Six airliners see triangular lights, Antofagasta
In the early hours of a day in May 2018, the crews of six commercial aircraft near Antofagasta reported three triangular light sources at the same time, and their radio exchanges were made public.
2018 CE · -23.65, -70.40 · status: unexplained
The account
The leaked cockpit audio caused public debate in Chile. Specialists at CEFAA, the official UAP committee, suggested that military manoeuvres or lights reflected from boats could explain it, but the case was presented as still unexplained.
The sceptical view
The proposed explanations (military activity, ships' lights) were not confirmed, but nor was any exotic one. Simultaneous reports from several crews can share the same misidentified source.
The researched reading
Six airline crews saw the same lights, which argues for something real but distant and ordinary. Without radar or images, a military or maritime source is the best fit.
| Explanation | Weight | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Something known, misidentified | 40% | Six crews seeing the same lights at once over the dark Atacama coast points to one distant, real source, such as a ship’s or fishing fleet’s lights, a rocket body or space debris re-entry, or military aircraft; shared reports do not mean independent objects. |
| Secret human technology | 20% | CEFAA specialists themselves suggested military manoeuvres; the Chilean armed forces operate along this coast. |
| Genuinely anomalous | 14% | Six professional crews and no confirmed identification leave some room, but no radar or imagery has been published. |
| A known natural phenomenon | 8% | Bright stars or planets low over the ocean, refracted by the marine layer, can appear to change and move. |
| Perception, memory or mind | 8% | Once one crew calls out lights on the radio, others look for and find them; the leaked audio shows this contagion. |
| A poorly understood natural phenomenon | 4% | No data point to an unusual atmospheric light. |
| Undetermined | 4% | The share a generic explanation had beyond what has been shown for this case: it fits many cases like this one, but has not been demonstrated for this one. |
| A hoax or fabrication | 2% | The cockpit audio is genuine. |
Official position: CEFAA and the DGAC studied the case; specialists suggested military activity or ships’ lights but left it unexplained.