The Night of the UFOs — 19 May 1986

OVERVIEW

On 19 May 1986 a series of radar and visual contacts with unidentified objects took place over São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais and Goiás — known in Brazil as the Noite Oficial dos OVNIs, the official night of the UFOs. It began at São José dos Campos Airport, where the air traffic controller Sérgio Mota da Silva saw three bright lights hovering and Guarulhos radar showed contacts nearby.

HISTORY

At 9:08 p.m. an EMB 121 Xingu flown by Colonel Ozires Silva, founder of Embraer, reported red lights near the coast and tried to close on them. Santa Cruz and Anápolis air bases went on alert. From 10:27 p.m. F-5E fighters from Santa Cruz and Mirage IIIE interceptors from Anápolis were launched: one F-5 pilot followed a light that changed colour and climbed ahead of him out to sea until he ran low on fuel; a Mirage pilot got within two miles of a contact that zigzagged, turned at right angles and pulled away despite his supersonic speed. In all, 21 radar plots were recorded.

REPORTED ACTIVITY

On 23 May the Air Force commander, Octávio Júlio Moreira Lima, held a press conference with the pilots and said that technically the Air Force had no explanation. The official report, declassified on 25 September 2009, concluded that the phenomena varied their speed from subsonic to supersonic and hovered, ranged from below 5,000 to above 40,000 feet, emitted white, green and red light or none, made sudden accelerations and sharp 90-degree turns, and showed an ability to keep their distance from observers.

VISITING

São José dos Campos Airport is a working airport. The events are a matter of military record; there is nothing at a site to visit.