Brazil Said a Sphere With a Body Inside Fell. The Embassy Checked - Case S-3

At 2330 on 8 November 1963, Rio de Janeiro's Radio Tupi broadcast that "A LARGE METAL SPHERE FELL IN THE CENTER OF THE CITY" of Conde, in Bahia, "GOUGING A HOLE FOUR METERS DEEP." The sphere, it said, "HAS WINDOW SHAPED OPENINGS COVERED WITH THICK GLASS" and "INSIDE IS A HUMAN BODY DRESSED IN HEAVY CLOTHING BEARING INSCRIPTIONS WHICH CANNOT BE DECIPHERED." The Foreign Broadcast Information Service transcribed it; a copy reached the National Aeronautics and Space Council, where a staffer wrote "A curious report" and, on 13 November, asked the State Department to report back if the Embassy learned anything.

It did. On 14 November the Embassy's Science Attaché in Rio, André C. Simonpietri, telegraphed the Consulate in Salvador asking it to "CONFIRM OR CORRECT MY UNDERSTANDING OF YOUR UNQUALIFIED NEGATIVE" on the local newspaper report - which the cable paraphrases as a "LARGE METAL MANNED BALLOON" found near Salvador with a "DEAD CREWMAN ABOARD WEARING UNIFORM OR SPACESUIT WITH STRANGE MARKINGS" and a "FOUR-METER-DEAP CRATER" (the typo is in the original). The cable adds that an object "HAD BEEN SIGHTED ALOFT IN THAT VICINITY AROUND THAT DATE" and "HAD BEEN TENTATIVELY IDENTIFIED AS WEATHER-TYPE BALLOON, BUT THAT NO REPEAT NO SUCH OBJECT HAD BEEN FOUND AGROUND."

Airgram A-628 of 20 November set out what the Consul in Salvador, Harold Midkiff, had replied by telegram on 14 November: "Story of strange object descending in region of Conde Bahia apparently fabricated in Rio no such objects seen by anyone in the area according to newspaper reporters and others who rushed there before investigation reports were received Secretary Public Security speculated object might be weather balloon but no such sighting verified." He forwarded two Salvador newspaper clippings: the Diário de Notícias of 9 November, reporting that the Ministry of Aeronautics "categorically denies that there was any 'strange object' in Conde," and the Jornal da Bahia of 11 November, headlined "The Airship that wasn't there."

Both cables were routed onward: the telegram carries "DEPARTMENT PASS DEFENSE AND NASA" and a note reading "PASSED DEFENSE AND NASA AT 2:20 PM 11/14/63," and the airgram repeats the instruction. Two things to keep straight. The radio version describes a metal sphere with a human body; the Embassy's paraphrase of the newspaper describes a manned balloon with a dead crewman - they are not the same account. And the weather-balloon identification was never confirmed; the Consul's telegram says plainly that "no such sighting verified." The airgram's subject line also misdates the event to 1964, though the file is entirely from November 1963. All three documents are transcribed below.