On September 4, 1971, a government mapping plane accidentally photographed a disc-shaped object over Lake Cote in Costa Rica. The image has survived 54 years of scrutiny. No one has convincingly explained it. Now, for the first time, the man who took the photograph is talking.
On the morning of September 4, 1971, a twin-engine Aero Commander was flying at approximately 10,000 feet over the northern highlands of Costa Rica. The mission was routine: a government aerial survey to assess land and water resources near the Arenal Volcano. A precision Zeiss mapping camera, mounted in the floor of the aircraft, was firing automatically -- one frame every few seconds.
Frame 300 captured something no one expected. Between the ordinary landscape images bracketing it on either side, a disc-shaped object appeared -- clearly defined, sharply rendered, apparently in flight above the lake below. The image was catalogued into Costa Rica's national archive, where it has remained for over fifty years with an unbroken chain of custody.
Unlike nearly every other famous UAP photograph, the Cote Photo was taken from above. Not by a witness with a camera pointing at the sky -- but by a government mapping instrument pointed at the ground. That single fact places it in a category of its own.
The Cote Photo is a documentary film by Adam Pillon and Megan Woomer that goes to Costa Rica to find the people connected to this image -- and to ask not only what the object was, but what it means to carry an unexplained experience for half a century.
All requests coordinated through Michael Moriarty at Pursuing X. Email [email protected] or call (623) 294-7520.