PURSUE archive · catalogue card
DOS-UAP-D001
Diplomatic Cable, Brazil, November 14, 1963
This card reproduces what the official catalogue publishes. Our own analysis (cross-checked sources, timeline and hypotheses) will come when its turn arrives in the weekly review.
- Agency
- Department of State · Executive Office of the President
- Incident date
- Nov 14, 1963As the catalogue writes it: “11/14/63” · “11/20/63” · “11/13/63”
- Place
- Bahia, BrazilAs the catalogue writes it: “Bahia, Brazil”See the area on the globe →
- Published in PURSUE
- Aug 7, 2026
- Records
- 3 records · Document
01 Official description
This document is a U.S. Department of State diplomatic cable from the U.S. Embassy in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to the Office of the Secretary of State in Washington, D.C., on November 14, 1963. This cable documents an effort by the Embassy to verify that the Department had assessed certain content published in a local newspaper as inauthentic, following a discussion on a poor-quality telephone connection the previous night.
To ensure both offices were referencing the same reporting, the cable cites descriptive language paraphrased from the press, namely a “large metal manned balloon” and a “dead crewman aboard wearing [a] uniform or spacesuit with strange markings.” The cable concludes with the embassy’s understanding that an object assessed to be a weather balloon had been reported in the vicinity, but that no such object had been found to have crashed. A follow-on correspondence regarding the alleged incident is included in this collection under the title “DOS-UAP-D002.”
02 Catalogue records · 3
DOS-UAP-D001 · Document · Department of State · Aug 7, 2026 · Main record
Diplomatic Cable, Brazil, November 14, 1963
11/14/63 · Bahia, Brazil
DOS-UAP-D002 · Document · Department of State · Aug 7, 2026
Diplomatic Cable, Brazil, November 20, 1963
11/20/63 · Bahia, Brazil
Official description
This document is a U.S. Department of State diplomatic cable from the U.S. Embassy in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to the Office of the Secretary of State in Washington, D.C., on November 20, 1963. This cable relays the findings of the scientific attaché at the American Consulate in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, that a widely reported incident allegedly involving a crashed unidentified object was unsubstantiated, characterizing the reports as a fabrication originating in Rio de Janeiro.
The Consulate cites a lack of contemporary local reporting regarding the alleged incident, as well as contradictory reporting from local newspapers after the fact, as evidence that the published claims are unsubstantiated. The Consulate also cites a statement from the Brazilian Ministry of Aeronautics categorically denying that there was “any “strange object” in Conde [Bahia].” This correspondence follows a previous exchange between the Embassy and the Department of State, included in this collection under the title “DOS-UAP-D001.”
EOP-UAP-D001 · Document · Executive Office of the President · Aug 7, 2026
NASC Inquiry into Bahia, Brazil Incident, November 13, 1963
11/13/63 · Bahia, Brazil
Official description
This document is a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) wire report dated November 9, 1963, tracking a local Portuguese-language radio broadcast from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, regarding an alleged crash of a “large metal sphere” containing a deceased occupant in Conde, Bahia, Brazil. This FBIS report is excerpted from the files of Edward C. Welsh, Executive Secretary of the National Aeronautics and Space Council (NASC). NASC was a cabinet-level advisory body within the Executive Office of the President responsible for coordinating U.S. space policy from 1958 to 1973.
Handwritten annotations dated November 13, 1963, document a communication between officials at NASC and the U.S. Department of State. The note records a NASC request to a State Department official to query the U.S. Embassy in Rio de Janeiro for local verification of the reporting. This inter-agency request precedes a subsequent diplomatic cable sent by the Embassy the following day, cataloged in this collection under the title “DOS-UAP-D001.”
03 Related cases
Other catalogue cards from the same area or the same decade.
04 Sources
- [1]
Record · U.S. Department of War
Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (PURSUE)
Card, descriptions and comments: PURSUE catalogue, U.S. Department of War. The files are not hosted here; they open on their official site.
Checked on Oct 4, 2026 · Open the original ↗
May contain errors by the AI and the editor · always check the official source.