Brazil - 18 de maio de 1986
In a single night, more than 21 unidentified flying objects were detected by civilian and military radars, pursued by Brazilian Air Force fighter jets, and witnessed by pilots, controllers, and authorities. The episode, known as the Official UFO Night, remains one of the most documented—and unexplained—cases in World ufology.
The Beginning of the Night: Mysterious Lights in the Sky
The clock showed approximately 8 PM when the first reports began arriving at air traffic control centers in southeastern Brazil. Unidentified luminous objects were sighted in the skies of São José dos Campos (SP), Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, and Goiás. These objects were described as intense lights that changed color—from red to white, passing through yellow and green—and performed maneuvers impossible for any known aircraft of the time.
On the radars of the Integrated Air Defense and Air Traffic Control Center (CINDACTA), anomalous signals began to appear. The readings confirmed the presence of objects flying at speeds exceeding 1,000 km/h, stopping suddenly in mid-air and then speeding off at very high speed or changing direction at right angles—something impossible for conventional aviation.
The Military Response: Fighter Jets Take Off for Interception
Faced with increasing unidentified aerial activity, the Brazilian Air Force decided to act. Between 9 PM and 11 PM, the Brazilian Aerospace Defense Command (COMDABRA) ordered the takeoff of five F-5E and Mirage fighter jets from the air bases of Santa Cruz (RJ), Anápolis (GO), and São Paulo. The mission was clear: to identify, intercept, and, if possible, obtain visual evidence of the objects.
The pilots reported unusual experiences. Some even engaged in pursuits lasting more than 30 minutes, but were unable to get close to their targets. The objects simply disappeared or accelerated abruptly. One of the pilots, then Lieutenant-Aviator Armindo Sousa Viriato, reported that the object he was pursuing simply “vanished” from radar and visual field, after a maneuver that defies the limits of known physics.
Interception Attempts
Kleber Caldas Marinho’s Flight Over the Sea
The first fighter jet, an F5-E, registration FAB 4848, took off from BASC at 10:34 PM, piloted by 1st Lt. Aviator Kleber Caldas Marinho (1960). In radio communications, the aircraft was referred to by the codename Jambock 17 (JB17). The pilot took off with the radar off and the navigation lights off, being instructed to keep it that way. At a constant speed of Mach 0.7 (864.36 km/h), he was guided by a flight controller from COpM 1 to São José dos Campos, where there were radar anchors. In less than ten minutes, Marinho made visual contact with a shimmering UFO, mostly white, but which sometimes changed color to red and green. The pilot turned on the aircraft’s navigation lights and increased the speed to Mach 0.95 (1,173.06 km/h). However, the closest he managed to get to the object was 10 nautical miles (18.52 km), and only for brief moments. After thirty minutes of pursuit, advancing further and further over the Atlantic Ocean, Marinho communicated his perceptions of the target to Air Defense: “I am informing you that, apparently, it shouldn’t be an aircraft, okay? Or a plane, due to its performance in terms of speed, okay, and also the location where it is flying, okay?” Soon after, the target quickly moved away, went out of range of the F-5’s onboard radar, limited to 20 miles (37.04 km), and escaped towards Africa.
Armindo Sousa Viriato de Freitas and the Hypersonic UFOs
The second fighter jet, a Mirage F-103 with the registration FAB 4913 and codename Jaguar 116 (JG 116), took off from BAAN at 10:48 PM, piloted by Captain-Aviator Armindo Sousa Viriato de Freitas (1956). After the necessary control transfers, the aircraft was vectored to a point detected by the APP-AN radar, which transmitted the information to COpM 1, and COpM 1 retransmitted it to the pilot. This procedure was adopted because no radar was being detected on the COpM 1 equipment. The pilot, after flying for seven minutes at subsonic speed, was informed of the detection of a plot 13 nautical miles (24.07 km) ahead. The aircraft’s radar also indicated the target. Viriato de Freitas turned off the navigation lights and attempted an approach, managing to get within eighteen minutes of the flight, just 1 nautical mile (1.85 km) of the target, when the point inexplicably disappeared from the onboard radar screen. Guided, Freitas performed a 360° scan of the region, and a new plot appeared on the radar 12.5 miles (23.15 km) away. Accelerating to Mach 0.9 (1,111.32 km/h), the aviator managed to reduce the distance to 10 miles (18.52 km); for a moment, the separation between the fighter and the UFO increased again, but soon decreased to 5 nautical miles (9.26 km), when the object accelerated sharply and increased the distance to 21 nautical miles (38.89 km) in seconds, thus becoming out of range of the interceptor’s radar. The captain repeated the feat of getting within just 1 nautical mile (1.85 km) of another UFO, after accelerating and reaching a supersonic speed of Mach 1.05 (1,296.54 km/h), but the object also accelerated and quickly disappeared. Despite the proximity achieved, the hunter saw nothing with the naked eye. Near the end of the flight, frustrated, Freitas asked the controller if the other hunters were having the same encounters, under the same circumstances, which was confirmed by the interlocutor: “Affirmative. The same conditions: there is contact, you get close to the contact and it increases the distance.”
Márcio Brisolla Jordão and the Radar Interference
The third fighter jet, an F5-E with the registration FAB 4849 and codename Jambock 07 (JB 07), took off from BASC at 10:50 PM, piloted by Captain-Aviator Márcio Brisolla Jordão (1957). In radio communications, the air traffic controller identified himself as Lince 45 and sent Brisolla Jordão to investigate a series of plots registered on the radar. Within less than ten minutes of vectoring, numerous stationary traffics appeared behind the aircraft, which was commanded to make a 180º right turn, but no visual or onboard radar contact was obtained.
The searches were initially conducted in Santa Cruz and then in São José dos Campos, without anything abnormal being observed by the pilot, despite the clear, cloudless night with a full moon. The detections were intermittent and simply disappeared as the fighter jet approached the indicated location. After half an hour of flight, the captain noticed a red light in the distance, at a lower altitude and near São José dos Campos. The controller confirmed detection. Jordão tried to get closer, but the plot disappeared from the ground radar and the light went out moments later. Almost immediately, he saw two other lights, one fixed and the other flashing, white in color, but concluded that the lights were coming from a ground station equipped with a high antenna with two anti-collision lamps.
South of São José dos Campos, the aviator entered an area more prone to plot detections, and the onboard radar began to show a series of streaks on the scope, as he informed the controller: “On the radar screen, some streaks appear, kind of diagonally. It’s not normal.” The problem persisted until the plane left the mentioned area.
Shortly after, as recorded in a report filed in Santa Cruz on May 28, 1986, Jordão sighted a red light on the horizon, in the direction of the sea. He contacted Air Defense and the controller confirmed the contact, instructing him to attempt an interception, which was done unsuccessfully. Because his fuel was running low, Jordão returned to Santa Cruz, landing at 00:05 on May 20th. In total, the adventure lasted 75 minutes, from 22:50 to 00:05.
Rodolfo da Silva Souza and the Intelligent UFO
The fourth fighter jet, a Mirage F-103 codenamed Jaguar 98, took off from BAAN at 11:17 PM, piloted by Captain Rodolfo da Silva Souza (1954). Souza was guided by a controller from COpM 1 to the estimated positions of the target and on several occasions came close to or even passed the plot indicated by the APP-AN radar. Curiously, the double contact, between the fighter jet and the UFO, was observed only by APP-AN, never by COpM 1. After several failed interception attempts, without ever obtaining visual contact or contact via the onboard radar, the aviator commented to the controller: “Eh… for sure, if it’s a real target, it’s not illuminated, okay? It’s… it’s dark, because… I’m practically visual with the ground.” The UFO demonstrated intelligent maneuvering, avoiding the fighter jet. At one point, the controller noticed the flight pattern and informed the fighter pilot: “Okay, kid, the plot is always at your 6 o’clock position, okay? When you turn, it’s always turning in front of you, it comes up above you, passes vertically above or below you – we can’t detect the altitude – and stays on your tail the whole time. When you turn, it disappears from its position and always reappears in front of you.” Aware of this, Souza turned off the aircraft’s navigation lights; even so, a new interception attempt was unsuccessful. The fighter pilot received instructions to return. After landing, which occurred at 00:07, Rodolfo da Silva Souza asked the runway mechanics if they had seen or heard anything different from an F-103 flying over the Anápolis base or the surrounding area. The answer was negative. From takeoff to landing, the flight lasted 50 minutes, from 11:17 PM on May 19th to 12:07 AM on May 20th.
The attempts of Júlio Cézar Rozenberg
The fifth and final fighter jet, a Mirage F-103, took off from BAAN at 11:36 PM, piloted by Captain-Aviator Júlio Cézar Rozenberg (1954). On three occasions, Rozenberg was deployed to intercept a target that was moving near BAAN. He came within 1 nautical mile (1.85 km) of the UFO, without ever making radar or visual contact. The flight lasted a total of 54 minutes, from 11:36 PM on May 19, 1986, to 12:30 AM the following day.
The then Minister of Aeronautics, Brigadier Octávio Júlio Moreira Lima, was monitoring the events in real time and was informed that, at one point, 21 objects were being monitored simultaneously. At the end of the night, the fighter jets returned to their bases without making any physical contact with the targets.
The Press and Immediate Repercussions
The case took on national proportions the very next morning. Newspapers such as O Globo, Folha de S. Paulo, and Jornal do Brasil published headlines about the phenomenon, based on interviews with the pilots and official statements from the Air Force. The press dubbed the case “The Flying Saucer Invasion,” and the coverage had international repercussions, with prominent coverage in European and North American media outlets.
On May 23, 1986, just four days after the incident, Brigadier Moreira Lima convened an unprecedented press conference where he officially confirmed the presence of unidentified flying objects over Brazilian territory. He stated: “It is clear that, since it was not a common aircraft, any type of known aircraft, logically, it is an unidentified flying object.”
This statement was historic: it was the first time the Brazilian government publicly acknowledged the presence of UFOs in national airspace, without any attempt at cover-up or mockery.
The Official Report and Recognition in 2009
Despite initial transparency, the Air Force took years to release official documents about the case. Only in 2009, thanks to the campaign “UFOs: Freedom of Information Now,” by the Brazilian Commission of Ufologists (CBU) and with the support of UFO Magazine, as well as journalists, was the report finally declassified and made public through the National Archives.
The Air Force Report on UFOs of May 19, 1986, signed by Brigadier José Pessoa Cavalcanti de Albuquerque, commander of the IV Regional Air Command, concludes that:
“The observed phenomena are solid and reflect, in a certain way, intelligence, due to their ability to follow and maintain distance from observers, as well as fly in formation.”
Press Conference
On May 23, 1986, the then Minister of Aeronautics, Lieutenant Brigadier Octávio Júlio Moreira Lima, gave a press conference, along with the fighter pilots, confirming the events. Therefore, the events of that night became known as the “Official UFO Night.”
Release of Documents
On September 25, 2009, the official report of the Brazilian Air Force on the case was released, stating: “In conclusion, based on the observed facts, in almost all presentations, this Command is of the opinion that the phenomena are solid and reflect, in a certain way, intelligence, due to their ability to follow and maintain distance from observers, as well as fly in formation, not necessarily manned.”
In October 2015, the National Archives made available, free of charge, 16 audio recordings from the so-called 3rd batch of the “UFO Collection” (a term for the collection of documents related to ufology made available through the Access to Information Law), including eight recordings of conversations between pilots and air traffic controllers, as well as the Brazilian defense system, on the night of May 19, 1986. The audio recordings clearly show that dozens of objects were detected by radar, observed and pursued by pilots on several occasions, demonstrating unusual behavior throughout the episode.