Description

(2012 article)

Thirty years ago, on February 2, 1982, the headline of FOLHA featured a photograph that made Londrina-based photographer Mario Mori famous among researchers of the so-called UFO phenomenon in Brazil and around the world. On January 25 of that same year, he had clearly photographed an Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) in the city’s sky. According to the report published at the time, three other people also claimed to have seen the object between Rolândia and Londrina. Thirty years later, Mori remains fully convinced that his photo truly captured a flying saucer.

Although interested in ufology, he had never delved deeply into the subject until encountering the supposed saucer. Living in the Parque Alvorada neighborhood (West Zone), he was standing on his balcony when he spotted a luminous object, about the size of a small airplane, hovering over the campus of the State University of Londrina (UEL). “I looked again, and it looked like a flying saucer,” Mori recalls. He grabbed his camera and took several shots until the object disappeared.

Afraid of being “ridiculed,” he only released the image a few days later. The photo was analyzed by the Londrina Photo Club and sent to Fuji Film to verify its authenticity. “After the FOLHA story was published, several other people contacted me to say they had also seen it,” he remembers.

The topic was covered in two more issues of FOLHA that same week. In addition to new sighting reports, photographer Antonio Ferreira dos Santos, then director of the Photo Club, confirmed the photo’s technical quality. “There’s absolutely no chance of an error, like a smudge or a drop of water on the lens, or a flash reflection. The photographer saw the object and captured it perfectly,” the article reported.

In the February 3, 1982 edition, another story suggested that the photographed object might have been a meteor seen throughout northern Paraná. On February 11, a new article featured the account of a couple who, that same year, were aboard VASP Flight 169, which was reportedly followed by a UFO.

Convinced of the existence of extraterrestrial life, the photographer even joined study groups and nighttime watches aimed at photographing UFOs. “I stopped because people were too fanatical,” explains the author of the photograph that went around the world and appeared in publications such as Veja and Superinteressante. Mori recalls with emotion the experience of having seen a UFO and says that, ever since, he’s developed the habit of looking up at the sky in search of its mysteries. He also admits that the experience changed his life.

Source:
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.folhadelondrina.com.br/reportagem/ov…

https://grupoufologicorion.blogspot.com/2015/01/o-ovni-de-londrina-em…

In February of the same year, a couple spotted a UFO pursuing a commercial VASP airplane.

https://www.redeomegacentauri.org/2022/12/21/caso-vasp-169-reconstitu…