1977 · Colares, Vigia, Baía do Sol (Mosqueiro), Santo Antônio do Tauá and nearby, Pará, Brazil

Colares and Operação Prato: the FAB's Pará sightings file

On the record

Strength A · 10/10 · 5 independent

Evidence 4/4 · Witnesses 3/3 · Backing 3/3

The Air Force's own released registers show a military team led by a named officer logging and photographing lights it could not identify.

Plausibility Very high

Score 17 · 9 factors for, 0 against

The Air Force's own registers show a military team led by a named officer logging and photographing lights it could not identify.

See the factors ↓

Natural cause proposed, not demonstrated

FAB CENDOC Envelope 10 – 1978 (mirror page) · page 1 of 195 · war.gov file, via the ufotransparency.com mirror

WhenSeptember 1977 to November 1978 (main activity Oct-Dec 1977)

WhereColares, Vigia, Baía do Sol (Mosqueiro), Santo Antônio do Tauá and nearby, Pará, Brazil

Backing5 independent

Witnesses2 named

Evidenceofficial records, sensor data

In 1977, villagers on the coast of Pará, around Colares and Vigia, reported lights in the sky. Some of these were said to fire beams at people, and local people called them "chupa-chupa" ("suck-suck"). The 2nd Section (intelligence) of the 1st Regional Air Command (I COMAR, Belém) sent a team led by Capt. Uyrangê Hollanda (as the Arquivo Nacional names him) to collect reports and photograph the lights. The operation became known as "Operação Prato". The Arquivo Nacional holds the team's numbered observation registers, released by the FAB. They include: - 150 numbered registers; - sketches and photographs; - entries in which the team members themselves are the observers; - press clippings. The documents show that a military team logged and photographed lights it could not identify. They do not establish what the lights were. Hollanda's later claims of film and close encounters rest on his 1997 interview and are not supported by the released file.

Evidence, in date order (5)

2 Sept 1977Amelia Martins da Silva and other civilianswitness
Firsthand observations recorded by the FAB Arquivo Nacional, ARX.0.0.184 (I COMAR Registro de Observações 001-150)
16 Dec 1977A2/I COMAR team (REG 075 and 076)sensor data
Team members as observers, with 6 and 26 photographs Arquivo Nacional, ARX.0.0.184 (I COMAR Registro de Observações 001-150)
6 Nov 1978Pilot Luiz Carlos Gomes Freitas do Valewitness
Witness report at Sao Felix do Xingu Arquivo Nacional, ARX.0.0.184 (I COMAR Registro de Observações 001-150)
28 Nov 1978Arquivo Nacional, ARX.0.0.184 (I COMAR registers)official
150 numbered observation registers with sketches and photographs Arquivo Nacional, ARX.0.0.184 (I COMAR Registro de Observações 001-150)
Arquivo Nacional explainerofficial
Hollanda led the team and investigated at least 130 cases Arquivo Nacional, "Os OVNIs no Arquivo Nacional"

How plausible · Very high

The Air Force's own registers show a military team led by a named officer logging and photographing lights it could not identify.

●●
Access Direct observation or instruments.
●●
Cost of speaking Named on record.
●●
No gain sought Nothing to gain.
●●
Character record Trained professionals.
●●
Independent convergence Independent sources agree.
●●
Checkable details check out Released official records.

Plausibility weighs how well an account fits where secrecy hides the documents by design, so missing records never count against it. Strength measures what is documented. Assessed 2026-10-23.

On the record

REG 001 (p. 3): Rod. PA-17 km 19, Santo Antônio do Tauá, 2 Sep 1977. Observer: Amélia Martins da Silva (civilian; firsthand, as recorded by the FAB).
REG 043: "Aeromóvel (OVNI)", Colares. Observer: Antonio Ferreira (civilian).
REG 075 (p. 90): Fazenda Jejú, 16 Dec 1977, 23:50. Observers: "Equipe do A2/I COMAR", the military team itself (firsthand, official). 6 photographs.
REG 076: 17 Dec 1977, 00:30. Object described as circular or funnel-shaped. The register states: "Os elementos da Equipe não observaram sua ascenção" (the team did not observe its ascent). 26 photographs. Annex pp. 97-99 describes the land of "Sr. Expedito" as the place "onde possivelmente um OVNI efetuou pouso" (where possibly a UFO landed). The camera was an Olympus Trip 35.
REG 083 (p. 108): "OVNI (pousado)", Colares. Observer: Manoel João de Oliveira Filho. Dated "23 Jan 76". Given the file's range, this is probably a typing error for 1978; I have not verified this.
Many registers in Baía do Sol / Mosqueiro list the A2 team as observers. They record cameras used (Minolta SRT 101, Yashica) and photo counts.

Claims

Beams of light struck people in Colares and Vigia, causing burns, puncture marks, weakness and anaemiasecondhandSourced, unconfirmedattributed in later press and ufological literature to local physician Dr. Wellaide Cecim Carvalho and to patients. Not in ARX.0.0.184 as read here, and the nam

The team filmed objects, including a large cylindrical "mother ship", and Hollanda had close encounters with beings (interview with A.J. Gevaerd and Marco Petit for *Revista UFO* in 1997, shortly before his death that year. I did not read the interview. The released file has photographs but no film, which matches the AN's statement that film has not been released)firsthandSourced, unconfirmedUyrangê Hollanda

The operation was ordered closed and its material withheldsecondhandSourced, unconfirmedHollanda (1997 interview) via *Revista UFO*. Not documented in the file read here.

Hundreds of photos and many hours of film existsecondhandSourced, unconfirmedHollanda's 1997 account; the AN repeats that Hollanda said film exists (record of the claim, not of the film).

OSAP sent investigators to Brazil a couple of times for the Brazilian Air Force files on the Colares attacks.secondhandSourced, unconfirmedGeorge Knapp

A BAASS summary of 30 March 2009 records 370+ on-site investigations and 514 victims (1977-2003), 10 deaths after prolonged illness, 54 burned, 14 comas and 18 abductions, and a Brazilian Air Force team that 'took about 300 photographs of eight different shapes of UFOs'.BAASS monthly reports to DIA (March, April, June and November 2009)secondhandOn the recordAAP Person 8, in DOW-UAP-D169