Official UFO Night in Brazil

The US Congress is holding a hearing on unidentified flying objects (UFOs) and its impacts on national security. Here, the hearing had a wide repercussion as it coincided with the anniversary of the so-called "Night of the UFOs in Brazil".

For some time, the UFOs collection is the most visited in the National Archive of Brazil and UFOs were also the most frequent subject on information requests made to the Brazilian Government after Law 12,527, Brazil's Freedom of Information Act (LAI), was enacted in May of 2012.

Immediately after the law went into effect, the public authorities faced a rush for information about UFOs, with 37 requests for access to information about the matter, leading the Brazilian Air Force to transfer most of its documents on UFOs to the National Archive.

The first request for access to information about UFOs was made the day after LAI came into effect, on 17/05/2012, ten years ago. It was a request asking for access to all documents on UFOs. The answer was that the documents were already being transferred to the National Archive.

The Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) collection remains the most visited in the National Archive of Brazil to this day. The collection present photos, videos, audios and documents ranging from reports of people who have allegedly sighted UFOs to reports of trips in spaceships.

With the transference of the documents to the National Archive, became known that Brazil had an Unidentified Aerial Object Investigation System - SIOANI, created in 1969 to scientifically investigate apparently supernatural UFO phenomena.

To celebrate the anniversaries of Brazil's Freedom of Information Act and the Night of the UFOs, which gave more transparency to our institutions, we will recover some of these unsual stories and tell you about Varginha's UFOs, the alleged abduction of an aircraft carrier and other curious findings you may encounter on the National Archive.

On May 19, 1986, 21 unidentified flying objects, some of them up to 100 meters in diameter, were sighted by multiple witnesses, both civilian and military, in four states: São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Goiás.

The UFOs were also detected by radars from the Brazilian Air Force's Integrated Center for Air Defense and Air Traffic Control. Five Brazilian Air Force fighter jets were activated by the Air Defense Operations Center to intercept the alleged invaders.

"Sometimes, the pilots had visual contact with the targets, but the radars did not register anything. Other times, the radars even picked up the presence of objects, but the pilots could not see them. The Air Force considered only the sightings that had simultaneous confirmation" , said Sérgio Mota, flight controller.

On May 23, 1986, at 4:30 pm, the then Minister of Aeronautics, Brigadier Octávio Júlio Moreira Lima, called a press conference to inform the press that five FAB fighter jets chased 21 UFOs.

"It's not about whether or not you believe [in extraterrestrial beings or flying saucers]. We can only give technical information. There are several assumptions. Technically, I would tell you that we have no explanation," he declared at the time.

At the end of the press conference, which was attended by the five FAB pilots and the flight controllers who were on duty that night, the Minister of Aeronautics declared that the episode would be investigated and that, within 30 days, he would publish a complete dossier.

Only 23 years later, on September 25, 2009, a report on the case, signed by the interim Air Force Command (COMDA) José Pessoa Cavalcanti de Albuquerque and dated June 2, 1986, was released.

"This Command is of the opinion that the phenomena are solid and reflect, in a certain way, intelligence, due to the ability to follow and maintain a distance from observers, as well as to fly in formation, not necessarily manned", said the dossier.