Conde, Bahia: Reported metal sphere with a body found unsubstantiated

Rádio Tupi in Rio de Janeiro reported on the evening of 8 November 1963 that from the municipality of Conde in Bahia came word that a large metal sphere had fallen in the centre of the town, gouging a hole four metres deep; the sphere was said to have window-shaped openings covered with thick glass, and inside a human body in heavy clothing bearing indecipherable inscriptions. The CIA’s Foreign Broadcast Information Service logged the broadcast.

The value of the case lies in what followed. A handwritten annotation dated 13 November on the FBIS sheet, held in the files of the National Aeronautics and Space Council, records that NASC asked the State Department to have the U.S. embassy in Rio verify the story locally. On 14 November the embassy sought written confirmation that Washington judged the press report inauthentic, repeating its wording — a “large metal manned balloon” and a dead crewman “wearing [a] uniform or spacesuit with strange markings”. It added that an object assessed as a weather balloon had been reported in the area, but that nothing was found to have crashed.

On 20 November the embassy relayed the finding of the scientific attaché at the consulate in Salvador: the story had been fabricated in Rio de Janeiro. The consulate cited the absence of contemporaneous local reporting and contradictory follow-up coverage, and the Brazilian Ministry of Aeronautics categorically denying any “strange object” in Conde.