by Charles Lear, author of “The Flying Saucer Investigators.”
In last week’s blog, we profiled General Alfredo Moacyr Uchoa, who became a UFO investigator after retiring from his over 30-year career in the Brazilian Army. While he spent most of his career at the Military Academy of Brazil where he was a professor of engineering mechanics, head of the math department, and deputy director, he’d had an interest in the paranormal and the esoteric since the age of 18. After his retirement in 1963, he moved to Brasilia in 1968, and his son, Paulo, told him about a plantation owned by Wilson da Silva 120 km to the southwest where regular UFO activity was reported. Uchoa put together a group of 7 people, including his son, and they began visiting the plantation repeatedly starting in March. Bob Pratt was able to interview Uchoa and wrote an article headlined “The UFO reports of Brazilian General Alfredo Moacyr Uchoa” which can be found in the online magazine Alternate Perceptions. Gordon Creighton wrote a 3-part series of articles based on information he got from a 9-part series of articles by Eduardo Santa Maria that appeared in the Rio de Janeiro paper O Dia from October 26, to November 4, 1972. Creighton’s articles were published in the Flying Saucer Review Case Histories Supplements 12, 15, and 16, December 1972, June and August 1973 respectively. When we left off, we were telling the story of the investigation as told by Creighton.
According to Creighton, da Silva seemed to have the ability to predict when the UFOs would appear. On July 22, 1968, he announced to the group, “It will be tonight, General! I know it! I will guarantee that the saucers will appear at 9 o’clock, over the hill, in their usual place!” That night, the group had their first sighting, which was of a light that started out as something like “a magnesium flash” and reappeared as a pink light about the size of a house “giving out tiny spurts of slightly purplish light.”
Da Silva went towards the light to “make contact,” but after only a few steps, turned around and ran past the group shouting that they were in danger and should put their hands to their chests. The light then came towards the group, and they ran as well. When da Silva calmed down, he announced that there would be more activity over the next few nights.
According to Creighton, Uchoa described the activity at the Fifth Brazilian Congress on UFOs in São Paulo. He told his audience that it was extensive from July 26, 1968, to January 1969. He described it as mostly “pyrotechnic exhibitions in various colors” over the same hill, but said there was one occasion when a greenish-yellow “rainbow” with a radius of 800-1000 meters appeared” close to the ground nearby and “remained visible a long time.” According to Uchoa, a fireball came out of it and headed for the group, and da Silva fell to the ground, groaning, and then got up saying, “Let us go. These aren’t our people! These are bad people!”
According to Creighton, the wives of some of the investigators started coming along and would watch from their cars parked tens of meters away from the observation area. One night, only one of the women was there sitting in a Volkswagon bus. She suddenly ran towards the group telling them excitedly that an object had appeared over their heads and then landed about ten meters away from them while they were focused on a light display in another direction. She told the group that it was triangular and that she could see some sort of form moving inside of it. She said that as she ran towards them, the object shot up.
The group went to the area with a flashlight and found fresh marks that went deep into the “extremely hard and stony ground.” When they came back the next day, they examined the marks, which are described as being over 10 cm deep and forming a triangle that was 1.2 meters on two sides and 2.1 meters on the remaining side. They found other marks in the area as well.
Uchoa told other groups and individual investigators about the marks, and eight people came to investigate for themselves. Photos are reported to have been taken, but none are included in the article.
A new member, Andelino dos Santos, joined Uchoa’s group, and Creighton describes him as “an extremely keen and active investigator” who was “an even more remarkable ‘sensitive’ than Wilson da Silva.” He is said to have announced to the group one night that there would be activity “at 22:10 and 22:52 precisely.” According to Creighton, lights appeared at 10:10 p.m. as predicted, and there was a multi-colored display at 10:52.
Creighton describes weeks going by with no real change in the activity except that the lights seemed to be coming closer, and the group thought there might soon be some sort of contact. Then, one night in August of 1968, dos Santos announced to the group at da Silva’s house that there would be contact that night. He said it would be at 10:00 p.m. at the foot of the hill, that there would be a signal in the form of 3 flashes, and that the group should return the signal with a flashlight.
Creighton reports that at 10:00 p.m., a “luminous craft” appeared just as predicted, and the signal was exchanged. The group had decided earlier that Uchoa and dos Santos should be the ones to make contact. They started down the hill and after only a few steps, da Silva shouted “Danger! Danger to your lives! Don’t go on! They’re not our people!” He then pointed his flashlight at the craft and “it emitted a humming sound and shot straight up into the sky, vanishing in a matter of seconds.” Da Silva explained to the group that he felt “that the meeting would be dangerous.”
In Part 3, Creighton reports that da Silva’s actions and the failure to meet the occupants of the UFO “had a dampening effect” on the team’s spirits and that the activity ceased for a few days, which added to the gloom. In spite of this, the group continued to set up watch near the hill and “sometime later,” were rewarded with “an impressive spectacle.” Creighton describes several craft emitting greenish-yellow beams of light forming the shape of a mast, and stars in the area where a flag would be shining brighter than normal.
The group continued nightly observations and often brought skeptical friends along who were reportedly impressed. Then, one night, da Silva announced that he had received a message requesting a meeting by a fence 140 meters away from the hill. He told the group that it was to be with him, alone.
According to Creighton, as the group got ready and were determining the best positions from which to observe the meeting, a jaguar broke into a pigsty, and preparations were interrupted as the group armed themselves and went in search of it. They didn’t find it, and Creighton describes them being preoccupied and free of the “tension” they had been under in anticipation of the meeting when a “disc” arrived at the designated location.
The disc reportedly descended until it was less than a meter above the ground while members of the group took photos using cameras fitted with telescopic lenses. According to Creighton, da Silva walked towards the craft and was so focused on his mission that he nearly walked into a “dangerous swamp area” but was saved when “he suddenly heard a voice that cried: “Look out! Don’t go there. Go further to the left!”
Creighton reports that when da Silva got to the craft, “a door opened, and a normal-sized man, wearing a blue overall and a wide belt, descended by a small ladder.” When da Silva got back to the group, he told them he felt he was in a trance during the meeting and could remember very few details. All he could tell them was that there was nothing out of the ordinary about the being’s shape, that they shook hands, and that he was told, “We are peaceful. Your atomic experiments are causing an imbalance to our world.”
According to Creighton, da Silva wrote out a deposition and the rest of the group signed it, having agreed with the details based on their observation. Creighton reports that “several” photos were taken that “show the craft clearly, with a man beside it.” He ends the article with this: “According to O Dia, the negatives have been subjected to the most rigorous examinations and analyses, and their genuineness fully established.” Where these negatives might be now is a question that comes to mind.
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