Pérez (20) boarded the plane on 21 June 1976. According to the story, the plane climbed strangely, he flew into a thick cloud and suddenly felt overwhelmingly sleepy. The next thing he remembered? Panic. 

He was reportedly awake again, high above the sea near Acapulco – hundreds of kilometres from where he was supposed to be. And that is where the story goes from “bad flying lesson” to “somebody call Mulder”.

Before Rafael came around, Acapulco control tower allegedly received a transmission from his aircraft. The voice claimed Rafael was in a hypnotic state and was being used as a “microphone” by beings from elsewhere in the universe. 

The reported message warned humanity that we were not alone and that we should perhaps stop behaving like the comment section of a Facebook post.

Rafael later insisted he could not remember the flight, the radio conversation, or how he reached Acapulco. Reports say medical checks found no alcohol or drugs, while the aircraft supposedly still had far more fuel than the journey should have allowed.

Now for the important boring-but-necessary bit: there is no verified proof that aliens possessed Pérez, bent time, or gave a Cessna a free fuel top-up. The extraordinary details rest on decades-old reports, later interviews and an alleged recording.

Still … next time you see a mysterious cloud, perhaps don’t fly directly into it. Or at least put your phone on airplane mode. Apparently, something else might already have done that for you.

Read more here.