One of the most impressive cases involving UFOs and pilots in Brazil took place on February 8, 1982 and became known as the "VASP Case 169".

It was a calm dawn with few clouds on February 8, 1982, the plane was an American Boeing 727/200, prefix PP-SNG and in charge was Commander Gerson Maciel de Britto, an experienced pilot, and the route would be Fortaleza International Airport to São Paulo, with a stop in Rio de Janeiro airport of Galeon.

Commander Gerson Maciel de Britto

The Boeing 727 took off at 1.55 in the morning, and there was nothing unusual observed until it arrived near the city of Petrolina, Pernambuco, when Commander Britto observed a bright light to the left of the aircraft.

The commander then contacted the Recife Control Center responsible for controlling aircraft flying in this region, trying to get to know which plane that would be - the Recife Center reported that there was no sign of any aircraft nearby at that time.

Commander Britto signalled the on-coming aircraft by using the Boeing's headlights and reduced the lighting of the cabin to better observe the object, thinking to identify it visually, because he suspected it was an unidentified plane, flying in that area, without radar contact with the Recife Center.

The object kept flying close to the Boeing in complete silence and its movements were observed by both the Commander and his crew.

The UFO accompanied the plane at a relative distance at the same speed. According to Commander Brito, the object had a unique luminosity, very vivid and very different from that produced by the planet Venus. The object's colouring was red and orange on the edges and blue-white center. The UFO carried out upward and down movements which would exclude the possibility that it was the planet Venus as some later claimed it to be.

Later, in communication with CENTER-BRASILIA, they reported all the details of the sighting. The Control Center in Brasilia reported that it had no information about it and requested other planes flying in the region to inform them if they saw anything. An Argentines’ airplane, Flight 169, confirmed the presence of the strange object. Later, another plane, this time from Transbrasil, flight 177, reported the presence of the strange object.

When flight 169 passed through the Belo Horizonte region controlled by Centro Brasilia, Commander Gerson Maciel de Britto decided to inform his passengers about the presence of the strange escort. At this point, the object was even closer to Boeing showing itself more clearly. At this time, CINDACTA has reached out to have detected an unidentified target approximately 8 miles away (approximately 12 km).

The object continued to be observed until they were in the vicinity of Galleon airport, when it moved from the side of the Boeing and positioned itself in front of the plane. After landing the object was no longer seen. Shortly after the sighting Commander Brito wrote an internal report from VASP.

Some passengers on the flight fully confirmed the words of the Commander, and the VASP herself, who carried out her own investigation into the fact, which could not prove that there was any deception or deliberate lie by those who saw the UFO.

The most curious thing in this whole story is that some passengers who observed the UFOs flight, next to the plane, did not hide their amazement in the face of what they watched for hours.

One passenger, Silézia Del Rosso, stated that the object “shone like a mercury lamp, like public lighting. I was excited and all the passengers were looking out of the planes windows to try and see the UFO. Still everyone was calm, almost as if they were used to seeing the UFOs every day ".

Several other passengers confirmed the sighting, with the exception of some religious people, who left Fortaleza to the XX General Assembly of CNBB (20th General Assembly of CNBB (Conferência Nacional dos Bispos do Brasil - National Conference of Bishops of Brazil).

The auxiliary bishop of Fortaleza were on the flight, Dom José Teixeira, Dom Edmilson Cruz, Bishop Crato, Dom Pompey Bessa, from Northern Lemon tree and Dom Aloísio Lorscheider, Cardinal Archbishop of Fortaleza.

Interestingly the religious people didn't even want to look at what was going on next to the aircraft, and Don Aloísio said they "didn't care about these things".

Newspapers, radio and television were interested in the sighting, and for a few days this was the main theme of the media in Brazil.

Soon, however, the skeptics began to emerge: the Commander was mistaken, the object was the planet Venus, and everyone confused a simple reflection with the object. Commander Britto, however, never denied anything he had said: for him, an experienced pilot - flight 169 was followed by a UFO.

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