Around the world
Brazilian cases, Air Force files and the Varginha incident. 10 events, newest first.
Select any year above to see what happened that year.
Government9 Aug 2010
Brazil's Air Force commander signed Portaria 551/GC3, limiting the Air Command's UFO role to registering reports and forwarding them to the National Archives. Air defense command catalogs reports and the Air Force documentation center sends originals to the archive.
Government4 Jul 1997
A 1997 Army inquiry (IPM) found no sign that soldiers or vehicles captured a creature in Varginha and concluded the witnesses most likely saw a local man crouching in the rain. A military judge ordered it archived; the records were made public in 2026.
Photo: Olimor, Public domain
Sightings20 Jan 1996
Three young women in Varginha, Minas Gerais, said they saw a strange crouching creature, and rumors of an army capture followed. A 1997 Brazilian Army military police inquiry found no military operation and concluded they had likely seen a local man; the files were made public in 2026.
Photo: Felipe Trombini, CC BY 3.0
Military19 May 1986
Air Force radar and civilian and military witnesses reported about 21 unidentified objects over four Brazilian states, and five fighter jets were sent to intercept them. The air minister said days later there was no technical explanation; an Air Force report on the night was released in 2009.
MilitaryOct 1977
After residents of Colares and nearby Para coastal towns reported lights in the sky, a Brazilian Air Force team from Belem logged sightings and took photographs into 1978. The Air Force says the files went to the National Archives; no explanation covers every report.
Military1969
The Brazilian Air Force's IV Air Zone in Sao Paulo set up SIOANI, a system to collect and study reports of unidentified aerial objects, issuing bulletins from March 1969. It wound down by 1972; its records are now in Brazil's National Archive.
Photo: Tonyjeff, based on militar symbol., Public domain
Military16 Jan 1958
Civilian photographer Almiro Barauna photographed an object over Trindade Island from the Brazilian Navy ship Almirante Saldanha, and Rio papers ran the photos in February 1958. A U.S. Naval Attache report and later Air Force correspondence judged the photos a hoax.
Photo: Project Blue Book, Public domain
Close encounters1957
Brazilian farmer Antonio Villas Boas said small beings took him aboard a landed craft in 1957, examined him and coerced him into sex. Physician Olavo Fontes examined him in Rio; Flying Saucer Review spread the story worldwide in 1965. Skeptics note it followed magazine stories of alien attacks.
Sightings1957
A Rio de Janeiro society columnist printed a letter with an illegible signature claiming a disc exploded over the sea near Ubatuba, with fragments said to be ultra-pure magnesium. Tested for the Condon Report, a sample was less pure than commercial magnesium and matched a 1940 Dow strontium batch.
Photo: Carla404, CC BY-SA 3.0
Military1954
Col. Joao Adil de Oliveira, described as head of Brazilian Air Force intelligence, gave a lecture on flying saucers to military officers and officials. Brazilian researcher Olavo Fontes reported that he called the objects real, worth military study, and of unknown origin.
