Commercial Airline Pilot Films "UFO" over Medellín, Colombia

A still image from the video shared to TikTok by pilot César Murillo Pérez. (César Murillo Pérez / TikTok) — A still image from the video shared to TikTok by pilot César Murillo Pérez. *(César Murillo Pérez / TikTok)*

Commercial pilot César Murillo Pérez, who flies for Colombian airline company Viva Air, recorded a video of what appears to be a metallic, roughly spherical object while in the air over Medellín, the capital of Colombia’s Antioquia province, on January 1st, according to El Tiempo.

The video shows the UFO careen past Pérez’s aircraft as he records it on his cell phone.

While the encounter reportedly took place on January 1st, Pérez waited several weeks to upload it to video-sharing site TikTok.

@cesarinmp
MEDELLÍN control UFO inside
♬ sonido original - cesarmurilloperez

Pérez was flying at an altitude of 30,000 feet at the time of his sighting.

Temperatures can reach close to -76 degrees Fahrenheit at that altitude, which would rule out most balloons.

“I would think it was a balloon, but the conditions do not lend itself to it. I doubt it, above all, because of the altitude and the physical characteristics," said Pérez.

The pilot said that there are weather balloons capable of achieving this altitude, but they are equipped with detection and monitoring systems that allow them to be identified by nearby aircraft. However, as noted at the beginning of the video, the UFO was not detected by the Airbus A320.

It is unclear in the video how fast the object was really going, or if its relative speed is due to the velocity of the aircraft.

According to Colombia's Special Administrative Unit of Civil Aeronautics, pilots are required to report these events, since the agency must have full knowledge of the possible dangers on all air routes.

It's not uncommon for pilots to report drones flying at heights that aren't allowed, or aircraft outside of their allowed range.

No report has yet been submitted on this specific case, said the agency.

Some have compared the object to the "sphere encasing a cube" a United States Navy pilot said he "almost hit" over the Atlantic Ocean off of Virginia Beach sometime between the summer of 2014 and March 2015.

While others have accused Pérez of hoaxing the video.

The pilot maintains that he still has the original, unmodified video on his phone, and that it is the same video as that which he shared online.

"I have seen that they have said that it is a very well done [fabrication], but I am a pilot, I do not know about [fabrications] or anything like that,” he said.

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