The Ubatuba Fragments
An anonymous letter to a Rio newspaper said a disc had exploded over the sea near Ubatuba, and it came with pieces of the debris.
What was reported
In September 1957, a columnist at the Rio de Janeiro newspaper O Globo received an anonymous letter. The writer said that while fishing near Ubatuba, on the São Paulo coast, he and friends had watched a flying disc dive towards the sea, pull up, and explode in a shower of burning fragments. Enclosed were three small pieces of grey metal.
The fragments were passed to Olavo Fontes, a doctor and UFO researcher, who had them analysed. A government laboratory reported that they were magnesium of unusually high purity.
Explanations offered
Later tests found the metal was not as pure as first claimed, and contained elements such as strontium, which some say points to ordinary manufacturing. The letter writer and the fishermen were never identified, which makes the story impossible to check. Researchers still debate how the fragments were made.
- When
- September 1957
- Where
- Ubatuba, São Paulo, Brazil
- Witnesses
- Unnamed fishermen, as described in an anonymous letter
- Status
- Disputed
Famous cases are real, widely reported events. Each file sets out what witnesses said and the explanations that have been offered, without taking a side.