The National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (Nicap)

# Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : CIA-RDP81R00560R000100010001-0

The crew had to act forcibly to calm the passengers and continue the flight safely. [16]

Another extremely important incident, January 16, 1958, was only sketchily reported in a few U.S. papers. Near Trindade Isle off the Brazilian east coast, the Almirante Saldanha, an IGY oceanographic vessel, saw and photographed a maneuvering disc-shaped UFO which made several passes over the area [See Section VIII; Photographs]. Marine photographer Almiro Barauna, officers and men on deck, sighted the UFO and Barauna obtained four good exposures of the object. The film was developed on board ship, the witnesses confirming that the Saturn-shaped images (disc with central flange) corresponded to what they had observed.

The impressive evidence created a stir in the Brazilian Congress. At first the Navy was cautious and secretive about the incident, but the President of Brazil, Mr. Juscelino Kubitschek, intervened at the request of a reporter and the photographs were published in the press. [17]

Both airline and military pilots in Brazil have often reported UFOs:

June 30, 1957. An airliner enroute from Belo Horizonte to Rio de Janeiro, at 6:30 p.m., encountered a glowing red-orange disc-like object. Capt. Saul Martins later told the press the UFO maneuvered all around the DC-3, pacing it, flying above and below it. One of the many passengers who also witnessed the object was a renowned Brazilian writer, Prof. Aires de Mata Machado Filho. [18]

July 4, 1957. A REAL Airlines plane enroute from Campos to Victoria, capital of Espirito Santo State, was paced by a circular UFO. The pilot, Cmdr. Delgado, said that when his plane and the UFO were passing through clouds, brightly lighted apertures like windows became visible on the object. When they left the clouds, these markings disappeared. The UFO had raised portions on top and bottom. [See Section IX; Patterns].

August 14, 1957. Near Joinville, at 8:55 p.m., a Varig Airlines C-47 enroute from Porto Alegre to Rio de Janeiro was approached by a luminous object. The pilot, Cmdr. Jorge Campos Araujo, said his co-pilot first noticed the UFO pacing the plane to the left. As they watched, the UFO suddenly sped ahead and crossed just in front of the plane. Then it hovered briefly, and dove into the undercast at about 5,700 feet. (The plane was flying at 6,300 feet). At the moment when the strange object hovered briefly, the engines of the airliner began coughing and missing, and the cabin lights dimmed. When the UFO moved away, the aircraft electrical system returned to normal. [See Section VIII; Electro-Magnetic Effects].

Cmdr. Araujo described the UFO as "shaped like a saucer with a kind of cupola or dome on top of it. The whole cupola glowed with an intense green light. The flattened base glowed with a less intense yellowish luminosity." [19]

November 4, 1957. Capt. Jean Vincent de Beyssac, flying a Varig Airlines C-46 near Ararangua at 1:20 a.m., noticed a red light to the left. The plane was at 7,000 feet above a layer of stratus clouds. Both Capt. de Beyssac and his co-pilot watched curiously as the light increased in size. When the pilot decided to investigate and started to press his rudder, the UFO suddenly leaped through an arc of about 45 degrees and appeared much larger in size. Capt. de Beyssac went into an 80 degree left turn for a closer look. About midway of the turn, the object began glowing more brilliantly and the pilot smelled smoke in the cabin. While the crew hastily looked for fire, the UFO vanished. It was then discovered that the ADF (direction finder), right generator and transmitter-receiver had burned out simultaneously. [20]

May 27, 1958. Near the Bahia State coast, a Varig airliner piloted by Cmdr. Bittar, was approached by a brightly luminous UFO with ball-like projections on the underside. The object maneuvered under the plane, hovered, then dove toward the sea. [21]

July 14, 1959. A Brazilian Air Force pilot checked on a hovering light observed from the control tower at Pampulha, Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais State at the request of the tower operator. After landing, the pilot reported that the unidentified light had followed him for about an hour while he was enroute from Pico do Couto. The control tower operator then fired some flares in the direction of the UFO, and it changed color from white to amber to intense green. Then it turned white again, and darted upwards, disappearing in the darkness. [22]

July 24, 1961. At night in the vicinity of Ilha Grande, Cmdr. Jose Guilherme Saez, pilot of a VASP Airlines "Scandia" flying at 7,000 feet, saw a luminous object which he first believed was a meteor. "I radioed the Santa Cruz Air Force Base and Sao Paulo airport," Cmdr. Saez stated. "Suddenly the object changed direction, from the left to our right. Then I saw it quite near our Scandia." The object remained visible several minutes. During this time, Cmdr. Saez said, "The UFO did not describe curves, but made angular turns. It moved up and down, back and forth, in all directions." [23] (cf., sighting by Capt. Hull, Capital Airlines, November 14, 1956; Section I).

At times, Brazil has been one of the least secretive governments in regard to release of UFO information. High officials have often openly admitted their serious concern with UFOs.

As in the case of several countries, there is evidence that the Embassies in Washington, either yielding to the wishes of the U.S. Government or for political reasons of their own, sometimes debunk the subject in spite of serious official concern of their governments at home. In 1959, Maj. Gen. Antonio Barcellos, Air Attache of the Brazilian Embassy, wrote a NICAP member: "The Brazilian Government does not accredit or acknowledge any reports of unidentified flying objects...it considers the question of UFO to be in the same category as that of Santa Claus. Therefore, if anyone in Brazil has ever cited what they consider to be a UFO, they would probably not report to any official agency, but if they did try to make such a report, they would find that it would not be accepted." [24]

## Other South American Countries

The history of UFO reports in the other South American countries is very similar to that of Argentina and Brazil.

In Valparaiso, Chile, October 28, 1959, Juan Fruto (Director of a local Astronomical Association), C. Ventura (civil aviator), and others about 9:15 p.m. sighted a luminous orange concave disc performing evolutions in the sky. [25]

Cases of electro-magnetic effects [See Section VIII] have been noted in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru and Venezuela. On January 30, 1958, a lawyer and his wife, near Lima, Peru, saw a circular UFO hovering an estimated 500 meters above the highway. As their automobile passed beneath the object, the car lights went out. Truck drivers and others on the same highway also witnessed the UFO. Passengers on a bus felt an electric shock, and the bus motor failed as the UFO was seen. [26]

A NICAP Subcommittee (investigative unit) is operative in Santiago, Chile, headed by Prof. Juan E. Gatica Salinas, astrophysicist. Other members of the unit are professors of mathematics and physics, and students. The Subcommittee is divided into three groups which make scheduled observations of the sky from different observatories, increasing the chances of obtaining triangulations of a UFO.

In Montevideo, Uruguay, Milton W. Hourcade is one of the directors of the "Centro de Investigacion de Objetos Voladores Inidentificados (C.I.O.V.I.)." The group has investigated and compiled reports in Uruguay for many years, periodically exchanging data with NICAP.

One of the cases investigated by C.I.O.V.I. occurred May 5, 1958, near San Carlos. About 3:40 p.m., Carlos A. Rodriguez, an experienced and reputable pilot, was flying his piper aircraft in the vicinity of Capitan Curbelo Naval Air Base when he noticed a brilliant glowing object approaching his plane. The UFO stopped an estimated 2000 meters away and, according to the report, "it rocked twice in a balancing motion." [cf., Oct. 2, 1961, Salt Lake City, Utah, pilot sighting; Section I]. The object was shaped like a child's top, symmetrical above and below. As he closed to about 700 meters, Rodriguez felt intense heat in the cockpit and was forced to open the windows and door of the plane and remove his jacket. The UFO then took off, accelerating rapidly eastward toward the sea, leaving a thin vapor trail. [27]

Venezuela has been the scene of so much UFO activity that as of 1963, according to a NICAP member who visited Caracas, the sight of huge glowing objects lighting up mountain tops around the city was no longer considered noteworthy. Active in UFO investigation around Caracas are Dr. Askold Ladonko (NICAP Adviser) and Horacio Gonzalez Ganteaume (NICAP member). In December 1962 over an unexplored jungle area near famous Angel Falls, a UFO was photographed on 8 mm movie film by

Approved For Release 2001/04/02 : $ \textcircled{1} $A-RDP81R00560R000100010001-0