Government Plane Photographs Saucer Over Lake Cote In 1971

On the morning of September 4 1971 a Costa Rican government aircraft was conducting an aerial photographic survey for a national mapping project over Lake Cote in the northern part of the country.

The plane was equipped with a high resolution camera that automatically captured sequential frames of the terrain below. When the film was later developed one frame stood out dramatically.

A sharply defined metallic disc shaped object appeared hovering just above the surface of the lake. The object measured approximately 30 to 40 meters in diameter according to photogrammetric analysis and showed no visible means of propulsion or attachment to the ground.

The image was taken at an altitude of roughly 3000 meters during clear weather conditions. Multiple frames before and after the anomalous exposure showed only the lake and surrounding landscape with no such object present.

The photograph has been examined by both Costa Rican officials and international researchers and remains one of the clearest documented images of an unidentified aerial phenomenon captured during an official government operation. No conventional aircraft or natural phenomenon has been able to account for the object seen in the frame.