Rumors are circulating online of a UFO crash
near Magė, Brazil — 20 miles north
of Rio de Janeiro.
Local press picked up the story, but so far,
we have no concrete evidence of anything.
...That doesn’t mean Brazil is lacking in
detailed, documented UFO cases though.
In fact, rarely-seen declassified documents
disclose significant encounters in the country…
Including some that corroborate sightings
seen throughout the world...
Join us today as we dive into this rich history.
We cover forgotten declassified files. Subscribe
to join us.
Thanks to the efforts of A.J. Gevaerd
and archivist John Greenwald at the Black
Vault, twenty envelopes of once classified
material from the Brazilian Government are
online…
One of the earliest cases came on June 16, 1956.
That night, a law professor from Santos, a
coastal seaport, was in the nearby tourist
city of São Sebastião.
According to the file, after dinner, he decided
to go for a walk on the beach.
Between 19:10 and 19:15, as the professor
was looking out at the nearby island of Ilha
Bela, he noticed something…
“Um jato d’agua,” translates to “a jet of water” — he
saw “rise” from the ocean surface.
“I immediately thought of a whale,” he
said, “but a buoyant device emerged from
the water.”
Disc-shaped, it flew toward him, and touched
down on the beach with landing gear. Through
an “opening,” two men emerged…
“They were tall, pale, had blond hair with
clear, serene eyes,” his account states...wearing
a kind of green jumpsuit.
At least in what’s public, nothing in the
archives suggests the government tried to
corroborate this with anyone else at the beach.
The file does indicate, however, that his
story was consistent when he told it to journalists
and later, ufologists.
His claims of what happened next...are spectacular…
He asked the beings if they had an accident
or were looking for something — he repeated
it in French, English and Italian... to no
answer.
Somehow, though, he felt an “irresistible
urge” to enter the craft.
He went in, and the two men followed.
Once inside, he noticed water visible from
portholes.
“It’s raining?” he asked. Their reply
came to his surprise with no speech, but...appeared
in his mind. He believed it was some form
of telepathy...
The professor was told it was not rain, but
rather the water came from “rotation in
the parts that made up the ship.”
Though he didn’t have the necessary background
in physics to comprehend, he claims he was
told it worked by generating some kind of
“vacuum”...
For what felt like 40 minutes — his watch
stopped — the professor claims he was inside...
During the trip, he asked several times where
they came from, but he did not get an answer.
The professor claims he agreed to meet the
strange beings again, the following year on
August 12, 1957. Unfortunately, word got out
of his encounter before this.
According to the file, someone known only
as “Aviator Colonel Coqueiro” warned him
“if I were you, I would not go to that meeting.
I will have two squadrons of jet fighters
there to receive the flying saucer.”
Unfortunately, nothing in the archive confirms
air activity above the beach that night.
But the professor did later state, publicly
on television, that he watched the area from
afar on August 12th and did see something
in the general form of a disc above Ilha Bela.
It is unknown if it was intercepted.
And, like many of these files, the military
did not take additional attempts to verify
these stories...they simply looked to collect
them.
Anytime we review large collections like this,
we attempt to determine whether any correlations
exist within the dataset….
Another file discloses photographs — and
analysis — of a flying saucer seen above
a community south of Rio de Janeiro.
A press photographer and reporter for a local
lifestyle magazine were on a “routine job”
when they suddenly spotted a “plane” flying
“sideways.”
They realized it wasn’t a plane...but a
disc with a raised center.
The photos were published in their magazine,
but the photographer claims neither he nor
the reporter were paid extra...
The Brazilian Air Force also got involved.
In 1959, they reported on TV that they believed
the photos were legitimate…
Their American counterparts...didn’t think
so though.
Analysis by the USAF-funded Condon 
Committee in 1968 attempted to debunk them.
“This case has been presented as one of
the strongest genuine flying saucer sightings,”
an investigator writes.
Except for one thing — an inconsistency,
they say, is on photo number 4.
Here, the disc appears illuminated from the
left but the ground is lighter on the right…
Condon suggests this inconsistency may mean
the photo is a fake…but they miss something.
As the Brazilian analysis suggests, a shining
sun from the right means the Sun would have
to be in the southwest part of the sky — something
that never happens in that region.
The texture of the foliage is also varied
to the degree that no clear shadowing can
be discerned, despite Condon’s claims…
Brazil AF doesn’t determine what the object
is, but they do provide some illustrations.
And, interestingly, other files provide sketches
too.
Like here, when an industrial worker tells
officials he saw a sphere above a football
field in ‘69. It had a disc around it, and
two illuminated antennas.
Brazil’s SIOANI division, under
jurisdiction of its Air Force to study UFOs,
catalogued several similar encounters. Most
spheres, they wrote, moved in straight paths
and were sometimes stationary.
If you recall our episode on the US Navy’s
1973 sighting in northwest Australia, that
object had similar features, minus the antennae...
And both UFOs bear a resemblance to this 2014
sighting in San Diego, California.
The footage has been enhanced by an AI program
for clarity — here’s the original.
The more we review these files, the more it
becomes clear: Brazil’s military takes them
seriously.
Though we wonder if we have the full story.
The envelopes are full of cases, but some
have no details beyond the summaries.
Like here, when multiple Army personnel report
seeing an oval-shaped object above a city
in ‘71.
Or here, when a Ministry of Aeronautics file
discusses a ‘67 encounter with “2-meter
tall beings” wearing clothes similar to
“that of divers” near the inland city
of Belo Horizonte.
They were seen near a football field around
an object the witnesses said only looked like
a “mushroom.”
The file claims they had “wide eyes,”
and their nostrils were “protected” by
a dark cloth. A “tube” came out of the
suit’s chest and went into the back of the
neck, with an antenna on the head or helmet...
The document refers to film and photos, but
doesn’t provide them.
Another account, this one in an Air Force
file, describes a craft that looked like a
“carousel” near a cattle pasture in Pirassununga.
A witness saw three crew that looked “human”
wearing helmets. One carried something like
binoculars, the second a lantern and the third
a cartridge.
After a few minutes, the object “flew away
with great speed.”
Most famously, the Air Force categorized dozens
of sightings in the northeast Amazon, in the
state of Colares in ‘77.
Residents claimed they sustained injuries
caused by lights in the sky, and were terrified
so much that they began setting off fireworks...
Finally, they requested the military’s assistance,
who launched Operation Prato (prah-tow), or
Plate, that year.
The investigation was closed after finding
no unusual phenomena, but photo evidence of
lights and even imprints left behind by craft
are in the files...
We’re going to do a deep dive on Operation
Plate soon, so stay tuned. It will take us
more time to translate, but we’ll do our
best to resurface more Brazilian cases.
Special thank you to our Patreon supporters,
including JMDFM — without you, this wouldn’t
be possible.
If you like what we do, consider joining them
on Patreon and help us produce one new episode
every week.
And let us know in the comments: do you know
anyone who has seen anything in Brazil?
Thanks again, and see you next time.
