After a late-night phone call that was hard to hear, the U.S. Embassy in Rio sent an official message to Washington. It wanted to make sure it had understood the State Department’s response to a report in a local newspaper. The story concerned a large balloon near Salvador, Brazil.
According to the newspaper, the balloon contained a dead man wearing a uniform or spacesuit marked with strange symbols. The report also claimed that a deep crater had formed at the site. But the embassy’s message mentioned something else: an object seen in the area, and no crashed craft found. Did anyone examine the site, or was the story left unresolved?
A Hard-to-Hear Phone Call
The message was sent in November 1963, following a call the previous night. The line was poor, so the embassy wanted to make sure both sides were discussing the same report. It summarized what the newspaper had published: a large metallic balloon, a dead man inside, and a crater at the site.
The newspaper placed the discovery near Salvador and reported that the man wore a uniform or spacesuit marked with strange symbols. The embassy wanted to confirm that the State Department had indeed considered the newspaper report unreliable. It did not say that anyone had found the man or the crater.
What Was Seen in the Area?
The message said the embassy understood that some kind of object had been seen in the area at around the same time. It was tentatively identified as a weather balloon, a balloon sent aloft to measure weather conditions. But no such object was found on the ground after a crash.
That is where the inquiry documented in the message ended: there was a report of an object in the sky, but no crashed craft had been found. The message does not describe a search at the site or an on-the-ground investigation.
What Remains Unknown
It is not known what the object seen in the area was, whether it was connected to the newspaper story, or whether anyone examined the site. A weather balloon was suggested as a possibility, but the embassy wrote that no crashed craft had been found.
The newspaper described a man in a spacesuit. The embassy’s message referred only to an object in the sky—and a site where no craft was found.
