Colares, 1977

Lights that burned islanders with beams; the Brazilian Air Force filmed for months. Operation Saucer's files opened decades later.

1977, Colares island, Brazil: residents reported beams from low-flying objects causing burns and puncture-mark injuries; the Brazilian Air Force's Operation Prato (Saucer) deployed a team under Captain Uyrangê Hollanda that photographed and filmed for months. The operation's files were partially declassified from 1997; Hollanda gave a detailed interview in 1997 describing close observation, and died by reported suicide months later. The injuries were treated by Dr. Wellaide Cecim, who has testified consistently. The case is the archive's best-documented instance of a government field investigation of an aggressive phenomenon.