What happened
On the evening of May 19, 1986, air traffic controllers and air defense radars began picking up unidentified objects over the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, and Goiás. One of the first to see the lights was Ozires Silva, then president of Petrobras and former head of Embraer, who was flying to São José dos Campos; his pilot tried to approach them. The Brazilian Air Force scrambled several F-5E and Mirage III fighters, whose pilots saw multicolored lights, and some radar returns reportedly surrounded the aircraft. In all, about 21 objects were tracked. A few days later, Air Force Minister Brigadier Octávio Moreira Lima admitted at a press conference that the military did not know what they were. The case documents were declassified more than two decades later.
Witnesses
Brazilian Air Force fighter pilots, radar controllers, Ozires Silva and his pilot, and numerous residents.
Explanations and hypotheses
In the declassified report, the air defense command stated that the objects were visible on ground-based and airborne radars and behaved in an unexplained manner. Skeptics point to possible spurious returns under unusual atmospheric conditions and to bright planets and stars that the pilots may have mistaken for objects. The case is considered one of the best militarily documented UFO sightings in the world.
Unexplained There is no convincing explanation.
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