Brazil is known as a UFO hotspot, and has some of the most bizarre, terrifying, and
mystifying UFO encounters in the world.
Local folklore tells of blazing fireball in the sky, and even associates these fireballs
with the discovery of gold- if you dare to follow them through the treacherous jungles.
Brazil's UFO history is rich and goes back centuries, and some events continue to defy
explanation to this day.
Jose Higgins Incident
Many UFO reports are discredited because the witnesses are deemed to lack a formal education
or professional training.
Sometimes though the witnesses are much harder to simply handwave away, even if they're telling
a pretty extraordinary story.
Jose Higgins was a Brazilian topographer who on July 23rd, 1947, was carrying out some
survey work along with a few colleagues in a field in Colonia Goio-Bang.
Suddenly, the group heard a high pitch sound directly overhead, prompting them to look
up.
To their amazement, a large, disc-like object approximately 30 meters in diameter hovered
over their heads and landed near the stunned group of men.
The object was grayish white and landed on curved metal feet.
Higgins' colleagues fled the scene in terror, but a sense of curiosity overrode Higgins'
fear.
He held his ground and as the craft appeared to power down, he approached it.
As he came closer, he spotted what looked like a window, through which he could see
two humanoid figures.
A few moments later, a door opened on the craft and two figures approximately seven
feet tall exited.
The creatures were humanoid in shape with transparent overalls that covered their entire
bodies, including their heads.
The 'space suit' seemed to be inflated with air, and the aliens wore metal backpacks on
their backs.
Underneath the transparent suit, the aliens appeared to be wearing clothing of very intense
color, but not too dissimilar from human clothing.
Their bodies were extremely thin, and their legs very long compared to a human.
The beings had large heads with large eyes, but no visible hair of any kind.
The beings communicated in an unknown, sonorous language that reminded Higgins' of a song.
Despite their very tall size, the beings moved very quickly, with Higgins later remarking
to the grace and agility of the creatures.
They formed a triangle with him at the center and one of the creatures, now holding a metal
tube that it pointed at Higgins, gestured towards the inside of the UFO.
Higgins approached the door to the UFO and looked inside.
He seemed to be looking at what we might consider an airlock- a small cubicle with another interior
door.
Without entering, Higgins asked the creatures where they were taking him, trying to get
his point across with gestures.
The aliens seemed to understand what he was trying to say and the alien that Higgins assumed
to be in charge bent down into the dirt and drew a round point surrounded by seven circles.
The alien then pointed at the seventh circle and pointed at the UFO- the implication was
clear: the aliens were going to take Higgins with them to wherever they hailed from.
Higgins however was not keen on becoming humanity's ambassador to an unknown alien world, and
rather than running- believing the beings would overpower him- he tried to reason with
them.
He took out his wallet and showed them a picture of his wife, trying to indicate that he wanted
to look for her first.
The aliens appeared to relent, and changed their interest from Higgins to the surroundings,
with Higgins claiming that the aliens would pick and toss stones of huge size with ease.
To him they appeared to be playing much like children.
The entire encounter lasted a half hour, until finally the aliens got back on their ship
and took off, heading north and disappearing into the clouds.
Higgins' story is incredible, and difficult to authenticate given the only sources are
now 80 years old.
It's unknown who Higgins' colleagues were, or if they ever verified his story.
However, Higgins did take his story to national newspapers, begging the question of why he
would risk his professional reputation over a hoax.
On our official Infographics UFO Credibility Scale, we give this one 3 Roswells out of
10 given the lack of any supporting evidence.
Barra da Tijuca Photographs
Higgins may not have any proof of his encounter, but this following case would produce some
of the best photographic proof of the UFO phenomenon.
The incident would even spark the interest of the Central Intelligence Agency, which
would describe it in an internal memo.
On May 7th, 1952, reporter Joao Martins and photographer Ed Keffel were on a routine assignment
in Barra da Tijuca.
At about 4:30 pm, Martins spotted an object in the air approaching them at very high speed.
At first he believed it was an airplane, and from a head-on angle it did look like one.
But as it got closer, they realized it was flying 'sideways'.
Keffel managed to photograph the object multiple times before it faded from view.
The two turned in their photos to their publication, but received no bonus or financial compensation.
In fact, as their photographs became national, and then international news, they made it
a point to ensure they never received any compensation for the photos in order to avoid
suspicion of hoaxing.
The Brazilian Air Force took a keen interest in the photos, which some skeptics doubted
were authentic, claiming that the shadows in the foliage in one of the photos were irregular.
However, upon their team going to the exact place the encounter took place, and taking
their own photographs at the same time as the men did, they determined the photos were
genuine.
That hasn't stopped skeptics from pointing what they see as inconsistent shadows in photograph
number four, where it appears as if the object is being lit from the left while the foliage
is lit from the right.
It's possible however that local geography blocked light from the sun towards the left
of the frame, causing shadows to appear on the left of the vegetation while the sun was
shining from the same direction.
The one tree which stands tall and alone in the image seems to have the right shadows
which match those on the object.
It also seems like a significant- but not impossible- error for an experienced photographer
to make if creating a hoax.
The Brazilian Air Force however was convinced the photos were real when their team went
to the same location at the same time of day and took their own test photographs, so in
the end we have a choice between the word of an on-the-scene investigation by a government
team, and skeptics who drew their conclusions from a photograph without physically visiting
the site.
With the on-the-ground investigation authenticating the photographs, we're giving this case seven
Roswells out of 10 for authenticity.
Fort Itaipu UFO Attack
“Sufficient incidents/accidents have been accurately reported, and medical data acquired,
as to support a hypothesis that some advanced systems are already deployed, and opaque to
full US understanding.”
So reads a line from a declassified 2010 Defense Intelligence Reference Document detailing
an investigation into alleged attacks by UFOs on personnel.
The document in question investigated a claim that three men were exposed to an energy beam
from a UFO.
This is not the only time UFOs reportedly attacked people, with one of the first alleged
attacks on humans by a UFO occurring in 1957.
At the time, there was a wave of UFO sightings in the country, and disturbingly some witnesses
were coming forward with strange burns that they claimed they received from the UFOs in
question.
The incident that made the Brazilian government take the phenomenon seriously however ocurred
at 2 am in early November of that year.
At the time, two sentries on duty at Fort Itaipu witnessed a luminous orange disc coming
towards them from out at sea.
The object was moving alarmingly fast and very close to the waves, and quickly closed
the distance to the guards.
Suddenly, the disk suddenly stopped right over them.
The guards felt a wave of heat and their skin felt as if it had burst into flame.
The men began screaming and running away, prompting soldiers to come rushing out of
their barracks.
Many of the soldiers arrived just in time to spot the glowing UFO rapidly moving away.
The attack caused the fort's electrical system to fail, and left the soldiers with first
and second degree burns over ten percent of their bodies.
An investigation discovered that other similar incidents ocurred as far away as the United
States in the same time frame.
Earlier that day, several cars were stranded on a highway near Orogrande, New Mexico, when
an egg-shaped object flew by overhead.
A witness who had left their vehicle to take a closer look suffered a severe sunburn.
Two days later, another UFO in Merom, Indiana, bathed a farmer's land in light, causing serious
burns to Rene Gilham's face, leading to him having to spend two days in a hospital.
Then on November 10th, at 1:30 am in Madison, Ohio, a woman saw an acorn-shaped UFO hovering
just behind her garage.
She watched it floating noiselessly for a half an hour, and in the week to come developed
a body rash and vision problems which prompted her doctor to believe she'd suffered radiation
poisoning.
The Fort Itaipu attack would be investigated by the Brazilian military, which could not
explain the men's condition.
However, the results of the full investigation were never released to the public.
We have recently created weapons of our own which perfectly mirror the effects suffered
by the Brazilian sentries- microwave crowd dispersal weapons which can create a heating
effect on the skin so intense that it prompts anyone afflicted to flee the area.
However, these weapons have not been shown to cause the actual burning effects suffered,
though it may simply be a matter of wattage.
We may not know what truly happened that night, but before passing judgment we should consider
this line from the same Defense Intelligence Reference document investigating the effects
of EM attacks on humans by alleged anomalous aerospace phenomenon- “... the pattern and
circumstances of injury very often belie nay-sayer attempts to discredit the witnesses, analysts,
and those who suffer directly or indirectly from the systems.”
Without knowing the full results of the official investigation, we're giving this one 5 Roswells
out of 10 for credibility.
While UFOs causing burns to people is well documented in eyewitness testimony, and the
US government has expressed an interest in the phenomenon, this particular case remains
difficult to verify without actual witness testimony and hard data.
The Truckdriver Abduction
The Elias Seixas UFO incident would become one of Brazil's best known cases, and one
that left behind significant medical evidence of its own.
On September 21st, 1980, Elias Seixas, his cousin Alberto Seixas Vieira, and a friend,
Guaraci de Souza, were driving a truck back from a nearby town.
The truck began to experience strange electrical phenomenon, after which the men were hit by
a wave of drowsiness.
Suddenly, Elias felt a pressure on his neck and the lights on the truck began to turn
on and off.
He pulled over and got out of the truck, feeling as if a voice was speaking to him inside his
head.
Elias didn’t remember what happened next, but his cousin and friend both claim that
Elias was suddenly hit by a beam of blue light.
Once they were all out of the truck though there was no sign of the beam of light, except
for what they thought was a forest fire about a mile away.
The men decided to investigate, but when it was clear that it wasn't a fire, but rather
an object of some kind, the men turned back and headed for the truck.
Climbing back in, they started the truck up and took off.
At some point though, Guaraci's hat was blown off his head and went out the window.
They stopped the truck to retrieve the hat- and then the men were hit with a severe bout
of sleepiness once again.
The next thing they remembered was being on the road to a nearby town- but something more
had happened before they found themselves back inside the truck, driving down the highway.
Elias would seek out regressive hypnosis to help him put the pieces of that evening back
together.
That's when he would break through the mental fog and remember being hit by a very strong
light which took him inside a ship of some kind.
Once inside, Elias saw an alien being sitting on a seat watching him.
His memory remained broken, but he remembered being laid on a kind of bed while one of his
friends struggled with one of the aliens, even punching him.
The beings then placed some kind of device in his skull and chest, collecting blood and
sperm and making small punctures on his fingers.
Elias then says he was taken to view what his alien captors explained was one of their
bases on Mars.
There Elias saw several beings with large heads, much bigger than their tiny bodies.
Taken through this facility, Elias also saw two men- one black and one white- who were
joined at the arm like siamese twins.
Elias attempted to touch the men but he wasn't allowed to, instead being moved along.
He was shown another alien species which to him seemed like grey plastic dolls, before
being returned to earth.
Elias' story is 9.5 Gary Buseys on the Gary Busey crazy index, which is why it's good
for him that he's got some compelling medical evidence.
Upon returning home, he apparently was unable to recognize his own daughter, and suffered
impotence for four months.
Doctors were unable to explain his sudden sexual dysfunction, but what was truly anomalous
was the mark left on his chest and calcification discovered on his skull, which experts stated
could only happen if he'd undergone surgery of some sort.
His wife would also attest to the disappearance of a cyst on his hand that had been there
for years.
If Elias was hoaxing, he stuck to his story his entire life and so did his cousin and
their friend.
We're giving this one five Roswells of credibility out of ten- if only because we failed to find
any other supporting information gathered by a Brazilian UFO investigation group.
Without access to doctor's statements and other evidence, this remains an interesting
story and nothing more.
The Night of the UFOs
May 19th, 1986 would be the day Brazil was invaded by UFOs, prompting national media
to dub it the “night of the UFOs.”
This event though would be verified by multiple radar contacts and thousands of witnesses
across four Brazilian states- including military pilots sent to intercept the unknown craft.
The invasion of Brazil began at 8:15 pm, when an air traffic controller at Sao Jose dos
Campos Airport spotted three bright lights hovering over the airport.
Too close for their own radar, ATC contacted Guarulhos International Airport, which confirmed
radar contacts on three objects near the Sao Jose dos Campos airport.
The air traffic controllers at Sao Joses dos Campos observed the objects through binoculars,
noticing that they emitted a bright red light but rapidly changed colors to yellow, green,
and orange-ish.
They dimmed the runway lights and noticed the objects drew closer.
When they increased the lights again though the UFOs backed off.
An hour later, an incoming plane reported three bright red lights near the airport which
were now moving from east to west.
The aircraft was being flown by Colonel Ozires Silva, founder of Brazilian international
aerospace consortium, Embraer.
Silva noted that the objects appeared like big red stars, and he turned his aircraft
to draw nearer but they kept their distance.
At 9:39 PM, Santa Cruz Air Force Base was put on high alert due to several unidentified
radar plots around the nearby airport.
A half hour later, another nearby air force base went on alert after picking up more unidentified
radar contacts.
At 10:27 PM, an F-5E fighter was scrambled from Santa Cruz Air Force Base and put on
course to intercept the lights.
The pilot reported detecting one object on radar and approaching, until he made visual
contact with a white light flying below him.
The light then began to climb, maintaining a steady distance of around ten to twelve
miles between itself and the F-5.
Despite the pilot's best attempts, he could never close the distance between himself and
the object, almost as if it was taunting him.
He followed the light, which alternated from white to red, green, and then white again,
out to sea until he was forced to turn back due to low fuel.
At 10:48 a Mirage 2000 interceptor detected five UFOs over radar but never made visual
contact.
It did track one of these contacts, getting to within two miles, but was unable to get
a visual.
Watching it on his radar, the pilot observed the craft make several zigzagging turns and
even 90 degree banks, before finally speeding away at an estimated Mach 15.
At 10:50, a second F5 took off and reported visual and radar contact with an object emitting
a bright red light.
The pilot put the pedal to the metal in an attempt to catch up with the object, when
it suddenly dimmed and its radar plot disappeared- as if it had simply ceased to exist.
As the pilot turned around to return to base, ground-based radar detected 13 individual
radar plots directly behind the F5.
The pilot made a sudden turn but was unable to make either a visual or radar contact of
his own.
Four days after 21 total radar plots were detected above the Brazilian skies, the Minister
of the Air Force made a public statement on the incident.
He confirmed everything that had happened, and stated, “It's not about believing or
not (in aliens).
We can only give out technical information.
There are several hypotheses.
Technically, I'd tell you gentlemen that we have no explanation.”
The official Brazilian military investigation would remain classified until 2009.
The declassified document verified the events of that infamous evening, and made the following
notes on the behavior of the objects:
The objects could vary their velocities from subsonic to supersonic, as well as hover.
They could vary their altitudes from below 5,000 to above 40,000 feet.
Emitted white, green, and red light; or emitted no light at all.
Objects were capable of sudden acceleration or deacceleration.
Were capable of turning with constant radiuses or conduct sharp, 90 degree turns.
Showed intelligence in their capability to maintain distance from observers as well as
flying in formation, though not necessarily crewed.
Given the plethora of hard evidence in the form of radar tracks, from multiple different
radars, and testimony from both on the ground witnesses and fighter pilots, the Night of
the UFOs remains one of the most credible UFO events in Brazilian history- if not the
entire world.
We're giving this one a solid 10 out of 10 Roswells of credibility- something which defies
human understanding happened that infamous night in the skies over Brazil.
And given recent revelations and an official Pentagon investigation into the phenomenon,
it might seem were not alone in this universe.
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