a post-Cold War era incident, the sighting predates the establishment of the modern United States government task forces dedicated to Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP), placing it in a period of transition regarding how the military and intelligence communities processed aerial anomalies.
The Rafael Hernandez Airport, located in Aguadilla, serves as a significant aviation hub for the western region of Puerto Rico. During the early 2010s, the monitoring of Caribbean airspace was heavily focused on interdiction efforts related to maritime and aerial smuggling. Consequently, the presence of United States Customs and Border Protection (USCBP) aircraft in the region was frequent, providing a layer of high-resolution surveillance that is often absent in civilian-only sightings. The era was characterized by an increasing reliance on advanced infrared and electro-optical sensors, which allowed for the capture of phenomena that would have remained invisible to the naked eye in previous decades.
The Incident and Sensor Analysis
The primary evidence for this case consists of infrared video captured by a USCBP aircraft during a patrol over the Rafael Hernandez Airport. The footage depicts an unidentified object moving through the airspace with significant velocity. During the observation, the object appeared to undergo a physical transformation, seemingly splitting into two distinct entities. Following this perceived bifurcation, the objects appeared to descend into the ocean, moving through the surface of the water and exiting on the other side.
The investigation into this specific footage involved a technical review of the sensor data to determine the physical reality of the observed movement. Through rigorous analysis of the infrared imagery, investigators were able to evaluate the trajectory and the structural integrity of the observed phenomenon. The findings indicated that the perceived splitting of the object was not a physical fragmentation of a single craft, but rather an optical illusion. This effect was attributed to the specific angle of the sensor relative to the object and the effects of motion parallax, where the relative motion of the observer and the subject creates a distorted perception of distance and shape. Furthermore, the analysis determined that the objects were not interacting with the ocean surface as described in the initial visual assessment, but were instead traveling at wind speed over the land.
Classification and Analytical Framework
Within the framework of modern anomaly resolution, this case is categorized as a sighting involving photographic or video evidence. The All-domain Anomaly Resolution Office maintains a specific designation for unresolved cases, which are defined as incidents where the agency has neither concluded the event was anomalous nor confirmed it was caused by a conventional source. In such instances, both the possibility of unknown technology and the possibility of known, conventional objects remain under consideration.
The investigation of such phenomena frequently considers a variety of conventional candidates. In the modern era, these include the proliferation of commercial drones, the presence of classified testing platforms, the descent of satellite reentry debris, high-altitude balloon traffic, various atmospheric optical phenomena, and the movement of known astronomical objects. The Rafael Hernandez Airport case serves as a notable example of how advanced sensor-based evidence can be used to transition a sighting from a perceived anomalous event to a documented atmospheric or optical phenomenon through technical reconstruction.