What happened
On 20 May 2005 the Brazilian Air Force did something unprecedented: it invited a committee of civilian UFO researchers into its air defence facilities in Brasília and showed them classified files. The visit followed a year-long campaign, 'UFOs: Freedom of Information Now', launched in April 2004 by the Brazilian Committee of Ufologists and Revista UFO editor Ademar José Gevaerd. After a briefing at the CINDACTA air traffic and air defence centre, the group went to the Brazilian Aerospace Defence Command (COMDABRA), whose commander, Brigadier Atheneu Azambuja, said the air force had systematically detected and recorded unidentified traffic since 1954. The researchers were allowed to examine three folders: a 1954 case involving a Varig airliner, the 1977 Operação Prato investigation in Pará, and the May 1986 'Official UFO Night' when jets were scrambled after 21 objects. The meeting opened a process that led to document releases from 2008 and a 2010 order sending all UFO records to the National Archive.
The official explanation
The air force has framed its role as administrative: logging reports from air traffic users and archiving them, not investigating. Under Portaria 551 of August 2010, COMDABRA catalogues sighting forms and the air force documentation centre sends originals to the National Archive. Officials have not endorsed any exotic explanation, and much of the released material consists of reports and correspondence rather than conclusions.
The anomalous case
The files opened from 2005 onward include military assessments that go well beyond logging. COMDABRA's commander told researchers the air force had been tracking unidentified traffic for half a century, and the folders shown included Operação Prato, a dedicated air force field investigation, and the 1986 night when fighters were scrambled against radar targets. The official 1986 report, later released, concluded the phenomena were solid and reflected a degree of intelligence, able to keep their distance from observers and fly in formation. Gevaerd said that by 2009 his group had received thousands of pages from armed forces investigations, and a later air force official was quoted saying an extraordinary event would obviously be kept secret. Brazil's UFO collection is now the most visited in its National Archive.
The strongest argument that this was something genuinely unknown or classified, with each claim attributed to the person who made it.
Documents
- Portaria nº 551/GC3, 9 August 2010 (Brazilian Air Force UFO records order) official, migalhas.com.br
Sources
- Officials and UFOs in Brazil: a new step, May 2005 (A. J. Gevaerd announcement) Patrick Gross, UFOs at close sight
- Ademar José Gevaerd Wikipedia
- Portaria dispõe sobre o registro e o trâmite de assuntos relacionados a objetos voadores não identificados Migalhas
- Official UFO Night in Brazil Government of Brazil (gov.br)
- Pará lidera relatos de aparição de óvnis à Aeronáutica (Folha de S.Paulo report) Diário do Pará
Witness reports elsewhere
These archives can't be republished here, so we link to them instead.