In 1977, the Brazilian Air Force dispatched a classified investigation team to the Amazon state of Pará in response to a mass UAP encounter phenomenon in the coastal community of Colares. The operation was called Operação Prato — Operation Saucer. Military investigators documented hundreds of civilian UAP sightings, physical injuries attributed to beam-like emissions from unidentified craft, and photographic and film evidence over a period of months. The investigation was classified. Decades later, the files entered the Brazilian national archive system.
What Happened in Colares
The Colares incidents of 1977 represent one of the most extensively documented mass UAP encounter episodes in the historical record. Residents reported being struck by beam-like emissions from unidentified aerial objects, resulting in physical symptoms including burns, anaemia, and circular puncture marks on the skin. The Brazilian Air Force took these reports seriously enough to deploy a dedicated investigation team under Captain Uyrangê Hollanda Lima.
Hollanda’s team spent months in Colares, collecting testimony, photographing the phenomena, and documenting physical evidence. The investigation produced approximately 500 pages of classified documentation and hundreds of photographs and film recordings. Before his death in 1997, Hollanda gave a lengthy interview describing the investigation — and stating that the phenomena were genuine and unexplained.
Brazil’s National Archive UAP Collection
Under Brazil’s Lei de Acesso à Informação (Access to Information Law), the Brazilian government began releasing previously classified UAP-related military documents starting in the 2000s. Brazil’s Arquivo Nacional — the National Archives — became the repository for these files, which include Operation Saucer documentation, Brazilian Air Force SIOANI (Sistema de Investigação de Fenômenos Aéreos Anômalos) records, and related classified documents from the Brazilian military’s UFO investigation history.
The SIAN database at sian.an.gov.br is the search interface for the National Archives collection. Free access requires registration. The UFO/OVNI document collection is accessible at gov.br/arquivonacional/pt-br/assuntos/difusao-e-acesso/acervo-digital/documentos-ufos-ovnis.
The Oracle Assessment
Operation Saucer is one of the most significant documented military UAP investigations in history. It involved physical evidence, civilian injuries, military deployment, and subsequent classification. The lead investigator went on record before his death stating the phenomena were real and unexplained. The files now sit in the Brazilian national archive. Brazil’s programme of voluntary military UAP declassification, driven by transparency legislation rather than political directive, represents a different model from both the US PURSUE approach and the European national archive releases.
Sources: Arquivo Nacional (SIAN), Brazil. Operation Saucer/Operação Prato 1977. Captain Hollanda’s 1997 interview. sian.an.gov.br.