25 May 1986
(Dallas Times Herald, Texas)
Source: AFU.se
The whole article:
“An air force pilot confirmed Friday he had chased
UFOs he described as pulsating, colored balls of light over the skies of
southeastern Brazil early last week and said they ‘couldn’t be anything now
existing.’
Lt. Kleber Caldas Marinho, 25, said he pursued but
could not catch the flying objects first sighted in the southeastern city of Sao Jose dos Campos on
Monday night.
‘It was a pulsating light, red and white, mostly
white,’ Marinho said at a press conference at air force headquarters in the
capital.
‘It was not a star. It couldn’t have been another
plane. It couldn’t be anything now existing,’ he said.
The pilot said his U.S.-made F- 5E fighter approached
to within 12 miles
of one of the objects, but had to turn back because he was running low on fuel.
Capt. Marcio Jordao, 29, another F-5E pilot, said he saw
‘a red light that didn’t vary, but evidently was moving. I got to within 25 miles but I couldn’t go
any faster. Visibility was great. There were no clouds or other air traffic.’
The objects were picked up on radar screens in three
states in southeastern Brazil,
the air force said.
Col. Ozires Silva, president of the state oil company,
Petrobras, was flying in a private plane near Sao Jose dos Campos and said he also saw the
UFOs.
‘It wasn’t like any of the classical flying objects
seen in the movies,’ Silva said in a televised interview. ‘It wasn’t in the
form of a flying saucer or plate. Instead, what I saw were illuminated points.’
Air Force Minister Gen. Octavio Moreira Lima said the
chase planes were sent up because the UFOs were ‘saturating radar and
interfering with air traffic.’
TV Globo, the nation’s biggest commercial TV network,
showed film taken by a cameraman in the southern city of Maringa showing a silvery pulsating light in
the sky, larger than any star appears from Earth.
Col. Sidney Obino Azambuja, 51, chief of staff of the
Brazilian Aerospace Defense Command, said, ‘The radar blips persisted. We had
phenomena, and they were seen.’ ”
On 19 May 1986, the
CINDACTA I radar centre (the Integrated Air Traffic Control and Air Defence
Centre in Brasilia) tracked 21 UFOs over the states of Goias, Sao Paulo,
Rio de Janeiro and Parana.
When it comes to this case,
we see that different sources give different information about how many fighter
jets were ordered scrambled.
Portal
Fenomenum’s report (which includes government documents) (fenomenum.com.br)
on the case informs us
that the Brazilian Air Force sent up two F-5E Tiger II and two Dassault
Mirage III fighter
jets to pursue thirteen UFOs.
This UFO case is called the
“Official Night of the UFOs.”
Wikipedia article: “Brazilian Air Force”:
Wikipedia article: “Dassault Mirage III”:
Wikipedia article: “Northrop F-5”:
Brigadier Octávio (not Otávio (fab.mil.br)) Júlio
Moreira Lima,
former
Brazilian Air Force Minister
(photobucket.com photo)
Official roll-out of first USAF F-5E Tiger II (text by Wikipedia)
(wikimedia.org)
(wikimedia.org photo)
Satellite photo of São José dos Campos, Brazil
(tageo.com)
(tageo.com photo)