of Brazil and Jim and Coral Lorenzen, the founders of the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization, a now-defunct civilian research group in the U. S. Witnesses on the beach at Ubatuba are said to have reported seeing a disc that plunged toward the ocean at high speed, rose again to about 100 feet and exploded, showering the area with bright metallic fragments, some of which fell into shallow water. A few of the fragments were recovered and analyzed in Brazil by Dr. Luisa Barbosa at a laboratory specialized in mineral production studies. Dr. Barbosa identified the major component of the specimen as highly pure magnesium, more pure than commercially produced magnesium but possibly not as pure as multiply sublimed magnesium.

Subsequent work under the direction of Prof. Peter Sturrock has been conducted at Stanford University and at various laboratories in France, including Orsay University, confirming that the material was magnesium and magnesium oxide, with a very minute amount of impurities,5 primarily aluminum, calcium, and iron. Analysis of this sample is still ongoing, with an effort to measure isotopic ratios that might help establish the origin of the material. (Lorin & Havette, 1986).6

The actual date of this event, often wrongly quoted in the literature as 1957, is actually imprecise. Dr. Pierre Kaufmann of Sao Paulo believes the original incident took place in 1933 or 1934 when a bolide indeed passed over Ubatuba and crashed at a nearby beach. The only aerial event to occur at or near Ubatuba in 1957 was the crash of a DC-3.

Case no. 2: June 21, 1947. Maury Island (Washington) -- Classification: MA-2

On the afternoon of June 21, 1947 (three days before the Kenneth Arnold case) four people who were on a boat close to the shore of Maury Island near Tacoma, Washington, reported an observation which has puzzled and divided researchers ever since. According to the published story the witnesses were Mr. Harold Dahl (a salvage operator), his fifteen-year old son and two crewmen. They had a dog with them. They reported seeing a group of six large, flat doughnut-shaped objects flying at an estimated altitude of 2,000 feet. Their central holes were about 25 feet in diameter and they glistened with a gold-silvery color. One object suddenly started wobbling and dropped to an altitude of 500 feet above the boat. One of the discs came down (as if to "help" the one in difficulty, according to Dahl). A dull explosion was heard and numerous sheets of light, thin metal issued from the central opening in the troubled object. At the same time, the witnesses were showered with hot, dark fragments that resembled lava rock or slag compared to brass in color. The dog was reportedly hit by one of the fragments and died.

A man named Fred Crisman, to whom the incident was reported, allegedly

5Sturrock, Peter A.: "Brazil Magnesium Study," paper presented at the Third Annual Meeting of the Society for Scientific Exploration, Princeton (New Jersey).

6Sturrock, Peter A. "Material Isotopic Analysis," presentation at this conference.