Gol pilot dodges UFO on flight to Fortaleza

Alien life, spaceships from another planet and everything involving extraterrestrial beings have been part of the popular imagination for centuries. And we cannot deny that they are fascinating things. That is why news like the one I am going to report now attracts so much attention.

UFO spotted on flight to Fortaleza

In 2014, a Gol pilot en route to Fortaleza had to make a quick maneuver. A document from the Brazilian Aerospace Defense Command (Comdabra), kept in the National Archives, says it was to avoid a UFO — an unidentified flying object.

The incident occurred at around 12:10 p.m. Flight 9109 had left Brasília and, flying near Quixadá, about 170 km from Fortaleza, the pilot saw “a large white object, flying very fast“He said the object was going from east to west, zigzagging and leaving no trail. This all happened when the plane was between 10 and 10.6 km high, preparing to descend.

Two other flights also saw the UFO, only using TCAS — a system that warns when to climb or descend to avoid hitting another aircraft. They said the object flew quickly and in a zigzag pattern.

Later, at 12:53 p.m., the pilot of a flight between Alagoas and Piauí also saw the UFO. It was 3.2 km high and confirmed that it was white. He had to do the same maneuver as the others to avoid a collision.

Quixadá already has a history of UFO sightings

I am from Ceará. As such, I am very familiar with the legends and stories of the region. If you ever have the opportunity to visit the city and talk to its residents, you will have no trouble finding people who claim to have seen something strange in the sky. And this is not new, you know?

Renowned writer Rachel de Queiroz from Ceará ended her column in Cruzeiro magazine on May 14, 1960 with the words “I SAW IT.” The writer was describing an orange light that she witnessed with her sister, her husband, and the workers at the “Não Me Deixes” farm, located in a district of Quixadá.

Despite being a skeptic and having a habit of observing the sky, something that was reflected in her works such as “The Three Marias” of 1939, Rachel drew attention to the phenomenon she witnessed. She described the object as surrounded by a luminous and nebulous halo, which changed in intensity and speed as it moved horizontally, until it disappeared after more than ten minutes.

Rachel reported that about twenty people witnessed the same phenomenon on the farm’s land. Even workers who lived miles away confirmed the sight when they arrived for work the next morning.

Paulo, a young man of approximately 20 years old who lived on the farm, was one of the witnesses. Years later, he shared his experience with Weliston Paiva, a retired colonel in the Military Police, helicopter pilot and ufology scholar in Ceará. Weliston emphasizes that Rachel’s account and the “Barroso case” were pioneers in bringing notoriety to Quixadá in the UFO context.

The “Barroso case”, which occurred on April 3, 1973, is another notable event in the region. Francisco Barroso, a 45-year-old farmer, was struck by a ray emitted by a supposed alien spacecraft while he was on the farm road. Found unconscious by a cowboy, Barroso presented mental regression after the incident.

“He died with the mind of a one-year-and-six-month-old child and with very young skin, as it did not age. People had to feed him and he developed an intense fear of camera flashes. People from all over the world, including Germany, Japan and the United States, came to follow his case.“, recalls Weliston.

Since the 1950s, Quixadá has been the scene of several reports of extraterrestrial sightings and contacts. Although intriguing, many of these cases may be related to the “flying saucer epidemic” that occurred globally during the Cold War.

Sources: CNN, The Globe