Incident · 8 November 1963 · Conde, Bahia, Brazil
Conde, Bahia “crashed sphere” report
Also known as Bahia 1963, Conde 1963
Hoax. The U.S. Consul in Salvador reported that the story was "apparently fabricated in Rio": no such object was seen by anyone in the area. (DOS-UAP-D002 — Diplomatic Cable, Brazil, November 20, 1963)
On the night of 8 November 1963 Radio Tupi in Rio de Janeiro broadcast that a large metal sphere had crashed in the centre of Conde, a town in Bahia, leaving a four-metre crater; through its glass-covered window openings, the report said, a human body could be seen in heavy clothing with undecipherable inscriptions. The CIA's Foreign Broadcast Information Service picked up the broadcast, and the report reached the White House's National Aeronautics and Space Council, which on 13 November asked the State Department to check it.
The check took a week. The embassy in Rio cabled on 14 November to confirm it understood the story — a "large metal manned balloon" with a dead crewman in a uniform or spacesuit — and the consulate in Salvador replied that it was "apparently fabricated in Rio": reporters who rushed to Conde found no one who had seen anything, the state's public-security secretary had only speculated about a weather balloon, and the Ministry of Aeronautics denied any "strange object". A local paper headlined its piece "The Airship that wasn't there".
The case is a clear example of an alarming crash-retrieval story checked through official channels at the time and found unsupported. The three records were released in the PURSUE programme in 2026.
Sources: EOP-UAP-D001, DOS-UAP-D001, DOS-UAP-D002 (PURSUE, local copies)
Facts and claims
- documented A CIA Foreign Broadcast Information Service report dated 9 November 1963 transcribes a Radio Tupi (Rio de Janeiro) broadcast of 8 November saying a large metal sphere had fallen in the centre of Conde, Bahia, gouging a hole four metres deep, with window-shaped openings and a human body inside dressed in heavy clothing with undecipherable inscriptions. Source: EOP-UAP-D001 — NASC Inquiry into Bahia, Brazil Incident, November 13, 1963
- documented The report survives in the files of the National Aeronautics and Space Council in the Executive Office of the President; handwritten notes of 13 November 1963 record NASC asking the State Department to have the U.S. Embassy in Rio verify it. Source: EOP-UAP-D001 — NASC Inquiry into Bahia, Brazil Incident, November 13, 1963
- documented The U.S. Consul in Salvador reported 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 …" He forwarded a Diário de Notícias clipping in which the Ministry of Aeronautics categorically denied there was any "strange object" in Conde. Source: DOS-UAP-D002 — Diplomatic Cable, Brazil, November 20, 1963
Connected files
Official records (PURSUE)
- EOP-UAP-D001 — NASC Inquiry into Bahia, Brazil Incident, November 13, 1963 (documented in)
- DOS-UAP-D001 — Diplomatic Cable, Brazil, November 14, 1963 (documented in)
- DOS-UAP-D002 — Diplomatic Cable, Brazil, November 20, 1963 (documented in)
Organizations
- Department of State (investigated by)
Mentioned in this file
- Crash retrieval & reverse engineering (Concept)
- PURSUE — Presidential Unsealing and Reporting System for UAP Encounters (Program)
- Central Intelligence Agency (Organization)