THE NIGHT! May 19,1986 – UFOS in the Brazilian Skies
Clique aqui para ver a versão em Português
By Mariana Raad*
First published on Revista Força Aérea Magazine
Nb13 Year 11 Jun/jul/Ago 2006 Isaque
Translation: Alberto Francisco do Carmo
– As appeared on Force Area magazine(Brazil),Year 11,Nb 43-Jun/Jul/ Aug.2006-) a civil magazine dedicated to military aviation affairs. Brazilian Air force has a modest newsletter, ”Aerovisão”.
In the night of May 19, 1986, the radars that control the Brazilian skies over São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro and Anápolis, suddenly began to detect odd things. Even now the phenomena that took place during those few frenetic hours have not been explained. Besides, the radar operators of CINDACTA (namely Primeiro Centro Integrado de Defesa Aérea e Controle de Tráfego Aéreo– First Aerial Defense and Air Traffic Control Integrated Center), fighter pilots and also civilian pilots participated of attempts to identify those unexplained plots(1), and this included visual contacts, but up to now there are no concrete solutions in order to explain what happened.
The events started around 7:00PM when Aviation Colonel Ozires Silva(2) which was commanding what could be one of his last flights as an Embraer staff member, for he was just leaving the presidency of the main Brazilian aerospace group to take over the presidency of Petrobras, the state owned oil company of Brazil.
After almost two hours aboard an Embraer EMB-121 “Xingu” twin-turboprop plane(3) (pronounced “Sheen-goo”) near Poços de Caldas(4), and about 22,000 ft high, Cel. Ozires Silva and his co-pilot Alcir Pereira da Silva were surprised when questioned by CINDACTA operators. The traffic controller asked about a possible visual contact with three non identified targets that were appearing on their radar screens.
Ozires and his co-pilot didn’t see nothing, but decided to keep that direction, thus approaching São José dos Campos(5) following the indications of the traffic controller. In doing this, they sighted something looking like a celestial body, a very strong light and fixed in space. Its color was yellowish, tending to red.
It was 10:00 pm. The more they approached the object the more it seemed to vanish, till completely disappear. Then they decided to fly eastward, crossing the São José dos Campos Airport towards a second object, apparently spotted south of the town of Taubaté(6) pronounced Tow-bah-teh )
Below their flight level, about 600m high (1,968.5 ft) the Xingu crew came across a new light, now looking like a fluorescent light. It was difficult to believe the controller had this object on his screen, for they were flying low and 250km (155,3 miles) from the Sorocaba’s town radar antenna. (7)
This event was just the beginning of a night full of mysteries, in which five Brazilian Air Force fighters have been scrambled in attempting to identify such objects. This is not usual, yet the urgency in order to identify those radar plots was decisive to use jet fighters that night.
What the controllers were seeing on their screens in that moment was neither air traffic nor clouds. Those points didn’t match the usual configurations of the Aerial Traffic Control with a usual radar plot, and the situation was immediately reported to CINDACTA I, in Brasília, which, by its turn, re-passed the information to the Centro de Operators de Defesa Aerospatiale –CODA, The Aerospace Defense Operations Center)
The time was 10:20 PM when the then CODA’s Chief, Aviation Major Ney Antunes Cerqueira, already informed about the events, arrived at the Centro de Operators Militaries-Comp-Military Operations Center. His first preventive measure was to alert a plane at the Santa Cruz Air Base, in Rio de Janeiro, in order to precede an intercepting mission at once.
In Rio de Janeiro, the scheduled duty pilot for that night was Aviation Lt.Kleber Marinho, nowadays a retired 1st Lieutenant, whose experience was, by that time, 250 hours as a F-5 pilot and more than 900 hours in his Air Force career.
-“As the scheduled duty pilot, for that day, I was contacted by the permanence officer, at the Officers’ Villa, where I lived. The information I got was that the duty pilot had been called, and so by a matter of doctrine and training, I quickly made my way to the plane, and only after the take-off I got the specific instructions for my mission. A duty pilot doesn’t need to fulfill the usual bureaucracy steps for a usual flight”
With the engines roaring, the F-5 took off towards the night mantle. It was 10:20 PM.
At the same time, another target was detected, northwest of Anápolis, in the State of Goiás, some 805-806 km from Rio. Now the the Anápolis Air Force base duty pilots were called, this time using Mirages IIIE-BR (FAB Code F-103).The first to take off was piloted by the Aviation Capt. Rodolfo da Silva Souza.
(Translator Note: this base has the best jet fighters in Brazil, for their main mission is to defend the country’s capital)
It’s important to remark that radars, up to that time, were developed to detect targets about a minimum of two sq. meters wide, but were not able yet to determine the targets’ real dimensions.
At the Santa Cruz Base, Rio a second plane was scrambled.
-“It has been a tremendous coincidence”, says the then Aviation Capt.Márcio Brisola Jordão, the second F-5 pilot to take off in that night. “I was not scheduled as the duty pilot for that night. But I had to stay at the Santa Cruz base to study for a flight essay test. When the alert came, I thought it was just a training procedure, until a soldier came with the information that they needed an extra pilot to fly. He only said that some detection of unknown contacts was taking place and that even a tanker plane would be scrambled.”
“One has always an extra plane readied”, says Jordão, “but in that case the one who was not prepared was me, the pilot! But as I was there, at the Squadron facilities, there I went to. Kleber was the first one to take off. For people like us, it was just a normal training procedure, but as the situation evolved, another F-5 was scrambled”.
Before taking off, Capt. Jordão even called the Military Operations Center in Brasília to know what was going on. He was informed that radars were plotting several targets in different points of the Brazilian airspace. So, expecting to contact some of those targets, he took off around 11:15 PM.
The order given to the pilots was to intercept without no aggressive posture. In such cases as a standard norm, they took off with armed cannons, but with no intention to use them.
Other two planes (Translator note: also Mirages IIIE-BRs) piloted by Av. Capt. Armindo de Souza Viriato and Av. Capt. Júlio Cesar Rozenberg, would take off from Anápois, thus totalizing five different interception attempts.
-“The take-off has been normal, I stood around an altitude of 20,000 ft heading to São José dos Campos. According to the aerial defense orientations I turned off all equipments aboard: radar, navigation lights…Just a radio on, for communication,” tells Lt. Kleber. And follows: “as the targets didn’t have any equipment transmitting any kind of electromagnetic wave, it wasn’t possible to know which altitude they were at, while in flight. All orientation I had has been to look for visual contacts”.
“According to Brasília radars, I should look to my two hours and 11 hours, high and low. But I didn’t see anything.”
When nearer to São José dos Campos, the radar radio controller started to give a more incisive instruction that the pilot should look to his left.
-”I was right above the Embraer facilities and hadn’t seen nothing till then. Because of those clustered targets on my left side, the controller asked me to make a turn to the right and come back to Santa Cruz, let’s say 180° degrees, de-phased”.
As soon he started this turn, Lt.Kleber was instructed to look to his right, but nothing was seen again. As the controller had the targets on his radar screens, he ordered the pilot a turn to go towards them, heading the sea.
“-I made the turn, stabilized the aircraft, heading to the recommended direction and started a visual scanning. In that very moment I saw a very strong light enhancing itself as to the other lights along the littoral. It was a little lower than me. The clear impression I had, in that moment was that it was moving from right to left.”
As the nocturnal vision is very critical, for it makes the pilot very vulnerable to a series of evaluation errors, and besides the F-5 has no automatic pilot. Lt. Kleber was very careful to stabilize the fighter in that moment:
-“I looked to that light. Its movement was quite evident to me. I asked to the Aerial Defense people if there was any air traffic in that area in that moment, due to the proximity of the Rio de Janeiro/São Paulo “air bridge” airway. No, I was told. (Translator’s note: Ponte Aérea (Air Bridge) a pool service by several Brazilian airlines, offering a flight every hour between the two cities)
There was no aircraft in that place and time”.
-“Then I informed that I really was seeing the light shifting itself on my interception route, at the 2 hours position (to my right) a bit below my plane. And it was in that moment that I could figure out the altitude of the contact, something around 17,000 ft. Immediately, I received the instruction to head that target and continue the approach in order to identify it.”
Then Lt. Kleber lighted the F-5 post-combustion, thus breaking the sound barrier, zooming towards the light seen at the horizon.
-“There wasn’t neither a time to think about it, nor feeling afraid. It’s instant adrenaline (histamine as Americans would say). You have a plane to fly, you are on a nocturnal flight, supersonic, subjected to space disorientation….I confess that I have no precise memories on my feelings in that moment. The thing I knew is that I had to go after the target, and while things went on happening, and due to our training, our reactions tend to be a little automatic.
I started to descend, going straight to the target, but very carefully as to avoid a possible optical illusion due to the nocturnal vision. I could be seeing a light into the water, a big ship with a searchlight (spotlight). So I decided not to stay just with my visual orientation and I turned on my radar, even without any instruction to do it. And, really, a target appeared on the screen about 8 or 12 miles, thus confirming the presence of something solid ahead. That coincided with the direction of the light I had sighted. On the radar screens which equipped the fighters of that time, the plot size varies according the size of the contact. The radar displayed something 1 cm, wide, what meant something with a wingspan of a Jumbo (Boeing 747)
I came close to the target, staying some six miles away from it, which is still far for a precise checking, moreover by night. The target stopped to shift towards my direction and started to ascend. I didn’t lose my radar contact and I proceeded to ascend with it. I continued to follow the contact until about 30,000ft, when I lost the radar contact and kept only the visual contact. But at that moment that strong light was already mixing together with the star lights.
My navigation radios tuned in to Santa Cruz, were already out of range. In a determined moment, the needles of my ADF recovered and indicated to the prow. My DME window which was in the “flag” condition indicated (something) 30 fixed miles, without any reason for that. The fuel was reaching its limits, due to the great consumption at supersonic speeds and I had to go back. Less than a minute after I headed Santa Cruz, again my ADF shut (no information) and my DME closed again.”
However, at the Anápolis Air Base, in the State of Goiás (about 100 miles from Brasília) a similar situation was about to happen. The scheduled duty pilot for that night (May 19 1986) was the Av. Capt. Rodolfo da Silva e Souza, who had approximately 500 hours as a Mirage-IIIE (F-103 FAB code) pilot. He was home when he was called.
His beeper emitted a call signal and an alert message, around 11:00 PM. The pilot should drive at once to the Air Base and that’s what he did.
-“When I arrived, I went immediately to the hangars, with the other alert members’ team, where two Mirage IIIE (F-103) were readied. The overhauling team already finished their jobs and we waited, beside the planes’ stairs, both aircrafts armed and ready to take off.
I completed the usual checks before the departure and contacted the Operational Permanence Officer (OPO) to inform that I was ready. I was ordered to start the engine and then take off. My ala (Note: mission leader companion) stood on the soil.”
As soon the taxi maneuvers started. Capt. Rodolfo got in touch with the control tower. Got instructions to turn to the airfield’s northwest, soon after the take off and start a full-power ascent till the level 200 (20,000 ft).
-“After that, I got in touch with Anápolis, which quickly passed me to the CopM frequency that would control the interception mission”.
“The first information I got was that my target was 100 miles from the position I was. I could notice that the weather was fair, no clouds, no Moon. The sky was fully starry, making a beautiful counterpoint with the night darkness”.
When informed that the target was already within his onboard radar range, Capt. Rodolfo started to attentively observe the screen, in order to find the plot that would indicate the target’s presence. But nothing appeared on the screen.
-“As the distance decreased (translator’s note: reported by the ground radars) and I didn’t get to have a radar plot aboard, I simultaneously started to visually search the airspace around my position, as informed by the CopM. But again nothing appeared.”
Since the situation was so that both plots (interceptor and UFO) became merged, in short, pilot (plane) and target were less than a mile from each other, Capt. Rodolfo received instructions to orbit the point, and continue the search:
Capt. Rodolfo continues:
-I still was –unsuccessfully- in this procedure, when I was informed by the ground radar controller that my target had changed its position and was now at other point, some 50 miles away. I was then instructed to attempt a new interception”
-“Once again, there wasn’t any contact either visual or by onboard radar. I was oriented to descend the flight level even more, standing in orbit around the determined point, thus continuing the search. After some time in that search my flight autonomy had already reached the point where I just could return safely to the airbase, and I received instructions to come back.”
Around 11:45 PM, thus a little time after Capt. Rodolfo’s Mirage take-off, also another Mirage had took off from the Anápolis Airbase, whose pilot was the then Capt. Armindo de Souza Vibrato de Ferias. According to reports, his contact with the target was only gotten through the radar onboard, but no visual contact. What most surprised the pilot had been the target’s unbelievable speed, and its sudden disappearance.
So, without any visual sighting, in a few minutes, Capt. Rodolfo’s Mirage touched down the Anápolis airbase strip.
-“After the landing, I had a telephonic contact with my controller for the routine debriefing. Only like this it came to my ears that other F-103s (Mirage IIIEBr) had also been scrambled. They took off after me, in order to check several radar contacts seen on the CINDACTA screens, in different points of Center-West of Brazil”
“Once I finished the usual post-flight procedures, I was liberated e authorized to come back home, where I arrived around 1:30 AM. But one hour later, I was again awakened by a new beeper signal. It was another alert”
“When I arrived to the base and got in touch with the OPO, this time the orientation was that the alert should be maintained, and aircrafts readied for take-off. My ala and I we stood like this for about 45 minutes. At almost 4:00 AM we received the information that that the alert had been ceased, and we were liberated.
Meanwhile, the second pilot to take off from Santa Cruz Airbase in Rio, Capt. Márcio Brisola Jordão (in an F-5E), also tells his experience:
-“One thing directed my attention to, that night, how clear the sky was. I had never seen a so clear night before. You know that kind of night, when you drive a car, lights off and see everything? It was possible to see the whole Paraiba River Valley, until the city of São Paulo. No nebulosity at all. It was possible to see the mountains’ contours on the ground. A visibility I experienced very few times, in flight.”
“Going and heading the city of São José dos Campos, I was instructed to check the armament. It was then than I was informed that there were about five contacts ahead, about 15 miles of distance. I didn’t see anything, neither on the plane’s radar screen, nor (visually) around. But I was informed that they were coming closer, and closer. Ten miles, five miles, three miles and I thought it was not possible, in a night like that, being unable to see the quoted contact”.
The ground controller then informed the pilot:
-”Now they are behind you, following you like they were forming an array with you”, but he still didn’t see anything.
“Then I had the instruction to make a 180° turn, and I just didn’t see anything. I flew to São José dos Campos, flying about 15,000 ft high, and I started to orbit. I called Kleber on the tactical frequency to know that had he seen something. He said yes, but when he tried to pursuit it the contact just vanished”.
“When I was over São José dos Campos, I looked towards Ilha Bela ( Bela Island – São Paulo state coast) and for the first time I saw a red light stopped. To me it was at the horizon’s level, but I was looking to the ocean, which made me believe I was seeing a far away boat, or some kind of lighting. It stood still, didn’t change its position, didn’t blink, and didn’t move at all. I warned the ground control that I was seeing a light ahead 90° degrees in the ocean’s direction. As it was confirmed by the ground radar, I was instructed to go after it”.
“I started a supersonic acceleration, and the light didn’t move at all. I was informed that (however) it was moving at the same speed I was. I kept this navigation, until my minimum fuel level, and I had to go back. To me that had taken off with a given expectation from Brasília, it became my whole life’s major frustration. The light I saw could be a boat on the ocean or, who knows, it could be some other thing. But it would be thoughtless to reach to any conclusion”.
Yet, in Anápolis a fifth pilot was scrambled for an interception mission: the then Aviation Capt. Julio Cezar Rozenberg, at that time with 1.900 hours of experience as a fighter pilot, 550 in Mirages.
-“It was a usual day on the 1st Aerial Defense Group, until the time, that my beeper sounded in the small hours of the morning. An alert had been emitted. I was sleeping and got out of the bed, without even knowing what time it was. It’s part of the routine. I dressed up and on my way to the base I wondered if that was only a test”.
“I used to wait for that, but there’s nothing like a big bore, just going to the alert hangar, be fueled and then liberated. Every defense mission is real until being cancelled. So I wore my anti g-overall, my pilot’s jacket and the mechanic confirmed that the aircraft was ready. The armament and ammunition also were. All this about 22 minutes since the alert was started. I prepared myself to take off, just thinking what to hell was happening”.
“Due to Brasilia’s proximity, I imagined I would be going after some commercial flight, but if it was the case, I would had seen the anti collision lights. I went on following the land controller instructions. The night was beautiful, unlimited vision. It was possible to see everything below, from cities to car beams.
“I was instructed to go higher. I checked once more the onboard radar and I lowered a little the antenna’s scanning. I proceeded to both following the onboard radar e searching visually for something. Our distance, according to the land controller was just three miles and I still was not seeing anything. I imagined that it could be some F-5s simulating an attack to the base, in short, another training mission.”
“I asked the controller’s permission to get closer and closer, until our images merged themselves, with me coming from behind. I thought that the contact would finally lit its lights, after all, they could be listening the interception instructions, through the Aerial Defense radio frequencies. The controller warned that it was just one mile ahead, but I had nothing, neither on the radar screen, nor visually. My flight lasted for 30 minutes, and after the search attempts, I returned to the base, without any kind of contact”.
After it seemed that everything was more undisturbed in the country’s airbases, and the time was around 3:00 AM, when, apparently, Brazilian skies were not frequented by nothing odd anymore, a Varig Airlines cargo flight, that had taken off from the Guarulhos Airport (Note: São Paulo’s most important airport) heading to Galena Airport ( now Rio de Janeiro’s Tom Join International Airport) got itself involved in the above quoted events.
The Varo’s Boeing 707(Cargo) commander, Geraldo Souza Pinto, the co-pilot Nevada Barossa and the inboard engineer whose family name is Genteel, and the then Aviation Capt. Oscar Machado Jr.-at that time in a flight training mission (translator’s note: Varig was to sell some of his 707s to Brazilian Air Force for VIP transport or conversion into tankers) just had no idea about what just beginning to happen:
-“When crossing about 12,000 ft high, CINDACTA called us by the radio and asked us to confirm if we were seeing some traffic at the eleven hours position. Well, this is usual, but strangely, after we responded NO, the controller said :
-”For your information this concerns to a UFO (unidentified flying object)”, as reported by the former cargo commander.
-“We looked to each other, imagining that we hadn’t understood what just came in through the radio and asked to the controller to repeat that information. The controller confirmed the information, and even said that since the latter 10:00 PM of that night, UFOS were being spotted by their radars. It was then, that we knew that the Air Force had already been put into action. At this moment, I confess that I felt an unutterable emotion”.
“We asked them about they had the contact on their radar screens, and the answer was positive. The controller then said that its position in that very moment was on the 11 hours, as to our airplane’s position and asked us to try to sight it. And at this moment I saw it. A very strong light shined, like a white beam. The emotion I have up to nowadays melts itself with the certitude that “it” was listening to our radio talks. In the same moment that we were asked if we were seeing it, and I answered “no”, it blinked as wishing to say; ’I’m here!’”
We had any notion about the traffic’s altitude, because the commercial planes’ radars are just meteorological, and differently of fighters, they have many difficulties to spot another aircraft. They haven’t been made for such tasks. By his turn, the controller could not know the object’s altitude, due to, without transponder, everything he sees it’s the mere dimension on his radar, without a noticeable altitude.”
“The object was near Santa Cruz (Note: Brazilian Air Force airbase near Rio) and our distance was about 90 miles. What I can say is that visually it was, some 20° higher than we were. We attained our cruise altitude-23,000 ft- and the controller kept in touch, informing us about the object’s distance: 60 miles, then 50 miles, all the time ahead.
The Boeing crew dimmed the cockpit lights, lit the external beams looking for a visual contact:
-“There we were, three crew members, in a dark cockpit of a cargo plane, searching the skies, eager to find an explanation about that, getting closer and closer of our 707.Suddely I looked to Nevada and noticed his face’s expression, as wishing to show me something. He said that something had shifted, leaving a luminous path, but it could be a meteorite, what was very common”.
“Then the controller warned us that the target had shifted in a high speed to the our right, attaining in a fraction of seconds, an unbelievable speed of something above Mach 5.A human being could not bear such an acceleration. He would die during such a displacement”.
The object, at this moment, disappeared to the right but came back to the plane’s stem, but a minor distance.
-“Now, we were some 30 miles from it. We had the impression that he just continued to displace itself at a low speed, while we were approaching it”
“The approaching continued. The land radar controller kept on warning our distances to it.15 miles, ten, five…Seen from advantage, we would enter History!”, said the Capt. Souza Pinto, joking.
“-But I looked, and looked again for. And couldn’t see nothing. Then the controller said: ’three miles, two, and one. Varig, both images, traffic and yours are merging themselves’. We looked up and down and we didn’t see anything! Then the controller informed that the target was passing to our back, but an interference began at the soil and the radar lost sight of it”.
FINAL CONCLUSIONS
Two decades passed since the “UFOs Night” without being possible to come to any scientific conclusion about the event. However, the considerations of those who experienced it, at its best forms, to evaluate the facts and then come to one’s own conclusions. Whatever has flown over the Brazilian territory in that date, probably, will continue to be a mystery in the years of the future.
The Minister of Aeronautics at that time, Brigadier Octávio Júlio Moreira Lima, says that, up to now, there’s not a way to come to a definitive conclusion. But the situation remains undefined. I only think it’s important to remark that radars don’t detect optical illusions”, says the former minister.
“For the pilot, by his turn, the answer is yes, furthermore during a night flight, when he may have fantastic optical illusions. For instance, flying above the water, you see the sky under, so you have to fly by instruments. There are cases of people who saw odd things, but most of such stories are really fanciful. So an authority has to be very cautious for not making critic a situation that is already alarming”.
-“When one encounters such a thing, one informs the aerial traffic control, that (by its turn) reports it to the integrated centers of control, located in Curitiba (State of Paraná), Brasília (Federal District),Recife (State of Pernambuco) and in The Amazon region. Such centers are in permanent intercommunication, everything fully automatic. I was informed at once. When a situation like that occurs, the Air General Command, quickly warns the Minister. And from then on, the interception procedures are put into action”.
“And it has happened like that. The fighters took off with a simple checking mission. At any moment one has maintained an aggressive posture. How could we shoot something that we simply didn’t know what it was? The lights have been plotted by radars and we had to try to identify them. There’s not that worry about taking off with missiles, as one sees in the movies. They are kept ready every 24 hours, pilots at hand, ready to be put into action in minutes, but at first, with no shooting order”
Opinions about such facts vary from people to people. Even those who didn’t get to be in touch with, those UFOS, have their own ideas. It’s the case of Capt. Julio Cezar Rozenberg, now a retired Colonel that had to be contented with just listening to other people reports.
-“The day after, I saw the headlines on TVs and radios announcing the several UFO interceptions, the night before. And exactly me, a person so fond about this subject, I didn’t see nothing! But I came close to it. I think that in an infinite Universe, as ours, with several possibilities, there’s no reason to think we are alone.”
A similar reasoning has the Brigadier Moreira Lima:
-“Many times, people ask me if I believe or not in the presence of UFOS, that night,“ reveals the Brigadier.
-“I neither believe nor disbelieve it, because like the Universe, this is over our heads. One comes to a point in which some things do overcome our understanding and speculations star this way. I always say the following: we are products of the Universe. Chemical, physical, all sorts. Will this product only exists here on Earth? There are billions of stars and planets there-about.”
Lieutenant Kleber, now a retired officer and flying Varig as a commander (Note: 2006),even after having his reports made, confesses that comes to no conclusion at all:
-“I had both visual and electronic contact. It was something solid. People say that in that place there are plenty of magnetic anomalies, but I don’t believe that. Magnetic anomalies have random and irregular movements. On my report, I asked to check whether one had an airplane-carrier near the coast, or some aircrafts that could be over our airspace performing electronic counter measures, which could generate a plot on the radars”
Anything that I presumed was confirmed. From there to state that I believe in UFOS, this is another thing. Everyone will put his own opinion. I think that this Universe is too big so that we could be alone in it. I would be selfish for ourselves, to believe that. That was the position I had in that time, the plane I was flying, and all my beliefs. Then, I prefer just to refer myself to the technical part.”
For those who followed and participated “behind the scenes” of the story in front of radar screens, like Maj. Ney Antunes Cerqueira, now a retired Colonel, there was something (odd) over Brazil, that night:
-“We only can’t state what it was. But due to the coincidence o different radars, and, simultaneously the detection by plane’s radars (translator’s note: once,by Lt. Kleber and another by Capt.Armindo) we just can’t deny the existence of something. It happens that we had no technical means to verify visually how those targets were, in spite of the visual contacts, the pilots had.”
“How, to explain for instance, the F-5 instruments aboard, which have been annulled during the event? The radio, by its turn, was not shut; the communication could be kept all the time.”
“There were also, the tapes with the conversations between controllers and pilots. They have been exhaustively analyzed. A report has been done, in that time, but I can’t state where those tapes are now. Probably, they even don’t exist anymore. When I quitted the position of CDA’s head, the investigations had already been over”
“Analyzing as an Air Defense technician, because such was my position, I can say that we only deal with reality. Since all that happened, I always confirmed the present of the targets. If we take conclusions from the radar tapes from Brasilia, Santa Cruz and Couto’s peak, in Petrópolis (State of Rio de Janeiro) it’s possible to verify that something odd really happened”
“For some time, the object stood still in space, then had speeds beyond Mach 3.The variations were sometimes instantaneous, other times gradual. The targets would orbit the aircrafts and changed their positions about them. Such movements didn’t allow major approximations. Everything that was sighted were lights with intense variations”
“I could say that in some way, they wanted, yes, to be seen. So the incognito remains. That it happened, it did. What? I can’t say what it was. But there are events that mark the mind of people, for being very unusual. I surely will never forget that May, 19”.
The Varig Boeing 707 Cargo Commander, Geraldo Souza Pinto, after having his report done, was never called for further information.
-“The majority of people just don’t know that at 3:00 PM, one still had an object up there. As a matter of fact, many people even don’t like to talk about it, but it was a thing I saw. Sincerely, I think it’s a privilege!” he says.
He also confirms the fact that pilots may have many optical illusions:
-“I by myself, I am tired to see Venus appearing in an odd way, and many people think it’s an UFO. The plane crosses different density air layers, and that causes refraction effects, things seem to be moving or even changing of shape”
“However, that time it happened a confirmation by the radar system, which proves that it was no illusion. Could it be a plane? In the beginning I thought it was so. I could be a smuggler’s plane, a spy plane, I don’t know”
“In that time, many interviews have been done, with people from various segments, every one trying to explain it, according to their knowledge’s area. Even so, that doesn’t convince me. And that acceleration: The precise position as to the prow? The radar contact? The “coincidence” of making itself visible at the initial radio contact? It doesn’t match with anything. It was really something beyond our knowledge, It could be from another, plane, from the Earth itself, in short in only remains to me to conclude it was a UFO”, reports the commander.
For Brigadier Moreira Lima, his own clear way to speak about the subject, after all, he was one of the first authorities in the world to publicly assume the UFOs presence- has been of the main motivations for the appearing of so many speculations:
-“I said I would have a press conference and I did it. I reported what I had known, was the event in fact, and that we can’t explain up to now. Who knows, some day…”
“In the cannibals’ times, a lightning was information from the gods. I think there is an information for everything, But I must assume that the displacement of those lights were really absurd. I must confess it, that under this aspect, I am a little skeptical, I don’t impress myself easily. If Physics doesn’t explain it today, it surely will explain it tomorrow’.
And we, terrestrials keep on waiting…
Note: (*) Awarded by INCAER 2d place – History of Aviário item
Santos Dumont Award-2006
Complementary References
(1) – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plot_(radar)
(2) – Aviation Coronel Ozires Silva https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozires_Silva
(3) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embraer_EMB_121_Xingu
(4) – https://www.google.com.br/maps/place/Po%C3%A7os+de+Caldas+-+MG/@-21.8201396,-46.6846286,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x94c9c2c32e5a151b:0x90c78773874589fc!8m2!3d-21.7695566!4d-46.5547852?hl=pt-BR
(5) – https://www.google.com.br/maps/place/S%C3%A3o+Jos%C3%A9+dos+Campos,+SP/@-23.1894443,-46.0031023,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x94cc4bb3858cc2e7:0xba25a33168f8c1!8m2!3d-23.223701!4d-45.9009074?hl=pt-BR
(6) – https://www.google.com.br/maps/place/Taubat%C3%A9+-+SP/@-23.0862398,-45.6471413,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x94ccf85a19af0d3b:0x49ca42b1ddb2b41f!8m2!3d-23.0225753!4d-45.5486715?hl=pt-BR
(7) – https://www.google.com.br/maps/place/Sorocaba+-+SP/@-23.4698043,-47.57688,11z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x94c58abceb48f503:0x947f99ac59d0781b!8m2!3d-23.4557103!4d-47.4882762?hl=pt-BR