The Baependi Case
The account
A local man photographed objects that had landed near his home and said he made contact with their crew.
What investigators found
The photos were never accepted as proof, and there is no independent confirmation of the landing or the contact.
The story
In May 1979, Arlindo Gabriel dos Santos, a resident of Baependi in southern Minas Gerais, said he saw strange objects land near his home. He said he took photographs of the craft and, in later accounts, spoke of contact with the beings who crewed them. The episode also became known as the Embornal case and was investigated by ufologists of the time.
The case became one of the most cited in Minas Gerais ufology because of the photos, which show luminous objects above the ground. For skeptics, the images do not make it possible to tell a large, distant object from a small, nearby one, and the account depends solely on the main witness. With no independent analysis of the photos and no other evidence, the episode remains open and controversial.