Brazil's National Archive has made public 932 case files on Unidentified Flying Objects, most of them drawn from Brazilian Air Force (FAB) documents filed by pilots and aviation staff.
The 932 cases are covered by 1,020 documents in total. This month the archive added the cases recorded in 2025, when 18 UFO sightings were reported across Brazil, including five in Londrina and one involving a LATAM airline commander who described turbulence during the encounter.
History of Brazil's UFO records
According to the National Archive, the first official record of a UFO sighting in Brazil dates back to 1952. The earliest documented case took place in Barra da Tijuca, in Rio de Janeiro, and was recorded with nine photographs.
A search of the National Archive's online system shows 1,020 UFO-related records filed in Brazil to date. The archive notes this does not mean every case involves extraterrestrial activity, since reports can also involve drones, stars, satellites, weather balloons or other natural phenomena.
The LATAM commander's account
Among the 18 cases from 2025 reported to the FAB and released by the National Archive is an account from a LATAM commander. In a document dated September 1, 2025, describing an incident at 8pm in Guarulhos, São Paulo, the commander reported observing strange objects in a clear, starry sky.
The file describes balls of intense light, two to three of them, showing white, red and yellow colors, with movement that varied and resembled a dance with irregular motions.
Lights forming a triangle
Three objects described as forming a triangle were sighted during a flight near Palmas, in the state of Tocantins, in an episode dated July 4, 2024. The document, from Brazil's Aerospace Defense Command, was released by the National Archive.
The objects were described as white and round in shape, and as swapping positions with one another. The sighting lasted about an hour, and images were taken but not made public.
The document's observations state that the lights moved up and down and from side to side, changing places among themselves slowly but at times moving faster than an aircraft. The plane was near Palmas at the time, with the lights positioned to its left.
The 1986 'night of the UFOs'
Forty years ago, five FAB jets were sent to pursue at least 21 unidentified flying objects over Brazil. The episode, which took place on May 19, 1986, became known as the "official night of the UFOs" or the "night of the flying saucers."
According to records from Brazil's Ministry of Justice, the objects were detected that day by radars belonging to Cindacta, the Integrated Center for Air Defense and Air Traffic Control, though FAB fighter jets failed to intercept them.
The ministry's account states that the episode began when a tower operator at São José dos Campos Airport, in São Paulo state, spotted luminous points that changed color, mostly red, and asked a pilot in the tower whether he was seeing the same thing.
Gol flight's evasive maneuver
A document from Brazil's Aerospace Defense Command, released by the National Archive, states that in 2014 a Gol Linhas Aéreas aircraft had to perform an "evasive maneuver" to avoid colliding with a UFO.
The incident report places the event at around 12:10pm on January 24, 2014, in the state of Ceará. The Gol aircraft was operating flight 9109, which had departed Brasília bound for Fortaleza.
The document states that a large white object was seen traveling at "supersonic" speed near the municipality of Quixadá, roughly 170 kilometers from Fortaleza. The object reportedly flew in a zigzag pattern from east to west and left no trail.
