A reported fall of a large metal sphere in the municipality of Conde, Bahia, Brazil, in November 1963, traced by three U.S. agencies within twelve days and resolved as a fabrication. Three PURSUE Release 05 records document it: EOP-UAP-D001, DOS-UAP-D001 and DOS-UAP-D002.
The origin is a Rio de Janeiro Radio Tupi broadcast at 2330 on 8 November 1963, transcribed by the Foreign Broadcast Information Service. It reported that a large metal sphere had fallen in the centre of Conde, gouging a hole four metres deep, with window-shaped openings covered in thick glass and a human body inside dressed in heavy clothing bearing inscriptions which could not be deciphered. A pencil annotation dated 13 November on the transcript sheet, attributed in the release to the National Aeronautics and Space Council, records that the Department of State was asked to pass on anything the Embassy sent.
The Department of State closed it out. Embtel 94 of 14 November from Amembassy Rio, from Science Attaché Simonpietri and signed by Ambassador Lincoln Gordon, asked the consulate in Salvador to confirm its negative. Consul Harold Midkiff replied the same day that the story was apparently fabricated in Rio, that no such objects were seen by anyone in the area according to newspaper reporters and others who rushed there, and that a Secretary of Public Security speculation about a weather balloon was never verified. Airgram A-628 of 20 November reported this to Washington and enclosed two Salvadoran clippings, one carrying the Brazilian Ministry of Aeronautics’ categorical denial and one headed “The Airship that wasn’t there”.
Connections
PURSUE · Department of State · National Aeronautics and Space Council · Colares Incident · Gen. Uchoa