- Perhaps the most impressive UFO story
told during the recent Brazilian World
 UFO Forum was that of Haraldo Westendorf, who made news headlines
a year ago when he allegedly flew his private plane within a few dozen
meters of an enormous unidentified flying object.
-
- Westendorf is 40 years old, a father
of three children and a successful businessman. He is also an avid private
pilot rated for acrobatic flying. The following account is based directly
on his one-hour presentation at the Brazilian UFO conference, which included
several detailed illustrations.
-
- Westendorf says he took off in his single-engine
Piper Apache from the city of Pelotas near the southernmost tip of Brazil
on the morning of November 5, 1996. It was to be a routine recreational
flight of the kind he takes for fun whenever time allows.
-
- On this occasion, he had been in the
air only about 12 minutes and was flying at an altitude of 5,000 feet over
a large lake some five miles southeast of Pelotas when he saw ahead of
him an enormous aerial object. The time was about 10:30 a.m.
-
- He radioed the Pelotas tower to learn
if they could see the object from the ground. They confirmed that the object
was visible to them and asked him for a close-range report. Westendorf
then decided to fly as close as he could.
-
- Westendorf emphasizes that he did not
believe in UFOs and says this accounts for his initial willingness to fly
close to the object. He didn't know he might be in danger.
-
- When he got close to the object, he realized
that in his twenty years of piloting experience he had never seen or heard
of anything like it. Since he had done stunt training in the United States
and had also flown in France, he had become acquainted with some very advanced
and exotic aircraft. But he knew that this was not an airplane.
- Westendorf showed several detailed color
drawings of the object, with his own plane drawn to scale alongside it.
He describes the object as a faceted cone, flat on the bottom with a rounded
point on top. On each of the eight or ten sloping side panels were three
large bulges, like triangle-shaped bay windows on the side of a house --
but they did not look like windows. The entire surface was brown in color.
The structure was about 70 meters (225 feet) high and about 100 meters
(325 feet) in diameter, big enough to fill nearly an entire soccer field
if landed. His own plane, less than 6 meters wide, was tiny by comparison.
-
- Westendorf says he spent about 12 to
14 minutes in close proximity to the object, trying to see as much as he
could. Although the Pelotas air tower does not have radar, he believes
the airport radar at Curitiba (nearly 450 nautical miles northeast of his
position) tracked the whole encounter. However, officials at Curitiba deny
this (see below).
-
- The object was spinning around slowly
and moving southeast toward the nearby seacoast at a speed of about 60
nautical miles per hour. Westendorf managed to fly entirely around the
base of the object three times. At one point, he says, his wingtip came
within about 40 meters of the object.
-
- After his third lap around the object,
Westendorf noticed that the rounded top seemed to disappear, leaving what
looked like an open hole at the top. Then he saw, emerging from inside
the object, a classic flying saucer. It rose sideways, its long axis vertical
until it cleared the top of the larger object, then tipped down to assume
its normal orientation and departed at tremendous speed. Westendorf said
that this saucer was about 10 meters in diameter, or nearly twice as wide
as his own plane, and he thinks it flew away at more than Mach 10. The
saucer showed no indication of noticing Westendorf's presence nearby.
-
- As soon as the saucer disappeared, Westendorf
decided to try to fly over the top of the object. Brazilian media later
reported that he wanted to fly his plane into the interior of the object,
but he says he never even considered that. He only hoped for a peek through
the opening.
-
- To get more altitude, he flew his plane
several hundred meters away from the object, turned around and began a
steep climb. He noticed that the object was now rotating much faster. Then
he saw brilliant beams of red light shoot from the top of the object toward
the sky. He quickly abandoned his plan to fly over
 the top.
-
- Then, to his amazement, the object rose
straight up at tremendous speed. For the first time, Westendorf was scared,
because he believed the object's rapid acceleration might produce a shock
wave of turbulence that could overwhelm his own plane. As a trained pilot,
he knew that air traffic controllers recommend staying at least three minutes
behind a large aircraft to avoid such turbulence. He estimated that the
unidentified object probably weighed at least three times as much as a
747 jumbo jet, so its shock wave should be huge -- and he was only a few
hundred meters away.
-
- He quickly began emergency procedures
in case his plane went into a spin or a stall. But to his surprise, he
did not encounter any turbulence.
-
- At that point the Pelotas air traffic
controller told Westendorf to contact the government-controlled Curitiba
air defense system radar center. Doing so, he asked if the Curitiba radar
tower could see what was happening to him on their radar. They said they
didn't see anything. He then called a second time, identifying himself
by the transponder number of his own aircraft and again asking if they
could see anything unusual. Again they denied seeing anything. He called
a total of four times. Finally the Curitiba tower told him that they showed
no traffic at all within two hundred nautical miles of his position. At
this point, Westendorf became convinced they were lying, because there
are two large cities with airports -- Santa Maria and Porto Alegre -- closer
than 200 miles from his position. He believes there had to be at least
some normal air traffic near those cities.
-
- Meanwhile, people in the Pelotas tower
had watched the entire encounter. Even sunbathers on the beach at Pelotas
were able to see it.
-
- At that time there was a thick layer
of nimbo-stratus clouds above Westendorf's position, and the object had
apparently entered that cloud cover. He decided to fly above the clouds
if possible to see if he could relocate the object. He emerged from the
clouds at about 10,000 feet, but he never saw the object again.
-
- Westendorf happened to have a cell phone
with him in the plane, and at that moment his young son called him on the
phone. Westendorf asked to talk to his wife. He told her that he had just
had a close encounter with a UFO. He says he was now trembling and stuttering
when he talked. But his wife didn't believe him and said he sounded crazy.
-
- He then decided to return to Pelotas
airport. But when he landed, he discovered that press and TV people were
already on hand, waiting for him. This happened because three of his friends,
all private pilots like himself, happened to be monitoring his radio transmissions
on their own radios at home. When they heard he was flying around a UFO,
they alerted the press.
-
- The press mobbed him the minute he got
out of his plane. But Westendorf told everyone that he would not say anything
until he talked with the people in the Pelotas control tower.
-
- Speaking with the head air traffic controller
and two others on duty at that time, he asked them if they would back up
his story to the press. He said that if they refused to back him up, he
would deny the whole thing. So the head traffic controller called his boss,
an Air Force colonel in the city of Porto Alegre, to ask permission to
talk about the UFO. The colonel told the traffic controller to decide for
himself -- so the controller told Westendorf that he and his assistants
would back up the story. All of them agreed to have their pictures and
stories printed in one of Brazil's leading news magazines, and from that
point on the case became a national sensation. Westendorf himself was featured
on the cover of that magazine (he carries a copy with him to prove it).
-
- Despite his prolonged and close proximity
to the huge UFO -- an object that surely fits the idea of a "mothership"
-- Westendorf says that neither he nor his aircraft showed any signs of
ill effect either during or after the encounter. His aircraft instruments
and systems functioned properly throughout, and apart from becoming highly
agitated during the latter part of the event, he did not experience any
physical, mental or emotional difficulties.
-
- This case seems to qualify as the closest
daylight aircraft encounter with a UFO ever reported. The multiple professional
witnesses, including three ground-based air traffic controllers, numerous
other eyewitnesses and at least three civilians who heard Westendorf's
running radio commentary of the event, lend very large credence to the
story. The reported size and behavior of the object positively rule out
any known human aircraft, and the observation of a classic flying saucer
emerging from the larger craft supports the often-mentioned but rarely
corroborated existence of a true "mothership."
-
- While the multiple visual witnesses are
impressive, the denial of radar
 observation at Curitiba airport is ambiguous. Westendorf seems
sure the Curitiba officials were lying. But there are reported cases of
UFOs clearly visible to eyewitnesses but seemingly invisible to radar.
Was this the case here? Certainly the Brazilian military cannot have failed
to study this case, which became an instant sensation in the press. If
in fact their radar did not detect the object, this must have been cause
for concern. On the other hand, if their radar did confirm the object,
one can only imagine the impact it must have had upon Brazil's government
and military leaders.
-
- Except as otherwise noted, the entire
text of CNI News is copyright 1997 by the 2020 Group. As a condition of
receiving CNI News, all recipients agree not to post CNI News on any Newsgroup,
Web site, BBS or similar electronic location, nor redistribute CNI News
by any electronic means unless with prior permission of the editor. Hard
copy (paper) reproduction and redistribution of CNI News, in whole or part,
for educational purposes is permitted.
UPDATE
Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 15:04:35 -0600 (CST)
- From: Brian Cuthbertson <brianc@freeside.fc.net
- To: eotl@west.net
- Subject: Sightings web page corrections
- Cc: brianc@freeside.fc.net
-
-
- Hi,
- Since your email address is listed at the bottom of the
web page below,
-
- Just thought I'd let you know that there are some apparent
errors in
- the following Sightings page:
-
- http://www.sightings.com/ufo/mothership.htm
-
- After some members of the Project 1947 ufo research group
looked at
- the page (ref. http://www.iufog.org/project1947), they
pointed out
- some problems and discrepancies. I forwarded their comments
to the
- person in Brazil mentioned on the Sightings web page,
and he
- returned the following reply, noting corrections. To
avoid future
- confusion, you might have someone at Sightings update
the page to
- correct the errors.
-
- Hope this is helpful,
- -Brian Cuthbertson
-
- -------
-
-
- From ricardo@das.inpe.br Tue Mar 10 10:50:52 1998
- Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19980310135643.00720124@pictor.das.inpe.br
- Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1998 13:56:43 -0300
- To: Brian Cuthbertson <brianc@fc.net
- From: Varela <ricardo@das.inpe.br
- Subject: Re: Westendorf Brazilian UFO incident
- In-Reply-To: <199803101528.JAA24605@freeside.fc.net
-
- Hi Brian !
- We interviewed Mr Westendorff last december.
- Hope that I can help to clarify this issue.
- Please excuse my english.If you need anything else, please
let me know.
-
- regards
-
- Ricardo Varela
-
- At 09:28 AM 3/10/98 -0600, you wrote:
- Folks,
-
- I am forwarding you some interesting comments on the
Westendorf
- UFO incident in Brazil, as reported on the Sightings
web page.
- I posted the web page URL to the Project 1947 UFO research
list,
- and there were some very interesting responses, which
I am appending below.
-
- These observations raise some valid questions which should
be
- addressed by folks familiar with the incident if it is
to
- be taken seriously.
-
- Any responses by people familiar with this case which
can
- address the questions raised below, would be appreciated.
-
- FYI,
- -Brian Cuthbertson
-
-
- --------
-
- Date: Sun, 8 Mar 1998 13:08:13 +0000
- From: Egill Ibsen <eio@ISLANDIA.IS
- Subject: Re: Brazilian UFO (fwd)
- To: PROJECT-1947@LISTSERV.AOL.COM
-
- Brian Cuthbertson wrote:
-
- Folks,
-
- For the info of Ted and the list, here's a web page
on the Brazilian
- UFO encounter, complete with color sketches and a photo
of Haraldo
- Westendorf:
-
- http://www.sightings.com/ufo/mothership.htm
-
- If you haven't read about the case or seen the sketches,
- I suggest you take a look; they are impressive.
-
- -Brian Cuthbertson
-
-
- I have found some parts of this story to be a bit strange.
- At one point, he says, his wingtip came within about
40 meters of the
- object.
-
- He says that was about 100 meters from the object.
-
-
- To fly so close to an unknowned LARGE flying object wich
is travelling
- at 60 knots per hour
- while circling it seems strange since the man expressed
worries of
- vortexes a little later.
-
- ================
- He reduced the his speed to 60 mph and the object was
moving really slowly
- almost without any speed. He said he had a hard time
flying in such a low
- speed, sometime stalling.
- ================
-
-
- He quickly began emergency
- procedures in case his plane
went
- into a spin or a stall. But
to his
- surprise, he did not encounter
any
- turbulence.
-
- There are no EMERGENCY procedures BEFORE spin or stall!
-
- ============
- He did not start any emergency procedure. When the object
started to move,
- he was afraid that the air displacement could kill him.Read
next paragraph.
- =============
-
- At that time there was a thick layer of nimbo-stratus
clouds above
- Westendorf's position, and the object had apparently
entered that
- cloud cover. He decided to fly above the clouds if
possible to see if
- he could relocate the object. He emerged from the
clouds at about
- 10,000 feet, but he never saw the object again.
-
- ===============
- There were no clouds were the object was. He was flying
at 1800 meters.
- Right after he saw a disk flying from the top of the
object, he decided to
- fly over it and try to take a look inside.
- Right after, a ray of red light came out of the aperture.
This scared him,
- so he decided to move out of the vicinity of the object
and circle it once
- more.
- He told me that he heard in his head something like":
get out, we are
- moving". That is why he got scared, he thought he
would die, because of the
- air displacement.
-
- ================
- ===============
-
- Anyone who has flown for even less than 20 years knows
that nimbo-stratus
- is a warm-front-cloud-type wich can extend from ground
and up to great
- hights.
-
- ============
- No clouds
- ==========
- So, if he was flying in VMC at 5000 feet then watching
the object climb
- and enter the cloud base at say 7000 feet
- (a guess). Then the cloud thickness is only 3-4000 feet
thick!
-
-
- =============
- He saw the object move in high speed to the sea.
- He was at 1800 meters.
- =============
-
- Westendorf happened to have a cell phone with him
in the plane, and
- at that moment his young son called him on the phone.
-
- =============
- He called his wife. . Westendorff, in his second turn
around the object,
- radioed Pelotas and talked to the radio operator Airton
Mendes da Silva and
- described what he was seeing. Airton went out and saw
the huge object
- starting to move to the sea.
- =============
-
- Anyone who owns a cell phone and flies Aircraft knows
that it does not
- reach to 10.000 feet it bearly
- works in c.a. 3000 feet. AND flying with or without
a headset you will
- not hear to ring in a Piper Apache!
-
-
- ============
- Westendorff called his wife not the other way around.He
was flying at 1800
- meters = 6800 feet and the cell phone worked fine. He
used an earphone.
- The plane is a one-engine TUPY plane, manufactured by
EMBRAER, brazilian
- manufactured.
- ============
-
- Just wondering...........
-
- Greetings
- EIO
-
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