1957 Sept 14th: Ubatuba, Brazil
One of the few cases of
a crashed UFO and physical evidence is that of the crash that occurred on the
beach of
Ubatuba, Brazil in September 1957.
The story began when Ibrahim
Sued, a journalist with O Globo (a leading Brazilian newspaper), received a
letter on 13th September.
The letter was signed but was unreadable. The letter stated:
"As a faithful reader of
your column and your admirer, I wish to give you something of the highest interest
to a newspaper man,
about the flying disks.
If you believe that they are real, of course.
I didn't believe anything said or published about them. But just a few days
ago I was forced to change my mind.
I was fishing together with some friends, at a place close to the town of Ubatuba,
Sao Paulo, when I sighted a flying disk.
It approached the beach at an unbelievable speed and an accident, i.e. a crash
into the sea seemed imminent.
At the last moment, however, when it was almost striking the waters, it made
a sharp turn upward and climbed rapidly on a
fantastic impulse. We followed the spectacle with our eyes, startled, when we
saw the disk explode in flames.
It disintegrated into thousands of fiery fragments, which fell sparkling with
magnificent brightness.
They looked like fireworks, despite the time of the accident, at noon i.e. midday.
Most of these fragments, almost all, fell into
the sea. But a number of small pieces fell close to the beach and we picked
up a large amount of this material, which was as light
as paper. I am enclosing a small sample of it. I don't know anyone that could
be trusted to whom I might send it for analysis.
I never read about a flying disc being found, or about fragments or parts of
a saucer that had been picked up."
Two of the three samples
were sent to APRO, whilst the third was retained by Brazilian UFOlogist Dr Olavo
Fontes for further study.
The three samples looked like pieces of irregular and highly oxidised metal,
coloured dull whitish grey. The first sample was tested
at the mineral production labs in the Brazilian agricultural ministry.
They applied chemical, spectrographic analysis and X-ray diffusion techniques
on the metal.
These tests indicated that the material was very pure magnesium. The chemist
also noted that the normal trace elements expected
in magnesium were all missing. Fontes used up all of his sample in a series
of further tests, which included another chemist conducting
X-ray investigation at the labs of a geology unit and pieces being taken to
the Brazilian Army and Navy research departments.
The Army and Navy both kept the results of their findings secret.
The geology lab determined that the magnesium was of a very high purity with
a reading of 1.87 as opposed to a normal reading of 1.74.
ARPO sent a sample to the USAF, but the sample they sent met with an 'accident'
while the USAF were testing it.
The USAF asked for a further sample to be sent. APRO declined. The remaining
samples where used with varying results, until the
samples became too small to of been any use in tests.
APRO still
have one small remaining sample in their vaults.