A Brazilian radio report of a fallen metal sphere with a body aboard prompts U.S. embassy inquiries
November 8, 1963 · Conde, Bahia, Brazil · Sighting · Primary document linked
On 8 November 1963 Radio Tupi in Rio de Janeiro, monitored by the U.S. Foreign Broadcast Information Service, reported that a large metal sphere with thick glass windows had fallen in the center of Conde, Bahia, leaving a hole four meters deep, with a human body in heavy clothing with undecipherable inscriptions inside. The transcript sits in an Executive Office of the President file titled as a National Aeronautics and Space Council inquiry. On 14 November the embassy in Rio, at the request of its air and science attaches, asked the consulate in Salvador to confirm its 'unqualified negative' on the story and passed the cable to Defense and NASA. The consul replied that the story was 'apparently fabricated in Rio', that no one in the area had seen such an object, and that the state security secretary had speculated about a weather balloon that was never verified.
Era: Project Blue Book · Threads: Crash and retrieval claims
Why it matters (2/5)
A press story the U.S. embassy checked and the consul doubted; it changed nothing.
Caveats
The documents record the U.S. government's checking of a press report, not physical evidence. The words 'apparently fabricated' are the consul's. The embassy's 20 November airgram cites Brazilian papers saying the Ministry of Aeronautics denied any 'strange object' in Conde; its subject line misdates the event to 1964.
Sources
- NASC Inquiry into Bahia Brazil Incident November 13 1963 (EOP-UAP-D001) (Executive Office of the President (released by the Department of War)), primary
- Diplomatic Cable Brazil November 14 1963 (DOS-UAP-D001) (U.S. Department of State (released by the Department of War)), primary
- Diplomatic Cable Brazil November 20 1963 (DOS-UAP-D002) (U.S. Department of State (released by the Department of War)), primary