‘Best photograph of UFO ever taken’ released, showing ‘metallic flying saucer zooming underneath plane’

THE “best ever” photograph of a UFO has been released 50 years after it was first shot.

The original photo was taken from a plane flying over the jungles of Costa Rica and shows what appears to be a metallic disc hovering beneath the aircraft.

GettyThe image looked eerily similar to the common idea of a flying saucer[/caption]

Instituto Geográfico Nacional de Costa RicaThere appears to be a metallic disk flying under the plane near Costa Rica[/caption]

And the image has now been touched up and released in a new high-resolution print half a century after it was first captured.

Aerial photographer Sergio Loaiza was using a 100lb map-making camera as he flew over Costa Rica at an altitude of around 10,000 feet on a mission to survey land.

Sergio was scoping out the land ahead of the construction of a hydroelectric project near the Arenal Volcano in the country’s northern highlands.

As he flew over Lake Cote he snapped multiple high resolution black and white photos of the lake and surrounding rainforest at 20 second intervals.

In this frame, time-stamped at 8:25am, a shiny metallic disc which looks eerily like a classic alien “flying saucer” can be seen between the ground and Sergio’s aircraft.

The strange object is only visible in frame number 300 of the images and there’s no sign of it in either frame immediately before or after.

The pilot nor his three crew members saw a thing during the actual flight.

Depending on the estimated altitude of the object, it is believed to have measured between 120 and 220 feet across.

Sergio’s image sparked discussions about aliens but despite close analysis from UFO sceptics, it has never been explained.

Critics were naturally trying to work out how the image could have been doctored.

But despite theories that the “UFO” could have been a chance reflection from a the lake, attempts to create a “fake” version of the image using technology of the time were unsuccessful.

Oscar Sierra, a UFO researcher based in Costa Rica said: ““It’s one of the most compelling scientific confirmations that UFOs are real.”

Sergio’s mysterious photo began to be forgotten as time passed but it returned to the fore in April 2021 thanks to some media coverage.

New York Times reporter Leslie Kean, described the image as “the best photograph of a UFO ever taken”.

He said: “There was this disc object and you clearly see the sun reflecting off this round object that’s got a little dot on the top and what’s important about it is that it was a government photo.

“There’s a clear chain of custody. It’s always been in possession of the Costa Rican government so you know it’s authentic and it’s completely unexplained.”

It comes after users on Google Maps think they have spotted a crashed UFO on a mysterious uninhabited island.